{"id":8368,"date":"2022-08-01T11:33:30","date_gmt":"2022-08-01T09:33:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/?p=8368"},"modified":"2022-08-01T11:40:47","modified_gmt":"2022-08-01T09:40:47","slug":"how-to-check-for-the-most-suitable-freenas-hbas-host-bus-adapters-for-your-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/how-to-check-for-the-most-suitable-freenas-hbas-host-bus-adapters-for-your-project\/","title":{"rendered":"How to check, and select, the most suitable FreeNAS HBAs (Host Bus Adapters) for your project."},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time-approximately:<\/span> 4<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>\n

FreeNAS is a FreeBSD based storage platform that utilizes ZFS. The fact that it uses a popular enterprise file system and it is free means that it is extremely popular among IT professionals who are on constrained budgets.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Post courtesy of: ServeTheHome<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With FreeNAS using ZFS as well as effective storage tiering using SSD and RAM caches, many users will seek to create a large capacity pool. We generally suggest using your motherboard\u2019s chipset SAS and SATA controllers first as those are the least expensive ports and often among the best performing and lowest power. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some platforms have only 6, 8 or 10 chipset ports which are not enough for many storage applications. As a result, the number of hard drives and solid state drives often exceeds motherboard ports. At that point, it is time to look at add-in cards to increase the number of available ports in a system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now to picking your best FreeNAS HBAs<\/strong>…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our general guidance is to use the newest and highest port count HBAs you can find. Most HBAs on the market these days are SAS capable. Skip anything that is SAS1 only. That includes chassis with SAS1 expanders as well. When using SATA hard drives with SAS HBAs, you want at least a SAS2 generation part (e.g. the LSI SAS2008 controller.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previous generations of cards also had issues with larger hard drives so stick to newer controllers. At STH, we note onboard HBAs including their controllers in our motherboard reviews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LSI SAS HBA Chips to Look For<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Here is a list of the LSI SAS HBA chips you should look out for in order of desirability:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. SAS 3200 (SAS 3224 and SAS 3216)<\/li>
  2. SAS 3008<\/li>
  3. SAS 2308<\/li>
  4. SAS 2008<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Anything older (e.g. 1068) skip at this point. They are not SAS 2 6.0Gbps cards and sometimes have issues with larger drives.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    The SAS 2008 is an interesting case. It is by far the most recommended HBA for FreeNAS. Despite the SAS 2008\u2019s age, it is still considered a top HBA. The primary issue with the SAS 2008 is speed. It was designed in a time where hard drives dominated. It simply does not have the I\/O performance to handle arrays of even modern consumer SSDs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The new SAS 3200 series controllers have the least testing time on them. For arrays of 4-8 drives getting SAS 3008 HBAs is likely more economical. For larger arrays or where PCIe slots are limited, the new HBAs make sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Microsemi \/ PMC-Sierra \/ Adaptec SAS HBAs<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    Generally, the recommendation for HBAs is to use the LSI series of HBAs as they are the most widely used. The newest generation of Adaptec 1000 series HBAs is now out but FreeBSD is not on the driver support page. Given that pricing is comparable to LSI offerings, get LSI. We did test an Adaptec 1000-8i adapter in our lab\u2019s ZFS test bed and it causes the server not to boot. Following recommendations from search results yielded no fix. Stick with LSI SAS controllers. Leave the Adaptec HBAs to Windows, VMware, Citrix, and ZFS-on-Linux servers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Internal HBAs<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    Internal SAS HBAs for FreeNAS generally fall into two categories based on their connector types. SFF-8643 is the newer SAS3 connector on LSI\u2019s 12.0gbps controller cards. SFF-8087 is the older connector found on SAS1 (3.0gbps) and SAS2 (6.0gbps) generation cards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    SFF-8643 Connector HBAs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    For larger systems where you will need at least 16 HBA ports, get the SAS 3200 generation cards. If you only require 8 or fewer ports, get the SAS 9300 generation cards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. Best: SAS 3200 generation \u2013 LSI SAS 9305-16i \/ 9305-24i<\/li>
    2. Good: SAS 3000 generation \u2013 LSI SAS 9300-8i<\/a><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      SFF-8087 Connector HBAs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      1. Good: SAS 2308 generation \u2013 LSI SAS 9207-8i<\/a> (Dell co-branded)<\/li>
      2. Good (older): SAS 2008 generation \u2013 LSI SAS 9211-8i<\/a><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

        External HBAs<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

        What happens when you need to have more than one chassis? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Perhaps you have purchased a SAS expander disk shelf (please ensure it has a SAS2 or SAS3 expander) and need to connect it to the main controller. Another scenario is that you need more space but want to continue using a single head node. In those cases, you will want a HBA with external ports. As with internal ports, there is a 12.0gbps SAS3 connector (SFF-8644) and a  6.0gbps SAS2 connector (SFF-8088.) You can get adapter cables but we suggest using the appropriate HBA in the first place. If you are unsure what you will need in the future, get a 12.0gbps SAS3 external controller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        SFF-8644 Connector HBAs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        For larger systems where you will need at least 16 HBA ports, get the SAS 3200 generation cards. If you only require 8 or fewer ports, get the SAS 9300 generation cards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        1. Best: SAS 3200 generation \u2013 LSI SAS 9305-16e<\/li>
        2. Good: SAS 3000 generation \u2013 LSI SAS 9300-8e<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

          SFF-8088 Connector HBAs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

          1. Good: SAS 2308 generation \u2013 LSI SAS 9207-8e<\/li>
          2. Good (older): SAS 2008 generation \u2013 LSI SAS 9200-8e \/ SAS 9200-16i<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

            Internal and External<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

            Every so often there will arise a need to get cards that mix internal and external connectors. For example, if one wants the ability to use an external disk shelf but still requires four additional internal ports. We use one of these cards in a small FreeNAS system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            In LSI naming convention you will see the last portion of the part number have both an i and an e with numbers preceding the letters. This tells us the port counts. For example, our test system uses a LSI SAS 9300-4i4e. That means it is a SAS 3008 based card that has four internal (4i) and four external (4e) ports. Four ports map to one physical connector so there will be one SFF-8643 (internal) and one SFF-8644 (external) port to use.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

            Reading Time-approximately:<\/span> 4<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>FreeNAS is a FreeBSD based storage platform that utilizes ZFS. The fact that it uses a popular enterprise file system and it is free means that it is extremely popular among IT professionals who are on constrained budgets. Post courtesy of: ServeTheHome With FreeNAS using ZFS as well as effective storage tiering using SSD and RAM caches, many users will<\/p>\n

            Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,35,8,4,176,320,30,3,28,338,192,84],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-practices-for-data-center-operations","category-data-center-facilities","category-data-center-hardware","category-datacenter-news","category-datacentre-performance-troubleshooting-monitoring-and-optimisation","category-dell-datacenter-hardware","category-expert-advise-and-opinion","category-industry-news-and-expert-advise","category-partner-content","category-tech-partners-curated-content","category-tekmart-partner-content","category-trends-datacenter-hardware-and-solutions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/112"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8368"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8370,"href":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8368\/revisions\/8370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}