SATA Controllers & TrueNas

TrueNAS General
1

Hey guys,

I am doing a new server build for TrueNas Scale with 8 or more SATA drives (mixture of mechanical and SSD). The motherboard has onboard SATA ports, however these run off of an Asmedia 106x chipset. From my understanding some of these Asmedia/Marvell etc chips are not desirable for use with ZFS.

After some searching, google recommends the LSI 9211-8i or LSI 9212-12i. I do not know much about HBA expansion cards, but could be useful in the future as I may use SAS drives with my next round of storage upgrades. If I were to go for the LSI 9211-8i or LSI 9212-12i, do I just need to get the SATA breakout cables and ensure the card is in I.T mode and I am good to go?

One thing that did concern me is that I did read that Trim is unreliable when using HBA’s, I do in fact have some SATA SSD’s that will be used in the build. Have people had issues with TrueNas and Trim using a HBA card?

Happy to hear alternative ideas as well.

Thanks guys!

2

At this point I’d favor the 9300-series cards over the 9200–they’re newer, and a bit more power-efficient. Theoretical performance is also better (SAS3 vs SAS2), but you’re unlikely to see any benefit there. But with either, yes, get the breakout cables and you’re good to go–though you’ll want to ensure adequate cooling for the card.

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3

Within the 93xx chipset there are differences that have a big impact on heat production. A more modern 94xx series card brings power down another level. See art of the server testing on youtube to see the differences in real life.

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4

Thanks guys very helpful, I will take a look at the ones you recommended as well. Generally speaking, its likely I would mount a fan to the HBA card as I am aware they get toasty.

5

Hey guys.

I found this:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/327218627250?_skw=LSI+9400-16i&itmmeta=01KZNF6QXR1PJ710NW8871XPQ4&hash=item4c2fc002b2:g:zD4AAeSwmnZpQ-VR&itmprp=enc%3AAQALAAAA8GfYFPkwiKCW4ZNSs2u11xBUd2G%2Bvo%2FNCN7tvoiydg2a2woGfsX60UYMzbcf1F6937sfdrSAZGsLFRZldIUmw%2BJy9CC%2Bh0MCkuYHNk5KWQDao7jmP3Ldx5q0E3CL9A3ZYzz9IMPcsHjBtX%2FMmMe5pehJikJoqDzDFjCI1agCWh2vpKwugcSA2tEkNT9p1hWnEFszCRfFPOqkyhdbHIZ0JMkg7LmH2ibt84xayiCMwuhNWwy04LsV9IjtbRac5MzxnnuVhtwkuqvQ%2FxB6H5BAbyvon78Z4j4LhP3MN9bRFd8wML3whTCGm0eeVy7kHN4lvA%3D%3D|tkp%3ABFBMnv-ar_1n

While it is on the latest firmware, I did note they say they removed the BIOS/UEFI, meaning you cannot use a boot drive with this HBA. This doesn’t affect me as my TrueNas OS lives on its own NVME drive in an M.2 slot. However, just as a sanity check are there any other known issues with having the HBA with no BIOS/UEFI?

6

No, and you can always reflash.
For cheaper 9400s, look for Lenovo 430.

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