How to increase number of SATA ports (since all cards are crap)

[asimov-solensan]

I'm doing my own hardware list following the official guide, and the motherboard I can afford has 6 ports (one will be used for system).

The guide says explicitly that sata controller cards must be avoided at any cost. Does this mean that I'm stuck with the number of ports included in the board, and there is no way to expand this? Are all controller cards this bad?

Allow me to explain the situation I fear (having 5 free ports):
I want to create an array of 4 (2TB) discs RAIDZ. But at some point I might want to upgrade a similar schema with 4 or 3 new discs (4TB 8 TB or whatever) again in raid5.

If I want to migrate one system to other I must have the two RAIDZ volumes mounted but there is no physical way of doing this unless I create a new freenas system.

It wold be even better to just add more cards and continue using the old volumes.

Don't take this question as a complain I'm just checking what hardware is worth to buy for my situation.

 

[MatthewSteinhoff]

I think you might be misreading the guide. RAID cards are to be avoided at all costs. You may - and are encouraged to - add HBAs as needed when you run out of ports on your motherboard. LSI HBA controllers (and those based on LSI chips) are great.

Of note, RAIDZ has been depreciated in favor of RAIDZ2. FreeNAS isn't RAID5 though that is a common mistake. Adding disks to an existing VDEV probably doesn't work the way you're expecting it to work.

You may want to do a bit more reading about the basics of FreeNAS. It's an amazing platform but I don't think you've fully wrapped your head around the way ZFS and FreeNAS work.

Cheers,
Matt

 

[melloa]

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/hardware-recommendations-guide.12/

See: Additional SATA/SAS connectivity

 

[asimov-solensan]

Thanks a lot Matt for such a fast answer,

You are absolutely right about the misunderstanding between RAIDZ (or RAIDZ2) and RAID5, I still don't get the difference and I'm reading as much as I can before deciding what I need/want to build. Really I don't even know what you mean with VDEV, but ZFS functionality is something I must dig into.

Still, back to topic, the guide maybe using bad wording in the section common mistakes and I copy the text exactly:
-
The following are common mistakes which should be avoided at all costs:
Using any SATA controller card. These are universally crap.
-

Is this sentence a mistake maybe?

@melloa
Yes, I'm following that exact version of the guide, now I see that the section that answer my question is:
Additional SATA/SAS connectivity

 

[SweetAndLow]

Sata card expanders usually don't work but a host bus adapter with forward breakout cable will work and give your more Sata ports.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[BigDave]

@asimov-solensan
The type of cards @MatthewSteinhoff is referring to are NOT SATA cards, but are SAS cards which appear on the
hardware recommendations list. Used in Host Bus Adapter mode, these cards are perfect for increasing the number
of hard drives that can be added to a motherboard, the only thing you need is an open PCIe slot of a version 2.0
and an X4 length.

 

[Ericloewe]

If more connectivity than is available from the PCH is desired, or if SAS is required (due to the use of expanders, for instance), the only reliable solution is to add an LSI/Avago/Broadcom SAS controller.

The tl;dr is even at the top of the section!

 

[wblock]

That's "deprecated". "Depreciated" is a financial term.

But I would say that RAIDZ, or RAIDZ1 is not deprecated, just not recommended for arrays over a certain capacity.

 

[melloa]

So ... @asimov-solensan, lots has been said above. Just not sure you got your question answered or was able to find it on the document I've pointed you to.

 

[asimov-solensan]

Absolutely, I didn't know some terms used in the manual. And over all I didn't now what a SAS controller was, and the difference with a SATA controller.

Thanks a lot for the help.