R740XD with H730P and TrueNAS

[bnred777]

Hi everyone, I purchased a used R740xd that I would like to use as a VM server (ESXi) and as a NAS using TrueNAS software. What I would like to do is use the front drives (x24 2.5" SAS 900GB 6G) for VMs and 4 internal drives (16TB 3.5" 7200 SATA) for the NAS. The server came with a PERC H730P raid card that does have HBA mode but I've heard conflicting as to if it should be used or not.

Currently I have ESXi running on the first 2 front bay drives (raid 1) and the rest of the front drives in a raid 10 config with a couple hot spares. The internal 16TB drivers are setup in a raid 10 config at the moment as well. All of this is via hardware raid using the PERC card. I would prefer all of this to be controlled via TrueNAS and ZFS... still using the idea of front bay drivers for VMs and internal for NAS.

My problem, is multi-fold...

#1. I don't know what I'm doing (obviously). Can someone please give me a jump start? I have been reading for about 3 weeks now and I'm still not where I need to be. I just want to make sure I do things in a good and reliable way right from the start. I don't have really "critical" data but it is important to me. I'm an astrophotographer in my spare time and the image files I have are large and there's lots of them. They take a long time to get and I just want to make sure they are protected as well as they can be. I started this whole thing with the idea of using raid to help protect my data... then I got sucked in because I'm a nerd and a software engineer but server hardware is not part of my skill-set... yet.

#2. If I need another HBA I really don't know what to get that will work for what I want to do and within my server. Any suggestions?

#3. I don't know if my idea of how things are going to be split is even a good one... meaning I will not be needing all the storage space on the front drives for a long time. Seems like it is not a good idea having drives plugged in and running if I don't actually need them yet. Can TrueNAS extend my storage if I just start with say 8 of the drives and later I need more storage?

#4. I would really like to hear your suggestions on how I should setup everything, from hardware to software, to HBA modules to boot drives, etc... I'm open to any advice you have.

Thanks for any info you want to share!
B

 

[jgreco]

but I've heard conflicting as to if it should be used or not.

Well, the good news is that, if you remember where you've heard that an H730P in "HBA mode" should be used, you now know who never to listen to in the future for IT advice. It should not be used for ZFS. Period. See

What's all the noise about HBAs, and why can't I use a RAID controller?

1) An HBA is a Host Bus Adapter. This is a controller that allows SAS and SATA devices to be attached to, and communicate directly with, a server. RAID controllers typically aggregate several disks into a Virtual Disk abstraction of some sort...

www.truenas.com

The good news is that if you're looking to virtualize FreeNAS/TrueNAS, the H730P is a reasonably competent RAID controller for use with ESXi. However, this may still be problematic for you since the Dell systems often use a backplane with SAS expander, which means your drive bays can probably only be attached to one controller.

I don't have any clue how your "internal" drives are attached. If they can be cabled to a different RAID/HBA controller, then, by all means, grab yourself an HBA330 (not H330), use that for FreeNAS/TrueNAS, use PCIe Passthru in ESXi to hand that off to your NAS, and you will have a lovely best-of-both-worlds setup. That's my optimistic guess, not having seen your hardware firsthand.

 

[HoneyBadger]

I don't have any clue how your "internal" drives are attached. If they can be cabled to a different RAID/HBA controller, then, by all means, grab yourself an HBA330 (not H330), use that for FreeNAS/TrueNAS, use PCIe Passthru in ESXi to hand that off to your NAS, and you will have a lovely best-of-both-worlds setup. That's my optimistic guess, not having seen your hardware firsthand.

Filling in the blanks, the 14G Dell XD series have separate backplanes for front, mid, and rear-mounted drives. If you wanted you could run each section off a different controller.

@bnred777 be aware that setting up a virtual TrueNAS on ESXi has some specific requirements and likely will introduce a bunch of complication vs. using the H730P as hardware RAID for the VM drives. I'd suggest getting a separate adapter (HBA330 is a good one and using the "mini" socket onboard your motherboard could save a PCIe slot) and cabling the mid-mounted 3.5" drives into it. See the cabling diagram in the ISM guide here; Figure 3 is the most relevant, although I can't find an example of your exact config (24x2.5" front, 4x3.5" mid)

Dell EMC PowerEdge R740xd Installation and Service Manual | Dell Canada

 

[bnred777]

Just a quick update... First off, thank you both for the replies! I decided that I couldn't do what I wanted without getting another server specifically for TrueNAS so that's what I did.

Thanks,
B