Greetings everyone,

 

I am trying Unraid for the first time and right now I'm in the experimental phase of the build process.

 

My question is this, in my system (Dell R720xd) I have PERC H710p. This controller does not allow for HBA mode/JBOD/NON-Raid disks, so I am left only with creating raid volumes and presenting them to Unraid.

 

Given this controller's limitation (not sure if this limit is a curse or a blessing yet), I'm trying to figure out what is the best approach to configure my drives.

 

I realize that a hardware RAID controller is generally better then software raid solution, so is it better to allow the RAID controller to do most of the disk/raid management by creating one large RAID 6 volume for example and then dedicate one free drive for Unraid parity or is it somehow better to create multiple RAID 0 volumes with an Unraid parity disk?

 

Of course going to RAID 0 route means more disks to manage within the Unraid GUI, whereas a large raid volume makes it so I only have one drive to manage plus one parity disk.

 

I'm looking at this from the perspective of performance, reliability, ease of recovery, pros and cons of each approach, etc. Being a complete N00b on the topic of Unraid I am not sure what issues/pitfalls may arise from each of the two approaches with regards to Unraid.

 

It seems to me that the RAID 6 option is probably the better if not easier route, however going the RAID 0 route allows me to easily add and remove disks to the pool, where a raid volume is not expandable. With Unraid in the mix I'm not sure what other challenges this will arise later on.

 

This system will be used as both a hypervisor as well as media server.

 

 

Thanks 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parity volume must be as large or larger than any of the array members. The way you worded your question makes me think you may not have a good handle on how unraid works, so maybe it would be best if you did some more reading to figure out what will actually work for you.

 

In general, using a hardware RAID in conjunction with unraid is a rather advanced undertaking, as that mode of operation is not widely used. It's possible, I know some people run areca raid 0 pools for their parity drive, but I don't know if your specific card will even work that way with unraid.

 

The path of least resistance would definitely be to aquire a HBA that properly supports IT mode in unraid.

You are better off not using the 710p, its a great card for regular hardware raid, but the absolute wrong card for unRAID. There are many affordable cards out there such as a SUPERMICRO AOC-SAS2LP-MV8 PCI-Express 2.0 x8 SATA / SAS 8-Port Controller Card which can be had for a little over $100.00 on Ebay. Dell raid controllers are generally a no go with unRAID as they don't do JBOD. I have an Areca 16 port hardware raid controller in one of my systems but its in JBOD mode so each disk is presented to unRAID on its own with no RAID protection from the controller.

 

Parity volume must be as large or larger than any of the array members.

 

Face palm!!   Yes of course that is the case and I knew that but still I brain farted..

Sorry about that.

 

 

 

Dell raid controllers are generally a no go with unRAID as they don't do JBOD.

 

That is correct, some of the newer ones do from what I have seen.

 

As for getting another controller, in this case this is a 2U box and cable management is a pain if you try to use non-OEM configurations(very little wiggle room if you ever want to get the cover back on).

 

Also the card is not a standard PCIe add in card as this is the 710 mini version that has its own socket on the motherboard (see attached).

 

 

The new build of Unraid 6.3.0 RC5 has the right megaraid driver and does allow me to see the the drives as individual raid 0 disks so I can use this methodology to create a sudo-Jbod mode.

 

I will just let Unraid make a pool of the 24 disks once set them all up as single raid 0 disks and use the largest for my parity.

 

Time for some more experimentation.

 

Thanks again for the feedback.

 

I would talk with Dell they appear to have H310 models in the same type as your mini based on the chart here anyway:

http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/04/campaigns/dell-raid-controllers

 

And if they tell you the Perc H310 mini mono would replace your existing card and allow flashing to IT mode (don't forget to ask them this as well) then you should be able to get one at Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Dell-Perc-H310-Controller-K09cj/dp/B00EHTNAAW

BobPhoenix - thanks I'll look into that.

 

On 12/2/2016 at 11:02 PM, BobPhoenix said:

I would talk with Dell they appear to have H310 models in the same type as your mini based on the chart here anyway:

http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/04/campaigns/dell-raid-controllers

 

And if they tell you the Perc H310 mini mono would replace your existing card and allow flashing to IT mode (don't forget to ask them this as well) then you should be able to get one at Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Dell-Perc-H310-Controller-K09cj/dp/B00EHTNAAW

Hi guy's 

I have come across this Post as i have just purchased a Dell R720 XD 12 x 3.5" with  

2 x Intel Xeon E5-2667v2 3.3GHz Eight-Core in it 
 

and luckily the H310 RAID card 

i currently have a 24TB array 2 x 8TB and 4 x 4TB will this just go straight into the R720 once iv set the BIOS etc up, If i put the drives back in order will it all be ok? Iv never moved UnRaid outta 1 box into another! 


Many Thanks 

 

L33