FreeNAS

[Hightower]

I'm looking at getting a one of these for RAID 5.

Promise 4 Channel SATA II Raid 0.1.10 & 5 - Ebuyer

Can anybody confirm if it will work with FreeNAS? I can't find the card in the known list of supported RAID controllers but can anyone advise. If it won't work can anyone advise on the cheapest RAID 5 controller that will work with FreeNAS (4-port SATA)

[Geoff]

That's a fakeraid card(tm)

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FakeRaidHowto

You will be better off using software raid if you buy that.

[Hightower]

How about software RAID? I'm looking at building a couple of boxes (pretty decent spec) to use as nightly back-up boxes.

Will software RAID be able to cope with this? Say if it were writing 200gb per night?

[mattx]

Checkout:

FreeNAS Knowledgebase / 602. Hardware supported by FreeNAS

For links in regards to Hardware support for FreeNAS

[Geoff]

depends on the system cpu and what other tasks it's doing.

I get about 1% cpu load on a Intel Quad Core2 Xeon 2.4Ghz running a 1.5Tb Raid5 array.

[Hightower]

Spec of the machine I had in mind:

4 x 750gb HDD (7200rpm) - losing 1 for RAID
Intel Celeron D 3.06GHz
1GB RAM

It will be doing nothing but backing up about 200GB per night (1TB over weekend) and then pushing out using rsync to a mirrored box during the day (on a VLAN).

[Geoff]

I suggest you build the box and put it through it's paces with bonnie++

Bonnie++ now at 1.03c (very stable)!

As long as the disk performance can keep up with the network, you should be fine. If it's borderline, stick more ram in it.

[Hightower]

Thanks Geoff - will give it a try!

[Hightower]

Oh, one other thing - I'm going to need a motherboard with 4-ports for the drives.

Can you show me a one that will do the job? Preferably with a compatible chip?

[Geoff]

Anything from a decent brand will be ok. The only thing to watch out for is to stay away from nForce chipsets.