zfs discuss - Jan 2012 - ZFS + Dell MD1200's - MD3200 necessary?

We are looking at building a storage platform based on Dell HW + ZFS
(likely Nexenta).

Going Dell because they can provide solid HW support globally.

Are any of you using the MD1200 JBOD with head units *without* an
MD3200 in front?  We are being told that the MD1200''s won''t
"daisy
chain" unless the MD3200 is involved.

We would be looking to use some sort of LSI-based SAS controller on the
Dell front-end servers.

Looking to confirm from folks who have this deployed in the wild.
Perhaps you''d be willing to describe your setup as well and anything we
might need to take into consideration (thinking best option for getting
ZIL/L2ARC devices into Dell R510 head units for example in a supported
manner).

Thanks,
Ray

Ray,

If you are intending to go Nexenta then speak to your local Nexenta SE, 
we''ve got HSL qualified solutions which cover our h/w support and
we''ve
explicitly qualed some MD1200 configs with Dell for certain deployments
to guarantee support via both Dell h/w support and ourselves.

If you don''t know who that would be drop me a line and I''ll
find someone
local to you ?

We tend to go with the LSI cards, but even there there are some issues
with regard to Dell supply or over the counter.

HTH

Craig

On 6 Jan 2012, at 01:28, Ray Van Dolson wrote:
> We are looking at building a storage platform based on Dell HW + ZFS
> (likely Nexenta).
> 
> Going Dell because they can provide solid HW support globally.
> 
> Are any of you using the MD1200 JBOD with head units *without* an
> MD3200 in front?  We are being told that the MD1200''s
won''t "daisy
> chain" unless the MD3200 is involved.
> 
> We would be looking to use some sort of LSI-based SAS controller on the
> Dell front-end servers.
> 
> Looking to confirm from folks who have this deployed in the wild.
> Perhaps you''d be willing to describe your setup as well and
anything we
> might need to take into consideration (thinking best option for getting
> ZIL/L2ARC devices into Dell R510 head units for example in a supported
> manner).
> 
> Thanks,
> Ray
> _______________________________________________
> zfs-discuss mailing list
> zfs-discuss at opensolaris.org
> http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss
?
Craig Morgan
e: craig at nexenta.com
t: +44 (0)7913 383190
s: craig.morgan

On Thu, Jan 05, 2012 at 06:07:33PM -0800, Craig Morgan
wrote:
> Ray,
> 
> If you are intending to go Nexenta then speak to your local Nexenta SE, 
> we''ve got HSL qualified solutions which cover our h/w support and
we''ve
> explicitly qualed some MD1200 configs with Dell for certain deployments
> to guarantee support via both Dell h/w support and ourselves.
> 
> If you don''t know who that would be drop me a line and
I''ll find someone
> local to you ?
> 
> We tend to go with the LSI cards, but even there there are some issues
> with regard to Dell supply or over the counter.
> 
> HTH
> 
> Craig
Hi Craig;

Yep, we are doing this.  Just trying to sanity check the suggested
config against what folks are doing "in the wild" as our Dell partner
doesn''t seem to think it should/can be done without the MD3200.  They
may have alterior motives of course. :)

Thanks,
Ray
> 
> On 6 Jan 2012, at 01:28, Ray Van Dolson wrote:
> 
> > We are looking at building a storage platform based on Dell HW + ZFS
> > (likely Nexenta).
> > 
> > Going Dell because they can provide solid HW support globally.
> > 
> > Are any of you using the MD1200 JBOD with head units *without* an
> > MD3200 in front?  We are being told that the MD1200''s
won''t "daisy
> > chain" unless the MD3200 is involved.
> > 
> > We would be looking to use some sort of LSI-based SAS controller on
the
> > Dell front-end servers.
> > 
> > Looking to confirm from folks who have this deployed in the wild.
> > Perhaps you''d be willing to describe your setup as well and
anything we
> > might need to take into consideration (thinking best option for
getting
> > ZIL/L2ARC devices into Dell R510 head units for example in a supported
> > manner).
> > 
> > Thanks,
> > Ray

Hi.
Going with Dell PV MD1200 and Dell PE R510 or R710 is no problem at all. 

But you should be aware if you go with Dell R510 or R710 that the internal
storage PCIe slot will not work with any other HBA''s than Dell H200 or
H700 and
also remeber to order extra Intel nics and disable the broadcom nics in bios.
 
So if you plan to flash the H200 with IT firmware be ware that you have to move
the controller to another PCIe slot, but also that your support is not valid
anymore.

Maybe you should keep the H200 IR firmware on the H200 controller and use
Hardware raid for the syspool and order a Dell 6Gbps SAS HBA with IT firmware.
This way you''ll keep the hardware support for your Dell equipment.

/Nico