So I have an R720 running Windows Server 2022 with a PERC H310 mini and 6x 10k rpm hdds. I want to replace the HDDs with 6x Intel Enterprise DC S3610 480GB SATA SSDs. Im told the H310 in hardware RAID mode is not going to work well with SSDs. No TRIM support, no SMART support, no write caching etc.
What are my options? Do I replace it with an H710P? But I hear that card isnt great with SSDs as well. Do I flash the H310 to IT mode or install an H330 HBA or an LSI HBA?
If I flash to IT mode, how do I setup the Soft-RAID in Windows Server if I already have a working server install?
I have the OS on a RAID 1 (2 disks) and my game servers on a RAID 5 (4 disks) I was not the person who configured the drives.
How would I go about moving the existing setup from that configuration to say a Soft-RAID of RAID 1 for the OS and RAID10 for the game servers?
I am considering putting the game servers on an Intel DC P3700 AIC and using the 4 DC S3610 480GB drives in say a RAID5 for backups.
If you flash to IT Mode you can setup a software raid using Windows Disk Manager. It has been a while since i set one up ~14 years ago, but I did it then with Server 2012. I have used 2016 but did not setup a software raid as it was only a test box. Windows should take care of trim, not sure about the other things. The only other thing I will mention is that if the SSD’s are not on the vendor list for Dell then your servers fans will run at 100%. I have a R420 that I have a specific version of firmware to avoid the issue. Also, is this a production server or just something you have at home?
Just to check, I was not really able to find any direct dell documentation, does the perc 310 card you currently have installed offer an “jbod”-mode, wherein it basically works just as a disk controller, not as a raid card.
On my machines, I am running pretty old IBM branded LSI-Raid cards, but all of my drives are set for jbod-supportm since I am running proxmox and running software raid when necessary. Helped a ton with fs-performance when I changed from hardware and software raid on top of that to just software raid.
My apologies, based on quick search I could not find documentation. I am not really sure where dell stores their documenation
there essentially isnt any documentation on the H310 and Dell support wont talk to me without a service contract. Id rather chuck the R720 and replace it with a SuperMicro than pay Dell for a support contract on a used server that is way out of date
Really, with SSDs hardware raid is kind of an oxymoron. They are just too fast so the raid card becomes a bottleneck.
You are probably better off doing a software RAID and/or ZFS setup. Don’t cling to ancient ways of doing things just because those were the best way to do it back in the day.
The problem is the server runs Windows Server 2022. Soft raid is essentially impossible for the boot drive. And Microsoft Storage Spaces is a joke compared to any Linux or FreeBSD distro from the last 15 years.
Hmmm, and virtualizing the runtime env. is impossible I take it?
E.g. put that Win server in a virtual machine and spin up that instead, while a Linux host system runs the server. It’s great for all CPU related tasks, but GPU is still a bit iffy.
Sorry for double posting. If you are hellbent on performing arcane rituals and doing some really dark magick, here is a forum dedicated to ZFS on Windows (and MacOS):
And more specifically, here are the latest install packages:
Most sane people put a NAS box as a separate storage device, much less headaches. Still, if that is not an option, you could try the above. Sounds like a fun Devember project
What NAS box are you talking about? The R720 is a GAME SERVER. No GPU involved.
It runs Windows Server not because I want it to but because the 4 other admins prefer it.
Sorry, my mistake - I jumped two steps ahead. Read below if you are curious of my train of thought:
For me, server storage is one of three things;
Ramdisks running the host OS (Linux usually can be fit in a 512MB RAMdisk, only requiring somewhere to store a small boot image)
Internal storage (mainly for logging and possibly a few settings)
Externally Attached Storage (NAS, USB powered file cabinet, et cetera)
These days, most servers rely on #3 for handling data, internal storage is basically never bigger than 200 GB or so, unless there is a specific need for a local cache. I just realized I’m overthinking this massively though - your capacity needs are really low. So…
Your simplest option? Buy one of these:
Plus two of these:
Total, roughly $850. Holds so much storage it is likely your server will die before you need more. And of course, a 10 GbE interface is never bad. Setup easily transferrable to another server in the future. RAID Mirror for redundancy and backup. Only drawback is the limited number of PCIe lanes.
Slap an LSI SAS into an open PCIe slot and plug in the backplane.
You lose the ability to check pool status through iDRAC, but who cares since your OS will now receive the SMART and be in full control natively.
Then configure the array as ReFS in Storage Spaces and you’ll have metadata checksummed software based RAID that is faster with better data integrity and easier recoveries.
