Expanding storage to a Fujitsu Server

Hardware Enterprise Gear
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#1

Hey there!

I’m dipping my toes into the server realm and wish to find out more.

I have been gifted a Fujitsu RX200 S7 server with 4 SFF bays. I currently only utilize 1 bay for the host OS (TrueNAS Core) on a old SATA SSD, and was wondering if it is beneficial to have the host OS mirrored onto a 2nd SSD or just run off one?

To add to this, is there a way of getting the physical drives to show up in the OS without configuring virtual volumes through the backplane controller or should I make each drive its own virtual drive to pass into it?

I plan on adding 2 more SATA SSDs to bring the total of 4 but need some additional long term storage (backups etc). I read up on getting a DAS but was wondering what solutions would be the best to expand the storage. I am looking for anything 2nd hand that still works as my budget is somewhat tight.

I don’t care about the noise and space requirement as the setup will have a lot of attic floor space available.

Thank you in advance!

#2

Yes, I would suggest adding a second disk to the TrueNAS boot pool, its common practice to have it mirrored

You’ll want to either replace that RAID adapter with an HBA, or find out if its possible to flash it to IT (HBA) Mode.

Do you know the model of adapter in there?

#3

Good day.

Thanks for getting back to me and for the info about mirroring the boot OS.

As for the card, it is a D2607-A21-GS1 - Fujitsu LSI MegaRAID 2008 SAS. After informing me what to flash it to, I did a bit of digging and will attempt to flash the card when back home to something.

Would you have any recommendations for a external HBA so I can get more disks externally through something such as a MD1400 PowerVault? Trying to find something that will just hold a bunch of 2nd hand LFF disks for archiving.

Many thanks

#4

Hi,

I’ve updated the BIOS on the server to allow it to recognize UEFI properly and flashed the card to IT mode. Achieved everything that I was looking for.

Thank you.