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1

https://amzn.com/w/1JWZ4Z58XOKPH

Open for suggestions :)

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Does the Raid (HBA) realy operate fully transparent? Most raid cards with a JBOD mode still mess with the connection, which can cause SMART to fail and other trouble in conjunction with FreeNAS, which needs direct access to the disks to properly do its work.

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It's an HBA which usually means transparent reporting to the OS, so I don't think it would be a problem for FreeNas.

4

A few things:

  • Not all ATX cases support Mini-ITX. Double check before you buy.
  • There are other atom-based boards with more SATA ports so you won't have to buy a HBA
  • If this is a business critical NAS, you should consider redundant power supplies and purchasing hardware with a good warranty
  • Depending on the use case, you should definitely consider adding a SSD for caching
5

Uh, the 4 mounting holes for the ITX board match perfectly with the top 4 mounting holes of an ATX layout, so he's fine.

6

Ok, if it is.. I am fine ^^ the Branding made me suspicious
HighPoint RocketRAID 2720SGL 8-Port SAS 6Gb/s PCIe 2.0 x8 RAID HBA as this seems to me like a RAID card that can be switched to JBOD/HBA mode, wich often is not realy HBA

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Actually, your damn right and I was off. According to the Amazon page it reads:
"RAID level 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50 and JBOD"
So it isn't a true HBA but just another raid card with JBOD and some somewhat bad labeling.

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8

Updated the list with IBM ServeRaid M1015 46M0861 LSI SAS9220-8i SAS/SATA PCI-E RAID Controller

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When you are looking for add in storage cards for FreeNas, you need to look for a true HBA. HBA is short for Host Bus Adapter, and basically what it does is just add disks without any control over them. This is different from a Raid card, as a Raid card does control the disks and actually does not report transparently to the operating system, which becomes a problem with FreeNas as the file system FreeNas employs needs full, transparent operation from all the attached disks.

TLDR; Look for something that is labeled HBA and does NOT list having any raid levels such as raid 1, 5, 6, or 10.

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10

I realize that. The ServerRaid M1015 seems to be the most recommended on FreeNAS forums even though it is advertised to have raid capability. Please share a link if you know a better suited controller.

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