New freenas server Dell (HBA)

[Hemro77]

Currently have two dell r720 servers running esxi with slow local storage. Planning on migrating to shared storage over iscsi. I have looked into buying another refurbished r720 but there seems to be some issues with dell RAID/HBA. Can someone please advise if using the r720 server and just sticking in a properly supported HBA card is the right way to go or should I be looking at something else entirely?

 

[Vengance_01]

Look for the LSI re-branded cards like H200. Here is thread about it

 

[Spartacus09]

^ the h200 is the older version for the R710, direct compatibility would be the H310 controller (in IT-mode) for the R720s there is a mini embedded version and a pcie version.
Both can be flashed to IT-mode (be-careful if you choose the mini one to do yourself its easy to brick it, the pcie is almost indestructible).

You could also buy the mini module pre-flashed: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-H310-...756319&hash=item4da9be7e44:g:1A0AAOSwq5hefskU

If you plan on using SSD you could get the upgraded version the H710p that runs 9207-8i equivalent and pcie 3.0 (also embedded): https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-H710p...206346?hash=item216d54fa0a:g:vHEAAOSwT-NegiEn

Edit: If just using HDD the H310 is more than sufficient for 12 of them