PERC H345

S

sj4318

New Member
Jul 18, 2024
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Hi All

I'm about to start installing PVE on 3 x Dell PE R7525 servers, they were previously running a vSphere cluster. These servers were pre-configured by Dell specifically for use with vSAN. The issue I have just discovered is the PERC H345 that are currently installed will not run in HBA mode, it is locked to RAID and according to the manuals it cannot be switched to HBA so the only option I have is to set all the disks to non-raid as they have been since conception.

I have done some hunting around for any specifics on this controller with PVE and Ceph but I have been unable to find anything. My assumption is that I am probably best off replacing the cards with a different PERC that has HBA mode?

What do you guys think?
 
sj4318 said:
My assumption is that I am probably best off replacing the cards with a different PERC that has HBA mode?
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That is always the recommended way to go. Disks for CEPH or ZFS need to be accessed directly and HBA-mode on a RAID controller is not identical to a "real" HBA.
 
LnxBil said:
That is always the recommended way to go. Disks for CEPH or ZFS need to be accessed directly and HBA-mode on a RAID controller is not identical to a "real" HBA.
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Thanks for your reply :)

I'm going to reach out to Dell to find out what the options are that are available to these servers. I suspect they may tell me that they don't have a simple HBA adapter for use with the backplane and that I have to use something in HBA mode.

After I have contact with them I'll post a follow up for anyone else in my situation looking for answers.
 
I'm using Dell HBA330 in production with no issues with ZFS & Ceph. No idea if that is an option for you.
 
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jdancer said:
I'm using Dell HBA330 in production with no issues with ZFS & Ceph. No idea if that is an option an option for you.
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I will hopefully find out this week when I talk to Dell which HBAs will work, thanks for sharing.

BTW are you able to view all of the SMART values with that HBA? I imagine you would be able to.

I just spun up Proxmox on one of the servers to see what shows and the SMART values do not appear with the H345.
 
sj4318 said:
I suspect they may tell me that they don't have a simple HBA adapter for use with the backplane and that I have to use something in HBA mode.
Click to expand...
That should not be a problem. AFAIK, there are backplanes that 1:1 map the SAS channels or your have a multiplexer in the backplane. Both work with HBA and RAID.
 
LnxBil said:
That should not be a problem. AFAIK, there are backplanes that 1:1 map the SAS channels or your have a multiplexer in the backplane. Both work with HBA and RAID.
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That's the way I've always understood it too, I just wasn't sure if Dell were making pure HBA cards for my setup or not. Turns out they are, I got a response today they are going to price up HBA355 for me. Hopefully that keeps me moving forward.
 
Update... How things have changed over the last couple of weeks.

I spoke to Dell and swapped out the PERC H345 for a HBA 355i. So far so good I can see all of the SMART info but there's a plot twist. Our servers are out of warranty in less than 6 months and an extension was costed at a ridiculous price so I am now in the process of buying new servers as well and turning the current ones into PBS4 servers... well 2 of them anyway. PBS4 can see all of the SMART info in cli but not in the gui. Guess there's still some bugs to iron out!
 
sj4318 said:
Our servers are out of warranty in less than 6 months and an extension was costed at a ridiculous price [...]
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Is there no non-dell after-market support available? For Fujitsu, there is even after Fujitsu EOLed the device. Some customers I work with rely heavily on this. The cost is significantly lower than new hardware.
 
LnxBil said:
Is there no non-dell after-market support available? For Fujitsu, there is even after Fujitsu EOLed the device. Some customers I work with rely heavily on this. The cost is significantly lower than new hardware.
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Not that I'm aware of. The servers are turning 5 very soon anyway so they were due for being cycled through anyway. The next servers I've already had quoted etc and they are going to run circles around what we already have. So I'm not going to complain!
 
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