I'd like to shout out to Dave who contacted me yesterday. Good to see people excited about this product, and it reminded me to keep posting up stuff on Nexenta and NexentaStor since it is a new product, and there isn't a heap of information out there yet.

I find great tips and solutions to problems daily via blogs and forums, so best I stay ontop of my work related blogging and give back to the community!

So part of this post is to document the hardware that I know works, and or, is in production with NexentaStor.

If you are currently researching the OpenSolaris HCL, it is a good start for picking out your hardware. From here, I would stick to this:

• Intel mobo and nic chipsets
• LSI controller cards

Here is a list of what I have in production with NexentaStor:

Motherboards:

• SuperMicro X7SBL-LN1

SAS/SATA Controllers:

• LSI SAS #SAS3081E Controller - set in JBOD mode

Drive Chassis:

• Supermicro SC836E1-R800B 16Bay Server Chassis (2 chassis daisy-chained via backplanes)
  
  • Coupled to Seagate ST31000340NS 1TB SATA drives

Network Cards:

•  Intel PRO/1000 PT Quad Port Server Adapter

Finding the correct cabling for backplanes and controller cards can be a real PITA sometimes, and I highly recommend you talk to these guys to get exactly what you need to hook up all the chassis, backplanes, and controller cards - http://www.cs-electronics.com

Finally, a Nexenta Support tip. If you wish to contact Nexenta support, the quickest and most efficient way to get to them is via the built in support ticketing system from within the web interface on your NexentaStor box (can also send one via command line). What it actually does, it will send Nexenta Support a breakdown of your setup as an attachment, and auto generates a ticket in their system. Don't bother emailing them, it takes much much longer that way - do it via the system they nicely provide coded right in the product.