# FreeBSD on HPE ProLiant DL120 Gen9



## dnrn (Apr 6, 2017)

Hi all!

This is my first post, I hope I've posted correctly.

I am new to bsd, but have looked at it for years while using Linux distroes as Gentoo and Arch. Now I've grown up, and I am looking to setup a small server for my company. The task is to have VPN, a test server for various web applications and simple build procedures. Probably some file sharing too.

I am currently looking at a HPE ProLiant DL120 Gen9 with a Intel E5-2620V4.

I've got two questions:

Is FreeBSD compatible with this server?
I've read that zfs is not working well with the HP storage controller, should I just skip zfs, or what are the preferred setup?

If anyone can help me decide on how to choose the right setup, I will be graceful! I would really love to get on board on bsd!


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## SirDice (Apr 7, 2017)

I can't comment much about this particular machine, I have more experience with SuperMicro servers. But regarding ZFS, don't put ZFS on top of a hardware RAID. ZFS likes to manage the disks by itself and running it on top of a hardware RAID negates that. As long as you can configure the disks as JBOD you can use ZFS. If you want to use hardware RAID stick to UFS.

I don't know the type of card this server uses but if I recall correctly Dell and HP both often use rebranded LSI controllers. LSI(-based) controllers have, in general, good FreeBSD support.


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## gkontos (Apr 7, 2017)

I have installed FreeBSD on that server without any problems. I would also recommend to use UFS since the controller does not support JBOD function. If you really want to use ZFS then you can configure each disk as a RAID0. I have seen this setup working fine.


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## dnrn (Apr 9, 2017)

Thank you so much for specifying!
I will skip ZFS for this setup, but are really excited to setting up my first FreeBSD system!

Thanks again!


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