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HBA all the way! (and what is this HBA 330+ thing?!?)

Duncan wrote a great blog summarizing why HBA’s are a better choice over RAID controllers. Looking back we’ve seen a shift with some of our OEM’s to even go so far as to have their ready nodes always configured for HBA controllers due to their simplicity, lower cost, and fast performance.

One question that has come up recently is “What is the HBA 330+?”. Dell customers may have noticed that the HBA 330 became the default option on their 13th generation ReadyNodes some time ago. On Dell 14th generation quotes show up with a “+” added to the card causing some concern that maybe this device is not the same one certified. Upon consulting with the vSAN ReadyLabs it seems this card has the exact same PCI ID, and is, in fact, the exact same HBA. Only minor cabling changes made that in no way impact it’s recommended driver or firmware or certification status. This is currently the ONLY certified option for Dell 14G ReadyNode servers and I expect it to likely stay that way until NVMe replaces SCSI for customers.

Going forward I expect NVMe to increasingly replace SAS/SATA, and in this case,  we will see a mixture of direct PCI-Express connections, or connections through a PCI-E crossbar. All NVMe ready nodes I’ve seen tested are showing that replacing the HBA  leads to lower latency, less CPU overhead, and consistent outcomes.