supermicro server suggestion?

[Cheese]

I need to replace a das on an old xserver with about 4 TB of data. (It's full and outdated). Most of the data is photoshop/indesign data (relatively large files).

I think I'd like to get a supermicro server and freenas to do this. I'm looking at the 2U 24x 2.5 ones and I like what I see. I still need to figure out what kind of layout I need, but I'm thinking of stuffing it with drives (maybe the HGST 10k 450gb sas ones), 96 or so gb (just guessing here...), couple of decent xeons and 10 gig for direct iscsi.

The open question I have is can anyone recommend a specific one? I'm piecing through them, but noticed a lot have the 24x drive access via a raid controller, with no mention of direct disk access.

any other critiques greatly appreciated as well

thanks

 

[jgreco]

Please carefully think about what you actually need. Unless you have lots of small files, 24 2.5" drives are going to be very pricey and may not actually be a good decision. Large files are well handled on slower storage, and you can get larger drives to give yourself massive amounts of headroom. You can use RAIDZ3 to increase the protection level. E3 and 32GB is pretty good, but if you think you can make use of more RAM, E5 is the way to go. Get a fast CPU with fewer cores. You can put in 6 4TB drives, 5 in RAIDZ3 and one spare, for immense redundancy and have 8TB of usable space, with more space in the chassis to expand up to 12 drives, 16TB of usable space, which also increases the speed. Look at the price of those 2.5" drives, they're probably $250-$400, so $6000 to populate 24 drives. You can get NAS class 4TB's for $200, so $2400 to populate 12 drives.

Supermicro typically integrates a controller into their prebuilts. You can always stick in an HBA instead, so it isn't really a problem. I don't have time to look at the specifics. Respond with your thoughts on what little I've written here and maybe I will have more insight for you.

 

[Cheese]

Alright, I'm willing to bite on that. My initial unmentioned thoughts included that this was a 20 user system, as well as failed drive rebuild concerns... but they're getting along just fine on an 7x 7.2k IDE array, external USB attached storage, etc (Think frankenserver)... so maybe I'm overdoing it.

Most of the files are 100-200mb range.

With all of this in mind, I'm considering something like this http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/2U/6027/SSG-6027R-E1R12T.cfm as a host. 12x3.5 hot swap on front, 2x2.5 hot swap on back, internal usb port on mainboard, intel 10GigE, 7xpci-e. I'm thinking it makes the most sense to do up the whole array from the get go. 1 pool, 2 vdev and an out-of-chassis spare or two.

Also doing some reading on using the large drives. I was opting small for faster failure rebuilds; I had a large drive raid6 array once; failed drives took days to rebuild and tanked performance.

Ballparking, $2000 for chassis/mb, $2600 drives, 2x e5 2609 v2 $650, 64g ecc ddr3 $800, pair of mlc for zil $800, and a couple of server nic for direct attach $600. I think that'll cover it? Poking around $7-8K. (Which is way better than the promise raid array from apple I am being prodded to get).

Seem reasonable?

 

[cyberjock]

I wouldn't spend any money for a ZIL until you confirm you need it. Most people do not. I'm not sure what your intended build case is, but that's a VERY beefy system, even for 20 users. You may be able to shave off some costs if you determine that you don't need all of that hardware. I've seen seystems that were about $3000 for everything and hosts 50 users.

 

[Cheese]

Intent is to replace an xServe raid array that is out of space, un-upgradable, and (to be fair) a little slow. It's a single 4Gb FC system. It can get quite busy with a dozen or so artists doing their indesign/photoshop work, and we have a couple that do video work.

My first thought was to grab that 72x drive box lol...

 

[DJ9]

Just a thought, but you might try talking with the folks over at iXsystems.

 

[Cheese]

Giving them a poke. I am pretty sure it's going to be a bit costly over there, but can't hurt to ask.

 

[cyberjock]

Giving them a poke. I am pretty sure it's going to be a bit costly over there, but can't hurt to ask.

Actually, I've heard from several people that their price is reasonable. You can't beat having a pulse to the developers if you buy their hardware and have a problem. Got a problem? Yo, they'll solve it. Check out the hook while the DJ revolves it! Ice Ice Baby!

 

[Cheese]

I'm working with the ixsystems people to see what we can come up with.

This whole thing may just get undercut by a lacie 16tb firewire box.

 

[DJ9]

Good to hear. :) Let us know how things turn out.

 

[cyberjock]

LOL. Those Lacie boxes are crap. You get what you pay for.. and you'll likely find out for yourself if you get one. ;)

 

[jgreco]

honestly, does no one use search here? e5-2609? really? really????

 

[Cheese]

iXsystems came back with something decent. They're priced fairly close to what I was looking at. (A little higher, but nicer components; especially the drives). They also have a "empty" system where you byod. Very interesting indeed.

As far as crap lacie boxes; Yes I agree. I'd have to pitch 2 of them in mirror (and maybe raid10 each) before I'd feel ok about not going down. Not as much space as I want, but budget is budget :/

I went with the e5-2609 v2 as it doesn't suck as much as its predecessor. (Coincidentally, it's what iXsystems recommended in their custom build) I suppose I could drop down to the E3 systems, but the supermicro system I was looking at was lga2011 socket. (I need to do some homework on e3v2; assuming there are ECC support holes across that line; hope I'm not speaking too soon though). Again, this is direct-attach to the xServe host. Host will be handling the file system.

I was hoping to get a barebones and not need to match a board to a chassis (that sucks when you have to do the backplane/cabling mess).

I'm leaning more towards the byod from iXsystems now. If I can't get that past budget, then I may be on the cheap option :(