Lurking around for a couple months and looking to get started. My goal is to have a homelab that I can create/destroy VM's and experiment in a sandbox while learning basics of managing storage and backing it up for D/R. I'd like to get a plex media server going and see if I can passthrough a usb controller to play some Rocksmith as a fringe benefit.
BUILD MATERIALS:
CPU: Intel Xeon E5-1650 V4 3.6 Ghz 6 core w. VT-d/x and Hyperthreading
Mobo: SuperMicro MBD-X10SRH-CLN4F-O with LSI 3008 SAS onboard
RAM: 16 GBx4 Hynix RDIMM DDR4-2400 288 Pin w. ECC
HDD: (6+1)x2TB WD 3.5" Red 5400 RPM (+1 is a spare; 6 in mirror or Raidz2)
SSD: 2x120GB 2.5" Intel DC S3500 (likely for L2ARC/ZIL)
NVME: 2x500GB m.2 Samsung 960 Evo (with PCI-E adapters)
Case: 833T-653B 3U Rackmount Supermicro Chassis (8 hot-swappable SAS) w. 650 watt P/S
SATADOM: 2x16TB SSD-DM016-PHI Supermicro (for booting esxi/freenas)
UPS: PCM Powercom King PRO - 1320 Watt Rated (I'll be using it to supply a couple other items)
External HDD: 6TB WD Mybook
Graphics: Some basic HDMI video card. Nothing fancy.
I've seen others on this forum get the LSI 3008 to work when flashed to IT mode, so I won't need to get another controller. I figured I will connect 6 WD Red drives to it, and have 2 Intel SSDs to experiment with L2ARC/ZIL.
POOL MANAGEMENT:
Are the following two scenarios feasible when doing ESXI hypervisor with NMVE and FreeNAS? Is one preferable regarding performance/ability for snapshot/backing up safely than the other?
QUESTIONS:
My biggest question is the NVME and how to use it. I haven't fully decided if I am going to have FreeNAS manage ALL datastores for ESXI or do a hybrid. I thought about using NMVE for the L2ARC/ZIL and not buying the Intels at all. But NMVE for that seemed overkill.
Can you see any incompatibilities from my list of parts? Will NVME/SSD work together in the above suggested scenarios or is it unnecessarily redundant?
BUILD MATERIALS:
CPU: Intel Xeon E5-1650 V4 3.6 Ghz 6 core w. VT-d/x and Hyperthreading
Mobo: SuperMicro MBD-X10SRH-CLN4F-O with LSI 3008 SAS onboard
RAM: 16 GBx4 Hynix RDIMM DDR4-2400 288 Pin w. ECC
HDD: (6+1)x2TB WD 3.5" Red 5400 RPM (+1 is a spare; 6 in mirror or Raidz2)
SSD: 2x120GB 2.5" Intel DC S3500 (likely for L2ARC/ZIL)
NVME: 2x500GB m.2 Samsung 960 Evo (with PCI-E adapters)
Case: 833T-653B 3U Rackmount Supermicro Chassis (8 hot-swappable SAS) w. 650 watt P/S
SATADOM: 2x16TB SSD-DM016-PHI Supermicro (for booting esxi/freenas)
UPS: PCM Powercom King PRO - 1320 Watt Rated (I'll be using it to supply a couple other items)
External HDD: 6TB WD Mybook
Graphics: Some basic HDMI video card. Nothing fancy.
I've seen others on this forum get the LSI 3008 to work when flashed to IT mode, so I won't need to get another controller. I figured I will connect 6 WD Red drives to it, and have 2 Intel SSDs to experiment with L2ARC/ZIL.
POOL MANAGEMENT:
Are the following two scenarios feasible when doing ESXI hypervisor with NMVE and FreeNAS? Is one preferable regarding performance/ability for snapshot/backing up safely than the other?
a) Have two pools in FreeNAS (LSI 3008 Passthrough + NVME Passthrough)
The LSI 3008 pool will have 6 HDDs and 2 SSDs (ZIL/L2ARC) used for storing large files (via iSCSI/NFS), and a second pool of mirrored NVMEs for hosting OS's for faster access.
b) Have one pool (LSI 3008 Passthrough) and let ESXI have direct access to NVMEsLSI 3008 control 6 HDDs and 2 SSDs like option a), but do not passthrough the NVME to FreeNAS at all, and let esxi manage that directly and use it for OS's and then attach the FreeNAS storage to those VM's via iSCSI or NFS?
QUESTIONS:
My biggest question is the NVME and how to use it. I haven't fully decided if I am going to have FreeNAS manage ALL datastores for ESXI or do a hybrid. I thought about using NMVE for the L2ARC/ZIL and not buying the Intels at all. But NMVE for that seemed overkill.
Can you see any incompatibilities from my list of parts? Will NVME/SSD work together in the above suggested scenarios or is it unnecessarily redundant?