Re-using old workstation for FreeNAS, but not sure I'm clever enough

[Bikerchris]

No offence taken. I would have gone with an SSD as well if I had enough SATA ports available. My case supported 6 drives and so did my board. And I wanted to have 6 drives. So no port left for the boot drive. That's the only reason I chose to install on a USB. Thankfully, for me at least, it was a good decision.

As for CPU, i believe in the theory of using components to the limit -- which is why I chose a Pentium G3240 because for me it was primarily a file server & I knew I wasn't going to transcode more than 1 stream via Plex/Emby. In 5 years, I still don't have the need to transcode more than 1, so I guess in that terms my choice was sound because you should always plan your setup in such a way that it would support any and all upgrades for at least 5 years.

If you do plan to transcode more than 1 stream, you might need a beefier CPU. Check the passmark to make sure you are in the ballpark.

Thank you. That makes complete sense and I would do exactly the same and have a USB. I think I have around 10 or even 12 SATA ports, though I'm a bit concerned that they are a bit separated looking and may upset the likes of FreeNAS.

I really hope that the final config would keep for 5 years, I would have preferred a more efficient CPU like yours but I'm just "using what I got" as they say. It's a shame it was never a great workstation, but you win some and lose some I guess.

Thanks for saying about transcoding and for your later clarification, very much appreciated.

 

[Redcoat]

a bit separated looking

@Bikerchris , that's a technical term with which this ex-pat Brit is unfamiliar - please elucidate in context :)

 

[Bikerchris]

L2ARC is used for reads exclusively. It can fail and the

Wow Yorick, your title of Guru is justified!

I did start reading a powerpoint file and it mentioned that an L2ARC can fail with no severe consequences, I'm very glad for the confirmation.

I'll definitely see what the speed is like and go from there, thank you for that hint, very kind.

Thank you very much for the headsup about VM's, specifically mentioning Win10 which is the OS I was hoping to Virtualize. It's a bit of a shame but really no problem, I might look into Proxmox which I've heard a few Youtubers mention.

I'm really glad that my purposes are inline with FreeNAS, there's a great deal to learn though and that powerpoint file made it very clear that command line knowledge is invaluable, also that a neglect in maintenance can come round to bite me later on. Plenty of what you mentioned interests me, but I'm going to take small steps into this, as tempting as it may be!

Only if you have a moment, a little question - and I'm sure I should research this myself, but while you're passing and been so helpful: I have a few Apple iPhone/Pad users in the house, in that case should I use Unix sharing so that both Windows/Android and iOS can access files?

 

[Bikerchris]

@Bikerchris , that's a technical term with which this ex-pat Brit is unfamiliar - please elucidate in context :)

hehe, hello mate :) I think they're on different controllers, here's the spec from the spec sheet:

Intel® X99 chipset : *3
1 x SATA Express port, gray, , Compatible with 2 x SATA 6.0 Gb/s ports
1 x M.2 x4 Socket 3, gray, , with M Key, type 2260/2280 storage devices support (PCIE mode)
8 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), gray, *4
Intel® Rapid Storage Technology supports*5
ASMedia® SATA Express controller : *6
1 x SATA Express port, gray, , Compatible with 2 x SATA 6.0 Gb/s ports
ASMedia® SATA 6Gb/s controller :
2 x eSATA 6Gb/s port(s), Compatible with 2 x SATA 6.0 Gb/s ports (see, a bit separatey :p )

 

[Inxsible]

I would have preferred a more efficient CPU like yours but I'm just "using what I got" as they say.

A bird in hand is worth two in the bush !! Always use what you have before you go out and splurge money on something.

I might look into Proxmox which I've heard a few Youtubers mention.

You should but check out the proxmox forums instead of YouTube. You will get much updated and relevant info. I use Proxmox as my VM server. I used ESXi before, but since Proxmox is open source, I switched over. The added advantage of creating containers natively is awesome. I had 7 VMs with EXSi. Now I have 1 VM and the rest are LXC containers. The containers are super quick and I installed just 1 service per container --- so that if something happens to one container, all the services don't go down with it.

 

[Bikerchris]

Doh, meant to attach a picture of the SATA

 

[Inxsible]

Doh, meant to attach a picture of the SATA

View attachment 36835

wow ! sata ports on the edge of the board?? hopefully they won't face a wall in your chassis in a way that it would become difficult to plug in or remove a cable.

 

[Bikerchris]

A bird in hand is worth two in the bush !! Always use what you have before you go out and splurge money on something.

You should but check out the proxmox forums instead of YouTube. You will get much updated and relevant info. I use Proxmox as my VM server. I used ESXi before, but since Proxmox is open source, I switched over. The added advantage of creating containers natively is awesome. I had 7 VMs with EXSi. Now I have 1 VM and the rest are LXC containers. The containers are super quick and I installed just 1 service per container --- so that if something happens to one container, all the services don't go down with it.

Quite right, I was tempted to off the PC to a child in the family, but it's more reliable than they need as a teenager...I had a Sinclair 128, they ain't getting better than that! :D

I'll go down the proxmox rabbit hole for sure, thank you for the advice!

 

[Bikerchris]

wow ! sata ports on the edge of the board?? hopefully they won't face a wall in your chassis in a way that it would become difficult to plug in or remove a cable.

Yeah, it's one of the features I like about it, 3 years ago when I got it, I thought if it doesn't do a good job of workstationing, it must be able to do many other things. Luckily the orientation of them is towards the front of the PC chassis...phew! The other edge you can see, faces down and has button press, led things. Something I really like is a 2 digit trouble shooting code display, been helpful a number of times!

 

[Bikerchris]

Just thought I'd amuse all by showing the case I'm using, it must be well over 10 years old and called a Thermaltake Armor:

it has space for an awful lot of drives, which is what interesting me even back then. Also I wanted a large case after struggling in small mid cases.

 

[Inxsible]

Luckily the orientation of them is towards the front of the PC chassis...phew!

That might work in your chassis, but it still won't work in my SuperMicro 1U and even in my 2U server because the case fans (aka the jet engines) are right at that end --which would mean either no air-flow at all or at the very least very inconvenient cabling due to the fans being in between when trying to attach or remove SATA cables.

But then again, usually when you are using rack mounted chassis, people tend to get an HBA and call it a day.

 

[Redcoat]

Doh, meant to attach a picture of the SATA

View attachment 36835

Thx for the picture - I've never seen such an arrangement before.

 

[Yorick]

Only if you have a moment, a little question - and I'm sure I should research this myself, but while you're passing and been so helpful: I have a few Apple iPhone/Pad users in the house, in that case should I use Unix sharing so that both Windows/Android and iOS can access files?

I have NO idea. I haven't ever needed to share a file with iOS or Android, and we have both, as well. We use Plex to stream video and that's it. For file sharing, I don't think a mobile OS supports samba, so maybe owncloud or nextcloud? I don't run those, so that'd be something to run down by yourself.

You can also sync files to a public cloud provider like OneDrive, that works quite well.

 

[Yorick]

SATA controllers: ZFS DGaF whether it's on the same controller or separate ones, it just wants direct access to the disks via the controller. It handles everything else itself. Any RAID features on the controller should be firmly turned off.

 

[Bikerchris]

That might work in your chassis,...

I hadn't intended to put it in a rack, so I should be safe. It is really handy that you mention how rack-unfriendly the board is, as I had thought about it once or twice - and you've saved me a lot of bother!

I think I'm far from HBA, the case I have has the space for 10 hot swap caddy thingys on the front, so I'm happy with that..unless it ever gets too warm!

 

[Bikerchris]

Thx for the picture - I've never seen such an arrangement before.

'Back in the day' it was supposed to be a fairly 'do all' board, it's a shame I don't use it to its fullest.

 

[Bikerchris]

I have NO idea. I haven't ever needed to share a file with iOS or Android, and we have both, as well. We use Plex to stream video and that's it. For file sharing, I don't think a mobile OS supports samba, so maybe owncloud or nextcloud? I don't run those, so that'd be something to run down by yourself.

You can also sync files to a public cloud provider like OneDrive, that works quite well.

Not to worry at all, at least Plex would work OK with iPhones, that should do them I reckon. I might do some research on it, would be nice if those people had some form of data storage - luckily we only have Windows in the house and I'm hoping to build a very cheap machine that'll run Ubuntu or similar, so we have a machine that anyone can jump on and do things.

I'm a heavy user of G Drive and Dropbox, so they're a good fall back. I have found that some apps don't like G Drive, so I use Dropbox for daily files.

 

[Bikerchris]

SATA controllers: ZFS DGaF whether it's on the same controller or separate ones, it just wants direct access to the disks via the controller. It handles everything else itself. Any RAID features on the controller should be firmly turned off.

Thank you Yorick, I have made sure RAID is turned off on the board - that's nice to know that the separate controllers won't cause a problem, thank you. :)

 

[Bikerchris]

Oh, pic of the board...if you're....bored

 

[Bikerchris]

@inxible @sretalla @jgreco @Yorick @Redcoat

Just because I'm a bit bored, I thought I'd show my proposed network, guys over at Level1Tech forum have been massively useful.