12 bay FreeNAS build advice

[ardour]

Dear FreeNAS experts,

I am planning to purchase the following hardware for a 12 bay FreeNAS setup:

* Chassis/motherboard/CPU: 1 x SuperMicro 5018A-AR12L (http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/1u/5018/SSG-5018A-AR12L.cfm)

* Memory: 4 x Samsung M393B1K70DH0-CK0 (DDR3 ECC Registered 8192MB 1600 Mhz)
(http://www.samsung.com/global/busin...computing-dram/detail?iaId=692&productId=7240)

* Data storage: 12 x Seagate ST4000NM0023 (3.5 inch, 4TB, SAS2.0, 6.0GB/sec, 7200rpm, 128MB cache) (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178306)

* OS storage: 1 x SATADOM D150QV-L (64 GB small SATA SSD) (http://www.innodisk.com/intel/SATADOM_D150QVL.html)

* Host bus adaptor: 1 x LSI SAS 9207-8i (http://www.lsi.com/products/host-bus-adapters/pages/lsi-sas-9207-8i.aspx)

I have been searching for a supported hardware list, but the best I could find are the FreeBSD 9.2 hardware notes, which seems somewhat outdated/incomplete. Will this hardware be fully supported by the latest FreeNAS version? Are there any obvious mistakes? Any suggested improvements?

Cheers,
Ben

 

[danb35]

That board doesn't support registered RAM; you need unbuffered, non-registered modules instead. If you could find them, it'd probably be good to go with 2 x 16 GB modules rather than 4 x 8 GB, to leave room on the board for expansion--it seems, though, that the 16 GB UDIMMs are made of unobtainium. It also looks like it includes an LSI HBA onboard, so it would seem that purchasing an additional one would be redundant.

7200 rpm hard drives aren't usually recommended due to power consumption and heat issues.

Your SATA DOM is considerably larger than required; a 16 GB unit would be plenty. A second one would let you mirror them when 9.3 releases.

A 1U system with 12 hot-swap 3.5" bays? Nice idea!

 

[Mlovelace]

If you could find them, it'd probably be good to go with 2 x 16 GB modules rather than 4 x 8 GB, to leave room on the board for expansion--it seems, though, that the 16 GB UDIMMs are made of unobtainium.

This made me laugh, unobtainium... :D
It looks like you can find the IM dimms in Germany https://www.sona.de/408264

 

[cyberjock]

That SATA DOM isn't recommended for Avoton platforms. Some have incompatibilities.

 

[marbus90]

If you want >32GB, forget Avoton. It's cheaper to buy a Xeon E5 system with RDIMMs and you still have money to spare.

Supermicro offers SATA-DOMs with integrated power pins for the yellow SATA socket. Have a look here: http://www.supermicro.com/products/nfo/SATADOM.cfm

If you want more choice:
http://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=1U12LX-14S with redundant PSU or
http://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=1U12L2SW-14S with non-redundant PSU

Also Seagates aren't really low on AFR. In that system you don't need SAS HDDs, since the biggest advantage is dualport.
WD offers the Red Pro HDDs with 7200rpm, 24/7 rating and 5yr warranty. If money is no object, Hitachi Ultrastars seem to be the better choice.

 

[BakerT]

Looks like an awesome build. Was considering that case/mobo for a cold storage build too.