30+ Users Office Build Using FreeNAS - is my build sufficient?

[Jesse Stillwell]

Hello everyone,

First I would like to thank you for reading and leaving any advice.

My office was using a Dell Poweredge 710 server that is now failing. One drive pooped out and we are only running on 2 drives, effectively RAID 0 now. This server has 2 Xeon E5506 CPUs @ 2.13ghz and 32GB of what I suspect is 1333mhz ram (possibly underclocked to 800mhz according to their documentation) and 3 500GB SCSI drives in a RAID5 config.

This server is tasked with holding many PDF files (construction plans on very large projects), AutoCAD files, and some general files. There are about 30 computers that regularly access files off the server. They usually just open PDF files for the most part, and a few of the computers access CAD files. We are constantly writing new data to the server as new jobs come in daily. This could be as much as a few hundred megabytes to several gigabytes a day by our admin's computer. We will go through and delete old jobs off the server every month or so, and do regular back ups to 2 external drives keeping one offsite and rotating them weekly.

My proposed build is in the link below.

https://secure.newegg.com/global/th-en/Wishlist/SharedWishlistDetail?ID=2PeVIXCmqoA=&&cm_mmc=snc-email-_-sr-_-wishlist-2PeVIXCmqoA=-_-01/23/2019

I am planning on going with 6 2TB drives in a RAID6 type of configuration totalling 8TB of storage. Or do you think it would be okay to do a RAID1 type config considering we do weekly back ups to 2 different external drives and rotate them weekly? Was thinking that RAID 1 might help the write speeds as we write new jobs daily and most of the files read are quite small (5-50MB or so) usually.

Do you guys think I should ditch the Asus server board and go with this Supermicro? https://www.newegg.com/global/th-en/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813183652&Description=supermicro motherboard&cm_re=supermicro_motherboard-_-13-183-652-_-Product

Do you think the I3-8100 is up to the task or should I go with a Xeon E3-1220v5? I read that the I3-8100 is okay with ECC memory and will work on the the C24X chipsets, and it has a bit more power compared to the xeon at a lower price. https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-Xeon-E3-1220-v5-vs-Intel-i3-8100/2692vs3103

Will the m.2 drive work okay for the FreeNAS software? I will more than likely upgrade this to a more reliable brand; however, any recommendations regarding the OS storage type would be great.

Do I need a RAID controller, or should I be fine without it?

This may seem a bit overkill or maybe not, but I might have to run a MySQL plugin with NAS to support a cost estimating program that multiple users at once can access from the server. Would this be possible? If not I can repurpose the old server to the task.

Again thank you guys very much for any advice and info.

This project will go forward in some fashion no matter what, and I am very keen to use FreeNAS. Once the project commences I will open a new thread and go through the build, the configuration, how it operates, and feedback for FreeNAS with any suggestions that could improve the software.

 

[MatthewSteinhoff]

1. I wouldn't buy 2TB drives anymore. Too small. You'll use up a bunch of drive bays and ports leaving no room for expansion. If you need 8TB, buy four, 4TB drives and run them as a striped mirror. A striped mirror will have twice the storage bandwidth and IOPS of a RAIDZ2 array. Heck, you could even get a pair or 8TB drives and mirror them. That would be no slower than a six-disk RAIDZ2 array, use less power, produce less heat and give you more expansion possibilities.

2. This is totally personal preference but I'd take Supermicro over Asus.

3. You likely won't see and difference in performance between the i3-8100 and the E3-1220v5 for file services.

4. I still use USB sticks for FreeNAS in most cases but, if your motherboard will boot from m.2, that's fine and doesn't take up a drive bay (and might not take up a port). I wouldn't bother buying a better brand. Just backup your config from time to time.

5. NEVER use a RAID controller with FreeNAS. If you have enough ports on the motherboard, just use those. Otherwise, pick up an HBA.

6. Am I reading correctly that you're only planning on 8GB of RAM? For as many concurrent users as you have, I'd bump that up to 16GB or even 32GB.

7. If you plan on running MySQL or your cost estimating program from a VM on the FreeNAS server, you may want to add even more memory or, at that point, consider a more powerful processor. It all depends on the resources those tools require.

8. You might want to consider multiple disk pools. Consider a large, slow pool for long-term storage and the archiving of completed projects and then, maybe, an SSD pool for live AutoCad projects and actively used data.

9. Once you figure out how amazing FreeNAS is in actual use, instead of manually copying data and moving it offsite on terribly unreliable USB drives, you may wish to look into its replication features. It's built-in and wonderful.

Cheers,
Matt

 

[Jesse Stillwell]

1. I wouldn't buy 2TB drives any more. Too small. You'll use up a bunch of drive bays and ports leaving no room for expansion. If you need 8TB, buy four, 4TB drives and run them as a striped mirror. A striped mirror will have twice the storage bandwidth and IOPS of a RAIDZ2 array. Heck, you could even get a pair or 8TB drives and mirror them. That would be no slower than a six-disk RAIDZ2 array, use less power, produce less heat and give you more expansion possibilities.

2. This is totally personal preference but I'd take Supermicro over Asus.

3. You likely won't see and difference in performance between the i3-8100 and the E3-1220v5 for file services.

4. I still use USB sticks for FreeNAS in most cases but, if your motherboard will boot from m.2, that's fine and doesn't take up a drive bay (and might not take up a port). I wouldn't bother buying a better brand. Just backup your config from time to time.

5. NEVER use a RAID controller with FreeNAS. If you have enough ports on the motherboard, just use those. Otherwise, pick up an HBA.

6. Am I reading correctly that you're only planning on 8GB of RAM? For as many concurrent users as you have, I'd bump that up to 16GB or even 32GB.

7. If you plan on running MySQL or your cost estimating program from a VM on the FreeNAS server, you may want to add even more memory or, at that point, consider a more powerful processor. It all depends on the resources those tools require.

8. You might want to consider multiple disk pools. Consider a large, slow pool for long-term storage and the archiving of completed projects and then, maybe, an SSD pool for live AutoCad projects and actively used data.

9. Once you figure out how amazing FreeNAS is in actual use, instead of manually copying data and moving it offsite on terribly unreliable USB drives, you may wish to look into its replication features. It's built-in and wonderful.

Cheers,
Matt

Thank you very much for your reply.

The first part about doing a striped mirror using larger drives is an excellent idea. I think I will go with just a mirror for now as read and write speeds aren't critical.

I will be going with 16GB of ram to start with on this build, and probably upping it to 32GB in the future as we expand.

The estimating program that we use is a very bare program and doesn't require hardly any resources to run.

I like the idea of the SSD pools. I will surely look into that when we start getting into more Revit and CAD projects.

I'll try to boot of the m.2 and keep a back up of the config on a stick just in case.

Thanks again for all your helpful advice. I will start a new thread soon on the build when the parts arrive.