About to pull the trigger

[hotstovejer]

Hi all! FreeNAS noobsauce here, and I'm putting together a machine for all the backups and NAS related things!

Check my specs and tell me if you see anything amiss.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352011&ignorebbr=1

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236599&ignorebbr=1 X 4

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438017&ignorebbr=1

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100007&ignorebbr=1

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182821&ignorebbr=1

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148770&ignorebbr=1

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116907&ignorebbr=1

I'm ready to play with raidz2 and have this thing humming along for years.

 

[Spearfoot]

Hi all! Freenas noobsauce here, and I'm putting together a machine for all the backups and nas related things!

Check my specs and tell me if you see anything amiss.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352011&ignorebbr=1

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236599&ignorebbr=1 X 4

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438017&ignorebbr=1

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100007&ignorebbr=1

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182821&ignorebbr=1

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148770&ignorebbr=1

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116907&ignorebbr=1

I'm ready to play with raidz2 and have this thing humming along for years.

Welcome to the forum!
If you'll post the actual items and model numbers of the equipment you're considering, users will be more likely to comment. Many of us are too lazy to click through on a half-dozen links...

 

[Ericloewe]

FYI, if you have to choose between store links and model numbers, always choose model numbers. Infinitely more readable (literally, since the readability of the links is zero).

 

[hotstovejer]

Totally my bad, guys!

Fractal Design Define XL R2 Black Silent EATX Full Tower Computer Case

WD Red 4TB NAS Hard Disk Drive - 5400 RPM Class SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD40EFRX X4

EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2 220-G2-0750-XR 80+ GOLD 750W Fully Modular EVGA ECO Mode

Intel Xeon E3-1220V3 Haswell 3.1GHz LGA 1150 80W Server Processor BX80646E31220V3

SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SL7-F-O Micro ATX Server Motherboard LGA 1150 Intel C222 DDR3 1600

Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Unbuffered DDR3L 1600 (PC3L 12800) Server Memory Model CT2KIT102472BD160B


Cooler Master SickleFlow 120 - Sleeve Bearing 120mm Silent Fan x4

 

[Spearfoot]

Totally my bad, guys!

Fractal Design Define XL R2 Black Silent EATX Full Tower Computer Case

WD Red 4TB NAS Hard Disk Drive - 5400 RPM Class SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD40EFRX X4

EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2 220-G2-0750-XR 80+ GOLD 750W Fully Modular EVGA ECO Mode

Intel Xeon E3-1220V3 Haswell 3.1GHz LGA 1150 80W Server Processor BX80646E31220V3

SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SL7-F-O Micro ATX Server Motherboard LGA 1150 Intel C222 DDR3 1600

Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Unbuffered DDR3L 1600 (PC3L 12800) Server Memory Model CT2KIT102472BD160B


Cooler Master SickleFlow 120 - Sleeve Bearing 120mm Silent Fan x4

Ah, that's more like it!

I own a Fractal Define case, a Supermicro X10SL7-F, and a SuperNOVA PSU... so I like your proposed system. :)

All of your choices are good. Think about buying 6 of the WDC drives instead of 4: two more disks will give you twice the storage of four drives in a RAIDZ2 array.

You've cleverly chosen to install 2 sticks of 8GB RAM, giving yourself the opportunity to double your installed memory to 32GB. Kudos!

You might want to investigate the newer X11-series motherboards as they allow for up to 64GB of RAM; the X10SL7-F is getting a little 'long in the tooth' and only supports 32GB, but will work just fine if it fits your specific needs.

Also, you might consider using a much cheaper Pentium CPU if you're not going to be doing any CPU-intensive tasks like transcoding multiple video streams and such.

 

[hotstovejer]

Can I get more drives in the future and grow the array or am I stuck with the amount of disks I start with?

I might just go to 32gb of ram off the bat, since I am going to be using this as a plex server along with any other neat plugins I find. Hence the Xeon. No HT, but I don't think I would need it for a couple of plex streams.

 

[Spearfoot]

Can I get more drives in the future and grow the array or am I stuck with the amount of disks I start with?

You expand a pool by adding vdevs... If you create a 4-disk RAIDZ2 array now, you can expand the pool later by adding more disks in an additional vdev. But this approach can end up being very inefficient. Example: if you start out with a 4-disk RAIDZ2 array and later add another 4 disks in a second RAIDZ2 vdev you will double your storage, but at the cost of inefficiency: you'd only get 50% space efficiency whereas the same 8 disks in a single RAIDZ2 vdev would give you 75% efficiency. Lots of wasted space.

You're not really stuck with your starting pool, though. You can backup your data; destroy the pool; create a new pool with all of the disks in a single RAIDZ2 vdev; and then restore your data from backup. Lotta work... but you really should have a backup regardless of whether you ever intend to re-create your pool, right? :)

This is why 6 drives in a RAIDZ2 vdev is a 'sweet spot' in terms of efficiency and convenience. You get 66% space efficiency vs 50% with 4 drives, along with twice the usable storage.

 

[hotstovejer]

Shoot, how am I going to explain that to my wife??? :P

 

[Spearfoot]

Shoot, how am I going to explain that to my wife??? :p

Heh! Tell her it'll have more electrolytes! :D

 

[hotstovejer]

She's premed. She will know that I was lying!

I'll just pull the trigger. So the 6x4tb will give me a little over 16tb storage, vs the 8tb with the 4x4tb?

 

[hotstovejer]

Also, would I need to go to more than 32gb of ram then?

 

[Spearfoot]

She's premed. She will know that I was lying!

I'll just pull the trigger. So the 6x4tb will give me a little over 16tb storage, vs the 8tb with the 4x4tb?

A 6-disk RAIDZ2 array it will give you the capacity of 4 drives, less overhead -- roughly 14.55TB per @Bidule0hm's RAID calculator.

Regarding memory, here's the standard caveat: "You haven't told us how you intend to use the system, so it's hard to give you a definitive answer."

That said... 32GB will likely be plenty of memory.

 

[hotstovejer]

Well, I won't be running VM's on it, as I will be setting up a ESX box soon. Cramming for my VCP test. So mainly streaming via plex, nfs and ftp server (probably sshfs if that's supported too) and running backups from clients. Like I said, I don't know what neat plugins I might find, but for right now, this is where I am at. What's the main feature that takes up all the ram, except for the whole 1gb of ram per tb of storage?

 

[Spearfoot]

Well, I won't be running VM's on it, as I will be setting up a ESX box soon. Cramming for my VCP test. So mainly streaming via plex, nfs and ftp server (probably sshfs if that's supported too) and running backups from clients. Like I said, I don't know what neat plugins I might find, but for right now, this is where I am at. What's the main feature that takes up all the ram, except for the whole 1gb of ram per tb of storage?

Well... ZFS (and therefore FreeNAS) loves RAM...
Providing block storage via iSCSI can be a big memory hog. The documentation specifies 32GB as a minimum requirement "if performance is a consideration". I think 32GB will be plenty for your use-case.

 

[CraigD]

I have a similar system to your proposed build, and it works great

However if I was building a server today, I would use the X11SSL-CF board as a base

Do you really need that much CPU?

I agree with starting with the maximum 32GB RAM, especially with older DDR3 RAM, it is going to increase in price and get harder to find

This is contrary to most recommendations here because you cannot add more if you need to

Have Fun

 

[Stux]

I would further recommend the X11 ecosystem. And if you go X11 you can get the cheaper X11-SSM-f which supports up to 8 Sata drives. Which is plenty for your starting configuration. You can add an HBA later.

Also it allows you to expand to 64GB, so start with some multiple of 16GB.

Also, if you want a Xeon 1220 for performance reasons, then 1230 is a good step up, 60% extra performance for much less than 60% more. One of the better deals intel offers.

 

[hotstovejer]

I did go with the SUPERMICRO MBD-X11SSM-F-O Micro ATX Server Motherboard LGA 1151 Intel C236 and Crucial 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM ECC DDR4 2133 (PC4 17000) Server Memory Model CT2K16G4RFD4213 and swapped out the 1220 for the 1230.