BUILD AMD Naples and Ryzen Support

[IceBoosteR]

Hello guys,
just a quick question from my side. I use a Xeon E3-1225v3 in my setup. I am quite happy with this, but in the future I may need more horsepower for virtualisation. As Intel is the No.1 on the market and holds 90% of the server market, cause AMD had the Bulldozer CPU-design, Intel is really expensive.
Everything should change with Ryzen in the desktop market and Naples in the server market. As the prizes looks really good, I think 10+ cores are available for 800 bucks, what is really awesome, because #Processor Cores Matter.
Also I don't need a dual-core mainboard, just use one CPU and boom.

The question here is, what about the hardware support of AMDs plattform for Naples? Could there be any problem, that FreeNAS will not work properly?
I know Intel NICs are best and the boards in the past had also Intel NICs.

So what do you think?

 

[ChriZ]

IMHO, poor AMD support in FreeBSD is AMD's fault..
In fact I was an AMD fanboy in the past (about 12-15 years ago), but not anymore (again, AMD's fault).
Don't know if this will change in the future...
I hope it does; it would benefit end users.

 

[DrKK]

We don't typically suggest AMD platforms for FreeNAS, for a variety of reasons. Unless something amazing happens, people will continue to be better served (no pun intended) on Intel hardware for FreeBSD appliances. At least in my opinion. I am sure my opinion will put some nerd, somewhere, on jihad, though.

 

[Ericloewe]

If a big player like Supermicro releases a motherboard that's competitive with Intel platforms (X10/X11), I might consider acquiring one for guinea pig purposes. That said, I don't expect system cost to be much lower for i3-class servers. I'd guesstimate a best-case cost reduction of 100 bucks, compared to a similar i3 system (70 on the CPU and 30 on the motherboard, due to a cheaper chipset).

 

[IceBoosteR]

Okey dammit...
So as Ryzen itself supports also ECC I look totally forward to buy my new system on that platform.
But why is AMD support so bad ---> What the difference in support oft FreeBSD from Intel to AMD?
In my opinion, if there is a server grade mainboard available like e.g. from Supermicro, why should it now work? "They are just silicons" :D :D

I would defenetly go for a 10+ Core System.

 

[anodos]

They are just silicons" :D :D.

I also wonder why my car can't run on diesel. After all, it's just fuel. :D :D

 

[Chiaki]

I'm sorry to inform you, that everything we know right now points to Ryzen as it will be released now in a few days in fact is NOT capable of ECC in ECC-mode (only in non-ECC-mode) with any mainboard that will be available.

Read this and all the comments and you will understand:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/5vpp40/no_ecc_support_in_any_of_the_currently_announced/

Maybe the rumored Ryzen PRO will be able to do this, but who knows.

 

[IceBoosteR]

I also wonder why my car can't run on diesel. After all, it's just fuel. :D :D

Maybe I was trolling :p

No seriously - where are the major differences then?

I'm sorry to inform you, that everything we know right now points to Ryzen as it will be released now in a few days in fact is NOT capable of ECC in ECC-mode (only in non-ECC-mode) with any mainboard that will be available.

Read this and all the comments and you will understand:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/5vpp40/no_ecc_support_in_any_of_the_currently_announced/

Maybe the rumored Ryzen PRO will be able to do this, but who knows.

Hi, thank you for the answer. Yes, its dissapointing but I'll look forward then to Naples, which has defenetly ECC support.

==> My hopes, much horsepower with less cost than an Intel setup

 

[IceBoosteR]

I'm sorry to inform you, that everything we know right now points to Ryzen as it will be released now in a few days in fact is NOT capable of ECC in ECC-mode (only in non-ECC-mode) with any mainboard that will be available.

Just thought about that alittle bit longer. So Ryzen will be able to support ECC memory, but the consumer boards does not. Thats okey for me. I'll looking forward to a server grade mainboard - then with ECC support and 24/7 reliability. Then I may go to Ryzen, not Naples. But lets wait for some time and see what the future brings.
But going back 2 topic - will there be support of Freenas for AMD?

 

[Ericloewe]

will there be support of Freenas for AMD?

It depends mostly on AMD. If they put a little effort into providing the necessary development, it should.

 

[IceBoosteR]

It depends mostly on AMD. If they put a little effort into providing the necessary development, it should.

Thank you.
Hopefully they do.

 

[hertzsae]

If a big player like Supermicro releases a motherboard that's competitive with Intel platforms (X10/X11), I might consider acquiring one for guinea pig purposes. That said, I don't expect system cost to be much lower for i3-class servers. I'd guesstimate a best-case cost reduction of 100 bucks, compared to a similar i3 system (70 on the CPU and 30 on the motherboard, due to a cheaper chipset).

Keep in mind that there's a significant number of users that want high CPU simply for Plex transcoding. If AMD can live up to their hype, then Ryzen/Naples will be appealing as they provide Xeon E5 core counts at Xeon E3 price points.

I'm not implying that it will be workable or reliable with AMD's BSD reputation. But we may start to see a huge amount of demand for it.

 

[Chiaki]

So we've got some news: https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/5x4hxu/we_are_amd_creators_of_athlon_radeon_and_other/def5ayl/

Looks like Ryzen is capable of real ECC but it's not properly tested and not properly available on all motherboards yet, from what I understand. I guess we will learn more about this in the next months and hopefully people will test it out. Sadly I've bought a mainboard that doesn't support ECC at all, from what I gather, so I can't provide any insights. Also Ryzen might be a bit of a letdown due to the small number of PCIe lanes compared to competitors.

I hope AMD won't let FreeBSD down and the bhyve-guys will look into supporting Ryzen soon.

 

[IceBoosteR]

So we've got some news: https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/5x4hxu/we_are_amd_creators_of_athlon_radeon_and_other/def5ayl/

Looks like Ryzen is capable of real ECC but it's not properly tested and not properly available on all motherboards yet, from what I understand. I guess we will learn more about this in the next months and hopefully people will test it out. Sadly I've bought a mainboard that doesn't support ECC at all, from what I gather, so I can't provide any insights. Also Ryzen might be a bit of a letdown due to the small number of PCIe lanes compared to competitors.

I hope AMD won't let FreeBSD down and the bhyve-guys will look into supporting Ryzen soon.

Yeah I saw that post. So lets wait for some enterprise motherboards then. If they will not come, I'll wait for Naples ;)
But interesting, Intel is also capable of ECC, but is deaktivating it. So go forward AMD, go Open Source!
The problem of the PCIe lanes does not matter, when you dont need a graphics card I think.

 

[cobrakiller58]

With the amount of pcie ssd's popping up I think the number of pcie lanes available does matter. Obviously not having a video card frees up a bunch but it is still something to think about.

 

[IceBoosteR]

With the amount of pcie ssd's popping up I think the number of pcie lanes available does matter. Obviously not having a video card frees up a bunch but it is still something to think about.

Thats true - but SSDs, especially NVMe SSDs. But, how much does it matter?
If you go for an cost-effective build with AMD, you're propably not that "SSD all over the place" guy ;)
So the more SSDs you have, I miught usggest you go for the really performance and premium part, and end up at Intels C236 platform...
So yes I understand your point, but _I think this is not the point here ;)

 

[cobrakiller58]

lol cost-effective and SSD usually don't go hand in hand, i'll have to agree. It was the first item that came to mind that would soak up pcie slots NIC's and HBA/RAID controllers are currently showing me that it is important to keep in mind. I'm certainly looking forward to what AMD will have to offer, so far it looks like if you're an AMD fan or an INTEL fan this should be good for us all.

 

[Ericloewe]

It seems that what intel would call a PCH is optional.
The good news is that it frees up 4x PCIe 3.0 that can be used freely.
The bad news is that the chipset is half-assed.
The good news is that the CPU provides a few SATA ports, and an LSI/Broadcom/Avago SAS controller can fill in for the rest.
The bad news is that this takes up valuable PCIe lanes and a PLX/Broadcom/Avago PCIe 3.0 switch is massively expensive (~100 bucks, according to anandtech), whereas Intel's platform includes a decent PCIe switch in the form of the PCH.

 

[diedrichg]

Looks like the Asrock X370 board supports ECC according to ServeTheHome. I'd love to hear someone testing this hardware with Corral.

 

[garym]

Hello guys,
just a quick question from my side. I use a Xeon E3-1225v3 in my setup. I am quite happy with this, but in the future I may need more horsepower for virtualisation. As Intel is the No.1 on the market and holds 90% of the server market, cause AMD had the Bulldozer CPU-design, Intel is really expensive.
Everything should change with Ryzen in the desktop market and Naples in the server market. As the prizes looks really good, I think 10+ cores are available for 800 bucks, what is really awesome, because #Processor Cores Matter.
Also I don't need a dual-core mainboard, just use one CPU and boom.

The question here is, what about the hardware support of AMDs plattform for Naples? Could there be any problem, that FreeNAS will not work properly?
I know Intel NICs are best and the boards in the past had also Intel NICs.

So what do you think?

I have been using opterons, both dual and single cpu 4000 series for th last 5 years. I use supermicro boards and ESXi. I have VMs of freenas, nas4free, xpenology, omnios&nappit etc and have not had any problems running any of them. I use these opterons because they are stable and cost effective and low power usage.
I too am looking forward to the new replacements for the same reasons that I am using opterons.
If the hardware is VMware certified, then there is no reason that Freenas should not work as intended, either as a VM or bare metal. Any amount of money is better in my pocket than in Intel's.