BUILD Asrock c2750d4i build

[Allan_Guy]

Hi, I'm building a asrock c2750d4i in a Silverstone DS380B case and 600w SFX PSU, 32gb ECC Cruical ram, 8 wd20earx, running OS on a 16gb fairly slow thumb drive on a internal usb2 header cable zip-tied. I just need a few more pieces of hardware... I plan on using this server to be a home DVR, plex server, mythtv to strip commercials, and crashplan for backups

1) What size SSD's do you recommend for l2rarc, zil, etc to max out the performance? I should have 4 sata ports available.

2) There are 2 intel sata3, 4 intel sata2, 2 marvel se9172 sata3 Raid 0 or 1 capable, 4 marvel se9230 sata3 Raid 0,1,10 capable... I have the 8 wd20earx in hot swap bays (which freenas does not seem to like if you actually put one in or pull one out in my testing) Which sata ports would you use for the 8 drives? What port(s) for the other SSD's?

3) I only see the MythTV package in 9.2 release, should I run newest 9.2.... What release do you recommend?

Hope I'm not asking too much :) Thanks in advance! Just trying to get the most out of this DVR server and Ceton InfiniTV 6 ETH combo, thought about Ceton InfiniTV 6 PCIe card, but didn't think it would fit in the case.

I've debated to run freenas in a hyper v since cifs shares will only utilize one CPU anyway. Plex will only need to remux MKV's. Also, I thought about a Hardware raid controller for the 8 hot swap bays; I will be running RaidZ (Raid 5). Just seems like overkill since the board already has 12 sata ports and also, there articles about Raid 5 giving poor performance on many of the recommend Raid cards too.

Any input would be great!
Thanks
Allan

 

[nello]

3) I only see the MythTV package in 9.2 release, should I run newest 9.2.... What release do you recommend?

I am running the current stable train of FreeNAS 9.3 and had no problem installing the MythTV package.

Why wouldn't you run the current, stable FreeNAS (9.3.x)?

… thought about Ceton InfiniTV 6 PCIe card, but didn't think it would fit in the case.

As I understand, there are no FreeNAS drivers for PCI tuner cards. Network-based tuners, e.g., SilconDust's HD HomeRun, are your only option, as I understand.

 

[Allan_Guy]

I am running the current stable train of FreeNAS 9.3 and had no problem installing the MythTV package.

Why wouldn't you run the current, stable FreeNAS (9.3.x)?



As I understand, there are no FreeNAS drivers for PCI tuner cards. Network-based tuners, e.g., SilconDust's HD HomeRun, are your only option, as I understand.

Thanks for the info. So, latest stable 9.3.x and mythtv-0.26.0.tbz? I'm currently running FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201412090314 for testing and learning

 

[nello]

So, latest stable 9.3.x and mythtv-0.26.0.tbz?

When I installed MythTV last night on FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201501212031 with this command:

Code:

pkg install mythtv

It installed mythtv-0.27.0.20140121_6

 

[Allan_Guy]

When I installed MythTV last night on FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201501212031 with this command:

Code:

pkg install mythtv

It installed mythtv-0.27.0.20140121_6

Looks like this might be the latest. http://download.freenas.org/nightli...201412091831/RELEASE/STABLE/201502271818/x64/

 

[marbus90]

re SATA ports: don't use the marvells. they're utterly crap as in speeds below 10MB/s for the array.

yep, you need another PCIe controller like the IBM M1015 - but flashed to the P16 IT mode firmware to be dedicated to freenas. also FreeNAS doesn't like to be virtualized.

your only disk configuration for VMs are striped mirrors. do not, under any circumstances, be the idiot who runs a single raid5/raidz on 8 HDDs. it'll end in tears, as will using the marvells and/or freenas in a VM.

 

[Allan_Guy]

re SATA ports: don't use the marvells. they're utterly crap as in speeds below 10MB/s for the array.

yep, you need another PCIe controller like the IBM M1015 - but flashed to the P16 IT mode firmware to be dedicated to freenas. also FreeNAS doesn't like to be virtualized.

your only disk configuration for VMs are striped mirrors. do not, under any circumstances, be the idiot who runs a single raid5/raidz on 8 HDDs. it'll end in tears, as will using the marvells and/or freenas in a VM.

Thanks, I'll just run freenas by itself then. Could I do a stripe of 6 intel ports with 2 in reserve on Marvell's? I have read in many places that the Marvell's are crap, but would they be ok with an SSD for l2arc and or zil? Another thought, would it make sense to do a RaidZ on 6 intel ports and then a mirror for last 2 drives on the marvell. Then I could store pictures and music (little bandwidth) on mirror and videos on RaidZ?

 

[marbus90]

0 marvell with freenas. nada. niente. nil. zero. don't use the marvells. they're utterly crap. use intel. intel good. marvel no good.

no raidz either. raidz2 at least. 98% of freenas users don't profit from l2arc/slog. don't bother.