Best server to use with TrueNAS

[milanmdev]

Hi all,

I'm trying to create a rack-mountable NAS and I need some help deciding what the best server to use for this is. I would like to stay under $500 or as close to it as possible. Ideally, I'd like the server to be 2U or 4U, with at least 10 drive slots. If someone could help me figure this out, that'd be great!

Thanks,
Milan Mehra

 

[danb35]

Rack, 2U, and assuming 3.5" bays is going to max out at 12 bays. Getting that under US$500 (I'm assuming that excludes drives) means buying used. This one looks like a pretty good choice, though you'd need to swap the RAID controller for a HBA:

Supermicro 2U 12x Caddy Storage Passthrough Server 2x E5-2670 V2 ASR-71605 RAID | eBay

This 2U Server is a great Server for RAID configs. Caddies Included: 12x 3.5" Caddy. - 1x ASR-71605 LOW PROFILE RAID Card connected to all 12 Drive Bays (RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, 60). CPU: 2x E5-2670V2 2.50GHz 10C.

www.ebay.com

Decent CPUs, decent amount of RAM, and room to expand if you want. This one looks pretty similar:

Supermicro 2U Server X9DRI-LN4F+ 2x Xeon E5-2650 2ghz 16 Cores 96gb RAID | eBay

Supermicro 2U Server (12x 3.5" Bays). 2x 800w Power Supplies. No Rails Included. Onboard IPMI 2.0 Remote Access Card.

www.ebay.com

If you prefer Dell, looks like the R720xd would do and potentially be in budget. Or if HP, a Proliant DL380 Gen9 would do:

HP ProLiant DL380 G9 3.5" 2x E5-2630 v3 2.4Ghz 16-Core 32gb P840 12xTray 2x800w | eBay

HP Proliant DL380 Gen9 2U Server. No Power Cords / Bezel / Rails Included. 2x 800w Power Supplies. Credit Cards. No Optical Drive.

www.ebay.com

Key issues for any server are going to be:

• RAM. 16 GB minimum, and more is better
• For gigabit LAN, Intel. For 10G, Intel or Chelsio SFP+
• No RAID controllers; use a HBA
• AMD CPUs likely work, but compatibility is still better with Intel.

 

[milanmdev]

Thanks for your reply! I think I'm going to go with the X9DRI-LN4F+, the second link you sent. What HBA should I use for this server?

 

[danb35]

The hardware recommendations guide would answer this, but pretty much any LSI/Broadcom/Avago 2008/2308/3008-based card should do.

 

[milanmdev]

Okay, thanks for your help!

 

[Scharbag]

Thanks for your reply! I think I'm going to go with the X9DRI-LN4F+, the second link you sent. What HBA should I use for this server?

I have that board. I use LSI 2008 based chipset HBAs. They are cheap and they work well.

Cheers,

 

[ChrisRJ]

That board already has 12 SATA ports, so you may not even need an HBA right from the start.

Also, since nothing has been said about the use-case, this machine may or may not be the best possible option. For pure storage the board is certainly overkill with 2 CPUs.

 

[milanmdev]

That board already has 12 SATA ports, so you may not even need an HBA right from the start.

Also, since nothing has been said about the use-case, this machine may or may not be the best possible option. For pure storage the board is certainly overkill with 2 CPUs.

I plan to use it for storing personal backups as well as a Jellyfin instance, so I think this server should be sufficient

 

[Scharbag]

That board already has 12 SATA ports, so you may not even need an HBA right from the start.

Also, since nothing has been said about the use-case, this machine may or may not be the best possible option. For pure storage the board is certainly overkill with 2 CPUs.

Good point. I use mine as a double duty ESXi host as well as a TrueNAS server. It is a little power hungry too.

It is overkill for a simple TrueNAS box but the price is so cheap today for this board with a bunch of memory and a couple CPUs.

Cheers,

 

[ChrisRJ]

It is overkill for a simple TrueNAS box but the price is so cheap today for this board with a bunch of memory and a couple CPUs.

There is a reason why I have 4 of the single-socket version (X9-SRi)

 

[milanmdev]

The server came with a "asr-71605", which has 4 miniSAS HD connectors into it. I can't find any reasonably priced 4-miniSAS HD connector HBAs. From what I've read, this card has a "HBA only" mode. Do you this if I put it in this HBA only mode it will work with TrueNAS?

 

[ChrisRJ]

That is an Adaptec RAID controller and enabling HBA mode there is not equivalent to flashing an LSI-based card to HBA-only operation. So it will work in that you can install etc. But down the road there is risk. I would certainly not recommend using it (other than for the boot drives).

Why not buy 2 cheap LSI HBAs? The board should have more than enough slots and power consumption is high already anyway

 

[milanmdev]

I see. None of the miniSAS HD HBAs are that cheap from what I'm seeing. Do you think I could replace the miniSAS to miniSAS HD cables with regular miniSAS to miniSAS cables, and then buy 2 LSI regular miniSAS HBAs?

 

[ChrisRJ]

How are the disks connected? With out without backplane? What about using the SATA ports on the motherboard? Earlier in this thread you wrote that those would be sufficient.

What is the thinking behind your question about buying a certain type of cable?

What do you mean with "not that cheap"? How much money are w talking about? What is your budget?

What I am trying to bring across is that asking broader questions and explaining why they are being asked, will help to get you better answers. Asking very specific technical things without background will likely get you an answer, yes. But it will be narrow in scope and deprive those who want to help of a lot of things. We cannot validate your thinking/assumptions. We cannot show potential alternatives. We cannot point possible issues, etc.

Please don't read this as some kind of accusation. You are in good company here and I just want you to get the best possible results.

 

[milanmdev]

Thanks for your response. The disks are connected via a SAS backplane. I guess the SATA ports could be sufficient, but if I can I'd like to steer away from using those just for the sake of internal cable management. When I'm home I'll check the SATA connections on the board and verify how many there are.

About buying a certain cable type, I realized that my previous responses had some errors in the sense that I had incorrectly identified the cable type as "mini SAS" when they are "mini SAS HD" cables. The SAS backplane has mini SAS cables coming out of it and they later convert to mini SAS HD cables, which then plug into the Adaptec RAID card. I was thinking of simply replacing those cables with mini SAS to mini SAS cables and then installing 2 regular mini SAS HBAs, instead of buying a mini SAS HD HBA.

As for the budget, I'd ideally like to stay under $100 for the cards total, which can be manageable if I change out the cables. When I initially ordered the server, it bought it with a LSI 9200-8i, but that only has regular mini SAS connectors. I think I should be able to get some mini SAS cables, which will with that HBA. The mini SAS HD HBAs I found would run me up ~$200 (each).

Thanks for the advice about providing more information by the way.

 

[milanmdev]

But down the road there is risk. I would certainly not recommend using it (other than for the boot drives).

Also, just wanted to clarify on this: what exactly is the risk that is present with using the Adaptec card? I would just like to understand why this card wouldn't be good for this use case. Thanks for all of your help by the way!

 

[ChrisRJ]

Please read "Don't use RAID" from the recommended readings in my signature. If you want to learn more about ZFS and TrueNAS, I recommend to also have a look at the other links.