Build: Plex Media Server and Time Machine

[Samar Sunkaria]

Backstory:

I am new to this forum, and pretty new to the project itself. I had repurposed an old PC lying around as my first FreeNAS build. It kinda-sorta worked in the beginning with FreeNAS 8.2, upto 9.2. With the introduction of a GPT formatted boot thumb drive, my motherboard derped out. I later figured out that my BIOS doesn't support USB booting off of GPT formatted drives. I scavenged the internet for a fix online, and lo and behold, I found out that adding a protective MBR to my thumb drive would solve the problem.

Since then I have upgraded the storage from just one 240 gig drive striped with a 320 gig 2.5" drive (Yeah, i know a very bad solution, but i was just experimenting around and even though i had stored some of my crucial data on it, i did maintain a backup of those files) to a 1 TB WD Green for my Jails and VMs, coupled with a RAIDZ of 3 4TB WD Greens.

Requirements from the Build:

Now, back to the current day scenario. I want to upgrade my current setup, with something that should be able to last for a minimum of 3-5 years.

My use case mainly consists of:

• Time Machine Backups from 4 devices
• A Static backup of important documents, including photos
• And, Transcoding 2 to 4 1080p H.265 streams (Plex)

- It would be great if it could saturate a gigabit ethernet over Samba or AFP
- And i would like to keep my current drive setup (as the drives don't even have an year of operation under their belt), but with enough room to expand the storage later.
- I have a managed network switch so, it won't be hard for me to configure link aggregation. Would definitely like to take advantage of that.

What I have in Mind (Parts List):

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1275 V5 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor
MOBO: Supermicro MBD-X11SSH-LN4F Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
RAM: 4 x Kingston ValueRAM 16GB (1 x 16GB) DDR4-2133 Memory
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
DRIVES: (From the previous setup) 3x 4TB WD Greens and 1x 1TB WD Green
CASE: Not yet chosen

I am open to recommendations/suggestions for the parts that may suit my use case.
I have a budget of about $1,000 to $1,200.

Thank you once again.

Questions that I have:

1. Do i need an L2ARC or a ZIL?
2. In the future, when i decide to upgrade my storage, how should i go about it? (Striping two RAIDZs?)
3. Should i enable Dedup?
4. How can i improve my setup?

 

[fracai]

1: probably not; you have plenty of RAM already.
2: RAIDZ is effectively dead (the time it takes to resilver and the disk access required raises the likelihood of a second failing disk while the resilver is still occurring). You can expand by either replacing each disk, adding a second pool, or adding vdevs to the existing pool.
3: NO. You're unlikely to see any appreciable space savings (use compression instead) and the RAM required to dedup goes up very quick. Further, you can't just turn off dedup as existing data would still be in the dedup tables.

 

[Samar Sunkaria]

RAIDZ is effectively dead (the time it takes to resilver and the disk access required raises the likelihood of a second failing disk while the resilver is still occurring). You can expand by either replacing each disk, adding a second pool, or adding vdevs to the existing pool.

How should i go about improving the reliability of my drive array?
I wont be able to RAIDZ2 using 3 drives, furthermore if i choose to but 3 more drives, for an effective of 6 drives, can i configure them in RAIDZ2, without copying all the data on the existing pool and creating a new pool altogether? (As in something more dynamic)

 

[fracai]

Ah, I hadn't noticed the drive count, or that you already had a pool. Z1 may be OK there, but you might also just look at adding a fourth drive and use two mirrors. You would need to recopy in order to reconfigure your pool layout.

 

[Samar Sunkaria]

This is probably a dumb question, RAIDZ2 or 2 Mirrors? Which one is better? (Assuming a 4 drive setup)
Performance v/s Reliability v/s Recoverability

 

[fracai]

Overall, I don't think there's a clear winner.

Mirrors are going to provide better performance.

Z2 is going to provide better recoverability. (With Mirrors you could lose all your data if one of the mirrors loses both disks; with Z2 you would need three disks to fail before you lose everything.)

Reliability is going to depend on what specifics you're looking at. I don't think either is inherently any more likely to fail.

The other item to consider is how much capacity you lose to the redundancy. Four disks with mirrors or Z2 you're going to effectively halve your capacity either way.

You aren't going to be able to go from 4xZ2 to 6xZ2 without rebuilding the pool. You can add more vdevs to either, but it's generally a good idea to keep the same dimensions (add another 4xZ2 or another mirror). It's also easier to increase space with mirrors by replacing the disks. You'll see more capacity once a single vdev has all disks replaced, so it takes less to increase a mirror than it does a 4 or 6 disk Z2 vdev.

I know a lot of people like mirrors for the performance and ease of expansion, but I have reservations about the statistics of failing drives and chose Z2 for my own system.


It's all about understanding the tradeoffs and planning to mitigate where necessary.

 

[BBarker]

Why the E3-1275 V5 instead of the E3-1270 V5? I think the only difference between the two is the 1275 has onboard graphics which shouldn't be necessary and may not be supported by the X11 board.

 

[Samar Sunkaria]

Why the E3-1275 V5 instead of the E3-1270 V5? I think the only difference between the two is the 1275 has onboard graphics which shouldn't be necessary and may not be supported by the X11 board.

When i was searching for the CPU i didn't know if the mob would have an on board GPU. So, i chose the 1275 to keep my options open. Now that i have finalized my mobo, i can go for the 1270 instead. Thanks

 

[Samar Sunkaria]

Any recommendations for cases?

 

[melloa]

Any recommendations for cases?

Rack? Tower? Hot Swap?

 

[Samar Sunkaria]

Rack? Tower? Hot Swap?

Its for a home server. So something more like a cube case. Don't really require hot swap. And should support 8 3.5" drives.

 

[BBarker]

Its for a home server. So something more like a cube case. Don't really require hot swap. And should support 8 3.5" drives.

Not sure about a cube that will accommodate 8 drives, but do know that this case has gotten a lot a praise:

http://www.fractal-design.com/home/product/cases/define-series/define-r5-black

 

[Kevin Horton]

Its for a home server. So something more like a cube case. Don't really require hot swap. And should support 8 3.5" drives.

I'm extremely happy with my Fractal-Design Node 804 cube. It has good airflow, so it allows for a quiet system, especially if you set up a script to control fan speeds in the hard drive area as a function of hard drive temperatures.

 

[CraigD]

No need to spend a lot of money on a case

I have Zalman MS800 with 3x 3-5.25" to 5x3.5" cages with fans and dust covers allows 16 3.5" drives (needed to flatten some tabs in the drive bays to fit cages)

Some people like the NZXT Source 210 (maybe with an added fan or two) 12 3.5" drives with one 3x 3-5.25" to 5x3.5" cage

Have Fun