BUILD: Supermicro X11SSH-F and IBM M1015

[EM LoCastro]

Hello all,

I have previously built a FreeNAS machine based on the X10SL7 in IT mode. It was my first build, and pleasantly straightforward given the glut of ports directly on the motherboard. And for a great price.

Now I'm eyeing the newer X11 series. I want to take advantage of the greater max RAM of 64GB, to build a machine with greater storage capacity. I unfortunately haven't identified any direct analog of the SL7 in this newer lineup at the sub-$400 price point.

So, being forced to more carefully consider "PCI lanes" and "LSI controllers" (ha!), I've seen the IBM M1015 as a highly recommended expansion card. Can anyone advise whether I can put one or two of these to use aboard the X11SSH-F board? Being on a budget, I would probably only buy one now, but I would like to know whether I could possibly stick a second one in there down the line for an additional vdev. I'm planning to use either 3TB or 4TB drives.

Thank you for your advice and support.

 

[Spearfoot]

The LSI-9211/IBM M1015/Dell H200 is a x4 lane PCIE v2.0 device, according to Avago. The X11SSH-F board has 3 PCIE v3.0 slots, 2 x8 lane and 1 x4 lane. So you should be able to install three of the HBA boards if you wanna!

 

[EM LoCastro]

Oh, Spearfoot, you just made my day.

 

[Chris Moore]

The LSI-9211/IBM M1015/Dell H200 is a x4 lane PCIE v2.0 device, according to Avago. The X11SSH-F board has 3 PCIE v3.0 slots, 2 x8 lane and 1 x4 lane. So you should be able to install three of the HBA boards if you wanna!

I am not arguing, I went to Avago and read it, I just wonder why they use an 8x edge connector if it is only a 4x interface.

Any idea?

Anyone?

 

[Spearfoot]

I am not arguing, I went to Avago and read it, I just wonder why they use an 8x edge connector if it is only a 4x interface.

Any idea?

Anyone?

I got nuthin!

 

[Ericloewe]

I am not arguing, I went to Avago and read it, I just wonder why they use an 8x edge connector if it is only a 4x interface.

Any idea?

Anyone?

Some other sources say the controller does use 8 lanes.

Don't ask me what's right.

 

[EM LoCastro]

Indeed, the vendor pages for this item state PCI-E 8. I will still be more than happy with "only" a second card.

 

[EM LoCastro]

But armed with this new information, can anyone advise if any of the recommended Ethernet cards will run off PCI-E 4x?

 

[Chris Moore]

But armed with this new information, can anyone advise if any of the recommended Ethernet cards will run off PCI-E 4x?

What kind of network interface did you have in mind, just a standard Gigabit port or something more "fancy"??

Because the board you mentioned (X11SSH-F) has two of the regular Gigabit ports built in and I am not sure what you have in mind.

 

[EM LoCastro]

I think gigabit should suffice. But how "fancy" can one get?

 

[Chris Moore]

I think gigabit should suffice. But how "fancy" can one get?

Well, there would be other hardware to buy in addition, but you can put a 10Gig network interface in your 4x slot.
Something like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/142081600974

If you had two NAS units, they could be direct connected for high speed backups or you could have a high speed link between your desktop and the NAS for your use.

There are videos on YouTube that go into how to set this up, but you would have a private IP range between the two systems that are direct connected and they would still have a connection to the rest of the network at the slower speed.

Then there is the option of buying a network switch that has 10Gig ports.
Like this one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/201674547463

Just be sure it is SFP+

I made the mistake (not paying close enough attention to search results) and bought plain SFP .... It doesn't work the same.

 

[Spearfoot]

FWIW, I run an IBM M1015 in the x4 PCIE slot on my Supermicro X8SIE system. So perhaps it will work in either one (x4 or x8), albeit probably less efficient in an x4 slot.

EDIT: The Avago website is wrong... I looked it up in the manual, and the card is definitely an x8 device, though it will work in an x4 slot as I mentioned above.

 

[Stux]

I am not arguing, I went to Avago and read it, I just wonder why they use an 8x edge connector if it is only a 4x interface.

Any idea?

Anyone?

Fairly certain it has to be x8. As it is the 8 lanes are the bottle neck when saturating the SAS side. That'd be worse if it had half the bandwidth.

 

[Stux]

I question the wisdom of upgrading from x10 to X11 *just* to double the max ram.

Why. It go for an e5 x10 system then and go for 40 times more max ram ;)

And more PCI slots

And more cores ;)

 

[EM LoCastro]

Well, Stux, without looking into the e5/X10 system too closely, I'll tell you that I've been budget-minded in my approach, and keeping an eye on the "1 GB RAM to 1 TB storage" rule of thumb I've seen referenced. I would love to get a megalith monster machine, but I'm under some constraint. I would like to spend the money on a system that has the potential to evolve a bit. When I've demonstrated I'm hitting the limits of the hardware, and when I have more ZFS management experience under my belt, I'll make the case for something with serious horsepower.