Darren Myers
Guru
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2014
- Messages
- 925
Hello everyone! I recently found out through some googling of how to make my own iSCSI SAN, that FreeNAS supports it and after trying it in a small virtual environment and it working im considering a large storage using it, with that in mind im gonna go over what I'm thinking....and then ill take any constructive criticism and help in making my decisions :)
Here is what im thinking right now:
x16 2TB harddrives
Adaptec RAID 51645 (i looked and this card is supported) + SAS to SATA break out cables
More then likely a i5 CPU with 32GB of ECC RAM
-----BUT------
Here is where i am stuck, i received x2 Netxen Qlogic NX3-20G 10GB PCI-E FC Sever cards.
I am not sure if these are supported or if support can be added, i only wanted to utilize it because i came into them + there GBICS and fiber cables. My plan if i can use the fiber cards is add one to the SAN and one to my server and then fiber patch it into my switches SFP's
If my fiber cards aren't an option then i'll get x2 quad NICS and move on with my life.
Other question is, what suggestions can you make to improve on this? I only planned to use the 2TB harddrives because i can get them for roughly 50 dollars each, I'd rather not spend a whole lot for right now i already dropped $830 on x4 4TB harddrives for my server itself and am quickly running out of storage.
Other questions include:
1. What raid configuration would i want for 16 hdds to give me a good amount of space, i saw a post that RAID6 would give me 28TB (roughly usable) or if i did RAID10 it would give me 16TB (roughly usable).
2. Is the ZFS file system expandable? I.E: If i purchase 8 harddrives when building this SAN, can i add another 8 without issue down the road or reformating my data and all?
3. I am also open to a better/more preferred raid card
Sorry if this is a long post, im sorry if any of this information is incorrect I am doing my best to work with FreeNAS, thank you for taking the time to read my post :)
Here is what im thinking right now:
x16 2TB harddrives
Adaptec RAID 51645 (i looked and this card is supported) + SAS to SATA break out cables
More then likely a i5 CPU with 32GB of ECC RAM
-----BUT------
Here is where i am stuck, i received x2 Netxen Qlogic NX3-20G 10GB PCI-E FC Sever cards.
I am not sure if these are supported or if support can be added, i only wanted to utilize it because i came into them + there GBICS and fiber cables. My plan if i can use the fiber cards is add one to the SAN and one to my server and then fiber patch it into my switches SFP's
If my fiber cards aren't an option then i'll get x2 quad NICS and move on with my life.
Other question is, what suggestions can you make to improve on this? I only planned to use the 2TB harddrives because i can get them for roughly 50 dollars each, I'd rather not spend a whole lot for right now i already dropped $830 on x4 4TB harddrives for my server itself and am quickly running out of storage.
Other questions include:
1. What raid configuration would i want for 16 hdds to give me a good amount of space, i saw a post that RAID6 would give me 28TB (roughly usable) or if i did RAID10 it would give me 16TB (roughly usable).
2. Is the ZFS file system expandable? I.E: If i purchase 8 harddrives when building this SAN, can i add another 8 without issue down the road or reformating my data and all?
3. I am also open to a better/more preferred raid card
Sorry if this is a long post, im sorry if any of this information is incorrect I am doing my best to work with FreeNAS, thank you for taking the time to read my post :)
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