Can I get Away with this?

[Whizdumb]

I'm planning on creating an upgraded system. Can I pair an ASROCK EPC602D8A with 64GB of ECC ram, E5-2630L v2 in a Supermicro SC846 case and run 1 pool consisting of 8 x 8tb WD Reds and another pool consisting of 2 vdevs of 8 x 4tb WD Reds.... for a total of 96TB usable data. My question is.... Can I use less than the recommended 1 TB to 1 GB of RAM suggestion and still have it operate smoothly. And no, I'm not looking at deduplication or a lot of jails/VMs.

 

[Stux]

My question is.... Can I use less than the recommended 1 TBto 1 GB of RAM suggestion and still have it operate smoothly.

Yes. Its a very very general guideline, and actually RAM requirements, as long as you're not grossly far (ie don't try to serve 128TB from 8GB.) have much more to do with your work-load (iSCSI? Plex? VMs? etc)

 

[Whizdumb]

Yes. Its a very very general guideline, and actually RAM requirements, as long as you're not grossly far (ie don't try to serve 128TB from 8GB.) have much more to do with your work-load (iSCSI? Plex? VMs? etc)

Parts are ordered. I went with this as my build:

Server:
ASrock EPC602D8A - Single 2011 Socket MB
Intel Xeon E5-2630 V2 6 Core 2.60 GHz 15Mb Cache
8 x 16GB Of Kingston Registered ECC KVR16R11D4/16I for 128GB ECC total
2 x Samsung 32GB Fit USB 3.0 Drive as Mirrored Boot Disk
Supermicro SC846 24 Bay 4U Case with BPN-SAS2-EL1 expander backplane
LSI Logic 9211-8I PCI-E card Flashed for P20 Firmware in IT Mode (HBA Pass-through)
Dual Supermicro PWS-920P-SQ Redundant Power Supplies
Noctua i4 NH-U9DXI4 Narrow ILM Cooler Tower
Also Added an LSI Logic SAS9200-8E PCI-E card for another SC846 Case That I have for future expansion as a JBOD enclosure.
Edit:
Added These Items to make the install easier:
1 x Front Panel Breakout Cable for non-Supermicro MB. It's Supermicro Part CBL-0068L - Of course I got almost everything assembled and realized I was missing that as a Key Component.
1 x Xcell 2 port USB rear PCI I/O bracket to run my Boot Drives. It's just nice to have.
1 x 4 Pin Fan Splitter Cable to run the 2 rear fans on the chassis. The particular MB only has one Rear Fan Header.
1 x Supermicro Snap-In Rails for easy installation. These came with my chassis but I figured I'd document it here for others that might want to do a similar build.


Arrays:
1 Pool with 1 vdev of 8 x 8TB WD80EFAX Reds w/256Mb Cache in RaidZ2 - This Will Be my Active Array
1 Pool with 2 vdevs of 8 x 4TB HMS5C4040ALE640 HGST Deskstar in RaidZ2 - This Will Be Cold Storage and Backups

Software: FreeNAS 11 Stable Release

Total: 96TB Usable

Thanks to Everyone for the help and guidance in the forums. Couldn't have done it without all of your excellent advice! Feel free to comment on my build. Any suggestions on additions or improvements would be great. Once built, I'll hopefully be able to post some pictures. Maybe even a Build Thread with all the steps. We'll see how it goes.

 

[Stux]

You know your Cold array will have better performance than your active right?

You should swap them arround.

(Twice the IOPS and roughly twice the bandwidth)

 

[Whizdumb]

You know your Cold array will have better performance than your active right?

You should swap them arround.

(Twice the IOPS and roughly twice the bandwidth)

Not a bad idea to be honest. I haven't set it up yet so it's still in an infant stage. Once again... Great Advice!
Also, what do you recommend for a local client backup solution for my home Windows and Linux machines? What's a good way to Sync periodic drive images to the Backup Array? Do you recommend something like CrashPlan or is there some VM I can run on my box that would do a better job?

 

[danb35]

What's a good way to Sync periodic drive images to the Backup Array?

Urbackup should do the trick, at least for Windows clients--I think it only does file backups for Linux clients. Pretty easy to install on FreeNAS.

 

[Whizdumb]

Urbackup should do the trick, at least for Windows clients--I think it only does file backups for Linux clients. Pretty easy to install on FreeNAS.

Thanks a Bunch! I'll surely look into this!

 

[Stux]

I've been quite happy with Veeam backup (free) to backup Windows clients to a FreeNAS SMB share.

https://www.veeam.com/windows-endpoint-server-backup-free.html