Hi together,
I was using a home server (ESXi) and FreeNAS for quite a long time but since I moved and didn't take everything with me it's time for something new.
I always had 2 separate boxes for the ESXi and the NAS and I was always thinking of a way to put those together. I know you don't like the idea of virtualizing FreeNAS but let's talk about the options. I also want to have the setup as future proof and flexible as possible.
This is what I've selected to the moment:
4 x Western Digital WD Red 4TB, 3.5", SATA 6Gb/s (WD40EFRX) zRaid1
1 x Samsung SSD PM951 256GB, M.2 (MZVLV256HCHP-00000) (as VM datastore)
1 x Samsung DIMM 32GB, DDR4-2133, CL15, reg ECC (M393A4K40BB0-CPB) (for the moment, expand it later)
1 x Supermicro X10SDV-4C-TLN4F retail (MBD-X10SDV-4C-TLN4F-O)
1 x SilverStone DS380, mini-ITX (SST-DS380B)
1 x SanDisk Cruzer Fit 16GB, USB 2.0 (SDCZ33-016G-B35) (boot device)
1 x Corsair SF450 450W SFX12V (CP-9020104-EU)
+ a used LSI 9211-8i (for passing to FreeNAS)
Only 4 drives for the beginning, I want to add a 2nd storage pool in the future.
I'm planning to run a few (lightweight) VMs and sometimes 2 or 3 little nested ESXi servers for testing purpose. Or should I just forget the idea and use the VirtualBox plugin for now (and bhyve in the future, does bhyve support nested VT?)
Questions so far:
- I'm unsure about the M.2 interface on the Supermicro board. As far as I can see I can only use PCIe SSD as there's no SATA on it. On the other hand according the Crucial their MX200 M.2 SATA SSD as compatible to that mainboard.
-> http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/compatible-upgrade-for/Supermicro/x10sdv-4c-tln4f
- Would you go for a Xeon E3 v5 rather than the Xeon-D setup (the price is about the same). I like the idea of having 10G (for future use maybe direct link to PC without a switch) and the possibility of adding tons of RAM (for the VMs).
- Does anyone know if it's possible to passthru onboard components of Xeon 1500 mainboards (I'm thinking of the SATA controller and 10G NICs)
The ideal board would be something with an onboard LSI controller but those are all at least micro ATX and I couldn't find any compact micro ATX NAS case with hotswap bays. Or is there any NAS chassis that fits the proprietary supermicro formfactor?
What do you say of the setup / my questions? Any recommendation? I really want to avoid spending tons of money for the wrong components.
Thanks a lot.
I was using a home server (ESXi) and FreeNAS for quite a long time but since I moved and didn't take everything with me it's time for something new.
I always had 2 separate boxes for the ESXi and the NAS and I was always thinking of a way to put those together. I know you don't like the idea of virtualizing FreeNAS but let's talk about the options. I also want to have the setup as future proof and flexible as possible.
This is what I've selected to the moment:
4 x Western Digital WD Red 4TB, 3.5", SATA 6Gb/s (WD40EFRX) zRaid1
1 x Samsung SSD PM951 256GB, M.2 (MZVLV256HCHP-00000) (as VM datastore)
1 x Samsung DIMM 32GB, DDR4-2133, CL15, reg ECC (M393A4K40BB0-CPB) (for the moment, expand it later)
1 x Supermicro X10SDV-4C-TLN4F retail (MBD-X10SDV-4C-TLN4F-O)
1 x SilverStone DS380, mini-ITX (SST-DS380B)
1 x SanDisk Cruzer Fit 16GB, USB 2.0 (SDCZ33-016G-B35) (boot device)
1 x Corsair SF450 450W SFX12V (CP-9020104-EU)
+ a used LSI 9211-8i (for passing to FreeNAS)
Only 4 drives for the beginning, I want to add a 2nd storage pool in the future.
I'm planning to run a few (lightweight) VMs and sometimes 2 or 3 little nested ESXi servers for testing purpose. Or should I just forget the idea and use the VirtualBox plugin for now (and bhyve in the future, does bhyve support nested VT?)
Questions so far:
- I'm unsure about the M.2 interface on the Supermicro board. As far as I can see I can only use PCIe SSD as there's no SATA on it. On the other hand according the Crucial their MX200 M.2 SATA SSD as compatible to that mainboard.
-> http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/compatible-upgrade-for/Supermicro/x10sdv-4c-tln4f
- Would you go for a Xeon E3 v5 rather than the Xeon-D setup (the price is about the same). I like the idea of having 10G (for future use maybe direct link to PC without a switch) and the possibility of adding tons of RAM (for the VMs).
- Does anyone know if it's possible to passthru onboard components of Xeon 1500 mainboards (I'm thinking of the SATA controller and 10G NICs)
The ideal board would be something with an onboard LSI controller but those are all at least micro ATX and I couldn't find any compact micro ATX NAS case with hotswap bays. Or is there any NAS chassis that fits the proprietary supermicro formfactor?
What do you say of the setup / my questions? Any recommendation? I really want to avoid spending tons of money for the wrong components.
Thanks a lot.