SOLVED Custom build or IXSYSTEMS FreeNAS mini?

[Chris Moore]

Will it take one of the ports for the HDDs though?

You can use the system board SATA ports for the boot drives. Data drives will all be connected to the SAS HBA.

 

[Fire-Dragon-DoL]

You can use the system board SATA ports for the boot drives. Data drives will all be connected to the SAS HBA.

Good point!

What cables do I need for this configuration? I probably have none that are usable with this server, I might have a bunch of sata cables laying somewhere in the closet, but that's all I have.
I have no idea how a SAS cable look, I only built desktop PCs in my life!

 

[Constantin]

...and I've had eight out of six "white label" drives that I bought from them [goharddrive] fail. They did replace them promptly, but that failure rate is far too high for me to do that again.

FWIW, I had one out of 9 drives fail. I noted the error in an email to them and I got a prompt prepaid return shipping label within 12 hours and a refund as they were out of replacement drives. No OEM warranty has ever been this easy to work with (WD, Seagate, etc.). No back and forth with tech support and a 2 week window while the RMA / Replacement process worked its way out.

Note: I'm relying on goharddrive to be a going concern in order for that warranty to be worth something. That may or may not be wise... I considered shucking drives for the NAS as well but wanted the higher speed of the HE10 series (7200 RPM) vs. the stuff inside the easystore enclosures that was allegedly 5400 RPM gear.

Goharddrive also seems to be cultivating alternative brands/labels on its web site or at Amazon such as "white label", "MaxDigitalData", "Vivetronic", "Worldwide Product Importer", etc. They all seem to be pointing to the same address in California. I wonder if this is an exercise in "burner" brands / labels.

 

[Chris Moore]

Good point!

What cables do I need for this configuration? I probably have none that are usable with this server, I might have a bunch of sata cables laying somewhere in the closet, but that's all I have.
I have no idea how a SAS cable look, I only built desktop PCs in my life!

The regular SATA port on the system board are just like any other SATA port. Nothing special.
The system is already wired with all the SAS cables you need, but they are connected to the hardware RAID controller. You just need to remove the hardware RAID controller and connect the SAS cables to the SAS HBA controller that I suggested.
Just a swap out of the controller cards.

 

[danb35]

FWIW, I had one out of 9 drives fail. I noted the error in an email to them and I got a prompt prepaid return shipping label within 12 hours

I'll agree that they were very prompt and easy to work with on warranty issues. They also did advance exchanges on my request, and without charging me anything (WD does advance exchanges, though they charge a nominal fee for the service). Although OEM warranty claims I've made in recent years have been nearly as prompt and responsive, albeit without prepaid return shipping.

So, yes, goharddrive was good to work with. Their product, not so much (edit: to reiterate, eight failures in six disks--that means every disk of the six I bought failed, and two of the replacements have also failed). No doubt I'm overgeneralizing to a degree, but I don't see me buying from them again.

 

[Fire-Dragon-DoL]

The RAM I suggested should be fine for either CPU because I suggested PC3L-12800R, which is supported by both processors and the system board. If you went with the marginally faster 1866 MHz memory, you would NEED the v2 CPU .

They are both "rated" for 130 watts, but the v1 CPU does draw more current and create more heat. I don't know exactly what the difference is, and it would depend on demand. My NAS sits idle most of the time and the heavy CPU load is when I am running a scrub on the array or copying a lot of data from one pool to another. Plex almost never goes over 10% on CPU utilization.

Hello Chris,
Due to a misunderstanding, I ended up with an E5-2650 V2 instead of a 2667 V1.

How worse the CPU is? Should I consider purchasing a pair of 2667 V2? Also, if I purchase them separately (I can't seem to find a pair), is it a problem?

EDIT: Oh, you did recommend the E5-2650 V2 too. Well my brain is completely fried, looks like! I'll stick to the 2650 v2.
I'm missing a power cable and the sas board.

I just discovered that servers are much more pleasant to build/reconfigure. They are how consumer PCs should have been, felt like a toy being able to move the pieces with little to unscrew!

 

[Chris Moore]

Due to a misunderstanding, I ended up with an E5-2650 V2 instead of a 2667 V1.

How worse the CPU is?

You say Xeon E5-2667 V1 vs Xeon E5-2650 V2... I would say the V2 is actually a better processor because it is newer. Then you ask,

Should I consider purchasing a pair of 2667 V2?

A Xeon E5-2667 V2 is a much faster, more expensive, processor than the other two that you mentioned.

I found it here for $208.66 each:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Xeon...or-Single-Max-4-0GHz-LGA2011-CPU/302845862529

Where the Xeon E5-2650 v2 is available here for $74.99 each:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/SR1A8-INTE...-CACHE-8-CORE-LGA-2011-PROCESSOR/183022002957

Where the Xeon E5-2667 V1 is available here for $88 each:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Pair-of-In...FCLGA2011-CPU-6-Cores-2-9-3-5GHz/123617259919

You must be very specific about those model numbers.

 

[Fire-Dragon-DoL]

You say Xeon E5-2667 V1 vs Xeon E5-2650 V2... I would say the V2 is actually a better processor because it is newer. Then you ask,

A Xeon E5-2667 V2 is a much faster, more expensive, processor than the other two that you mentioned.

I found it here for $208.66 each:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Xeon...or-Single-Max-4-0GHz-LGA2011-CPU/302845862529

Where the Xeon E5-2650 v2 is available here for $74.99 each:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/SR1A8-INTE...-CACHE-8-CORE-LGA-2011-PROCESSOR/183022002957

Where the Xeon E5-2667 V1 is available here for $88 each:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Pair-of-In...FCLGA2011-CPU-6-Cores-2-9-3-5GHz/123617259919

You must be very specific about those model numbers.

I am usually very specific, not sure how I kept misreading, sigh!
I guess it happens to everyone at some point.

I'll stick to the 2650 ;)

 

[Fire-Dragon-DoL]

You say Xeon E5-2667 V1 vs Xeon E5-2650 V2... I would say the V2 is actually a better processor because it is newer. Then you ask,

A Xeon E5-2667 V2 is a much faster, more expensive, processor than the other two that you mentioned.

I found it here for $208.66 each:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Xeon...or-Single-Max-4-0GHz-LGA2011-CPU/302845862529

Where the Xeon E5-2650 v2 is available here for $74.99 each:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/SR1A8-INTE...-CACHE-8-CORE-LGA-2011-PROCESSOR/183022002957

Where the Xeon E5-2667 V1 is available here for $88 each:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Pair-of-In...FCLGA2011-CPU-6-Cores-2-9-3-5GHz/123617259919

You must be very specific about those model numbers.

Sorry another question, I bought this cable for the HP H220 card you suggested: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0736MXQ3Q/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I assume I have to connect each SATA cable to one HDD (my hdds are common wd red).
How many of those cables do I need to cover all 24, do I need 6 of those cables?
And if yes, do I also need 3 of those cards?

 

[Chris Moore]

Sorry another question, I bought this cable for the HP H220 card you suggested: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0736MXQ3Q/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I assume I have to connect each SATA cable to one HDD (my hdds are common wd red).
How many of those cables do I need to cover all 24, do I need 6 of those cables?
And if yes, do I also need 3 of those cards?

Maybe, and most likely not, but it depends on exactly what hardware you ended up with. I know that there was some discussion, but I don't know exactly what you ended up getting. Can you give some feedback on what you have, possibly even some photos?

Something that might help you, depending on what you have, is these videos:

How to select SAS cables
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW419HwU7sg&t

Explaining the IBM SAS-2 expander and how to do 24xHDD setup with only 2-port SAS controller
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qccpopxc_Uo

 

[Chris Moore]

I went back through the thread and the last two server chassis we looked at had SAS expander modules integrated in the hot-swap backplane so you would not need a separate SAS expander card and you would not need the forward breakout cables.

 

[Fire-Dragon-DoL]

I went back through the thread and the last two server chassis we looked at had SAS expander modules integrated in the hot-swap backplane so you would not need a separate SAS expander card and you would not need the forward breakout cables.

Mh yes I kind of figured it out when I was trying to plug in the sata cables. There is no room for them, the HDD directly attach to the backplane.

I guess I need 2 of this cable (luckily, they were already in the case): https://www.lindy.co.uk/images/1m-internal-mini-sas-to-mini-sas-cable-p3761-1722_zoom.jpg

On the backplane there are 2 plugs for the SAS cables that are close. there is a third one far to the right though. I'm not sure what the purpose of that one is, but since the raid card was using only the 2 close ones, I assume this is still the configuration.

Thanks for the answer, I'm running memtest86 for 24 hours now, then it's time to test the cpu ;)

 

[Chris Moore]

On the backplane there are 2 plugs for the SAS cables that are close. there is a third one far to the right though. I'm not sure what the purpose of that one is, but since the raid card was using only the 2 close ones, I assume this is still the configuration.

The third one allows you to up-link from this backplane to another if you had a chassis with two backlanes, like this one:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Supermicro...-3-06hz-12-Cores-128gb-SAS2-Raid/292932846269

 

[Fire-Dragon-DoL]

The third one allows you to up-link from this backplane to another if you had a chassis with two backlanes, like this one:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Supermicro...-3-06hz-12-Cores-128gb-SAS2-Raid/292932846269

Oh, amazing all these things!

Those videos are great, everything clear now!!

Looks I'm all set, thanks a lot, I'll let you know how it goes in the next few days. If you don't hear back, the server exploded and brought down the whole house :p

 

[Chris Moore]

Looks I'm all set, thanks a lot, I'll let you know how it goes in the next few days. If you don't hear back, the server exploded and brought down the whole house :p

I can't recall if I shared this with you, but you might want to take a look at these resources:

Uncle Fester's Basic FreeNAS Configuration Guide
https://www.familybrown.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=fester:intro

Github repository for FreeNAS scripts, including disk burnin
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...for-freenas-scripts-including-disk-burnin.28/

 

[Fire-Dragon-DoL]

I can't recall if I shared this with you, but you might want to take a look at these resources:

Uncle Fester's Basic FreeNAS Configuration Guide
https://www.familybrown.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=fester:intro

Github repository for FreeNAS scripts, including disk burnin
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...for-freenas-scripts-including-disk-burnin.28/

Yep you did, I check them in your signature (I read various guides from there)

My only complaint is with `badblocks -b 4096 -wsv -o [bb data file] /dev/[device ID]`, which if used with `-c` is much faster and it's only dependent on your RAM (which I have in excess)

 

[Fire-Dragon-DoL]

Server is healthy and I'm much happier with this. IPMI was a great surprise and I've been learning a lot of new interesting things. Thanks!

 

[Chris Moore]

Server is healthy and I'm much happier with this. IPMI was a great surprise and I've been learning a lot of new interesting things. Thanks!

If you learn interesting things, you must share.

 

[Fire-Dragon-DoL]

If you learn interesting things, you must share.

Absolutely, but I assume most things I discovered are well known, I never used an enterprise software so even IPMI was amazing. I found incredibly interesting the fact that servers are much easier to build than consumer pcs