SOLVED Epyc CPU with Intel Optane 900P SLOG

[K_switch]

Hello All,

I am building a new FreeNAS to be connected to a couple ESXi hosts and am currently struggling with the SLOG... I could just order an SSD and see some performance increase... but with that i want to get the most performance as possible... I am going to be running 12-16 1.92TB 10K SAS drives and am building out the server now. I am a big fan of AMDs EPYC lineup but i am finding some mixed information online regarding the use of Intel Optane drives with an AMD EPYC cpus. I have no problem with using Intel i am just wondering if i can use EPYC.

Thanks again!

 

[Elliot Dierksen]

I can't comment on the AMC CPU part, but I have Optane SLOG devices in both my FreeNAS units. They are working great for me.

 

[HoneyBadger]

Ryzen has had some mixed results and IIRC a couple unusual bugs here. Intel boards do have more mature drivers and you're less likely to hit a novel bug that you have to wait for an upstream fix for. In other words, Intel is the devil you know, at least.

With regards to Optane, it's just an NVMe device, only the special Windows-oriented caching features are Intel-specific.

If this is going into a "business" environment, bite the bullet and get the P4800X 375GB or P4801X 200GB - the official wording on the 900p/905p is that it won't be warrantied in a "server" or "multiple system access" scenario. The P-series drives are; you pay for it, but think of it as insurance.

 

[Yorick]

If you search these forums, you’ll find that a few people have built with EPYC and really like it for all the PCIe lanes it has.
I’d expect Optane to work just as well in an EPYC board as an Intel board. What have you found online that gives you pause?

 

[K_switch]

If you search these forums, you’ll find that a few people have built with EPYC

I have used a couple EPYC builds but i have not used an Optane drive with that lineup. I was reading that Optane will work with all lineups, However now when going back i cannot find the article... and it is very likely that i jumped the gun by posting here but this server needs to get built ASAP. I ended up going with a AMD EPYC 7262 with 64GB of 3200Mhz ram... and yes i did order the Optane 900P.

Thanks for the answers!!!

 

[ehsab]

I have used a couple EPYC builds but i have not used an Optane drive with that lineup. I was reading that Optane will work with all lineups, However now when going back i cannot find the article... and it is very likely that i jumped the gun by posting here but this server needs to get built ASAP. I ended up going with a AMD EPYC 7262 with 64GB of 3200Mhz ram... and yes i did order the Optane 900P.

Thanks for the answers!!!

So, how does it perform, are you satisfied?

 

[ornias]

If you search these forums, you’ll find that a few people have built with EPYC and really like it for all the PCIe lanes it has.

If you search these forums you will also find many have issues with ryzen based systems.
Not saying one shouldn't do it, but it isn't as one-sided as you made it out to be, sadly enough :(

 

[Yorick]

If you search these forums you will also find many have issues with ryzen based systems.

Totally different beast than EPYC. The Ryzen issues are:
- Power savings shenanigans on Gen 1 and 2, can be disabled in UEFI
- ECC is not validated by AMD on Ryzen and as a result, ECC errors are not currently reported in IPMI

EPYC is a "proper" server platform, and from what I can see, it's been working great for people who are using it.

 

[ornias]

- Power savings shenanigans on Gen 1 and 2, can be disabled in UEFI

EPYC uses the same powersaving systems as Ryzen does (in the cores that is) and it shows quite clearly the lack of BSD support on ryzen and the utter crap powersaving support on BSD in general.

"there is a workaround" does not mean "this is a greatly supported and stable platform"

While i'm not saying "don't use EPYC or Ryzen" I am saying one should be completely informed BEFORE making the jump. So I respectfully disagree about your suggestion those issues are irrevant.

 

[Yorick]

EPYC uses the same powersaving systems as Ryzen does (in the cores that is)

And no-one using EPYC has reported any issues with the way UEFI addresses those power-saving systems. I'm going by evidence: Plenty of evidence Ryzen on TrueNAS has some issues, more so in gen 1 and 2 than 3; none so far that any EPYC builds have run into issues. Any issues.

Certainly there are far fewer EPYC builds than there are Xeon builds, absolutely true. I'm not going to taken Desktop Ryzen issues and assume that Server EPYC suffers from them as well, though. That wouldn't be evidence-based.

That said, I'll give it a rest. This is not a hill I need to die on.