First Build - FreeNAS for Small Office - Advice and Sanity Check

[StefanQuest]

Hi, I have been looking through the forums and documentation for a few days now and came up with a first build based on some of the advice I have read. I have a strict budget for my use case (see below) so some corners have been cut; but I tried to keep it to a minimum.

Budget:
£1000/$1200/€1150 (not including HDDs)

Use Case:

• Single office with 20 machines, mostly Windows 10 PCs with a few Macs.
  • All connected with a 24 Port Managed Gigabit Switch
• 5TB of existing Data, expecting to grow to 20TB this year
• Mostly users access Microsoft Office Documents, Images and Videos.
  • Some users work on 250GB Datasets which are CPU, RAM and READ/WRITE intensive. To prevent bottlenecks, this is copied onto local SSDs at the start of processing, and results are added to the NAS once complete.
• Expected to last 2 -3 years until arrays of SSDs and 10GBe networking are a financial option.

Requirements:

• Support at least 30TB
• At least 2 GBe LAN ports
• Takes advantage of ECC
• Rackmountable

Desirable:

• Support 100TB+
• 4 LAN Ports
• Redundant Power Supply
• Uninterruptible Power Supply (Currently none in Rack)

Build:
MotherBoard Supermicro MBD-X11SSH-LN4F-O £256.00 $312.32 € 294.40
CPU Intel Xeon E3-1240 v5 £264.00 $322.08 € 303.60
RAM Kingston Valueram DDR4 2133MHz 2x16GB ECC £158.00 $192.76 € 181.70
Case Logic Case 4U Standard Chassis £84.00 $102.48 € 96.60
Power Seasonic X850 850W 80+ Gold £165.00 $201.30 € 189.75


Total Cost: £927.00 $1,130.94 € 1,066.05

Prices may differ, I have provided amazon links as a reference
https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Motherbo...&sr=1-1&keywords=Supermicro+MBD-X11SSH-LN4F-O

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Computer...4325227&sr=1-1&keywords=Intel+Xeon+E3-1240+v5

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kingston-V...rds=Kingston+Valueram+DDR4+2133MHz+2x16GB+ECC

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Computer...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=RS2WJ4R5JA7EGFZB7DDA

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/lm8/Seas...qid=1484325349&sr=1-1&keywords=Seasonic+x-850

 

[Spearfoot]

Welcome to the forums!

Your build looks pretty good.

With 20 users you may want to install more RAM, but it would certainly be feasible and prudent to start out with 32GB and see how things go. You've wisely selected 2 x 16GB modules so you have the option of easily adding more RAM in the future.

Have you possibly underestimated your future storage requirements? You stated that you're currently using 5TB and anticipate that growing to 20TB this year - a four-fold increase. What if that trend continues next year? If it does, you'll run out of space very quickly with only 30TB. Not sure how you would obtain 100TB in the case you've chosen, which supports 10 3.5" HDD; a 10-disk RAIDZ2 array using 8TB disks would yield ~64TB of storage (less overhead, of course). Perhaps 64TB is enough to get you through the next 2-3 years. You would definitely need more RAM with a pool of that size. The problem is, your motherboard only has 8 SATA ports, so you'd need an HBA to run that many drives. Or you might consider using an X11SSL-CF instead, which provides a total of 14 SATA/SAS ports, albeit having only two gigabit LAN ports. But honestly, I don't think you'll gain much benefit from 4 LAN ports anyway. Something to consider.

Whichever motherboard you select, it's a good idea to purchase memory from the qualified vendor list, a link to which Supermicro maintains on the motherboard's web page.

FreeNAS is a great system. With a good system design it will give you many years of exemplary service.

Good luck!

 

[BigDave]

5TB of existing Data, expecting to grow to 20TB this year

Given your budget constraints, your proposed build will work for the immediate future. Here are some things to consider
in no particular order of importance:

• To maintain performance, pool should operate below 80% capacity, future expansion should be carefully considered
  
• Bargain priced enclosures are often lacking in power redundancy
• Bargain priced enclosures will often suffer from inadequate air flow, choose wisely to avoid cooking your hardware
  
• To avoid RAM issues, seek tested DIMMs from the manufacturer's "approved" list

 

[StefanQuest]

Thanks for the reply guys.

A HBA has definitely crossed my mind as an upgrade option. As did leaving 2 ram slots free as storage increases.

As a desirable I would like to support 100tb+ in this build, however given the budget, it will more likely be the 2nd build a year or 2 down the line. 64TB should be sufficient until that point. The case has the option to support a 15 drive configuration.

The X11SSL-CF seems like a good alternative. Though I think 2 lan ports will still become saturated at peak times. I'm also hoping smb multichannel will become a feature in the future (as far as I can tell it isn't yet).
Power and cooling are definitely a concern. I'm having trouble finding a suitable redundant PSU for a similar price.

As for the case, it is cheap but seems to be adequate, I plan to do some testing to see how it copes. If it fails, I'll look into higher quality cases and repurpose the cheap one. Hopefully it doesn't get the that stage though. Does anyone have any 4U recommendations?

Thanks for the heads up on Supermicro's approved manufacturers list for RAM. I'll definitely look into options from here.

 

[CraigD]

If your in the UK and you can afford this case and motherboard, maybe a build like this is right for you

see case link for PSU etc

X-Case RM424-EX Pro 24 Bay Hotswap Storage Server Case- Expander Backplane
X11SSL-CF
Intel Skylake Xeon E3-1240 v5 Quad Core Server CPU 3.5GHz
64GB RAM

My system is small, I dream of running something like this one day

Watch the video from X-case in the link

Have Fun

 

[snaptec]

Have a look at the T labeled boards. They have 10gbe onboard. Maybe an option?
A Single raidz2 will be too slow with 10gbe and the bottleneck.
You could start with one and add z2 vdevs for performance and capacity.
Rethink about your case. A supermicro sc846 is proven and suitable for your use if you want to expand. It has an expander backplane - so a single m1015 or onboard sas Controller will drive all 24 bays.


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[StefanQuest]

Thanks for the case suggestions, as much as I would like them, they are simply too expensive for my budget. £200.00 is pretty much the highest reasonable limit for a case. Generally speaking, I don't think there are any well known reputable 4u cases at this price point, but I would be happy to see any more suggestions.

 

[snaptec]

No, not really.
But its a simple math what is cheaper for future upgrades
If you go with a cheap case, you need MoBo with many Sata + HBA(s). F.e. a LSI 16i card to support 24 bays or 2x m1015 to support 16 bays + 8 onboard ports.
If you need it new, these HBA cards are mostly around 400+. M1015 around 100-150 each used.
If you go with a "better" case that has an expander backplane, you need a single HBA port to drive 24 bays and can use the other port from a m1015 f.e. for another case as JBOD for another 24u chassis.

Depending on your requirements, using expander backplanes is nearly a must to go to 100TB+ space...

 

[StefanQuest]

Do you have any suggestions that fit my budget? Anything I've considered with an expander backplane goes well above my budget.

I understand it is more cost effective, efficient etc but I don't see a build benefiting from these until well beyond £1000. My build only needs the requirements I listed, anything else is a bonus, some I have listed as desirable but aren't necessary for this build.

By the time I am reaching 8 - 12 drives of required storage, I will have the budget to build a 2nd FreeNAS system more suited to go beyond 100TB.

 

[snaptec]

If you are happy with 8-12 drives there are some options.
Have a look at Ebay etc after 2 or 3 HE 12bay/16bay chassis. They are often really cheap. Mostly the PSUs are included, is that an option?
Go with a board with 8-10 Sata Ports + a single M1015 to support the rest 8 bays.

If it has to be new, I'm out. Everyone I know trying the cheap 19" Cases had problems with either the backplane, Power or airflow/cooling.
Nothing I can suggest and sleep good.

 

[StefanQuest]

Thanks for your help, I'll see what I can find.