First FreeNAS Build - Advice please

[Lingormr]

Hey folks. And thank in advance for what I am sure will be great advice.

I come from a tech background and have run a Windows Domain at home since NT4.0, and converted to what became the essentials line over the years.

Usually I have had a plethora od little servers that do the job hanging about the house at various times. But as I have moved into more consulting roles in my work the need for all the different equipment has slowly gone away, but I do have a lot of pictures, music and other personal stuff my wife and I store.

I started with the HP MediaSmart 510 (?) and then upgraded that to run Home Server 2010. I then migrated to a HP N40L and Server Essentials 2012, the upgraded again to HP N54L and Server Essentials 2012 R2. (With a Pair of N40L's) running VM ware for the rest of my needs).

Recently I was about to upgrade again to Server Essentials 2016 but all the features that I used are no longer supported or only available in the full server. This forced me to start looking for other options. As a result I recently replaced all of my home network with Ubiquiti gear including a USG that now handlesa number of the features that Windows Homeserver/Essentials handled.

This means that it is now time tostart looking at the replacement of the old server (the N54L is pretty long in the tooth). I have just upgraded my wife's PC and have a spare motherboard (not a server board), Ram, casse and other components and would like to build a FreeNAS to take over the serving of teh files so that I can 'shrink' the Windows server and move it to a virtual server on the FreeNAS for domain control, office365 management, and Windows patching for the other windows devices in the house (a couple of PC's, 2 surface tablets and two laptops).

So what I have is the following:

Gigabyte GA-H170 Gaming 3 Motherboard
6th generation i5 quag core CPU (Water cooled cos I live in Brisbane, Australia and theambient temp is hot)
32GB or Ram
2x 120 GB WD Green SSD M.2 drives

I will also be purchasing some WD Red HDD's for the primary storage, just not sure of the exact needs. The current Windows server has 4x WD Red 4GB in a raid 10 and is about 80% full. I have 6 SATA ports available on the motherboard to get the large storage onto.

I was not sure if a should grab a couple of small USB 3.0 drives for the install and use the SSD's for read/write caching, or just install FreeNAS to the SSD's.

Primary use is as a Fileserver and backup location. It will also then back up core informatio to the cloud (taking this off the Windows server as it si now 'flakey' with Azure backups and Server 2012 R2). Will also need to run the Windows server as a VM.

What advice do you have for me please.

 

[Greg_E]

Use both ssd for the operating system, the installer will set it to mirror. Set up the 4+ drives in a RaidZ array and forget mirroring the data storage. Unless you are running 10gbe the array will be plenty fast for gigabit connections.

If heat is really a big concern, then you should cool the drives too. HGST are still recommended, but I've also had good luck with the RED drives in another Freenas.

The VM hypervisor functions can still be a little bit of a problem. You need to run at least 2016, all my attempts at 2012r2 were not stable. Also need to run Freenas 11.2-u6 or higher, again I had a lot of stability issues. Make sure you have the virtio iso in your iso storage before starting, you'll need at least the network drivers. Set the VM up to use the virtio right from the start. AHCI storage emulation seems to work, but slow!

 

[John Doe]

i personally prefer one ssd as boot medium. I do not see a point to mirror the SSD. in case you want to go with usb key, i recommend to mirror the usb drive.

I assume you are aware, that you are going to use hardware which might not be 100% suitable for freenas. I have no idea if this killer gaming LAN card you have on your motherboard is supported.

freenas has some data integrity features which are running most efficient with ECC ram, i doubt that the i5/ board will support this.

depending on the needs you might want to consider your setup. I always use ecc ram and a suitable CPU, because my data is important to me.

you will not gain any benefit in using fast interfaces for the boot medium. freenas shall run 24/7. during bootup freenas will get loaded into the ram. In my opinion m.2 can be good to safe sata ports but would be a waste of money if you think you can boost your system.

do not go with hardware raids in freenas, freenas needs to have direct access to the drives. preferred method is to use raid z2 (or higher)

be careful with ssds for read/write cache! search for ZIL/SLOG! read through this topic!
in my opinion the wd greens are not suitable.

WD reds are great i love them, they are not getting too hot and keep quiet. monitor disc temperatures! it shall not exceed 45 degrees Celsius.

consider raid z2 and leave 20% free in order to maintain freenas performance. there are online raid calculators available. maybe consult them first before buying the drives. you might notice that the ratio is getting better the more hdds you have. recommended size is 6 or 8 discs for raid Z2

 

[pschatz100]

I agree with watching temps on the drives. Many people overlook this. HGST drives run 4 to 5 degrees hotter than WD Red's. For the use case you described, you will not see a performance difference between 7200 rpm drives and 5400 rpm drives - so go with slower drives as they run cooler. Also, for this same use case you will not benefit from setting up separate SSD for read/write cache - so don't bother. Memory is the key when it comes to performance and 32Gb should be enough.

I also agree that there is little need to mirror the boot device when using an SSD, but there is no harm in doing so if it makes you feel more secure. Regardless, be certain to back up your FreeNAS configuration on a regular basis. In a worst case scenario, you will be able to do a fresh install and recover your configuration.

 

[Lingormr]

Thanks for the feedback folks.

I have gone with the mirrored M.2 SSD (they only cost me $AU55 for the pair). Will be getting the Drives soon, but am doing some testing of the system using a pile of 1TB drives I have lying about so I can learn FreeNAS.

I know this is not general NAS hardwar, but at the moment that is ok with me. If this works out the way I want then I will migrate to a more solid NAS style hardware build with ECC and all the other goodies. It is just that that hardware can be really expensive down here. (As an example, it is chearper to by the IX Systems units, ship them to Australia, pay the import tax etc thean it is to buy it fromthe local supplier).

I am actually going to be up in the US in July/August and am thinking of doing a buying spree for the gear I want and then taking it home with me in my luggage. :)

L.