BUILD First FreeNAS build -- Build instead of buying a QNAP box

[Stux]

Inside the server I'm currently building/commissioning. Its phenomenally quiet.

You can see the two 'loose' minisas cables waiting on another HBA to access the last 8 bays of 24.

And I still have the two orange sata ports on the motherboard for two SSDs, if I wanted to add them to the SSD tray.

 

[Mirfster]

Yeah, I do love my C2100/FS12-TY Servers. Somewhere I did post power consumption screenshots, just can't find it right now and my whole setup is all over the place right now so I can't provide updated ones.

*** Side Story:
Got myself in a pickle right now, since I am going to use 2 or 3 of them as JBODs... However, at least one of them may be also my MS Hyper-V Server (just the OS loaded on some mirrored 128 GB mSATAs, then 10GB iSCSI connection to FreeNAS for VMs).

Now, the concern is if FreeNAS will complain if/when I reboot/shutdown the Hyper-V Server... Of course the Pool will be only composed of drives that are actually in the Hyper-V Server, but may have to rethink it a bit.

Might just break out the C1100 that has been sitting in a corner and see about using that, if I can make it as quite as its 2u counterpart... Then there are the 2 x 24 Bay x 2.5" units to mull over as well...

Ahh too many Servers and Drives; first world problems... ;)

 

[Spearfoot]

Inside the server I'm currently building/commissioning. Its phenomenally quiet.

View attachment 13779

You can see the two 'loose' minisas cables waiting on another HBA to access the last 8 bays of 24.

And I still have the two orange sata ports on the motherboard for two SSDs, if I wanted to add them to the SSD tray.

Is this machine built on a Norco chassis?

 

[Stux]

Is this machine built on a Norco chassis?

Yes, RPC-4224

See: Build Report Thread

Edit: stoopid upside down forum software doesn't understand jpg orientation info

 

[Ericloewe]

XenForo is not prepared to deal with pictures from down under. It requires a plugin to ensure that australian jpegs aren't upside-down.

 

[audiophile20]

Wow! Just had an interesting conversation with Supermicro tech support. The person on the phone mentioned that he would not know what BIOS will be on the board I will be getting from Newegg. And that I will need a v3 processor to update the BIOS. And went on to education me that it will only take them 15mins update the BIOS once they have the board!!!!

Glad I am not a complete idiot That much even a person like me knows He proceeded to tell me that there is no way they can predict when the Mobo will be shipped back to me!!! Wow! Now that is customer service. Buy the board, pay to ship it back to them for the BIOS update and then wait and hope Supermicro ships the board back to me at a time of their choosing!!! (Sorry for sarcasm) I am now getting cold feet buying a product from Supermicro. Maybe I am not their target customer, since I am not a corporation

But this is really putting a damper on things! I am used to EVGA customer service which is excellent.

Any other brand of server boards you folks would recommend? Maybe ASRock or others?

 

[Ericloewe]

That's so silly, it would literally cost them less (as in nothing) to give you an unlock code for the IPMI BIOS flashing tool. Instead, they're wasting valuable human time flashing a BIOS...

Maybe ASRock or others?

They were doing so well, but ruined it with a stupid BMC bug that bricks boards after a month or two. Bah...

 

[Stux]

Wow! Just had an interesting conversation with Supermicro tech support. The person on the phone mentioned that he would not know what BIOS will be on the board I will be getting from Newegg. And that I will need a v3 processor to update the BIOS. And went on to education me that it will only take them 15mins update the BIOS once they have the board!!!!

Glad I am not a complete idiot That much even a person like me knows He proceeded to tell me that there is no way they can predict when the Mobo will be shipped back to me!!! Wow! Now that is customer service. Buy the board, pay to ship it back to them for the BIOS update and then wait and hope Supermicro ships the board back to me at a time of their choosing!!! (Sorry for sarcasm) I am now getting cold feet buying a product from Supermicro. Maybe I am not their target customer, since I am not a corporation :)

But this is really putting a damper on things! I am used to EVGA customer service which is excellent.

Any other brand of server boards you folks would recommend? Maybe ASRock or others?

FWIW, my board from newegg came with 2.0 firmware

 

[audiophile20]

FWIW, my board from newegg came with 2.0 firmware

That makes me feel very good! I will order from Newegg. If you already have 2.0, then it would be logical to assume the batch of boards they have are the newer model. Then again .... lol ... I will call RMA tomorrow or Monday and see what they have to say about it. Maybe I just caught a guy in tech support on a bad day

 

[Ericloewe]

2.0 has been shipping in retail boards for something like two years by now. The chances of getting 1.0 are minimal.

 

[audiophile20]

2.0 has been shipping in retail boards for something like two years by now. The chances of getting 1.0 are minimal.

Thanks!

 

[Stux]

Been meaning to do a build report. Since the box is very close to going into production I should get around to it ;)

Got around to it:

Build Report: Norco RPC-4224, SuperMicro X10-SRi-F, Xeon E5-1650v4

 

[audiophile20]

Got around to it:

Build Report: Norco RPC-4224, SuperMicro X10-SRi-F, Xeon E5-1650v4

Thanks a bunch for the link! Looks like a twin build of yours on the way now. Ordered the following this morning:
1 x LSI 9305-24i x8 lane, PCIe 3.0 Full Height SAS SAS 9305 12 Gb/s SAS Host Bus Adapter
1 x SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SRI-F Server Motherboard LGA 2011 R3
1 x Noctua NH-U9DXi4 90mm SSO2 CPU Cooler
4 x SAMSUNG 32GB 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM Registered DDR4 2400 (PC4 19200) Memory (Server Memory) Model M393A4K40BB1-CRC

I am looking for cable and found this on eBay as Amazon does not list a lot of these!

6x - NORCO C-SFF8087-8643 0.6m Mini-SAS (SFF-8087) to Mini-SAS HD (SFF-8643) Cable Item#: 3063449 Manufacturer: Norco Model Number: C-SFF8087-8643

Am I on the right track for the cables? Listed for about $30 per cable. Looks a bit expensive but confirming I am on the right track.

EDIT: Found the part listed on Newegg and ordering 6x units. Reasonable pricing. Still need confirmation if possible please. Thanks!

 

[sremick]

They were doing so well, but ruined it with a stupid BMC bug that bricks boards after a month or two. Bah...

Only the Avoton-based boards, though... right? From what I've been able to determine.

 

[Ericloewe]

Only the Avoton-based boards, though... right? From what I've been able to determine.

Yeah, but it doesn't bode well for their firmware guys.

The fact that their latest firmware for my X99-WS doesn't manage to boot Windows 10 with any combination of options, requiring a downgrade to an ancient version, is another indicator of their shoddy work (even if it's partly due to AMI's BIOS' inherent crappiness).

 

[Stux]

Thanks a bunch for the link! Looks like a twin build of yours on the way now. Ordered the following this morning:
1 x LSI 9305-24i x8 lane, PCIe 3.0 Full Height SAS SAS 9305 12 Gb/s SAS Host Bus Adapter
1 x SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SRI-F Server Motherboard LGA 2011 R3
1 x Noctua NH-U9DXi4 90mm SSO2 CPU Cooler
4 x SAMSUNG 32GB 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM Registered DDR4 2400 (PC4 19200) Memory (Server Memory) Model M393A4K40BB1-CRC

I am looking for cable and found this on eBay as Amazon does not list a lot of these!

6x - NORCO C-SFF8087-8643 0.6m Mini-SAS (SFF-8087) to Mini-SAS HD (SFF-8643) Cable Item#: 3063449 Manufacturer: Norco Model Number: C-SFF8087-8643

Am I on the right track for the cables? Listed for about $30 per cable. Looks a bit expensive but confirming I am on the right track.

EDIT: Found the part listed on Newegg and ordering 6x units. Reasonable pricing. Still need confirmation if possible please. Thanks!

There is no sas expander in a Norco.

To connect the 8 motherboard ports to 2 of the backplanes you need 2x 4x Sata to SF 8087 reverse breakout cables.

Then you need two of the cables you ordered.

And then you need another HBA or another sas expander.

Sorry for the late reply :(

 

[audiophile20]

Thank you to all who assisted me in getting my server up and running. The unit is functioning and I am in the process of creating my first vdev or volume with 8x4TB drives.

I will eventually fill the unit with 16x additional drives at the same density. Not sure if I want to go up to 6TB. Rebuild times will be getting way up there, as it is long as is.

Any recommendations on best practice on RAID levels you can recommend? I am debating between RAID-Z2 or Mirror. From what I have read so far it looks like Mirror would be the best performance option.

Please share what your thoughts might be. Thanks again everyone!

 

[Ericloewe]

Any recommendations on best practice on RAID levels you can recommend?

We don't call them RAID levels around here, just pool layouts. ;)

From what I have read so far it looks like Mirror would be the best performance option.

RAIDZ2 is safer and (generally) more space-efficient, but mirrors are going to be faster.

 

[Spearfoot]

Any recommendations on best practice on RAID levels you can recommend? I am debating between RAID-Z2 or Mirror. From what I have read so far it looks like Mirror would be the best performance option.

I also recommend RAID-Z2 for your use-case.

Mirrors do indeed have better performance, but as a practical matter I doubt you'd notice a difference. The disadvantage of mirrors is their poor storage efficiency (50%). Your 8 drives in a RAID-Z2 array, yielding 75% storage efficiency, will give you much more available capacity.