First FreeNAS build sanity check.

[BikeMadBob]

Hi guys,

Could you please sanity check this FreeNAS build for me. I am thinking of creating a single RaidZ2 pool.

Hardware :-
1 x Intel Xeon E3 1240 v6 CPU.
6 x Noctua NF-A14 PWM fans.
2 x StarTech Molex to to Dual SATA Power Adapter Splitter.
1 x Corsair 550 W RM550x PSU.
2 x Cruzer Fit 32 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive.
1 x Rankie VGA to VGA Cable, 1.8 m.
2 x Samsung 32GB 16GB Dual Channel Kit 2 x 288 Pin DDR4 2133 ECC UDIMM 1.2 V.
1 x APC Back-UPS BX UPS.
1 x Fractal Design Define R5 Black ATX Midtower Silent PC Computer Case.
1 x 5 Pack 18 Inch SATA III 6.0 Gbps Cable.
1 x Supermicro Micro ATX DDR4 LGA 1151 Motherboards X11SSM-F-O.
8 x WD Red 4 TB NAS Hard Drive.

Are there any caveats when using the Mobo GPU?
How can I tell which flash drive is which during the install?

Many thanks in advance.

Kind regards,
Rob.

 

[Inxsible]

Are there any caveats when using the Mobo GPU?

Nope. You don't need the VGA cable if you use IPMI.

How can I tell which flash drive is which during the install?

If you are using a mirrored boot, then does it matter which is which? Just make sure you select USB drives and not one of your storage drives during installation. Better yet, connect the storage drives after the fact.

Everything else looks good hardware wise. What are you going to use this for?

 

[BikeMadBob]

Nope. You don't need the VGA cable if you use IPMI.

If you are using a mirrored boot, then does it matter which is which? Just make sure you select USB drives and not one of your storage drives during installation. Better yet, connect the storage drives after the fact.

Everything else looks good hardware wise. What are you going to use this for?

It's a home NAS. I'm a hobby photographer so I'll use it to store large amounts of RAW and jpg files. I'll also use it to store documents, music and video. I just want LAN access to store this data and be able to stream photos, music and video around the house. I was thinking of using Samba to do the streaming.

 

[Inxsible]

It's a home NAS. I'm a hobby photographer so I'll use it to store large amounts of RAW and jpg files. I'll also use it to store documents, music and video. I just want LAN access to store this data and be able to stream photos, music and video around the house. I was thinking of using Samba to do the streaming.

Then your hardware should work great for your use case. For streaming I would advise you to look into Plex or Emby plugins.

 

[Chris Moore]

1 x Rankie VGA to VGA Cable, 1.8 m.

What is this for? You don't need a monitor, keyboard or mouse when you use a Supermicro X11SSM-F systemboard.

 

[Chris Moore]

Are there any caveats when using the Mobo GPU?

This systemboard has built in IPMI (IP Management Interface) that allows you to remotely control it through the network from a virtual console on your computer. There is no reason to connect a monitor, keyboard, mouse or CD drive to the system as you can remotely connect virtual devices for each of these from your PC and remotely mount an ISO file to boot from as if it were a locally connected CD attached to the server.

How can I tell which flash drive is which during the install?

FreeNAS uses both of them at once. It is setup as a software mirror using the ZFS filesystem.