BUILD First FreeNAS Build

[DaneJa]

Firstly, thanks for all the great info you all provide. I've spent the last couple months in my limited free time gradually combing through the manual, hardware guide sticky, and the forums. Good stuff. I'll try to keep this short.

This will be my first FreeNAS build. Currently I have a Drobo with 5x6TB WD Red HDDs in it. It became clear some time ago that I needed to step up to the next level, but I've just been buying larger HDDs until I could devote some time to researching all this stuff.

Existing Hardware

• Juniper EX2200-24T-4G switch
• Server Technology CW-8H1 switching power distribution unit with expansion unit
• IOGear CGL1808 LCD combo KVM
• All required storage HDD’s

Requirements

• Storage server for media. Will be encoding media to stream to remote locations. I anticipate no more than 2-3 streams at any one time. Must be able to do this while extracting/compressing and error checking files.
• Battery backup solution commensurate with hardware power draw.
• Cabinet to house hardware.
• All hardware should be a silent as possible.

Proposed Solution

• FreeNAS array: Initially 6x2TB HDDs in a RAIDZ2 VDev to familiarize myself with the software. To be expanded to 4 Z2 VDevs of 6 drives before moving my data over, allowing future expansion by upgrading the smallest vdev.
• Chassis: SuperMicro SC846E16-R1200B 24 Bay 4U Chassis 2x 1200Watt PSU
• MB: SuperMicro X9SRH-7F-O
• CPU: Intel Xeon E5-1620v2
• RAM: Crucial 32GB (2 x 16 GB) ECC Registered DDR3 1600 Model CT2K16G3ERSLD4160B

Concerns
Obviously the build is pretty much straight out of the hardware recommendations sticky. The reason I'm bugging you all about this is two-fold.

• The first concern I have is that I'm neglecting the newest generation of hardware. Is there any feature that I'll find myself wishing I had in a year or two if I stick with the X9 that I would have had with an X10? Any reason I should upgrade the CPU?
• The second reason I'm here is that I'd like to solicit your opinions on server cabinets and battery backups. I'm looking for a cabinet in the ballpark of 24U, ideally with a glass/plexi front, lockable, presentable as it will be in my house, and as silent as possible. The options I've been able to find have been staggeringly expensive. Lastly, if you have any recommendations for a battery backup that will allow my hardware time to safely shut down, I'd greatly appreciate reading them.

Thanks again for your help! Looks like I've failed in keeping it short...

 

[Darren Myers]

If you want quiet that supermicro 24 bay is not...unless you plan to put sound deadening material in the server rack and soundproof it. I use a UPS SUA1500 for my FreeNAS server, which is pretty much identical to yours other then my CPU's are much more power hungry.

EDIT: Thats the same seller i got mine from, theyre some good guys there. If you need hdd screws check out tm_space on ebay, they have almost EVERYTHING supermicro and i've done 15+ transactions with them so far on various supermicro parts i have needed for my 2 servers.

http://www.ebay.com/usr/tm_space?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2754

 

[Bidule0hm]

I think there is a problem with a 24 bays 4U chassis and your silence requirement: the minimum cooling needed for the drives will generate more noise than you want in a room of your house if you are in this room. For example look at this thread to see why ;)

 

[DaneJa]

If you want quiet that supermicro 24 bay is not...unless you plan to put sound deadening material in the server rack and soundproof it. I use a UPS SUA1500 for my FreeNAS server, which is pretty much identical to yours other then my CPU's are much more power hungry.

EDIT: Thats the same seller i got mine from, theyre some good guys there. If you need hdd screws check out tm_space on ebay, they have almost EVERYTHING supermicro and i've done 15+ transactions with them so far on various supermicro parts i have needed for my 2 servers.

http://www.ebay.com/usr/tm_space?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2754

Indeed sound-deadening foam was in the plan. I'll check out that seller when it comes time for all the accessories I'm bound to forget to buy.

I think there is a problem with a 24 bays 4U chassis and your silence requirement: the minimum cooling needed for the drives will generate more noise than you want in a room of your house if you are in this room. For example look at this thread to see why ;)

Haha, luckily I have AC and some home automation so I can monitor temperatures while away. I think noise is going to be an evil I'll just have to bear and mitigate where possible. I'm not going to give the server the kegerator treatment and put it in the garage, after all!

 

[marbus90]

Also think about air redirection. The airflow required is quite hefty, a rack with a glass/plexi front isn't gonna cut it usually.

I'd rather pick the X10 generation with an LSI 9207-4i4e HBA and start with 4x16GB DDR4 DIMMs since that platform is using a Quadchannel memory interface. You might want to opt in for a E5-1650 v3 as well.

 

[diedrichg]

Is it seriously 1200W x 2? Even a single 1200W sounds like it's overkill.

 

[DaneJa]

Is it seriously 1200W x 2? Even a single 1200W sounds like it's overkill.

I agree, but I'm not finding one with smaller PSUs for less money.

 

[Darren Myers]

The only ones i've found is with dual 900 watt psu's

 

[DaneJa]

Does anyone have any experience with noise reducing cabinets? Cabinets like this seem great in theory.

 

[SweetAndLow]

Might want to look into the price difference between ddr3 and ddr4 memory since ddr3 is slowing down production and might become more expensive that ddr4. I have that same case and was going to build out a x10 but now you have me thinking to make a x9 build. Also you can look into the supermicro 'SQ' power supplies that might be more quiet.

 

[DaneJa]

Might want to look into the price difference between ddr3 and ddr4 memory since ddr3 is slowing down production and might become more expensive that ddr4. I have that same case and was going to build out a x10 but now you have me thinking to make a x9 build. Also you can look into the supermicro 'SQ' power supplies that might be more quiet.

May I ask why you're now considering x9 over x10?

 

[DaneJa]

Also think about air redirection. The airflow required is quite hefty, a rack with a glass/plexi front isn't gonna cut it usually.

I'd rather pick the X10 generation with an LSI 9207-4i4e HBA and start with 4x16GB DDR4 DIMMs since that platform is using a Quadchannel memory interface. You might want to opt in for a E5-1650 v3 as well.

Isn't that a bit overkill? I thought I was already overbuilding it. Of course now you've got me wanting the beefier hardware :)

 

[marbus90]

You can calculate with one plex transcoding session per E5-1620/1650 v3 core. That wouldn't leave much processing power for background-tasks -> I'd go for the 6core in your case.

And more RAM is always better since ZFS is to RAM what Pacman is to dots... *nom nom nom*, especially with Plex and background tasks.

Is it seriously 1200W x 2? Even a single 1200W sounds like it's overkill.

48A @ 12V for 24 HDDs during spinup, + 20A for CPU/Mainboard/RAM/HBA = ~70A on 12V == 840W. That's peak draw which the PSU has to deliver at some point. Redundant PSUs are not combined, only one of the two PSUs counts. Therefore the 1200W PSU is acceptably sized, whereas the 900W is already pretty close to the limit for that short period.

 

[SweetAndLow]

May I ask why you're now considering x9 over x10?

So I priced out each build x9 vs x10 and they are about the same when it comes to CPU and motherboard, the x10 was actually cheaper. But the difficulties come when looking for memory. the ddr3 stuff is cheaper right now but might be going away soon and the ddr4 stuff is still priced much higher but will still be around when I go to add more in the future. Also the x9 board I'm looking at has sas2 which will match the backplane of the 846E16 much nicer and I wouldn't have to get a HBA card. where as the x10 board only comes with sas3 which i have heard has issues when interfacing with a sas2 backplane and would require a sas2 hba card(the price for both situations is about equal). When it comes to power draw the x9 will be a little more but nothing noticeable since the hdd will be the highest consumers of power. So overall the x9 system is about $362 cheaper unless someone can find this memory for much cheaper. Tracking down memory part numbers is something i have gotten good at or figured out how do it effectively.

http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/x10srh-cf/CT6228650

 

[marbus90]

Samsung M393A2G40DB0-CPB is listed for X10SRi-F and X10SRL-F. If you are going to use an old chassis with 6Gbps expander, don't get the SAS 12Gbps chipsets.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147382 196$ per 16GB on newegg.

 

[SeaPlusPlus]

I'm also researching my first server build for FreeNAS and I've been reading as much as I can find. I'm wondering how you plan to interact with your server. I see your choice of Supermicro board has built-in graphics and remote management. I have also been looking at using an Intel server board, S1200V3RPL with a Xeon E3-1265L V3 processor. It also has graphics and remote management, is power-efficient, has Intel dual GB LAN, six SATA 6GB/sec ports, and good bang for the buck. I'm planning on 16GB Crucial ECC RAM to start, can be increased to 32GB, 2 x 4TB WD Red drives to start. What do you guys thing of this Intel motherboard and cpu combo? When I'm done, I'll post full details of everything.

 

[DaneJa]

I'm also researching my first server build for FreeNAS and I've been reading as much as I can find. I'm wondering how you plan to interact with your server. I see your choice of Supermicro board has built-in graphics and remote management. I have also been looking at using an Intel server board, S1200V3RPL with a Xeon E3-1265L V3 processor. It also has graphics and remote management, is power-efficient, has Intel dual GB LAN, six SATA 6GB/sec ports, and good bang for the buck. I'm planning on 16GB Crucial ECC RAM to start, can be increased to 32GB, 2 x 4TB WD Red drives to start. What do you guys thing of this Intel motherboard and cpu combo? When I'm done, I'll post full details of everything.

I plan to use my IOGear KVM primarily in addition to the web interface to manage the server.

 

[SeaPlusPlus]

What do you think about me using an Intel S1200V3RPL server board with a Xeon E3-1265L V3 processor?

 

[Fraoch]

I'm also researching my first server build for FreeNAS and I've been reading as much as I can find. I'm wondering how you plan to interact with your server. I see your choice of Supermicro board has built-in graphics and remote management. I have also been looking at using an Intel server board, S1200V3RPL with a Xeon E3-1265L V3 processor. It also has graphics and remote management, is power-efficient, has Intel dual GB LAN, six SATA 6GB/sec ports, and good bang for the buck. I'm planning on 16GB Crucial ECC RAM to start, can be increased to 32GB, 2 x 4TB WD Red drives to start. What do you guys thing of this Intel motherboard and cpu combo? When I'm done, I'll post full details of everything.

The main problem with the Intel boards is the lack of support on this forum. If you use one in FreeNAS, you're more or less on your own. Very few people here use one with FreeNAS.

 

[DaneJa]

Ended up going with the following:

• Supermicro SC846E16-R1200B 24 Bay 4U Chassis 2x 1200Watt PSU
• Supermicro X10SRI-F
• Xeon E5-1650 v3
• 4 x SAMSUNG 16GB 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM ECC Registered DDR4 2133 M393A2G40DB0-CPB
• LSI LSI00303 (9207-4i4e)
• Supermicro 4U Active CPU Heatsink SNK-P0050AP4
• Supermicro SSD-DM032-PHI SATA DOM
  
• APC Smart-UPS RM SMT1500RM2U 1000W/1440VA 2U Rackmount LCD UPS

This should at least get me started and I can play with it from there. I'm going to continue looking into cabinets, but will probably end up with some kind of passive or active noise attenuating cabinet. Thanks for the help, fellas!