I’ve had a qnap TS659 for many years, unfortunately software support is at an end. With the backplane starting to fail I’m now looking at FreeNAS as a way to have a bit more freedom both in hardware and software. I’ve done some research and come up with the following hardware list:
Chassis: Fractal Designe Node 804
Mainboard: Asrock E3C236D4U or Supermicro X11SSH-F-O (both are very similar in features, likely to go with whichever is cheaper unless there is a compelling reason to go with a specific one)
CPU: Intel Xeon E3 1220 V5 or V6 (depending on availability/price)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Macho 120 (Surplus)
RAM: Kingston 16GB ECC DDR4
Power Supply: Corsair RM650x (surplus)
Disks: 5x6Tb drives (WD red/hitachi, depending on what's available)
Boot device: 16-32Gb nvme ssd
Fans: 5x Nanoxia 120mm Deep Silence PWM + 1x Nanoxia 140mm Deep Silence PWM
Misc: 2x Silverstone SST-CP06-E4 To simplify sata power cabling
The power supply and cpu cooler are overkill, however I have them as spare parts anyway. Initially, the machine will do nothing but run a transmission jail and provide network shares. My media players read the files directly from the shares, no plex needed. Im also planning on using a usb stick to backup my configuration files onto in case of boot device failure. Whilst I’m using sata power splitters, no more than 4 drives will draw power using a single lead from the power supply. The fans will all be hooked up to pwm headers, with the ones for the harddrives set to a slightly higher manual setting.
Upgrade path:
Initially, the 5 disks will be configured in a single raidz2 vdev giving me 18Tib effective. This will be enough for a good while but I expect I’ll need to expand within its lifetime. I have 4 options
1: Replace the 6Tb disks with larger ones one at a time, remain at a single raidz2 vdev.
2: Wipe existing vdev/pool, add 3 more drives of equal or larger size, and create a single raidz3 vdev. Restore from backup
3: Add 5x8Tb or larger disks in a new raidz3 vdev. Add this vdev to the existing pool.
4: Same as above, but instead of existing pool, create a new one, migrate data, then re-initialize original vdev as raidz3. End result is 2 raidz3 vdevs in one pool.
These last 2 options would also require 2 additional sata ports on an add-in card.
What are your comments on my hardware list, and which upgrade path would you favour?
Chassis: Fractal Designe Node 804
Mainboard: Asrock E3C236D4U or Supermicro X11SSH-F-O (both are very similar in features, likely to go with whichever is cheaper unless there is a compelling reason to go with a specific one)
CPU: Intel Xeon E3 1220 V5 or V6 (depending on availability/price)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Macho 120 (Surplus)
RAM: Kingston 16GB ECC DDR4
Power Supply: Corsair RM650x (surplus)
Disks: 5x6Tb drives (WD red/hitachi, depending on what's available)
Boot device: 16-32Gb nvme ssd
Fans: 5x Nanoxia 120mm Deep Silence PWM + 1x Nanoxia 140mm Deep Silence PWM
Misc: 2x Silverstone SST-CP06-E4 To simplify sata power cabling
The power supply and cpu cooler are overkill, however I have them as spare parts anyway. Initially, the machine will do nothing but run a transmission jail and provide network shares. My media players read the files directly from the shares, no plex needed. Im also planning on using a usb stick to backup my configuration files onto in case of boot device failure. Whilst I’m using sata power splitters, no more than 4 drives will draw power using a single lead from the power supply. The fans will all be hooked up to pwm headers, with the ones for the harddrives set to a slightly higher manual setting.
Upgrade path:
Initially, the 5 disks will be configured in a single raidz2 vdev giving me 18Tib effective. This will be enough for a good while but I expect I’ll need to expand within its lifetime. I have 4 options
1: Replace the 6Tb disks with larger ones one at a time, remain at a single raidz2 vdev.
2: Wipe existing vdev/pool, add 3 more drives of equal or larger size, and create a single raidz3 vdev. Restore from backup
3: Add 5x8Tb or larger disks in a new raidz3 vdev. Add this vdev to the existing pool.
4: Same as above, but instead of existing pool, create a new one, migrate data, then re-initialize original vdev as raidz3. End result is 2 raidz3 vdevs in one pool.
These last 2 options would also require 2 additional sata ports on an add-in card.
What are your comments on my hardware list, and which upgrade path would you favour?
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