First Freenas build

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Scorch95

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I'm looking at building my first freenas machine and after reading the recommended hardware page along with a few other pinned threads the below is what I've decided I would like to use. If anything below seems out of place please let me know along with a "generally accepted" replacement item.

Case: Fractal Define R6
Power Supply: Seasonic Prime Ultra Titanium 650W
Motherboard: Supermicro X11SSM-F
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V6
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212X
Ram: 16GB Samsung DDR4-2400 ECC (Supermicro recommended)
Boot Drive: Samsung 860 Evo 250GB
Data Drives: 6x Western Digital Red 4TB
UPS: APC SMT1500C
 

Chris Moore

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All good things.

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MrToddsFriends

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Scorch95

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Seasonic FOCUS PLUS Platinum 650W and FOCUS PLUS Gold 650W are also high quality parts and do have 8 SATA power ports (instead of 6) to power the 2.5" boot drive and a further drive if needed.
I didn’t realize this so thanks! Conversely I’m looking to buy another Seasonic power supply for another project, could I use one of the modular Sata connectors from it as I won’t be using all of them?
 

Chris Moore

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MrToddsFriends

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Conversely I’m looking to buy another Seasonic power supply for another project, could I use one of the modular Sata connectors from it as I won’t be using all of them?

According to this Cablemod compatibility list the cables of several Seasonic models are interchangeable.
 

ArgaWoW

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I'm looking at building my first freenas machine and after reading the recommended hardware page along with a few other pinned threads the below is what I've decided I would like to use. If anything below seems out of place please let me know along with a "generally accepted" replacement item.

Case: Fractal Define R6
Power Supply: Seasonic Prime Ultra Titanium 650W
Motherboard: Supermicro X11SSM-F
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V6
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212X
Ram: 16GB Samsung DDR4-2400 ECC (Supermicro recommended)
Boot Drive: Samsung 860 Evo 250GB
Data Drives: 6x Western Digital Red 4TB
UPS: APC SMT1500C
Use some USB sticks for boot. I pref in mirror. Nothing else iss needed. Go with a ssd is waste of money.


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Chris Moore

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Use some USB sticks for boot. I pref in mirror. Nothing else iss needed. Go with a ssd is waste of money.
Not if you want a reliable system.
 

Inxsible

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Chris Moore

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That's debatable though !
Sure, we could debate anything. For example, is the sky blue? Based on my personal experience of having two USB sticks fail in less than a year, I won't use them for boot media on my FreeNAS. What you choose to do is your decision, I can only make suggestions.
 

Inxsible

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Based on my personal experience of having two USB sticks fail in less than a year,
which differs from my personal experience of using the same single 8GB USB stick since I built this system. Personal experiences vary a lot. Like I said, it's debatable.
 

Chris Moore

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which differs from my personal experience of using the same single 8GB USB stick since I built this system
How many years is that?
 

Inxsible

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ArgaWoW

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I running my freenas for 3 years on USB sticks. Without any problems. I have a script running, that backup my config every night. If Something is wrong I can recover my system within minutes.

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Inxsible

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I running my freenas for 3 years on USB sticks. Without any problems. I have a script running, that backup my config every night. If Something is wrong I can recover my system within minutes.

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I guess the USB sticks available 3 years ago must be good ;)

I get backups of my config emailed to me every 15 days too. I can always re-install and put the latest config back and get the system up and running even if the USB fails.
 

Chris Moore

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running my freenas for 3 years on USB sticks
I guess the USB sticks available 3 years ago must be good
Quite possible that the USB sticks from 3 years ago were better than the ones from 2011 or 2012. I built my first three FreeNAS systems using USB sticks for boot drives. It wasn't until I had two drives fail on me inside of a year that I decided to build my fourth FreeNAS without relying on what I came to see as a high failure item. I turned the corner and have not looked back. The next three systems I build have all used 2.5" (40GB) laptop style spinning disk drives, in mirrored pairs, and I have enjoyed being able to monitor the SMART stats of the drives to know that they are in good health. That is something you can not do with the USB sticks. Since then, I have built a further three systems, the oldest is almost three years old, and I have had zero problems with any of them since making the switch.

In the end, the point is that there are options, and you have to make the choice that lets you sleep at night. I have to make the choice that allows me to be away from home 10 hours a day and not have to worry that it will crash while my wife is trying to use it. I work 50 miles away and can't drop everything to run home to work on it. I have confidence in the solution I have chosen. I don't have confidence in USB sticks and I will never (not ever) suggest that anyone use them for anything remotely important.

Do what you want, it is not a debate for me.
 

Inxsible

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I built my first three FreeNAS systems using USB sticks for boot drives. It wasn't until I had two drives fail on me inside of a year that I decided to build my fourth FreeNAS without relying on what I came to see as a high failure item. I turned the corner and have not looked back. The next three systems I build have all used 2.5" (40GB) laptop style spinning disk drives, in mirrored pairs, and I have enjoyed being able to monitor the SMART stats of the drives to know that they are in good health. That is something you can not do with the USB sticks. Since then, I have built a further three systems, the oldest is almost three years old, and I have had zero problems with any of them since making the switch.
So your first 3 systems ran on USB boot drives without a glitch, but 1 bad batch of USBs and you gave them up. Which is fine. I personally advocate using a SSD if you have spare SATA ports and some extra spare cash. But many times that's not the case -- like in mine, my board had 6 SATA ports and I wanted to fit 6 drives in my case. Guess what, I am not gonna spring for a PCIE SATA card just for a boot drive. So I use USB. Also mirroring the USBs have their advantage, you can change out the USB in literally 2 seconds if one fails since they are external.
In the end, the point is that there are options, and you have to make the choice that lets you sleep at night. I have to make the choice that allows me to be away from home 10 hours a day and not have to worry that it will crash while my wife is trying to use it. I work 50 miles away and can't drop everything to run home to work on it.
Yeah, I just tell my wife to watch youtube or take a nap until I get home ;)
I don't have confidence in USB sticks and I will never (not ever) suggest that anyone use them for anything remotely important.
In the new system that I am building, (which will become my primary NAS) I will be using an old IDE (60GB) drive that I sourced from my old old laptop (circa 2002). I am doing that because I have the drive lying around and I will be using a HBA for the 12 drives in the bay anyway leaving me extra SATA ports onboard. I bought a IDE to SATA adapter for it as well.

I will continue using the USB on my current NAS (which will become my backup NAS) -- for lack of SATA ports and for the lack of my interest in changing a working solution.

Do what you want, it is not a debate for me.
I am not saying you should change your solution. But a blanket "USBs are no good" is also not quite accurate depending on the circumstance and/or budget.
 

Scorch95

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All of this is good points however I will have to side with Chris here. I have used usb drives for file storage all the way thru school and never had a problem until college and then I’ve been going thru drives like crazy. Keep in mind these were generic and not a known quality drive like Sandisk however it still makes me Leary of using it as a boot drive even with a mirror. When the cost of a small ssd such as the one he posted earlier why not? But to each their own, I’m grateful we have the wide selection of hardware possibilities that there currently is.
 

Scorch95

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Is there anything else I should add? My current thinking is to start with 16GB ram in a single stick and move to a second stick. That is if I don’t order two at the get go. Also is there any benefit for this setup in running an HBA? It would be an sas3 card I just don’t know if there is a legitimate reason for it with only six data drives.
 
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