For noobies, FreeNAS questions to clear

[Jack.W]

I read the thread from jab416171 but maybe my case is going to be more simple.

- I should say I am very reluctant on getting a $900+ on 5bays NAS enclosure alone.
- I have spare idling PC with i7 (4GB ram) but with limited 3 SATA ports only.
- I have a 2TB raid 1 in Windows environment, should I say my data growth is slow for the moment

5 * 2TB hdd will give me 8TB approx usable, do serve me well enough (i am also new to raid cards/hba cards, getting to understand basic over last few days) so here's my doubts

1) ZFS-RAIDZ1 aka RAID 5 (1 parity) and RAID Z2 (2 parity)
I intend to do a RAID 5 with 5 * 2TB WD Green / Red.
Found article on Green drive modification.
fix-for-wdeas-green-drives

Interesting article on Raid5 dying by 2009.
why-raid-5-stops-working-in-2009/

My main concern, since I have only 3 SATA, i need to expand with 2 more sata. Getting a HBA with additional ports recommended or a mainboard with onboard >=6sata be better?

Getting a RAID card defeat the purpose since I have to disable the raid.

I selected a LSI card 9211-8I PCE-E that can goes up to 8 internal SATA since i read that FreeNAS work better with array in a single controller

2) ECC more for enterprise, mission critical..
So I guess with 8GB non-ECC is good right?
the NAS will mainly for data archival and family sharing with occasionally streaming (once per week)
I can adjust to 16GB with 2 * 8GB

4) Server grade component is not a MUST HAVE but Good to have, in my understanding

5) Future idea, can I grow / expand the usable space dynamically, in times to come easily?

Hope to hear some comments soon.

 

[Jack.W]

oh yah, btw pardon my english, I also read up some old threads.. perhaps my questions are repeating again but I try to summarize my doubts.

 

[Darren Myers]

You didnt mention the motherboard you plan to use, this is key because although youre already selected to reuse non recommended hardware, you could very well be using a board that has a Realtek NIC which will cause you problems anyways. The 9211-8i card is a RAID card when you buy it, however you have to flash the ROM to IT mode (Firmware P16 if using 9.3, and Firmware P20 if using the latest release of 9.3.1), this will allow the card to present each drive individually to the OS.

5 * 2TB hdd will give me 8TB approx usable

No it wont, Youll have 6.298TB usable, this takes into account that the drives arent actually 2Tb usable + ZFS overhead and only filling up to 80%. It is recommended not to fill a pool over 80% due to performance issues and how ZFS handles data/free space

2) ECC more for enterprise, mission critical..
So I guess with 8GB non-ECC is good right?

8Gb of RAM is the minimim amount for FreeNAS 9.3/9.3.1 .....so going with the minimum is of course the minimum if youre going to be streaming start with 16Gb to be safe as plugins do require RAM.

non-ECC is good right?

No...no no no no no, there are so many threads of people loosing there pool(s)/data

the NAS will mainly for data archival and family sharing with occasionally streaming (once per week)

So you say that it will be used to archive data and family sharing, i assume whatever it is youre archiving you care about, and if its family stuff then you certainly must care. But it seems you dont care enough to read https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/hardware-recommendations-read-this-first.23069/ which goes through everything which is recommended.

Server grade component is not a MUST HAVE but Good to have, in my understanding

It's preferred to have server/enterprise grade components so that you and us arent stuck a month or so down the line when you run into all kinds of funny issues and we then have to diagnose it as improper hardware/setup/configuration or all of the above as the cause you lost all your data (which does happen).

Future idea, can I grow / expand the usable space dynamically, in times to come easily?

You can grow a pool after you replace every drive, so if you start with x5 2Tb hdds, and it yields the 6TB of space, and you wish to change the drives out to x5 4Tb harddrives you must replace each drive before it will expand yielding ~12Tb or so usable... The issue then becomes you have a 5 drive RAIDz1 with large drives, if 1 drive dies and you replace said failed/faulty drive with a new one and as you are reslivering (rebuilding) and another drive begins to fail you have a good chance of loosing your pool/data.

I wouldnt recommend RAIDz1 to anyone who feels they may eventually wish to expand the pool, instead either start with RAIDz2 or create your RAIDz1, then buy x6 larger size harddrives, install them in the server, create a 6 drive RAIDz2, and then snapshot send/receive from 1 pool to the other.

 

[Fuganater]

I say if you are not going to do what is recommended then don't ask.

 

[Jack.W]

Thank you Darren.

Thanks for this tips
The 9211-8i card is a RAID card when you buy it, however you have to flash the ROM to IT mode (Firmware P16 if using 9.3, and Firmware P20 if using the latest release of 9.3.1), this will allow the card to present each drive individually to the OS.

The spare machine is actually a HP SFF8100 slim tower.
I got a spare dual port intel gigabit nic.

the only thing now is the board definitely not supporting ECC and running i5 650 LGA1156 processor.
i am upgrading to 16GB ram just not yet purchased.

 

[Jack.W]

my alternative purchase will be this
intel S3420GP 1156
http://ark.intel.com/products/48472/Intel-Server-Board-S3420GPV

some say
Intel C204 1155 S1200BTLR with xeon better

 

[Jack.W]

ok re-summarize
keen in doing a diy freeNAS compare to NAS box

revise the setup
Supermicro X8SIE-LN4 (alternative Intel S3420GPV 1156)
Intel XEON X3430
Kingston 4G DDR3 1333 KVR1333D3E9S

 

[Fuganater]

Kingston RAM is heavly documented as a bad idea. Check Curcial or Samsung compatabaility lists.

 

[Jack.W]

ops, yup... i managed to read that.. was browsing in Samsung DDR3 ECC ram 4G but told by reseller that Supermicro X8SIE-LN4 cannot.. i am confused.

 

[Fuganater]

Look at 8GB minimum. 4GB is a waste of money.

 

[Jack.W]

To be frank, if I am using the mentioned super micro board, what ecc ram should I go with? I will hit 2*4G

 

[Fuganater]

2 of these should work.

Question: Why are you going with such an old board?

 

[jgreco]

2 of these should work.

Question: Why are you going with such an old board?

Because old wattburners are usually cheap or free because nobody wants them, most likely...

 

[Jack.W]

Yup like jgreco said, a test, low power simple barebone is what I am looking at for first freenas and sinze I can move or upgrade zfs down the road, I like to make off with a simple start.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

I am very reluctant on getting a $900+ on 5bays NAS enclosure alone

I like to make off with a simple start

Consider buying an off-the-shelf entry-level server, such as a Dell PowerEdge T20 or a Lenovo TS140. Add more RAM. Install four of your 2TB drives in a RAIDZ2 configuration, and plan to replace them one-by-one with larger drives. Job done.

 

[Jack.W]

Those ready made r still too ex
I decided to go for x3430 with supermicro x8sil-f old eol LGA1156 with 16G ecc maybe hynix or crucial.

Yap. Seems like raidz2 and slowly grow the disks is e way to go.

 

[Jack.W]

ops. need some help.. I was told that server mobo ECC memory is very different from Desktop?
Desktop, we talk about single and dual channel, while server ECC memory talks about single and dual socket?

 

[jgreco]

You were told wrong.

As with desktop boards, you should fully read your motherboard manual, any additional resources the motherboard manufacturer makes available, and information provided by your proposed memory vendor. Each class of CPU has different features, capabilities, caveats and gotchas. They will be documented.

You might find, for example, that the memory strategies for i3/i5 are similar to Xeon E3.

Of course the memory rules for a massive dual E5-2600 system that can address up to 1.5TB of memory will be very different than an entry level mini-ITX i3 board with only two DIMM sockets. But of course there's no reason to expect much similarity between a Ferrari and a VW Bug.

 

[nightshade00013]

http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon3000/3400/X8SIE.cfm?IPMI=N&TYP=LN4

That will show all the specs for the board and even give you a tested ram list.

ECC memory is ECC memory but there is registered memory and unbuffered memory. The board in question supports both buffered and unbuffered but to get to the higher capacities you will have to use ECC Registered ram.

 

[Ericloewe]

http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon3000/3400/X8SIE.cfm?IPMI=N&TYP=LN4

That will show all the specs for the board and even give you a tested ram list.

ECC memory is ECC memory but there is registered memory and unbuffered memory. The board in question supports both buffered and unbuffered but to get to the higher capacities you will have to use ECC Registered ram.

Nitpick: Buffered != Registered.