FreeNAS Build Advice

[foonji]

I currently have a FreeNAS box that has 6x WD Red 4tb in Z2, plus another 2 SATA drive trays used for offsite backups. This system I use mainly for archival purposes for photographs and a bit of video and it also runs a plex server. However it has now been going for 4 years, getting a bit old in the tooth and using desktop hardware, so I wish to upgrade the pool into a fresh server grade hardware setup that will last me another eternity. I'll keep the existing case, and PSU, just looking at swapping out the motherboard, cpu and ram to start.

I intend for this system to continue to be used to archive photos/video and run plex. However I would like to expand it in the future to provide a second pool with SSDs for speed to use as a working drive for images/video.

I'm no expert, but with that in mind I'm looking at the following hardware below >>

Motherboard: SUPERMICRO MBD-X11SSH-F-O Micro ATX Server Motherboard LGA 1151 Intel C236 >> The motherboard has 8 SATA ports on board which will satisfy my current hard drive setup, but means I'll need the possibility to expand later, is there a recommended SAS board to use with this board and freenas?
I have a spare M2 16gb Intel Optane that I'll use as the freenas drive also with this board.

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V5 3.4 GHz LGA 1151 80W BX80662E31230V5 Server Processor >> I went middle of the board here, but what do people think? Will it be powerful enough for my needs?

RAM: Crucial CT16G4RFD4213 16GB 288-Pin DDR4 2133 Server Memory (x2 32gb in total) >> 2 16gb to leave room for more RAM in future.

 

[kdragon75]

getting a bit old in the tooth

You mean long in the tooth.

I have a spare M2 16gb Intel Optane that I'll use as the freenas drive also with this board.

I guess if you don't want to boot from USB. The fast 3D X-Point memory with do nothing for performance as the boot drive.

I went middle of the board here

Middle of the road?
On the RAM, most people her either go way under or way over. Your no different. 16GB is plenty for a single user Plex/archive box.

As for expanding, look at the resource section in the forum. There is lots of information on good HBAs in there.

 

[rvassar]

Your current "spinning rust" drives IOPS will exceed the capacity of the 1GbE networking. You'll want to plan for some kind of 10GbE networking before you start video editing on an SSD pool.

 

[kdragon75]

Your current "spinning rust" drives IOPS will exceed the capacity of the 1GbE networking. You'll want to plan for some kind of 10GbE networking before you start video editing on an SSD pool.

IOPS have an indirect relationship to network throughput. If thinking in terms of pure IOPS, PPS (packets per second usually measured in 1000s per second) would be a more direct relationship in terms of network capacity. To correlate IOPS with network throughput you would need to multiply by the average IO size.

 

[rvassar]

IOPS have an indirect relationship to network throughput. If thinking in terms of pure IOPS, PPS (packets per second usually measured in 1000s per second) would be a more direct relationship in terms of network capacity. To correlate IOPS with network throughput you would need to multiply by the average IO size.

7:43am my time, I was still drinking my morning coffee! ;)

6x 4Tb WD SATA disks vs. 1GbE onboard the X11SSH-F-O... Depending on pool layout, the disks are good for 300 - 500 Mb/sec, possibly a bit more? 1GbE is going to saturate around 800 - 950 mbits/sec, or a bit more than 100 Mb/sec. OP is optioning a future SSD pool, and has no higher performance network planned. Tell me my suggestion is off. I don't think it is.

 

[foonji]

Thanks all for the replies

You mean long in the tooth.

I guess if you don't want to boot from USB. The fast 3D X-Point memory with do nothing for performance as the boot drive.

Middle of the road?
On the RAM, most people her either go way under or way over. Your no different. 16GB is plenty for a single user Plex/archive box.

As for expanding, look at the resource section in the forum. There is lots of information on good HBAs in there.

I know the SSD as boot is overkill, but I have it here sitting in box doing nothing and I'll never use it for any other system, so I might as put it to use.

Way over for RAM? Does FreeNAS not promote the minimum requirement as being "1 GB per terabyte of storage is a standard starting point" ?? Being as I currently have 24gb of drives currently (less obviously in pool) and adding more in the future, seems the way to go. My current system has 16gb.

Your current "spinning rust" drives IOPS will exceed the capacity of the 1GbE networking. You'll want to plan for some kind of 10GbE networking before you start video editing on an SSD pool.

IOPS have an indirect relationship to network throughput. If thinking in terms of pure IOPS, PPS (packets per second usually measured in 1000s per second) would be a more direct relationship in terms of network capacity. To correlate IOPS with network throughput you would need to multiply by the average IO size.

7:43am my time, I was still drinking my morning coffee! ;)

6x 4Tb WD SATA disks vs. 1GbE onboard the X11SSH-F-O... Depending on pool layout, the disks are good for 300 - 500 Mb/sec, possibly a bit more? 1GbE is going to saturate around 800 - 950 mbits/sec, or a bit more than 100 Mb/sec. OP is optioning a future SSD pool, and has no higher performance network planned. Tell me my suggestion is off. I don't think it is.

Yes I'm aware I'll need the faster network to utilize the full speed, currently the network is 1GbE but I do intend on bumping up to 10GbE. It's a relatively small network so not much needed to upgrade it. Or do you think I should go with a different board that already has 10GbE rather than adding it on later?


Other than that, any concerns over CPU choice?

 

[kdragon75]

Way over for RAM? Does FreeNAS not promote the minimum requirement as being "1 GB per terabyte of storage is a standard starting point" ?? Being as I currently have 24gb of drives currently (less obviously in pool) and adding more in the future, seems the way to go. My current system has 16gb.

That's kind of a garbage guideline for home/media use. You need more RAM for a larger ARC with larger pools based on the assumption that you will benefit from having more data cached. You only benefit from a large cache if you going to frequently access that data. For a backup or streaming server of even moderate size, 16-32 GB is PLENTY.

Yes I'm aware I'll need the faster network to utilize the full speed, currently the network is 1GbE but I do intend on bumping up to 10GbE. It's a relatively small network so not much needed to upgrade it. Or do you think I should go with a different board that already has 10GbE rather than adding it on later?

If you don't mind buying second hand gear, 10Gb NICs are dirt cheap. Look for the connectx 2 or 3 cards. The switch is the big investment. If you want more than 4 10Gb ports and don't want a 200 watt beast, expect to pay at least $500. At this point, stick with SFP+ and fiber. The cables are not overly expensive and the SFP+ mods are reasonable or if its under 10m (i think) you can run SFP+ passive copper.

Other than that, any concerns over CPU choice?

That all depends on what and how many streams you will have going. just one? 10+ 4K streams being transcoded on the fly?