FreeNAS build with iGPU

[STREBLO]

We are building a company backup server which will also be transcoding video (we would like quicksync support), running multiple jails, and potentially virtual machines. We've been having trouble finding an appropriate Micro-ATX Supermicro motherboard, as well as processor.

We were hoping to get something along the lines of a 6 core / 12thread or 8core / 16 thread E5, since currently FreeNAS 11.3 does not support 8th/9th gen intel processors. So an issue is that only the lower end E3 processors support an iGPU, are there any alternatives?

So is what we are trying to do possible with a currently supported Supermicro motherboard?

The alternative would be waiting and getting something similar to an X11SCL-F or X11SCH-F with one of the following:

Xeon® E-2278G
Xeon® E-2276G
Xeon® E-2186G
Xeon® E-2186M

The other thing is it's not explicitly mentioned anywhere if they're motherboard support iGPUs, I would assume it wouldn't be a problem, but has anyone had success with any super micro motherboards using a CPU with an iGPU?

The only information I could family directly from Supermicro was this product brief, but it doesn't look like the options they mentioned there would be suitable.

 

[Yorick]

Yes there is. See https://github.com/kern2011/Freenas-Quicksync/. There is also a thread in this forum about that. The PR on that repo btw simplifies the steps a little.

X11sch-f: Yup, that’ll work.
X11scl-f: Nope.

Simple rule: C2x6 can use an iGPU provided the board / BIOS do their part; C2x2 won’t.

FreeNAS will work fine with a coffee lake xeon, you just won’t get hw transcode until TrueNAS Core. So depending on how urgent that hw transcode is, you can go for the E-2xxxG with sch-f, build your system and get everything working, with the understanding there will be a transcode performance boost come TrueNAS.

You can work around this by telling Plex to pre-optimize content, so you won’t need an on the fly transcode.

I am not aware of other FreeBSD based media players that support QuickSync.

That M Xeon btw is a mobile part, FCBGA1440. I don’t see how you’d use it.

 

[STREBLO]

So 8th gen is fully compatible and supported with FreeNAS 11.3? It's just the graphics that are not?

 

[Slovak]

you can go for the E-2xxxG with sch-f

Both the QuickSync guide and your other post indicate that "current (11.3-U1) Freenas Drivers DO NOT support Intel CPU Generation 8 and 9". Or they will not support QuickSync until TrueNAS, but will work just fine with the rest of the functionality for now?

 

[Yorick]

See the PR, it clarifies that. It’s the iGPU that’s not supported until FreeBSD 12. The CPU itself works just fine.

These documents get written with a specific viewpoint - hardware transcode in this case - and then along the line we learn that the assumptions aren’t clear to everyone, so PRs are issued to clarify that. The original author of that repo will get around to merging that, eventually.

 

[Yorick]

Side note: I have an open suggestion to allow jails to specify devfs rule sets, and to change the Plex plugin to use a hw transcode friendly rule set by default. This suggestion needs 10 votes to be considered by ixSystems. Please consider voting for it. It is here: https://jira.ixsystems.com/browse/NAS-105834

 

[Slovak]

Side note: I have an open suggestion to allow jails to specify devfs rule sets, and to change the Plex plugin to use a hw transcode friendly rule set by default. This suggestion needs 10 votes to be considered by ixSystems. Please consider voting for it. It is here: https://jira.ixsystems.com/browse/NAS-105834

Voted