Freenas Esxi build

Zervun

Cadet
Joined
Mar 12, 2019
Messages
5
Hello everyone, longtime lurker here finally going to do a build.

Looking on some suggestions for my new build. I have the same chassis build (different drives but mostly the same) running unraid great - for media only. I'm in process of replacing my Synology 1817+ with a Freenas build which will be used for general NAS, VMware, backups, offsite cloud storage, etc. Media will stick on unraid (I just don't trust unraid for critical data storage). Synology is going to my Camera system

Chasis: SUPERMICRO 846 (has the 2x SSD hotswap in the rear and a 2x SSD cage on the side of the PSU)
Motherboard: supermicro x9dri-ln4f+
Backpane: BPN-SAS2-845EL1
CPU: Dual Xeon E5-2697 v2
CPU Heatsink: Dual Noctua u9dx-i4
RAM: 8x 16GB 1866 Samsung DDR3
HBA: HP H220 flashed to IT mode
Network: 40g HP-649281-B21-Infiniband flashed to Mellanox
Fans: 3x Noctua 3000 Industrial, 2x 80mm Noctua for rear

Drives (here is where I need help)
I have a slew of different drives laying around from different builds (or ones currently used that can be repurposed) - not all of these have to be used.
  • 4x 12TB Seagate ironwolfs (soon to be 6x)
  • 4x Cruicial 1TB MX500's
  • 2x Samsung 840 Pro 256
  • 2x Samsung 850 Pro 256
  • 1x Samsung 1TB SSD 840 Evo
  • 1x Samsung 1TB SSD 850 Evo
  • Optane 900p - don't really want to use this right now but an option
I have been following Stux Node 304 build (which is fantastic) and want to do something similar. What I'm not sure is how to use the drives I have in a good fashion.

I'm thinking
  • Pool1 (General storage) - Mirrored vdevs for the 6x ironwolfs (and expanding from there might get 12tb toshiba drives next)
    • I'm assuming at 12tb a pop, I'm assuming Z2 is not the best due to rebuild time/risk of it going down during that time
  • Pool2 (vms) - MIrrored vdev for the 4x Crucial MX500's for vmware images
  • ESXI Boot:
    • 850 Pro 256 hanging off regular sata or the HBA containing ESXI boot and Freenas VM
    • 2nd 850 Pro 256 that has the Freenas VM mirrored/copied to it for bare-metal booting
  • 4. Slog - I do want a syslog but am not sure which direction to go
    • DC3700 from ebay but I'm unsure of what size - and may only get one due to cost/size
    • m.2 PCIE card (motherboard supports bifurcation) with either:
      • optane 128gb m.2's or
      • 2x evo m.2's 1tb
    • I also have an optane 900p but it's being used (I could part with it for this) but I'm worried about the power outage protection
    • Could use a pair of the 256 Pros, but not sure if those are fast enough for SLOG

Any suggestions?
 
Last edited:

Stux

MVP
Joined
Jun 2, 2016
Messages
4,367
I’d suggest raidz2 for your general storsge, ssd mirrors for your vm storage is good.

The 840/850 Pros would work good as boot drives, if overkill

The 900p makes a decent slog, has the Esxi incompatibility been fixed yet?
 

Zervun

Cadet
Joined
Mar 12, 2019
Messages
5
I’d suggest raidz2 for your general storsge, ssd mirrors for your vm storage is good.

The 840/850 Pros would work good as boot drives, if overkill

The 900p makes a decent slog, has the Esxi incompatibility been fixed yet?

Thanks much - I figured I would use the 840/850 pros as I have them just sitting around unused.

I've seen some promising posts on the 900p but it still makes me a bit nervous using it. I might just get a 3700 or explore the optane m.2's in a pcie card
 

jgreco

Resident Grinch
Joined
May 29, 2011
Messages
18,681
Fans: 3x Noctua 3000 Industrial, 2x 80mm Noctua for rear

Replacing the fans in a rackmount chassis with Noctuas is a good way to end up cooking your drives when the fans fail, don't provide sufficient static pressure, or both. The Supermicro fans are designed for the job and are industrial quality fans that will typically last for many years, often the lifetime of the chassis. Noctua calling a fan "industrial" does not make it so.
 

Zervun

Cadet
Joined
Mar 12, 2019
Messages
5
Replacing the fans in a rackmount chassis with Noctuas is a good way to end up cooking your drives when the fans fail, don't provide sufficient static pressure, or both. The Supermicro fans are designed for the job and are industrial quality fans that will typically last for many years, often the lifetime of the chassis. Noctua calling a fan "industrial" does not make it so.

Thanks for the input. Not too worried about the cooling - I've got fan/rpm monitoring (on my other chassis) and it keeps it very cool. The IPM 3000 have decent static pressure, I've modded the case a bit and will have some shutdown scripts if anything goes wrong. Also planning on adding a redundant set of extra fans in the front.
 
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