FreeNAS on SuperStorage 6049P-E1CR24L

[miluz]

Hi there,

I'm checking out a build that will be used as a storage server for our office (accessed mainly via NFS) to replace our current one as the main storage. I'm considering FreeNAS on SuperStorage 6049P-E1CR24L and would love to hear some thoughts about this build:

SuperStorage 6049P-E1CR24L: https://www.supermicro.com/en/products/system/4U/6049/SSG-6049P-E1CR24L.php
Other specs:
1x CPU: Intel Xeon Silver 4210
4x 32GB 2666MHz DDR4 ECC Reg CL19 DIMM 2Rx4 Micron E IDT
For OS: Intel® SSD D3-S4510 Series
HDD: 16x 12TB IronWolf Pro (leaving 8 slots empty for future growth).
Additional NIC for 10G SFP+ (any recommendations?)

Plan is to configure: 2 VDEVs of RAIDZ2 (8 disks in the group).

So.. will it FreeNAS? This model comes with Broadcom 3008 SAS3 AOC card, would I need to flash it or will it be good for FreeNAS out of the box?
Should I expect any non-standard installation / issues with this kind of hardware?

Thanks :)

 

[jenksdrummer]

I did a pretty similar build lately; but the system came with a 3008 integrated; and I opted for the 3108 AoC + the supercap, mainly because I wasn't sure if I was going to FreeNAS that box, or build it as an AllInOne virtualization box, mainly due to funding for the other boxes I'd attach to it if it was to be a storage array, vs not...lol

3008 works great as an HBA. It can do basic RAID, but with Freenas, best to leave it in HBA mode and let FreeNAS take care of it all.
I'm using the 3108 in JBOD mode; it basically is a pass-through HBA. I've noticed no performance or stability issues; and based on my testing the performance is close enough where the variance in the data could explain one over the other in either case. My thought really was "I paid for the AoC, might as well use it" - lol - also did testing with the 3108 in various RAID configurations and FreeNAS tapping it othewise; like mirrored RAID pairs, but let FreeNAS stripe...or 2 R6 volumes, and stripe that in FN, and on and on and on...literally did this for several weeks testing over and over.

In the end, the best performance was with RAID10 and running FreeNAS on it as a single drive; followed closely by...FreeNAS running it all as mirrored vdevs in JBOD mode - lol

Anyway. TMI for this thread. Short of it, you're good. I have the same CPU, BTW. With a X11, look at the Supermicro DOM; get a pair of 32GB and you're gold. Whatever you allocate for the OS you can't use for FreeNAS storage, BTW.

 

[Jessep]

I would suggest upping your RAM to 6x32GB, Xeon SA are 6 channel and more RAM is pretty much always better.

 

[robirt55]

Hello,

miluz, Have you built this system yet?

I am about to start installing FreeNAS on an old CS215-2P-12T. I am trying to figure out how the two nodes using the same super storage bus are going to be on the same page, or in sync for failover.

Do you have any insight into this?

Thank you,
Robirt