Hello,
I have cruising the FreeNAS forums for a while. I’ve been reading the guides and posts. I think I’ve started to grasp the concepts presented. I’ve out grown my current solution and it’s time to move on. This will be a fun challenge, but I would much rather take a hit on the forums than in the wallet.
Background:
I recently graduated college with an IT related degree. During my college adventures, I picked up a small Synology 210J to back up homework and projects. A friend from school introduced me to FreeNAS. I played around with it in a VM and eventually some old hardware. I was impressed with the hardware test. I’m not afraid of research, hard work, the word “No.”, system building or CLI. I’m a BSD noob, but willing to learn. Now it’s time to take the leap.
Project:
Current Needs - My Synology is near full. I require more space, greater reliability and better throughput. Living in a rural area, my internet service is poor; therefore, I tend to stash a lot of stuff on my NAS for future use. I have media (video, e-books, music and photos), ISO files, installed game folders, work and school files, etc.
I will repurpose my Synology as a backup. All of my project files, work files, archived homework, financials, etc. will be stored there. The only media I will be archiving will be my books. The rest is an acceptable risk.
I will be setting up an ESXi environment with leftover parts as a preliminary test bed. I’ll be hosting some development projects and testing software. If the system loses all of its smoke, I will not be out a whole lot.
Future Needs – Based on my testing with the above consumer grade ESXi box, I will be building a beefier ESXi box with sever grade components. I would like to leverage the FreeNAS storage as much as reasonable. I have no qualms in investing into 10 GB networking. I may be working with large data sets for research at some point. I need to be mindful of this requirement. The data workflow will need some thought.
Hardware:
I have an old Antec 1200. I plan on using 5.25” to 3.5” (4-in-3) hot-swap bays.
I need to Flash LSI 2308 to IT mode.
I'll need to update the MOBO firmware.
Parts –
HDD Bays: ICY Dock 4-in-3 Hot-Swap Module
Power Supply: Not 100% here. Seasonic ~500W Bronze rated?
UPS: Eaton 5S (seemed viable per NUT)
MOBO: Supermicro MBD-X10SL7—F-O
RAM: Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) ECC Unbuffered x2 (32 GB total)
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230V3 - read about BIOS issues with newer 1231V3 (I don't have an extra CPU to update.)
SATA Connectors: SATA Connector x11
OS: 8GB Sandisk Cruzer Low Profile (Cheaper than 4GB)
Data Storage: WD40EFRX 4 TB WD Red (have 2 + 9) x11 Total
Storage –
I thought I read somewhere that it was a bad idea to exceed 80% of your available storage. If this is true, I was planning 4TB * 11 disks in RAIDZ3. I think my evaluation below is correct.
11 – 3 = 8 disks | 8 * 4TB = 32 TB | 32 * .8 = 25.6 TB MAX | 32 * .65 = 20.8 TB WARNING
Networking --
Based on the posts in the forums, Link Aggregation isn't going to get me anywhere. I'd be better off getting a larger pipe if I need the bandwidth.
Testing:
CPU - Load Testing
Flash Storage – Memtest86?
RAM – Memtest86
HDDs – testing methodology per the forum.
Network - Load Testing
Thanks in advance for any assistance. Wall of text crits for over 9K.
C0d1st
I have cruising the FreeNAS forums for a while. I’ve been reading the guides and posts. I think I’ve started to grasp the concepts presented. I’ve out grown my current solution and it’s time to move on. This will be a fun challenge, but I would much rather take a hit on the forums than in the wallet.
Background:
I recently graduated college with an IT related degree. During my college adventures, I picked up a small Synology 210J to back up homework and projects. A friend from school introduced me to FreeNAS. I played around with it in a VM and eventually some old hardware. I was impressed with the hardware test. I’m not afraid of research, hard work, the word “No.”, system building or CLI. I’m a BSD noob, but willing to learn. Now it’s time to take the leap.
Project:
Current Needs - My Synology is near full. I require more space, greater reliability and better throughput. Living in a rural area, my internet service is poor; therefore, I tend to stash a lot of stuff on my NAS for future use. I have media (video, e-books, music and photos), ISO files, installed game folders, work and school files, etc.
I will repurpose my Synology as a backup. All of my project files, work files, archived homework, financials, etc. will be stored there. The only media I will be archiving will be my books. The rest is an acceptable risk.
I will be setting up an ESXi environment with leftover parts as a preliminary test bed. I’ll be hosting some development projects and testing software. If the system loses all of its smoke, I will not be out a whole lot.
Future Needs – Based on my testing with the above consumer grade ESXi box, I will be building a beefier ESXi box with sever grade components. I would like to leverage the FreeNAS storage as much as reasonable. I have no qualms in investing into 10 GB networking. I may be working with large data sets for research at some point. I need to be mindful of this requirement. The data workflow will need some thought.
Hardware:
I have an old Antec 1200. I plan on using 5.25” to 3.5” (4-in-3) hot-swap bays.
I need to Flash LSI 2308 to IT mode.
I'll need to update the MOBO firmware.
Parts –
HDD Bays: ICY Dock 4-in-3 Hot-Swap Module
Power Supply: Not 100% here. Seasonic ~500W Bronze rated?
UPS: Eaton 5S (seemed viable per NUT)
MOBO: Supermicro MBD-X10SL7—F-O
RAM: Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) ECC Unbuffered x2 (32 GB total)
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230V3 - read about BIOS issues with newer 1231V3 (I don't have an extra CPU to update.)
SATA Connectors: SATA Connector x11
OS: 8GB Sandisk Cruzer Low Profile (Cheaper than 4GB)
Data Storage: WD40EFRX 4 TB WD Red (have 2 + 9) x11 Total
Storage –
I thought I read somewhere that it was a bad idea to exceed 80% of your available storage. If this is true, I was planning 4TB * 11 disks in RAIDZ3. I think my evaluation below is correct.
11 – 3 = 8 disks | 8 * 4TB = 32 TB | 32 * .8 = 25.6 TB MAX | 32 * .65 = 20.8 TB WARNING
Networking --
Based on the posts in the forums, Link Aggregation isn't going to get me anywhere. I'd be better off getting a larger pipe if I need the bandwidth.
Testing:
CPU - Load Testing
Flash Storage – Memtest86?
RAM – Memtest86
HDDs – testing methodology per the forum.
Network - Load Testing
Thanks in advance for any assistance. Wall of text crits for over 9K.
C0d1st