Gathering some feedback on DIY FreeNAS build...

Status
Not open for further replies.

tyve55

Cadet
Joined
Mar 4, 2017
Messages
4
New here but have spent a while lurking around on the forum and reading various pdfs on this.
I have the following at my disposal:

HDDs - candidates for the RAIDZ2 pool:
2x Hitachi Travelstar 5K750, 500GB - SATA300 5400rpm
1x Seagate Barracuda Green ST2000DL003, 2TB - SATA600 5900rpm
2x WD Black SATA 3 Gb/s WD1001FALS, 1TB - SATA300 7200rpm
1x WD Black SATA 3 Gb/s WD6401AALS, 640GB - SATA300 7200rpm
1x WD Green WD10EACS, 1TB - SATA300 5400rpm
1x WD Green WD7500AZRX, 750GB - SATA600 5400rpm
1x WD Green SATA 3 Gb/s WD15EARS, 1,5TB - SATA300 5400rpm

SSDs - candidates for the cache pool (? no experience in this area, though):
1x Crucial MX300 2,5" 275GB
1x Toshiba THNSNF128GCSS 128GB

Other:
APC Smart-UPS C 1000VA LCD 230V - no idea how to include this yet….
PSU: OCZ ModStream OCZ45012U, 450W (ATX) - but will probably need to be changed (insufficient for amount of drives)…
LSI MegaRAID SAS 9211-4i (currently missing the mini connector though...grr, any tips?)
Intel I210-T1 (by HP)

I'll be adding 16 GB RAM and the processor is AMD (which I know is less suitable but not going there right now).

UPDATE: discussion below has led me to the following: what is more reliable, i.e. "better":
- switching to Intel, keeping all the different kinds of drives, OR
- maintaining the platform and getting all the same drive model?
Consider a scenario that both options would cost the same (approx. 100 €, but I know option 1 is more expensive).


Main question: HDD/SDDs: which to include, which to leave out, which to sell off and replace with another… ?

Also, what to do with the SSDs, can I use both, I understand this can establish a cache pool? Any other advice would be appreciated too. Purpose: just a 'quite safe' SoHo storage NAS, speed is important but only 5 to 6 concurrent users, lots of media though. This is not mission critical, but stability is required. NAS experience level: we had at least two Synologies (now one left) but after a a bad experience are veering away from that (no data loss, just some irreparable software issues, just beyond 3yr warranty which was "very strange").

MODs: feel free to change things or ensure thread compliance. ;-)
 
Last edited:

BigDave

FreeNAS Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 6, 2013
Messages
2,479
Forming a Vdev with drives of various capacity will result in
all the drives being formatted in the lowest capacity. In your
case the drives would all be of the smallest 500GB size so I
would drop the 500GB drives from possible use.

I would not concern myself with cache drives unless your
use case mandates the benefits, RAM is much faster than
any drive you could use, therefore look to max out RAM first.

EDIT: spelling
 

wblock

Documentation Engineer
Joined
Nov 14, 2014
Messages
1,506
I would not use any of those drives for a NAS. An SSD for L2ARC is not needed, either. The Toshiba SSD would make a fine boot drive.

And then you say AMD. I suppose there are AMD motherboards with ECC, but AMD has not be competitive with Intel for years. Please reconsider that. As you say, stability is required. A cheap Haswell or Skylake Pentium is often adequate. The Supermicro motherboards for those are in the $160 range.
 

tyve55

Cadet
Joined
Mar 4, 2017
Messages
4
...drop the 500GB drives from possible use.

OK, so, keeping this in mind, and dropping the 640 GB as well, I have the following two choices, which I think equate to equally 3 TB of "usable space" under RAIDZ2:
- 6 drives, each 750 GB, or - dropping the 750 GB as well -
- 5 drives, each 1 TB

... what would you pick?

..therefore look to max out RAM first.

Yes, RAM is maxed out. Would really like to throw in the SSDs too...

An SSD for L2ARC is not needed, either. The Toshiba SSD would make a fine boot drive.

So, if I understand correctly, no USB flash drive to run FreeNAS off of but rather the Toshiba SSD? I forgot to mention that I have plenty USB flash drives lying around to run the system off. The Crucial SSD: not use it at all?

And then you say AMD. Please reconsider that.

I know... let me clarify my thinking. This approach is based on the idea that using as much of the same drive as possible is superior to using mixed drives, given all else remains the same. But, is that really the case, i.e. will a uniform drive model benefit reliability somehow?
I guess the question is: what is more reliable:
- switching to Intel, keeping all the different kinds of drives, OR
- maintaining the platform and getting all the same drive model?
Note the LSI and NIC will remain the same, regardless of platform. I hope this is clear.

EDIT: The ram is non-ECC. This is really too expensive to switch out right now. My budget is like 100 €.
 
Last edited:

BigDave

FreeNAS Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 6, 2013
Messages
2,479
If your main concern for now is getting something going
with the lowest cash outlay, consider building with an Intel
Skylake motherboard. You could start with 16GB of RAM
and a low cost Pentium CPU, both of which could be easily
upgraded in the future. Use the higher capacity drives you
have along with the 750GB drives. You could replace these
smaller drives (one at a time) as money allows to expand
the size of your pool (ONCE ALL THE DRIVES HAVE BEEN
REPLACED OF COURSE).

Please give this a read,
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ning-vdev-zpool-zil-and-l2arc-for-noobs.7775/
it may help clear up some possible
ways you could form your initial pool and expand with ease
in the future.

Last word. You mentioned a large amount of Media, please
make sure that your data is backed up properly. Using the
drives mentioned is not ideal (I think you are aware of this)
and you'll need to be extra careful to guard against data loss.
 

tyve55

Cadet
Joined
Mar 4, 2017
Messages
4
OK guys thanks for all the feedback so far. Ditching L2ARC and going for the 6 x 750 GB right now.

I am aware the drives are not ideal.

Would it change things if I told you I have the option to use 5x 1 TB WD Black SATA 3 Gb/s WD1001FALS, instead of the 6x750GB mixed drive scenario?
 

BigDave

FreeNAS Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 6, 2013
Messages
2,479
I would consider the total hours of use between the two
groups of hard disks. If one group has a much lower number
of powered on hours, I would choose to use that group over
the other one.
 

tyve55

Cadet
Joined
Mar 4, 2017
Messages
4
Ok, the total powered-on hours of the 5x1TB group (equal drives) is WAY over the same figure for the mixed scenario. So that's a no-go.

Now I've gotten all worried about ECC ram. I think I'll really just experiment with this first. If things go well, I don't think the switch to Intel + ECC would be too difficult.

This thread can be locked.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top