Grade my build

[jayecin]

Hello,

I am new to freenas, but experienced in IT, specifically network engineer. I recently put together a new home server that I plan on running FreeNas on and I was hoping you guys could give me any feedback about possible issues , things I should change or anything else regarding my server. Some background information, as I said I am a 12+ year enterprise network engineer, this build is strictly to be used for my home/personal reasons or hobby projects. Previously I was using a Dell R720 with Dual Xeon E5-2690s and 128GB ECC Ram. The reason I am getting rid of this setup is 1. Noise and power, 2. Size and 3. Just being old out dated processors and trying to get off enterprise equipment for cost and simplicity. Previously on my server I ran Windows 2012 on the bare metal and virtualbox for any VMs which were usually just lab stuff. I also used the server to back up my local computers and files, but not every drive was raid and I had multiple points of failure.

So onto my current build. I am using FreeNas because I believe it will do everything I need for a home server/nas box. I have a lot of family and friends who use my plex server and I am downloading mostly 4k content now, so with limited upload bandwidth, everything remote needs to be transcoded as I only allow 1080p. Ive also had issues even within my local network trying to play 4k content on 1080p TVs, a single transcode locally could use upwards of 70% of my dual xeons. So the new server will primarily be a plex server/nas. My home network is all wired for cat6, I have a 10gb capable Juniper core switch, but currently no 10gbps capable devices. The new server (I already bought) is an i7 10700 with 32GB of ram. It will have 2 x 8TB WD Reds and either 2 or 4 500GB Samsung 840 SSDs with a 256GB WD Blue Nvme Boot drive on an Asus B460M-A motherboard. My plan is to run the Plex Plugin however I just recently learned that FreeBSD doesnt support the iGPU in 9th and 10th gen CPUs, but that its planned for Mach 2021? Does anyone know when to expect iGPU support for FreeNas 9th and 10th Generation Intels? The 8TB reds will be Mirrored and used for file storage and media for the plex serverof which about 3TB is used. The Samsung drives are going to be used for vm hosts. I currently have 2 500GB Samsung drives Mirrored, besides the extra space, any reason I should or shouldnt add 2 more 500GB SSDs to the pool? For the VMs, ill probably run a mix of test websites, windows VMs for torrenting and maybe an AD server. The single 10700 actually has more raw CPU processing power than the dual xeons. The Asus motherboard has an onboard RealTek NIC which it seems people dont approve of for FreeNas. Would it be worth it to add an Intel NIC or what issues will I run into if I continue to use the realtek nic? Any feedback is appreciated!

 

[jgreco]

an onboard RealTek NIC which it seems people dont approve of for FreeNas.

This is like saying "my Ford Focus which it seems people don't approve of for street racing."

It misconstrues this as being some matter of opinion.

 

[jayecin]

This is like saying "my Ford Focus which it seems people don't approve of for street racing."

It misconstrues this as being some matter of opinion.

I was looking for more opinions of why its a bad idea. I set it up currently with the RealTek NIC and ive had no problems, however I am only running the NAS and a few jails. I do have a 4 port Intel PCIE NIC installed now though that I plan on using for VMs.

 

[jgreco]

This is not a matter of opinion. It's an established fact.

The Realtek chipsets are cheap, poorly performing, largely undocumented junk that don't even work well under Windows, where they have the benefit of a manufacturer-authored driver. The FreeBSD driver was written based on some older datasheets, reverse-engineering, hints from drivers for other operating systems, and general tenacity, which means that the driver is nowhere near as good as the Intel-authored driver by actual Intel employees. This is not to disrespect how awesome Bill Paul and the other people who've worked on the Realtek driver are. The chipsets max out well below gigabit speeds, use lots of CPU and interrupts, have various quirks, etc.

Just like the Ford Focus example, there are things where a situation is lopsided enough that it isn't an opinion. "Camaro" vs "Viper" is a matter of opinion.

 

[ornias]

Instead of a Ford Focus, it's more comparable to using a car with a bend rear axle and one emergency tire, trying to do street racing.

RealTek Drivers are a piece of utter crap. Been there: Thought I was the smart guy and it would work just fine for me. Figured out i wasn't and bought an intel NIC.

 

[jgreco]

@ornias wins, that's a better (beater?) comparison.

 

[jayecin]

Got it, no more RealTek NIC, moved everything over to the 4 port Intel.

 

[Evertb1]

Jou won't regret that I think. I build a new workstation a couple of weeks ago with a motherboard with a RealTek 2.5 G nic. Normaly I prefer motherboards with Intel chips for the nic but in all other respects the motherboard was just right for me. So I just hoped for the best. But unfortunately, the Realtek nic true to it's nature was working like sh**. I had al kind of problems with failing/dropping network connections. I installed an Intel NIC and gone were the problems.