BUILD Hardware FreeNAS first build

[Cyclotron]

I run FreeNAS on my Vsphere system but obviously that's a good deal different than dedicated hardware.

I plan to migrate from my CentOS server to a FreeNAS build. I know there are substantial differences between CPU and memory usage between my Centos server and FreeNAS. The CentOS based system runs on a Core 2 Quad Q6700 and 2GB of memory.

I've gleaned a great deal from the forums and have ordered the following set of hardware.
My Centos server is used as my home NAS and I run Plex and other related applications on it. Shared video and music as well as file storage via CIFS. The CentOS system has 2 mirrored volumes, one 1GB and the other 3GB.

Anyway, here's what I've planned for hardware. If someone with experience has some time, I'd be happy to get some feedback on the build and if I'm way off. Thanks

Hardware:
6 each HGST Deskstar NAS H3IKNAS40003272SN (RAIDZ2)
1 Intel Xeon E2-1231 V3
1 Supermicro SATADOM 64GB SSD-DM064-PHI
1 Fractal Design Define R4
1 SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SL7-F-O Micro ATX Server
2 Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Unbuffered DDR3 1600 CT2KIT102472BD160B
1 EVGA SuperNOVA 550 G2 80 Plus Gold Rated, Fully Modular ATX 12V/EPS 12V ECO Mode Power Supply 220-G2-0550-Y1

updated drives to count 6 and will be in RAIDZ2
updated memory to 32GB
updated CPU Xeon E2-1231 V3

 

[Sakuru]

Looks pretty good. Do you plan to put those drives in a RAIDZ2? Also, I personally would go with 2 USB flash drives vs. 1 SATA DOM.

 

[Cyclotron]

Sorry, I should have mentioned I would use RAIDZ2. I have also purchased a 6th matching drive now. So 6 of these drives in a RAIDZ2 configuration.

I can certainly use two USB flash drives. I had read that SATADOM was "forward thinking" and I'm familiar with using them in my work.

I greatly appreciate your feedback.

 

[Jailer]

Looks like a well thought out system and should serve you well.

 

[Raiz]

I'm building something almost identical. I'm curious on your choice of processor, power supply, and SATADOM. Can you explain why you chose them?

The i3-4170 is a dual core, so it won't have the umph of an E3-1231v3B, but it's also $150 less. Do you think it will be strong enough to meet your needs? How many video streams are you planning on running at once?
The power supply seems to be overkill, but maybe you're planning on expanding?
Is the SATADOM worth the $100 cost when you can get a bunch of USB drives for the same price?

I don't mean to influence your build in any way as I'm trying to learn and create a build myself.

 

[Ericloewe]

I had read that SATADOM was "forward thinking" and I'm familiar with using them in my work.

Sure. Let me sum it up:

Crap USB drives (Kingston, Super-Good-China USB, etc.): Horrible reliability, rock-bottom pricing.
Good USB drives (SanDisk, Toshiba, Lexar, Corsair, etc.): Generally very reliable, cheap enough to mirror without any significant financial effort.
SATA DOMs: Should be even more reliable, but crazy expensive. They're pretty neat if the motherboard can power them directly through the SATA port.
Low-end SATA SSDs (Crucial BX100 and similar): Reliability similar to DOMs, I'd expect, but with more variance between brands and models. Additional cabling is a problem, but cost is quite attractive compared to DOMs.
High-end SATA SSDs: Overkill
Enterprise SSDs: ...must you really?

 

[Cyclotron]

I'm building something almost identical. I'm curious on your choice of processor, power supply, and SATADOM. Can you explain why you chose them?

The i3-4170 is a dual core, so it won't have the umph of an E3-1231v3B, but it's also $150 less. Do you think it will be strong enough to meet your needs? How many video streams are you planning on running at once?
The power supply seems to be overkill, but maybe you're planning on expanding?
Is the SATADOM worth the $100 cost when you can get a bunch of USB drives for the same price?

I don't mean to influence your build in any way as I'm trying to learn and create a build myself.

All good questions for me and I debated the same.
Choice of the i3-4170 is easy enough. I picked this because it was cheap and I believed it should be able to handle the processing load. (FreeNAS + 2 streams in Plex is the majority of the processing I think it will do)
This choice is easy because its so easy to go big later if I need to.

The power supply was picked due to its Gold rating and use of quality capacitors more so than its size. As far I know there's little reason to stay close to your power load vs. having lots of headroom. I would expect two power supplies of similar quality to use the same amount of power idle. In other words, it doesn't eat anything and the overhead may come in handy.

I ordered the SATADOM on amazon for 88 bucks and the board I have selected has the power for it built on. It just seems "more professional". I don't know that its the right thing to do vs. using 2 quality USB flash drives that are much cheaper.

 

[Jailer]

I ordered the SATADOM on amazon for 88 bucks and the board I have selected has the power for it built on. It just seems "more professional".I don't know that its the right thing to do vs. using 2 quality USB flash drives that are much cheaper.

At this point it's basically personal choice. They should be more reliable but they are still fairly new to the scene and as @Ericloewe mentioned still a bit pricey. I've had one in mine for a year and it's been trouble free so far.

 

[Cyclotron]

Sure. Let me sum it up:

Since the board I selected supports power to the SATADOM and the two are from SuperMicro I thought it would be nice and work well. I am as cheap as anyone but the 88 dollars for the SATADOM just didn't bother me. What does concern me is that two USB fobs provide redundancy as far as I can tell from reading. I'm sure the SATADOM will be reliable if it works when first powered up. We have thousands of these things in servers and I've never seen one fail.

I have a saying that may be stupid but it covers my theory of architecture (what I do for a living). Do not plan for success; plan for failure. If I plan failure then I'm likely to be successful. So while the SATADOM is cool and will likely not fail, I'm curious what I might do to plan for its failure.

 

[Cyclotron]

At this point it's basically personal choice. They should be more reliable but they are still fairly new to the scene and as @Ericloewe mentioned still a bit pricey. I've had one in mine for a year and it's been trouble free so far.

I guess I hadn't considered that they are "new". I can't remember when I started seeing such things appear in our enterprise servers but its been "years". I'm not sure its the same tech though. I do network architecture and not server/hosting so I don't follow that side of the house very closely. As I mentioned in my previous post. I like the dual USB for failure reasons and I may still go that way. I am unsure what can be done to provide for redundancy for a SATADOM except maybe buying two? I'm not sure that would work.

 

[Sakuru]

@Raiz I recommend reading this post to determine the proper power supply for a build: https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/proper-power-supply-sizing-guidance.38811/

 

[Ericloewe]

I'm curious what I might do to plan for its failure.

Keep the config file backed up. Then upload it to a new install on the new boot device. That's all.

 

[Cyclotron]

Thanks for all the input. I feel pretty comfortable with the hardware selection and should have most of it if not all by the weekend.
FreeNAS has a great community behind it as far as I've seen. I'm excited to get the system up and running and start testing.

 

[RichTJ99]

Hi,

I really like this build. I have spent most of the day reading & this seems like a winner that will allow you to run PMS, DLNA, backups, etc.

I am getting back into Freenas after years away & am looking to get an IPMI server with all the 'goodies'. All brand new - so without starting a new thread, I am going to jump on this same bandwagon unless there is a reason to hold off.

I would only plan to change to use the two redundant USB boot drives.

I have minimal knowledge of RaidZ2 (ZFS) but it is the way to go with 6 4tb hard drives right?

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Raiz]

I am going to jump on this same bandwagon unless there is a reason to hold off.

I considered the same processor, motherboard, and RAM as well, but opted to go with the next gen Skylake Xeons that have just come out. Their passmark score for the E3-1230V5 is about 9% higher than for the E3-1231v3, and the overall cost was about the same (a little cheaper actually).

I'm sure there will be an extra learning curve going with an X11 board, but it'll be a bit more futureproof with DDR4 RAM, more SATA 6GB connections, SuperDOM ports, M.2 connector, and a bunch of other upgrades.

 

[Cyclotron]

I have minimal knowledge of RaidZ2 (ZFS) but it is the way to go with 6 4tb hard drives right?

Thanks,
Rich

I've had the hardware online for 2-3 days now burning things in and it is rock solid. 6 drives with RAIDZ2 seems like the thing to do for large drives. I'm using 4TB drives and the available storage came out to be a little over 14TB.
The theory is that, with RAIDZ2, and large drives, you can lose up to 2 drives before data loss. This gives you more breathing room to put in a replacement drive and get it resilvered. The large drives can take a long time to resilver or can.

 

[RichTJ99]

In the event of a failure would freenas auto rebuild a newly inserted drive?

 

[danb35]

Once you've told FreeNAS to replace the old, failed drive with the new one, it will write all the necessary data to the new disk.

 

[RichTJ99]

Hi,

I started to look for the SuperMicro X11SSH-F mobo. I found one seller on Amazon but otherwise I am not 100% sure where to buy it. One other thing, the specs on the SM website show only 8 Sata vs the X10 SM that has 14 satas. I dont plan on more than 8 drives but you never know.

Any other large differences?

Thanks,
Rich

I considered the same processor, motherboard, and RAM as well, but opted to go with the next gen Skylake Xeons that have just come out. Their passmark score for the E3-1230V5 is about 9% higher than for the E3-1231v3, and the overall cost was about the same (a little cheaper actually).

I'm sure there will be an extra learning curve going with an X11 board, but it'll be a bit more futureproof with DDR4 RAM, more SATA 6GB connections, SuperDOM ports, M.2 connector, and a bunch of other upgrades.

 

[Raiz]

Primary differences are:

1. DDR4 RAM rather than DDR3
2. Expandable up to 64GB rather than 32GB
3. All 8 SATA porta on X11 board are 6Gbps rather than some being 3Gbps
4. 2 SuperDOM ports on the X11 rather than 1 SATADOM on the X10
5. M.2 connector on X11
6. 9% Faster processor on the X11, should also be lower power draw

There are going to be other minor differences between the two. Make sure you read the Skylake Caveats thread here: https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/skylake-caveats.39669/
The support for the X11 boards isn't completely there with FreeNAS/FreeBSD, so I don't know what difficulties I'll have setting things up. I just cannot stand be be behind the curve too far when building a new system. :D

I bought all of my parts from Superbiiz.com. They seem to have all of the X11 boards that have been released. They have decent prices too, but their shipping sucks.