Hardware: Intel Turbo Boost supported, HBA and NICs in Hardware List, RAM-Capacity-Thumb-Rule

[Scampicfx]

Dear folks,

after dealing with server problems and data recovery (which took weeks and months) i started looking for new, reliable storage systems. I read a dozen of webpages about btrfs and refs and I was always coming face to face with missing options, features and not to forget the stability issue of btrfs raid 5/6 arrays which can not rebuild successfully.

Therefore, I'm really happy that I discovered now FreeBSD / FreeNAS using zfs as the filesystem! Thanks a lot for all your efforts you're putting into this piece of awesome software!

I started reading the documentation, however I still have a couple of questions regarding hardware requirements / system specs:

1.) Is there a native support for Intel Turbo Boost technology?
Reason for the question: there are a couple of Xeons having their base clock rate at around 1,9-2,1 Ghz, however, their turbo increases the clock rate by nearly 1 GHz. That's pretty much! Since high clock rates are more important for CIFS shares, i would like to ask if FreeNAS benefits from turbo and increases the clock rate, providing that load and thermal conditions are suitable.
If not: there are also Xeons without any turbo running constantly beyond 3 ghz. However, typically they have a high TDP of 140 W.
Right now I'm looking at Xeon E5 2620v4.


2.) The published Hardware guide on the website recommends using 3ware /LSI / Avagotech HBAs. I would like to use 9300-8i HBA. However I can't find this device in the list of supported hardware. Is there any reason for it?

Furthermore, I noticed in some threads some warning about LSI, like this one:

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/hardware-recommendations-read-this-first.23069/
in this thread i still read:

Avoid the LSI SAS/SATA 3Gbps HBA/RAID controllers. They have a 2TB size limit which is almost considered to be amateur-sized disks by today's standards.

The new LSI SAS 12Gb/sec cards are "supported". I put it in quotes because the driver is listed as "early alpha" and is basically unstable by everyone who has tried to use it. If you use this, you are a fool and deserve the hell's wrath you will get for using it. :p There is no ETA on when the driver will get better, but I wouldn't expect it to be "stable" before the end of 2015.

well... is this still up 2 date?
Is it still required to have firmeware patched at v16 as well as driver at v16?



3.) I would like to use single socket 2011 Supermicro Mainboard for Xeon E5v4. I also like the Xeon E3v5 1151 (especially 1260Lv5 due to low TDP), however, such a System is limited to 64 GByte RAM... That's too less when looking how hard disk capacity developed over the past ten years and how they probably will develop in future!

Is the thumb rule valid for storage arrays of any size? E.g. are 100 gbyte ram also recommended for 100 tbyte useable space? (My Environment: max 5 windows cifs user who access storage simultaneously, no database, lots of photo raw material, some raw video footage, 2-3 shares mounted as iscsi drive on client computers, these iscsi drives should have a quick reaction due to photo editing)


4.) I couldn't find the Intel NICs which are used by Supermicro mainboards in the FreeNAS supported Hardware list (intel i350 / i210). Is this correct?
What's the difference between i350 and i210 (do they support link aggregation?) and what NICs do you recommend for 10 Gbit/s ethernet?


5.) I remember one thread or guide in this forum describing that the maximum recommended drives per disk-pool are 12... Is this also valid for a mirrored drives-pool?


Well, that's a lot of questions. I appreciate any help! Thanks again!

Cheers!

 

[BigDave]

2.) The published Hardware guide on the website recommends using 3ware /LSI / Avagotech HBAs. I would like to use 9300-8i HBA. However I can't find this device in the list of supported hardware. Is there any reason for it?

According to the Avago website the 9300-8i is based on the LSI SAS 3008 chipset and is supported by the mpr(4) driver as of FreeBSD 10.1
https://www.freebsd.org/releases/10.1R/hardware.html

3.) I would like to use single socket 2011 Supermicro Mainboard for Xeon E5v4. I also like the Xeon E3v5 1151 (especially 1260Lv5 due to low TDP), however, such a System is limited to 64 GByte RAM... That's too less when looking how hard disk capacity developed over the past ten years and how they probably will develop in future!

The use of low power CPU's is not recommended due to the low speeds taking longer to get the job completed,
thus causing it to work longer before returning to idle. The thought being if the faster CPU gets the job done
quicker, it returns to idle that much sooner.

 

[Stux]

3.) I would like to use single socket 2011 Supermicro Mainboard for Xeon E5v4. I also like the Xeon E3v5 1151 (especially 1260Lv5 due to low TDP), however, such a System is limited to 64 GByte RAM... That's too less when looking how hard disk capacity developed over the past ten years and how they probably will develop in future!

Have you looked at the Xeon E5-1600 v3/v4 series? They are the single socket version of the E5-2600 series, and are generally much cheaper, and have higher higher clocks. If you're not interested in having two processors, then they can be worth it. Also, you can always replace one with an E5-26XX later, if they appear at a decent price on ebay ;)

http://www.servethehome.com/intel-xeon-e5-1600-v4-workstation-processor-family-launched/

PS: I hope FreeNAS supports Turboboost :)

 

[Dice]

well... is this still up 2 date?
Is it still required to have firmeare patched at v16 as well as driver at v16?

No.
Most parts of the hardware recomendations thread is valid, some specifics are unfortunately not on par with reality.
Version 20 is the current required firmware/driver version.

Is the thumb rule valid for storage arrays of any size? E.g. are 100 gbyte ram also recommended for 100 tbyte useable space?

"yes" as the resident grinch once posted ;)
This post is explains well. Instead of poorly reformulating the key elements from memory I went the extra mile to dig it up for you ;)
In a further post (maybe in a different thread) - the 'swamping of the rule' should not exceed 2:1 ratio.

and what NICs do you recommend for 10 Gbit/s ethernet?

There is a sticky primerthread on this in one of the subforums IIRC.

5.) I remember one thread or guide in this forum describing that the maximum recommended drives per disk-pool are 12... Is this also valid for a mirrored drives-pool?

You understand incorrectly.
The limitation refers to number of drives within a vdev, and is only relevant to RAIDZ. Multiple vdevs can be used to build the pool. That way, mirrors are not affected.

 

[maglin]

Are you building a 100TB box? Might want to look at a couple of SuperMicro E16 4U enclosures to hold all the drives if that is your intention.

If you get a SuperMicro board you might want to look at one with inboard 10G NIC and onboard SAS3 controller. It sounds like you are looking for something powerful and future being what it is you might want those things.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jgreco]

1.) Is there a native support for Intel Turbo Boost technology?
Reason for the question: there are a couple of Xeons having their base clock rate at around 1,9-2,1 Ghz, however, their turbo increases the clock rate by nearly 1 GHz. That's pretty much! Since high clock rates are more important for CIFS shares, i would like to ask if FreeNAS benefits from turbo and increases the clock rate, providing that load and thermal conditions are suitable.

No. There is no such thing. The processor itself manages its turbo boost, and operating systems can't really affect it except maybe to schedule core usage in a pattern that causes eligibility for turbo. The OS cannot force the CPU to do turbo.

You can, however, turn off turbo. Not recommended.

 

[anodos]

You can, however, turn off turbo. Not recommended.

Unless you have a really old computer with a 'turbo' button.

 

[jgreco]

Unless you have a really old computer with a 'turbo' button.

I've had to explain that to people who never saw a computer from before the '90's, hah.

 

[Scampicfx]

Hey gents,
thanks for all your information and your help! I really appreciate that! :)
The Xeons E16xxv4 are a good suggestion! At the beginning I didn't consider them for using in the storage server due to the high TDP... But, well, I hope that the power consumption is at least comparable to those CPUs with ~ 85 Watt TDP... ;) The 1650v4 runs 6 Cores at at least 3,6 GHz... cool :)

Thanks for the hint on the 10G NIC Primer... if anyone reads this and needs a link to it, here it is: https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/10-gig-networking-primer.25749/
I will have a lookout for Dell N2024 Switch and Chelsio T420-CR / T520-CR Network Card!