HDD RAIDZ# & OS setup

[Rilo Ravestein]

Hi there,

I'm building a NAS, with these components:

Mobo: Supermicro X10SLH-F
RAM: 4x (the Supermicro recommended) Samsung M391B1G73QH0-YK0 (8GB) - 32GB Total
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1246 v3
HDDs: 6x Hitachi HGST Deskstar NAS 3TB (bought from 3 different stores, hopefully 3 different batches)
PSU: Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 10 550W (BN200)
Case: Fractal design Define R4 + extra 140mm (front) fan
UPS: Cyberpower CP900EPFCLCD

Gigabit network connections, using a managed gigabit switch, capable of LACP

A few questions:

(1)
I want to really get the best possible performance out of this build, while still keeping good redundancy. I was thinking of a pool with 1 RAIDZ2 VDev, containing all 6 HDDs.
Is this the way to go? Should this be able to saturate my (LACP) Gigabit network? Any recommendations?

(2)
Is this MB affected by the so-called USB 3.0 bug? I googled a bit, but could not find anything releated to this motherboard.
http://apcmag.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-haswell-lynx-point-chipset.htm

(3)
What's "the best" (fast, reliable) small (will be plugged in the front USB interface) USB (3.0 if the 2nd question is not applicable) storage for installing the OS?

Note: I did a lot of reading already, but still consider myself a FreeNAS newbee. I did search the forum, but please tell me if i missed some thread that already ansers (any of) my questions.

Thanks!

 

[cyberjock]

1. Assuming LACP will actually help you, it should for raw throughput. When I say "will actually help you" that usually means 10+ client machines with simultaneous workload. So if this is for home use, LACP will be more of a burden than anything else.

2. No clue. As USB isn't something you will use much except for booting (and even then the performance impact between USB2 and USB3 isn't significant enough to care about, you shouldn't care either. ;)

3. Many use the Sandisk Mini.

 

[Rilo Ravestein]

Thanks for the reply,

1. Not all the time, but there will be times that 10+ clients will be connected. Besides that, i am also an enthousiast who would like to explore every possibility to tune this system, so i will explore the LACP road . But first i would like to know it the proposed HDD setup will be able to saturate that kind of network. (Why would it be a burden btw?)

2. Yeah, i know about that, but a lot of "current" usb thumb drives are 3.0, so if this board is affected with this bug i want to stay way from those.

3. Do you have a link to this Sandisk Mini? I cannot find it, even on the Sandisk site.

 

[cyberjock]

LACP is a burden if your hardware doesn't properly support LACP, you don't know how to properly setup LACP, etc. One of the reasons we don't necessarily recommend LACP is because too many people don't know how to set it up properly, don't have proper hardware, and then spend stupendous amounts of time trying to get it to work for what is often zero gain.

Your USB3 sticks should work just fine in USB2 ports.

As for the sandisk it's not called mini. Its called the Cruzer fit.. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...cm_re=sandisk_mini-_-9SIA4UB22J5530-_-Product

 

[Rilo Ravestein]

Thanks, cyberjock!

FYI:
Found this one, which gets some great reviews. Fast, cheap & small: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...cm_re=sandisk_ultrafit-_-20-173-033-_-Product
Review: http://www.tekbeattv.com/sandisk-ultra-fit-usb-3-0-flash-drive-review-64-gb/