Hiya :)

[Ducky]

Been looking around all the threads for information the last couple of weeks. I'm more a Windows guy, but I've got an HP DL380G8 lying around so thought it would be fun to set FreeNAS up on it and maybe use it to replace my Synology NAS.

Thanks to some instructions I found on the 'net, I've bypassed the P420 raid controller so it's operating in HBA mode only.

I've got the system booting off a 16Gb SD card, but no redundancy on that front.....!

Storage is 24 x 900Gb 2.5" SAS drives installed, and 1 x 300Gb drive, so I may swap one of 900's for a 300 to give me a pair of them (and then a spare 900). Not loads of storage, but more than enough for what I would need. (file shares, virtual machines, archive).

I've not decided exactly the best way to carve up the storage, still reading about the different options available with FreeNAS. Ideally I would like the maximum amount of space with redundancy for a single drive failure.

Processor wise there are two Xeon E5-2420 CPUS installed, albeit only 1.9/2.4Ghz but lots of cores (12+HT) so hopefully FreeNAS can use the extra cores to compensate for lack of Mhz! 200Gb of ECC memory installed also.

I've got a Qlogic 10Gb card installed, but as yet I don't have a 10Gb switch, so that's something I'll look into to get the most out of it.

Power consumption/noise I think may be the big issue, not 100% sure what the G8 pulls when chugging along.

Still, I'm looking forward to getting it setup and seeing how it all pans out! :D

Cheers
Chris

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

Welcome to the forums!

24 x 900Gb 2.5" SAS drives installed ... Not loads of storage

virtual machines ... maximum amount of space

These requirements are in direct conflict. You might want to split your storage into two pools, one for VMs and one for less IO-intensive uses. The VM pool should have as many vdevs as possible, ideally striped mirrors. The layout of the other depends on your risk tolerance.

200Gb of ECC memory installed

Seems like overkill.

 

[Ducky]

Welcome to the forums!
These requirements are in direct conflict. You might want to split your storage into two pools, one for VMs and one for less IO-intensive uses. The VM pool should have as many vdevs as possible, ideally striped mirrors. The layout of the other depends on your risk tolerance.

Thanks for that, I'll do some more reading up on the vdevs. I have another box I could run the VM's off, but thought it would be quite good to try them off the FreeNAS box as an option.

I know it's a bit overkill, but I can't use the memory in anything else (currently).

:)

 

[JoshDW19]

I'm jealous of all that memory! Welcome to the forums.

 

[Ducky]

Lol, well to be honest if I find another use for any of it later on, I'll just pull it out.:)

 

[danb35]

Wow, and I thought my RAM was overkill! Actually, it is, just yours is more so. That certainly won't hurt anything though.

Only other thing I'd point out is your boot device--SD cards aren't recommended (they're even worse than USB sticks). USB sticks are somewhat recommended, and they're easy to mirror for redundancy. A small SSD is better yet, but it will usually take a bay and a SATA port that you may not have free.

 

[Mlovelace]

not 100% sure what the G8 pulls when chugging along.

I've got three HP DL380p Gen8 servers in production, albeit slightly different config. These servers have dual E5-2697 v2 and 256GB of RAM, 4 Intel X520-DA2 dual port 10Gbe cards. They run between 210 - 280 watts depending on load. I would imagine your server would pull a bit more power as you're running more on-board storage. My three use a Nimble SAN for storage so they only have 3 x 300GB 10K SAS for local boot volume.

 

[Ducky]

Wow, and I thought my RAM was overkill! Actually, it is, just yours is more so. That certainly won't hurt anything though.

Only other thing I'd point out is your boot device--SD cards aren't recommended (they're even worse than USB sticks). USB sticks are somewhat recommended, and they're easy to mirror for redundancy. A small SSD is better yet, but it will usually take a bay and a SATA port that you may not have free.

I know, I used the 16GB SD card as it was the only thing I had lying around (plus there was an internal slot for it), I don't think the server has dual internal USB ports (plenty of external), otherwise I would have perhaps used those for redundancy (not so keen on them being external). I've got a couple of old SSD's spare...but like you say it would steal a bay.

Keeping the spend to a minimum! lol :)

 

[Mlovelace]

I know, I used the 16GB SD card as it was the only thing I had lying around (plus there was an internal slot for it), I don't think the server has dual internal USB ports (plenty of external), otherwise I would have perhaps used those for redundancy (not so keen on them being external). I've got a couple of old SSD's spare...but like you say it would steal a bay.

Keeping the spend to a minimum! lol :)

Just use the cruizer fit USB drives on the rear ports, they're very low profile so you'd hardly even notice them.

 

[danb35]

The Sandisk Cruzer Fit USB drives are fairly popular here, partially because they only stick out about 1/4" (or 6mm) from the USB port. But as long as you keep a current backup of your config file, boot device failure is pretty much a non-event. Just install to a new one, upload your saved config, and you're set.

 

[Mlovelace]

The Sandisk Cruzer Fit USB drives are fairly popular here, partially because they only stick out about 1/4" (or 6mm) from the USB port. But as long as you keep a current backup of your config file, boot device failure is pretty much a non-event. Just install to a new one, upload your saved config, and you're set.

Ha, Great minds! beat you to it though :p