Homelab Dell T330 - VMware/RAID/FreeNAS Server Configuration

[ujjain]

I have a T330 with a Xeon E3-1240 V6, H330 Controller, 32GB ECC DDR4. I'm planning to add a few 4TB drives I already have and go for a RAIDZ2. Maybe go for 8x4TB when I end up liking using FreeNAS.

I've passthrough'ed the Dell H330 controller to the FreeNAS VM and so far it worked fine. I just added 1 drive to test. I'm getting 32GB more RAM at Amazon.co.uk, so I can give FreeNAS some more memory.

• I have 3 usable PCIe slots, 1x 16, 2x 8.
• I've placed a Samsung Pro 960 in a M2-NVMe adaptor 4, H330 8 and 10Gbit card 4, so all 3 PCIe slots are in use.
• I still have 2x250GB NVMe SSD's (WD Black 256GB) lying here.

I was thinking maybe replacing the M2-NVMe adaptor by one that has 2 ports and use those SSD's for both the L2ARC and ZIL/SLOG.

Any tips are welcome. I guess losing a few seconds worth of data when the server crashes (write cache), wouldn't be the worst, but I really do want a reliable NAS. I'm migrating away from a raid-5 solution with an Atom CPU, that was extremely slow and raid-5 obviously isn't reliable either.

Tips are very welcome!

 

[Stux]

For the dual slot m.2 carrier card to work your bios/board needs to support PCIe bifurcation and the card needs a clock buffer. Alternatively, the card needs a PCIe switch.

M.2 drives without PLP are not really suitable for SLOG. You could use a Sata drive with PLP for the slog.

I've setup a similar AIO here

 

[ujjain]

Thanks, the Supermicro dual NVMe is indeed not working unfortunately as the card needs PCIe bifurcation, but I don't find this option in the Dell bios at all.

• http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AOC-SLG3-2M2.cfm

Your set-up looks great. I actually considered it before, but unfortunately it only has 1 PCIe slot and not many motherboard mention if they support PCIe bifurcation or not.

I bought a very cheap Supermicro motherboard on Amazon, I might play with that if the real product actually arrives, which I don't think it will for many reasons.

You are right about SSD's, but I didn't have many SATA slots. The WD Black 256GB might make for a good L2ARC because of high read speed? Although far too big. How much should I pay for a P3700 on eBay?

 

[Stux]

Thanks, the Supermicro dual NVMe is indeed not working unfortunately as the card needs PCIe bifurcation, but I don't find this option in the Dell bios at all.

• http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AOC-SLG3-2M2.cfm

Your set-up looks great. I actually considered it before, but unfortunately it only has 1 PCIe slot and not many motherboard mention if they support PCIe bifurcation or not.

Thanks, I was well aware of the limitation, but I have Wife Acceptance to think of :)

Full PCIe switch version is an option

I bought a very cheap Supermicro motherboard on Amazon, I might play with that if the real product actually arrives, which I don't think it will for many reasons.

You are right about SSD's, but I didn't have many SATA slots. The WD Black 256GB might make for a good L2ARC because of high read speed? Although far too big.

Perhaps use the as pool SSDs?

How much should I pay for a P3700 on eBay?

No idea. None were available when I looked, and I had a business reason to proceed, so paid retail (discounted, but still)

 

[Ericloewe]

I bought a very cheap Supermicro motherboard on Amazon, I might play with that if the real product actually arrives, which I don't think it will for many reasons.

Holy crap, that's an insane deal. Too bad it's a workstation board.

 

[ujjain]

It's listed under antennas and previously sold for €70.

Now that I check the price compare it shows mostly as the Avinity 107564 Câble d'antenne Noir on most Amazon sites:

https://www.heidoc.net/amazon/amazon_global_check.php?asin=B005N8VQ1G

I've had enough previous experience with Amazon to know this would probably just end up costing me time, but we'll see.

 

[ujjain]

I just read your X10 memory recommendations. I hope that's not the case for Dell servers?

I just ordered 2x Kingston 16 GB 2400 MHz DDR4 ECC CL17 DIMM Micron A Memory

• https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01FM3GHQU

 

[Ericloewe]

They don't apply at all to anything that uses DDR4, except for the "LGA115x doesn't take UDIMMs" part.

 

[ujjain]

I've always thought Xeon E3 (LGA 1150/1151) motherboards generally take ECC UDIMM and Xeon E5 motherboards take ECC RDIMM (or LRDIMM).

 

[Ericloewe]

E5s support UDIMMs as well. LRDIMMs are not supported on E5-16xx models.

 

[ujjain]

Well, I have some spare ECC Udimm's, didn't see them listed at https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/xeon/c600/x10dac.cf, but would be great.

https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/xeon/c600/x10dac.cfm

 

[Ericloewe]

If you have them, it can't hurt to try.

 

[ujjain]

Yep, just hoping the equipment will arrive on time before the return deadline expires, but we'll see.

I might want to send back 32GB UDIMM to Amazon anyway, if this Supermicro board prefers RDIMM's.