BUILD HP ML10 v2 - am I the only one?

[Whatts]

Hi all,

After my first and home-built Xeon FreeNAS machine, I was looking for a cheaper and ready-to-go alternative as a second FreeNAS box.
I landed on the HP Proliant ML10 v2 (http://www8.hp.com/emea_middle_east...product-detail.html?oid=7876074#!tab=features). I've got it on order now together with 1 disk (there will be no "real" pool but one pool per HDD as it's non-critical data that I have offline backups of).

It's a dualcore Pentium G3240 with 4GB of ECC RAM (1 slot occupied, 4 in total up to 32GB), Intel C222 chipset and 2 NICs (NC332i Broadcom BCM5720 according to info I found somewhere).
It's software fakeRAID with 4 SATA connections.
Edit for clarity: I intend to add more RAM (probably switch to 16GB) and I still have 1 or 2 Intel Gigabit CT NICs that I will add to avoid the Broadcom NIC).

It'll be used for CIFS/SMB so the 3.1GHz CPU should be fast enough I think.
My "question" is: am I missing something?
At a little over € 200, this looks like an ideal box for a small FreeNAS to me, yet I've not found any mention of a ML10 v2-based system anywhere...

Regards,

Whatts aka. Tom

 

[Bidule0hm]

My "question" is: am I missing something?

Yes.

RAM is half the minimum requirement so you need to add at least 4 GB.

Broadcom NICs are crappy as Realtek ones, maybe even crappier...

And why on earth using FreeNAS if you just want a bunch of drives without any redundancy?

 

[Whatts]

RAM is half the minimum requirement so you need to add at least 4 GB.

I should have specified that I was planning to add RAM (and I should also have checked the updated hardware requirements, seems this is now 8GB instead of the previous 4GB - at least I think this was the case before).

Broadcom NICs are crappy as Realtek ones, maybe even crappier...

I should also have specified that I'll install an Intel NIC I still have around (even though I'll be testing with the Broadcom first to see what kind of results I'll get).

And why on earth using FreeNAS if you just want a bunch of drives without any redundancy?

Why not? I'm familiar with it and I like it. As I said, I don't need any redundancy for the data that will be on this box.

 

[HoneyBadger]

Might want to edit that information into the initial post as that makes a pretty significant difference in the recommendations.

As far as the last point @Bidule0hm is making, I think it's "if you're not looking for the enhanced redundancy/security that ZFS offers, why not use a less-demanding filesystem?"

But I'm guessing the main reason you don't see much of it is the relatively young age and low drive count. There's a few folks using the HP MicroServers, but they're still only capable of holding four drives without requiring modifications/extra HBAs. Something like the Fractal Node 304 allows for six, which gives you less lost space to parity when doing the common-for-a-home-user RAIDZ2 setup of 4+2 drives.

Of course this is coming from a guy who thinks that a twelve-bay Dell C2100 is a perfectly acceptable "home use" FreeNAS box.

 

[Nick2253]

Of course this is coming from a guy who thinks that a twelve-bay Dell C2100 is a perfectly acceptable "home use" FreeNAS box.

Shh, we mustn't let our significant others know that anything less would work :p

 

[Whatts]

Might want to edit that information into the initial post as that makes a pretty significant difference in the recommendations.

Done. That'll teach me not to post 5 minutes before I have to leave in a hurry.

As far as the last point @Bidule0hm is making, I think it's "if you're not looking for the enhanced redundancy/security that ZFS offers, why not use a less-demanding filesystem?"

I understand that point, but I'm thinking because:

• I like FreeNAS
• I can
• there's no such thing as overkill

:)
Basically I want/need to add (non-redundant) storage space. I could buy yet another Synology NAS, but a 4-drive model with similar performance would cost about the same as this box (with the additional RAM).
Also, there's no fun in that.
I could run the ML10 with NAS4free, but (although I've had some good results with transfer speeds on low-budget equipment), I prefer FreeNAS over NAS4free.

But I'm guessing the main reason you don't see much of it is the relatively young age and low drive count. There's a few folks using the HP MicroServers, but they're still only capable of holding four drives without requiring modifications/extra HBAs. Something like the Fractal Node 304 allows for six, which gives you less lost space to parity when doing the common-for-a-home-user RAIDZ2 setup of 4+2 drives.

There was a v1 version of the ML10 with comparable specs, so it's not that new anymore.
You have a point concerning the limited number of drives, though there might be more 4-drive systems out there than some people think.
Maybe not a bad idea to start a "# of drives" poll...

Of course this is coming from a guy who thinks that a twelve-bay Dell C2100 is a perfectly acceptable "home use" FreeNAS box.

Shh, we mustn't let our significant others know that anything less would work :p

I stopped counting my total storage space recently when I crossed the 100TB threshold ( for my household of... 1).
I have a problem with the delete key :D

 

[horizonbrave]

Please, did anyone collect more info/experience on the HP ML10 v2 and in particular in how to disable the RAID to let freenas be able to do his job?
Many thanks :)