Is ECC really necessary for a backup NAS

[gardenman]

We are looking to build a NAS for copying backups to disks to be stored offsite. This would be done either weekly or monthly. We are currently backing up to a NAS, but to rebuild from tape is way too slow. We have been testing with my home NAS which is running FreeNAS and it's speed is acceptable. We wanted to go with AMD for cost reasons but I am having trouble finding info on motherboards that are ECC compatible. Any help would be appreciated. We will be using Acronis to manage the backups.

 

[ser_rhaegar]

If the data is important (presumably it is as this is a backup) then ECC is required.

Would you want to find out during a data recovery instance that your backups are toast due to RAM errors? Probably not as your day would already be bad enough.

 

[HoneyBadger]

If the data is important (presumably it is as this is a backup) then ECC is required.

Would you want to find out during a data recovery instance that your backups are toast due to RAM errors? Probably not as your day would already be bad enough.

In the industry we call that an RGE - Resume Generating Event.

There's certain areas where you can trim a little budget - ECC RAM is definitely not one of them. Go from Xeon to Pentium if you have to and compromise on performance, but don't compromise stability.

 

[gardenman]

The data would be important, but from what I am reading RAM errors aren't all that common, (and even less common at my altitude) and this would only be used in the case of an extreme emergency such as a fire. There is a low likelihood that we would ever use it and then another low likelihood that there would be major errors due to RAM. Anyone know of any AM3+ MOBO with ECC?

 

[jgreco]

Honestly, I wouldn't do it but it is a situation in which I could see it possibly being workable. But then again it is like putting a big sign reading "Kick me, Fate!" on your back. Hm.

 

[HoneyBadger]

The data would be important, but from what I am reading RAM errors aren't all that common, (and even less common at my altitude) and this would only be used in the case of an extreme emergency such as a fire. There is a low likelihood that we would ever use it and then another low likelihood that there would be major errors due to RAM. Anyone know of any AM3+ MOBO with ECC?

The catastrophic means needed to invoke this solution is all the more reason that you want to make sure your backup solution is bulletproof. If you're that far up the proverbial creek, do you want to be the one who tells the powers that be that your paddle is made of Popsicle sticks and duct tape? ;)

If you don't mind, post a budget you're working with and your current build. I imagine we can get you over to ECC for a minimal increase.

AM3+ boards with ECC, the ASUS M5A97 R2.0 was used recently by another member; but FreeBSD/FreeNAS and AMD aren't always on the best terms, since the boards tend to use Realtek NICs and lesser-known SATA controllers.

 

[gardenman]

It's the powers that be that will try to keep costs to a minimum. We are trying to keep it @ $500 reusing an old server case not counting disks. It would be about 1TB of data after compression and dedup.
Current config: AMD Athlon64 X2 5000+ and 4 Gb Corsair XMS2 2x2Gb TWIN2X4096-6400C5DHX for Ram

 

[ser_rhaegar]

How many disks?

 

[gardenman]

1 or 2 . I will go with ECC now that honey badger pointed me toward the ASUS M5A97 R2.0 I just couldn't find any info on ECC on non server MOBO. I always used to buy ECC for all my builds 10 yrs ago, seems that most people aren't interested in ECC anymore.

 

[gardenman]

I am not having too many issues with the realtek nic on the MOBO although the transfer does seem to hang occasionally, but it always finishes. We are seeing about 10 MB/sec over the network. Will an intel NIC PCIe x1 benifit our build?

 

[cyberjock]

An X9SCM-F + G2020 should be more than adequate for a backup server. Has Intel NIC, IPMI, etc. All the stuff you want and none of the stuff you don't. If you want the current gen hardware(which is far from necessary, even as a primary server) you can go with a G3220 and the comparable X10 board(sorry, don't have a model number).

Total cost for the X9SCM-F and G2020 is a little less than $250 USD total.

I use the X9SCM-F with a Xeon.. so I have firsthand experience with this board. ;)

 

[gardenman]

An X9SCM-F + G2020 should be more than adequate for a backup server. Has Intel NIC, IPMI, etc. All the stuff you want and none of the stuff you don't. If you want the current gen hardware(which is far from necessary, even as a primary server) you can go with a G3220 and the comparable X10 board(sorry, don't have a model number).

Total cost for the X9SCM-F and G2020 is a little less than $250 USD total.

I use the X9SCM-F with a Xeon.. so I have firsthand experience with this board. ;)

That sounds good what RAM are you running?

 

[cyberjock]

I don't remember the exact model number. But anything on the HCL for that motherboard should work fine.

 

[joelmusicman]

I am not having too many issues with the realtek nic on the MOBO although the transfer does seem to hang occasionally, but it always finishes. We are seeing about 10 MB/sec over the network. Will an intel NIC PCIe x1 benifit our build?

It might or might not. SOMETHING on your network is limiting you to 100mbit speeds. Could even be a cable!

If you have GbE you should see large files transfer at a rate of 90MB/s or so.

 

[fracai]

It would be about 1TB of data after compression and dedup.

Dedup is almost never worth turning on. Stick with compression.

 

[gardenman]

Our main switches are 100Mb . When we are through testing It will be connected through our Gb switch

 

[gardenman]

After reading your guide cyberjock I think I should spend more time researching a build around the X9SCM-F which sounds like a good choice.[/quote]

 

[joelmusicman]

Our main switches are 100Mb . When we are through testing It will be connected through our Gb switch

Ah. Once you consider adding a NIC, the cost savings of going with non-ECC/AMD really start to disappear anyway compared with the server-grade stuff that comes with Intel NICs built in.

 

[gpsguy]

You have just 4Gb of RAM in your test box, 1/2 of the minimum needed for ZFS on FreeNAS.

Quoting from the manual "ZFS will automatically disable pre-fetching (caching) on systems where it is not
able to use at least 4 GB of memory just for ZFS cache and data structures."

This can have a negative impact on performance.

I am not having too many issues with the realtek nic on the MOBO although the transfer does seem to hang occasionally, but it always finishes. We are seeing about 10 MB/sec over the network. Will an intel NIC PCIe x1 benifit our build?

 

[gardenman]

You have just 4Gb of RAM in your test box, 1/2 of the minimum needed for ZFS on FreeNAS.

This was just a test I did with my old pc at home I compared it to my virtual ubuntuserver as a video server and it failed miserably. My colleague at work was trying to use tape for archives and it was way too slow. I let him try my test NAS and it was way faster. That is why I am considering building one.