Lightweight, Speedy Proposal

[patrickjp93]

My primary question is around Oculink. Does FreeNAS support it fully now? Will this block ZFS' required direct access to the hardware? If so, back to the drawing board for me...

Please ignore the compatibility warnings. The case's 3.5" drives have 2x2.5" compatibility. And the PSU length restriction is solved with a few hammerstrokes on a non-structural bump in the floor of the case. The 2 HDDs would be for making a mirrored dataset backup, mounted in a USB enclosure.

Part of the motivation for running such a compact, literally lightweight setup is it needs to be able to be moved quickly at low risk by an almost frail person if no one else is around in an emergency situation (hurricanes in this case). So yes, it's expensive for the amount of storage, but there are reasons beyond the raw speed and capacity being considered in its design.

System Builder

pcpartpicker.com

I'm intending to run in RAID Z2 with a single vdev, so 6TB of effective storage which will hold sensitive documents for preservation as well as full system backups for 4 PCs, PDFs of books, movies, music, etc.. I will be employing both encryption and compression across all data.

My second question is on the system drive and RAM. I'm planning to use this machine with the PLEX Server plugin to do music and video streaming throughout the house. What are the storage and memory requirements when using PLEX with encryption and compression? Caching really isn't important for this setup by virtue of the all-flash storage array. In fact if I can simply make a Live USB work as the boot drive, that's probably preferable to start given the up-front cost.

 

[patrickjp93]

i think you should see some ceos brother :)

What is a CEO in this context?

 

[Apollo]

@patrickjp93, I couldn't find relevant information about OCulink as you need to be member of the PCI-SIG to be granted access to the specs.
As per AsRock stating OCulink to be connected to SATA port, I suspect OCulink only refers to the connector itself and not the protocol. Which means SATA support shouldn't be a problem.
Someone more knowledgeable on this could comment about it.

From your list, you are going to order the Ryzen 5 3400G which has the graphic processor. Freenas do not use the GPU, but there have been some request for possible GPU transcoding for PLEX.
I have read on some forums that the X version of the CPU supports ECC. You need to find that out.

In case of a Hurricane, having to carry a PC around is going to be a core for anybody and it will be extremely difficult keeping it dry. Have you been in or around a Hurricane before?
You would be safer having cold storage in a bank safety deposit box.

The USB mirrored backup isn't too reliable and you could end up corrupting it's data.

 

[danb35]

In case of a Hurricane, having to carry a PC around is going to be a core for anybody and it will be extremely difficult keeping it dry

You generally get quite a bit of notice of a coming hurricane; I'm sure the idea would be to evacuate (taking the server) before it hits. Though I'd think a better idea yet would be to use hot-swappable drives, which would make it easy to take only the drives with you.

 

[Apollo]

You generally get quite a bit of notice of a coming hurricane; I'm sure the idea would be to evacuate (taking the server) before it hits. Though I'd think a better idea yet would be to use hot-swappable drives, which would make it easy to take only the drives with you.

Normally you do, but there have been many cases where the path of a Hurricane changes in unprecedented pattern and you could get caught in the the path.

Evacuation isn't always possible, and if evacuation takes place, this means you will have to find shelter far away like hotels, motels or sometimes arenas.

 

[patrickjp93]

@patrickjp93, I couldn't find relevant information about OCulink as you need to be member of the PCI-SIG to be granted access to the specs.
As per AsRock stating OCulink to be connected to SATA port, I suspect OCulink only refers to the connector itself and not the protocol. Which means SATA support shouldn't be a problem.
Someone more knowledgeable on this could comment about it.

From your list, you are going to order the Ryzen 5 3400G which has the graphic processor. Freenas do not use the GPU, but there have been some request for possible GPU transcoding for PLEX.
I have read on some forums that the X version of the CPU supports ECC. You need to find that out.

In case of a Hurricane, having to carry a PC around is going to be a core for anybody and it will be extremely difficult keeping it dry. Have you been in or around a Hurricane before?
You would be safer having cold storage in a bank safety deposit box.

The USB mirrored backup isn't too reliable and you could end up corrupting it's data.

The person who would have to retrieve the drives and then reinsert them, if alone, would find that much worse, and shelling out the cash for a full hotswap backplane setup in a rack or more conventional case is not in the cards. This person is not the most tech-savvy, being from the previous generation of non-techs. I'm not speccing this out for myself, though even in that case, may as well save the money by whisking the whole system to safety. If they can shut the system down over the network, unplug the network and power ports, and pick up a ~14 lb. chassis, that's optimal for them.

They also drive a Land Rover with plenty of space and would make a five hour drive straight up a highway to family if they had to evacuate for a hurrican.

The 3400G does not list ECC support, but it's been validated to have it anyway, one of the few benefits of AMD in general. I may switch it out for a non-iGPU chip if iGPU-based PLEX transcoding doesn't become available by build time.

Thanks for the input. Yeah it's looking like a straight mirrored backup to 2 external enterprise HDDs will be the most reliable solution for cold backup storage. Literally the only worry is damage from vibrations. The roads to the safety deposit box are mostly dirt/gravel and bumpy from lots of farm equipment use, so we'll have to engineer a foam and rubber-filled briefcase, which isn't too bad. Thanks.

 

[patrickjp93]

Normally you do, but there have been many cases where the path of a Hurricane changes in unprecedented pattern and you could get caught in the the path.

Evacuation isn't always possible, and if evacuation takes place, this means you will have to find shelter far away like hotels, motels or sometimes arenas.

Hurricane Sandy being one such example from (semi) recent history. Only 1 of something like 15 weather models predicted it would strike New York City, and most Americans ignore that European model despite its successful record.

 

[Apollo]

@patrickjp93, if you have to drive 5hr to reach safety with relatives, then it would make more sense you build a backup at their place and run replication if it is possible.

Depending where you live, you could have several hurricane warning in the season and if you are advised to evacuate often, you could easily have your system down for days at a time.
You can look at the Pelican cases for storing your drives. Great and reliable products. That would take care of the dirt, water and vibrations when properly sized.

You can also do cold storage via offsite replication so that the older generation doesn't have to worry about dealing with the server at all. Someone else more tech savvy who will take care of the server at the offsite place could take care of everything especially if it is family and swap the volume for cold storage.


If predicting Hurricane path was possible with only one model you would be peachy, but it's not.

Hurricane Sandy:

SANDY Graphics Archive

Here is one about Charley who took a chunk of the entire east coast of the US, part of Canada and a couple French islands.

CHARLEY Graphics Archive

 

[danb35]

The person who would have to retrieve the drives and then reinsert them, if alone, would find that much worse, and shelling out the cash for a full hotswap backplane setup in a rack or more conventional case is not in the cards

Seriously? It'd be worse to flip a lever, pull a drive, repeat x7, than to disconnect and move the whole computer? And the cash requirement needn't be great. Consider this unit, for example:

Athena Power BP-15827SAC an 1 x 5.25" External Drive Bay to 8 x 2.5" SSD / HDD Hot-Swap SAS / SATA Backplane Module - Transfer Rate Up to 6 Gbps SAS (I, II) / SATA (I, II, III) - Newegg.com

Buy Athena Power BP-15827SAC an 1 x 5.25" External Drive Bay to 8 x 2.5" SSD / HDD Hot-Swap SAS / SATA Backplane Module - Transfer Rate Up to 6 Gbps SAS (I, II) / SATA (I, II, III) - Drive Thickness Up to 7mm - HDD / SSD Accessories with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you...

www.newegg.com

Eight 2.5" hot-swap trays in a single 5.25" external drive bay, for $62--if you're spending over $2k on the system, the additional $62 really shouldn't be that big of a deal--and if this dispenses with the requirement to be able to easily carry the whole thing, you might be able to save money on other parts. I don't have any personal experience with it, but it gets good reviews on Newegg. And the connections appear to be straight SATA pass-through, so there really doesn't seem to be much to go wrong.

 

[patrickjp93]

@patrickjp93, if you have to drive 5hr to reach safety with relatives, then it would make more sense you build a backup at their place and run replication if it is possible.

Depending where you live, you could have several hurricane warning in the season and if you are advised to evacuate often, you could easily have your system down for days at a time.
You can look at the Pelican cases for storing your drives. Great and reliable products. That would take care of the dirt, water and vibrations when properly sized.

You can also do cold storage via offsite replication so that the older generation doesn't have to worry about dealing with the server at all. Someone else more tech savvy who will take care of the server at the offsite place could take care of everything especially if it is family and swap the volume for cold storage.


If predicting Hurricane path was possible with only one model you would be peachy, but it's not.

Hurricane Sandy:

SANDY Graphics Archive

Here is one about Charley who took a chunk of the entire east coast of the US, part of Canada and a couple French islands.

CHARLEY Graphics Archive

Running replication over a meager 10Mbps (and that's $400/Mo commercial fiber) internet connection is just not gonna cut it, and that 5-hour drive is currently a house undergoing renovation before it's being moved out of. Suffice it to say, the situation is chaos and this was the sort of overly expensive, OP solution to a number of problems that are only problematic in combination.

Having the system down for days at a time multiple times in a given season isn't an issue. The system being erased/eradicated is problematic but recoverable.

We're north of Virginia Beach, so the chances of ACTUALLY being smacked by a storm potent enough to make us evacuate are remote.

If and when we get our ISPs down here to be reasonable and give us a 100Mbps connection, I'll happily replicate to Amazon S3 or Joyent Manta or Azure's equivalent.

 

[patrickjp93]

Seriously? It'd be worse to flip a lever, pull a drive, repeat x7, than to disconnect and move the whole computer? And the cash requirement needn't be great. Consider this unit, for example:

Athena Power BP-15827SAC an 1 x 5.25" External Drive Bay to 8 x 2.5" SSD / HDD Hot-Swap SAS / SATA Backplane Module - Transfer Rate Up to 6 Gbps SAS (I, II) / SATA (I, II, III) - Newegg.com

Buy Athena Power BP-15827SAC an 1 x 5.25" External Drive Bay to 8 x 2.5" SSD / HDD Hot-Swap SAS / SATA Backplane Module - Transfer Rate Up to 6 Gbps SAS (I, II) / SATA (I, II, III) - Drive Thickness Up to 7mm - HDD / SSD Accessories with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you...

www.newegg.com

Eight 2.5" hot-swap trays in a single 5.25" external drive bay, for $62--if you're spending over $2k on the system, the additional $62 really shouldn't be that big of a deal--and if this dispenses with the requirement to be able to easily carry the whole thing, you might be able to save money on other parts. I don't have any personal experience with it, but it gets good reviews on Newegg. And the connections appear to be straight SATA pass-through, so there really doesn't seem to be much to go wrong.

I'll look at this, but bear this in mind: I'm building for an impatient, somewhat frail, crochety person. They complained at the idea of removing and transporting 8 drives vs. the whole system. I'm not building this for myself, rather a very particular, family customer.