Lots of noob’s questions inside

[ChrisRJ]

I see what you mean. I can put myself in a bit risky situation - it might not readily available when I need it. Plus why use something old, lower performance against what we have right now, harder to get parts, less power efficient and what costs exactly the same as a new build? Like a few years back I won't even think to build something on AMD, but times are changing...

I agree on the availability - had to wait several weeks myself until some really(!) good deals came around. Or it least what I consider good: 20 Euros for 16 GB of RAM, 35 Euros for an 8 core Xeon (now available for 20) etc. As to performance and power consumption, of course new gear is better. But it is also so much more expensive (probably close to ten-fold).

 

[ThreeDee]

I agree on the availability - had to wait several weeks myself until some really(!) good deals came around. Or it least what I consider good: 20 Euros for 16 GB of RAM, 35 Euros for an 8 core Xeon (now available for 20) etc. As to performance and power consumption, of course new gear is better. But it is also so much more expensive (probably close to ten-fold).

Yeah I got 64GB of DDR3 ECC RDIMM's for $70 off of ebay (4x16GB) .. my new setup .. it cost just under $400 for 4 x 16GB ECC DDR4 UDIMM's.

 

[starche.old]

Guys, quick question here. How I can change the network speed for the server? Why I'm asking: just noticed that the light around RJ-45 is amber instead of being green (100Mb/s instead of 1Gb/s). When I'm plugging the cord into my laptop, the light is green. So, the problem is NOT my network.
But not only that. In the dashboard, it shows as 100baseTX, nit 1000.

How I can change that?


One more philosophical question. I'd like to have the ability to admin the server from outside too (not from the home network only). Is that a good idea? If so, could you please direct me where I can get this info?
Update. I'll check with TrueNAS documentation later today, that might help.

 

[starche.old]

I'm running my old desktop for now. SO far so good, but once I'm starting to copy something on the server, RAM immediately going out. I ordered 8GB of RAM to see if that will help me. I hope that will help to come through so I can stop working in fireman mode and will have some time to breathe and look around.

Update: my NIC: Realtek 8111C
When I'm typing "ipconfig" in the shell, it says - "Command not found". Does that means that there is no command in FreeBSD (or TrueNAS)? Can I install it by myself so I can try to fix my issue?

 

[ChrisRJ]

Realtek NICs are notorious for all sorts of issues with TrueNAS. So your issue with the 100 Mbps line speed is most likely caused by that.

Outside access to a NAS is an extremely delicate thing. It would involve a VPN and strict security of any machine used for going in. I personally would not dare to do this, even with those measures in place. The tiniest configuration error could potentially expose my data and I am not willing to take that risk.

 

[starche.old]

I figured that out. Not a big deal for an experienced FreeBSD guy, but for the guy who's just starting - that was quite an experience. In a nutshell - that was the mixture of my bad luck/stupidity and lack of 1000baseTX (important - last X) support in re(4) driver for (among other NIC'es) Realtek 8111 family.

I see what you mean. Thank you for the advice, I won't do that then.

 

[ThreeDee]

Update: my NIC: Realtek 8111C
When I'm typing "ipconfig" in the shell, it says - "Command not found". Does that means that there is no command in FreeBSD (or TrueNAS)? Can I install it by myself so I can try to fix my issue?

it's ifconfig .. and as already stated, RealTek and FreeBSD don't play well together.

 

[starche.old]

Which one should I look at in the future? something Intel-based I guess?

It a more like a philosophical question. Now I'm copying my stuff to the server. I upgraded my current setup (already having 20GB of RAM) and thinking to max it to 24GB. Does it make sense? I'm not feeling that adding more RAM speeds up the speed of the file transfers.

How when I've got time to stop and think. What are the benefits of Intel Xeon against AMD Ryzen? From what I understood, almost everyone is using the Intel platform rather than AMD, thus there should be a reason. So, I'm trying to understand that reason.

Fro Intel platform. Which mobo brand you would recommend? SuperMicro? Or something else?
For CPUs - which Xeon CPUs should I look and which ones I should avoid?

I'm thinking to start looking for something on eBay.

Thank you.

 

[ChrisRJ]

It a more like a philosophical question. Now I'm copying my stuff to the server. I upgraded my current setup (already having 20GB of RAM) and thinking to max it to 24GB. Does it make sense? I'm not feeling that adding more RAM speeds up the speed of the file transfers.

It depends on your access patterns. For copying large files over, I would also expect very little, if any, benefit. But browsing directories etc. should be different. In my view it is largely about cost vs. benefit. Would I invest 50 Euros for 4 GB? Probably not. But if you find a good price, more RAM is always better.

How when I've got time to stop and think. What are the benefits of Intel Xeon against AMD Ryzen? From what I understood, almost everyone is using the Intel platform rather than AMD, thus there should be a reason. So, I'm trying to understand that reason.

When looking at the typical investment cycles for enterprise hardware, AMD is still pretty new (again). For many years they had basically left that playing field to Intel entirely. And conservative as that market is, things are just starting to change. With Epyc and its IO capacity pretty cool things are possible. But those are not necessary for SOHO users for a couple of years.

Fro Intel platform. Which mobo brand you would recommend? SuperMicro? Or something else?

Many people have good experiences with Supermicro, including myself. If you go for something a bit older, you get things considerably cheaper. In my case I went for X9SRi-F, because I found them cheap and they support DDR3 ECC RDIMMs, which are also cheap (16 GB for 20 Euros).

For CPUs - which Xeon CPUs should I look and which ones I should avoid?

Frequency is usually more important than cores. And for pure NAS funtionality (i.e. nothing like live transcoding with Plex etc.) any 4 core Xeon is more than sufficient. I run an E5 1620 with 4 cores at 3.6 GHz max and have never seen it above 40% utilization. Perhaps I missed some peaks, but that is the general situation.

 

[starche.old]

It depends on your access patterns. For copying large files over, I would also expect very little, if any, benefit. But browsing directories etc. should be different. In my view it is largely about cost vs. benefit. Would I invest 50 Euros for 4 GB? Probably not. But if you find a good price, more RAM is always better.

I see what you mean. I already put my 6GB on the local version of Craig's list. Let's wait and see. If I'll sell it then I'll max my RAM. But on another hand - I KNOW that I'm looking around for something newer than what I have. Why I need to waste money on this - that just does not seems right to me. I think 20GB is enough and that's it for now.

When looking at the typical investment cycles for enterprise hardware, AMD is still pretty new (again). For many years they had basically left that playing field to Intel entirely. And conservative as that market is, things are just starting to change. With Epyc and its IO capacity pretty cool things are possible. But those are not necessary for SOHO users for a couple of years.

Just to make sure I've got it. Aside from being too new for enterprise hardware, there's nothing wrong with AMD from a technical standpoint? That's a good thing, bcoz there's nothing wrong with the competition in this segment.

The only hiccup I'm seeing with AMD is mobo selection and their availability. for Ryzen there are very few mobos available. Additionally, the only place I can get the mobo I want (I would prefer ATX or even EATX, but not mATX, but there are not such mobos) is on Amazon from a strange place I never heard about. Why they are not that widely spread as they should? Anyway, I have to deal with what I have.

And that brings me to my 2nd choice - to look around for a good SM mobo and used Xeon. I have no idea about the numbering system for Xeon CPU (at the very 1st look - it's very confusing, especially with version numbers), but looks I need to learn that.

I'll start looking in eBay on what is available, but 1 st I need to have an idea regarding which mobo is good and which one is to be avoided at all costs, the same for CPU... That will be an interesting journey.

Many people have good experiences with Supermicro, including me. If you go for something a bit older, you get things considerably cheaper. In my case, I went for X9SRi-F, because I found them cheap and they support DDR3 ECC RDIMMs, which are also cheap (16 GB for 20 Euros).

From what I know about SM, they have the 11th generation of mobos. I guess they are reliable enough so you went 2 generations down. The only thing- for the sake of "future proof" I'd like to get something on DDR4.

Frequency is usually more important than cores. And for pure NAS funtionality (i.e. nothing like live transcoding with Plex etc.) any 4 core Xeon is more than sufficient. I run an E5 1620 with 4 cores at 3.6 GHz max and have never seen it above 40% utilization. Perhaps I missed some peaks, but that is the general situation.

There is a lot of stuff (from what I understood) aside from NAS, what I can do with the server. I guess I need to learn that plus try it out to see if I need that. Lots of people are talking about "home lab" (whatever that means), so good chances are I need the same

 

[ChrisRJ]

[..] Just to make sure I've got it. Aside from being too new for enterprise hardware, there's nothing wrong with AMD from a technical standpoint? That's a good thing, bcoz there's nothing wrong with the competition in this segment.

That is not what I meant. My point was that AMD has only relatively recently returned to the enterprise segment, in that they have a really competitive product. Therefore, right now the majority of gear in production is still Intel. This will gradually change over time, though.

The only hiccup I'm seeing with AMD is mobo selection and their availability. for Ryzen there are very few mobos available. Additionally, the only place I can get the mobo I want (I would prefer ATX or even EATX, but not mATX, but there are not such mobos) is on Amazon from a strange place I never heard about. Why they are not that widely spread as they should? Anyway, I have to deal with what I have.

Ryzen is not meant for servers. That does not mean you cannot use it for such a scenario. But you will not find many motherboards that (1) have the features typically desirable for servers (e.g. IPMI, fully working ECC), and (2) have the quality (e.g. for capacitors). Back in summer of 2020 I tried really hard to find something nice with Ryzen, but was not successful. This may have changed, though, and I leave that for others to comment on.

[..] From what I know about SM, they have the 11th generation of mobos. I guess they are reliable enough so you went 2 generations down. The only thing- for the sake of "future proof" I'd like to get something on DDR4.

Future-proof is something that rarely works well in IT. In my case going from X9 and DDR3 to X11 and DDR4 would have made things roughly 4-5 times more expensive. It's not that I couldn't have scraped the money together, but it made no sense to me economically.

 

[starche.old]

That is not what I meant. My point was that AMD has only relatively recently returned to the enterprise segment, in that they have a really competitive product. Therefore, right now the majority of gear in production is still Intel. This will gradually change over time, though.

Got it, thank you.

Ryzen is not meant for servers. That does not mean you cannot use it for such a scenario. But you will not find many motherboards that (1) have the features typically desirable for servers (e.g. IPMI, fully working ECC), and (2) have the quality (e.g. for capacitors). Back in summer of 2020 I tried really hard to find something nice with Ryzen, but was not successful. This may have changed, though, and I leave that for others to comment on.

Just looking on my mobo. It has good Japan-made capacitors (mobo is 12 years old, I used for 24/7 scientific calculations for 4-5 years straight, with CPU OC'd from 2.67GHz to 4.0-4.2GHz on a daily basis and periodical benchmarking trying to reach 5.0GHz) - it's still working. Mind you, that's a fairly expensive workstation-class mobo, not a usual gamer's stuff. Not sure if my mobo has "fully working ECC", but for sure IPMI you can find (from what I learned so far) on the server-grade mobos exclusively.

There 2 similar Asrock rack AMD mobos, I want to get this one (https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=X570D4U-2L2T#Memory). I do realize - that are only 2 mobos right now. I hope they will be more and more widely spread in nature.

Future-proof is something that rarely works well in IT. In my case going from X9 and DDR3 to X11 and DDR4 would have made things roughly 4-5 times more expensive. It's not that I couldn't have scraped the money together, but it made no sense to me economically.

100% agree.

 

[starche.old]

That is not what I meant. My point was that AMD has only relatively recently returned to the enterprise segment, in that they have a really competitive product. Therefore, right now the majority of gear in production is still Intel. This will gradually change over time, though.

Got it, thank you.

Ryzen is not meant for servers. That does not mean you cannot use it for such a scenario. But you will not find many motherboards that (1) have the features typically desirable for servers (e.g. IPMI, fully working ECC), and (2) have the quality (e.g. for capacitors). Back in summer of 2020 I tried really hard to find something nice with Ryzen, but was not successful. This may have changed, though, and I leave that for others to comment on.

Just looking on my mobo. It has good Japan-made capacitors (mobo is 12 years old, I used for 24/7 scientific calculations for 4-5 years straight, with CPU OC'd from 2.67GHz to 4.0-4.2GHz on a daily basis and periodical benchmarking trying to reach 5.0GHz) - it's still working. Mind you, that's a fairly expensive workstation-class mobo, not a usual gamer's stuff. Not sure if my mobo has "fully working ECC", but for sure IPMI you can find (from what I learned so far) on the server-grade mobos exclusively.

There 2 similar Asrock rack AMD mobos, I want to get this one (https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=X570D4U-2L2T#Memory). I do realize - that are only 2 mobos right now. I hope they will be more and more widely spread in nature.

Future-proof is something that rarely works well in IT. In my case going from X9 and DDR3 to X11 and DDR4 would have made things roughly 4-5 times more expensive. It's not that I couldn't have scraped the money together, but it made no sense to me economically.

100% agree.

 

[starche.old]

Quick question here.

This what I saw just now,

How I can see what's wrong with my pool?

All I manage to find is this:

2 questions here:
1. How bad is that?
2. How I can fix that?

 

[Etorix]

zpool status -v and smartctl -a for ada1 and ada3 may answer the first question.

 

[starche.old]

I was copying a lot of data these days, so I did not want to interfere the process with the commands. This night all data is in. Just ran zpool status -v and it says that scrub repaired all errors. That's great news, however, ada3 (while being brand new) will be replaced later this week (replacement is on the way. ada1 is an older drive and I cannot just return it. So, I started long SMART test and will see the outcome.

 

[starche.old]

Is that OK, that the whole RAM is occupied by zfs cache? How I can clean it up? Or I should leave it as it and "don't worry, be happy"?

 

[Redcoat]

Is that OK, that the whole RAM is occupied by zfs cache? How I can clean it up? Or I should leave it as it and "don't worry, be happy"?

That's just how it should be so leave it as it is and "don't worry, be happy"!

 

[sretalla]

"Free RAM" = wasted RAM. You should be using it if at all possible or it's just money spent for nothing.

Caching ZFS (ARC) is a great way to use it when it's available.

 

[starche.old]

Oh... I did not realize that no free RAM is a good thing. I was thinking otherwise.

One of the new drives is giving me errors. Tomorrow the replacement supposed to show up. I will replace that drive. Reading the manual (https://www.truenas.com/docs/hub/tasks/advanced/disk-replace/) now on how to do so. I hope I won't screw things up...