Media Server Build

[chalupa_batman]

I'm looking to build a media server that will be used for iTunes and backups. I've looked at multiple threads here and chose parts based on this thread.

The chosen parts so far:
Motherboard: SUPERMICRO MBD-X9SCL+-F
Processor: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V2 Ivy Bridge
Memory: Kingston 32GB KVR16E11K4/32 ---> possibly go with 16GB now and in 6 months or so buy 16 more.
Power Supply: SeaSonic SS-520FL2 520W
Boot device: Kingston 8GB flash drives
HBA: IBM ServeRAID M1015 with the possible expansion card down the road or would buying 2-3 of these be a more viable option?
Cables will depend on the case that I buy.

I used this link to calculate the power supply size. It says I'll need 456W and this was the next closest going slightly higher.

I'm still choosing between two hot swap cases: NORCO RPC-4220 and Rosewill RSV-L4411. Anyone have experience with one or both of these? I know that I can populate the 12 drives with 4TB Seagate drives, but I'm not sure if I will ever need space for more than that. The one reason that I'm thinking the NORCO is because if I ever need more space, it would be cheaper for me to spend the extra ~$150 than buying a whole new system.

-----------------

Few more questions:

- Does the 1GB RAM per 1TB disk space refer to usable space or to raw space?
- Does RAIDZ have any known issues like there exist with the write hole problems in RAID5 arrays? For the record, I will be using either RAIDZ2 or RAIDZ3 when I finally buy the parts.
- I set up a test of this in VirtualBox and was having an issue connecting to the web GUI. Is that an isolated problem to me on VirtualBox or are others experiencing this as well on their physical setups?

Is there anything that I'm missing now or something that I may need to think about for the future? I've been reading a bit about ZIL, L2ARC, and SLOG and determining if this will benefit me at all. I'm looking to do this rather quickly as I've just learned of the RAID5/6 Write Hole problem and I currently have a RAID5 setup (that's running out of space).

Thanks.
--CB

 

[Z300M]

I'm looking to build a media server that will be used for iTunes and backups. I've looked at multiple threads here and chose parts based on this thread.

The chosen parts so far:
Motherboard: SUPERMICRO MBD-X9SCL+-F
Processor: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V2 Ivy Bridge
Memory: Kingston 32GB KVR16E11K4/32 ---> possibly go with 16GB now and in 6 months or so buy 16 more.
Power Supply: SeaSonic SS-520FL2 520W
Boot device: Kingston 8GB flash drives
HBA: IBM ServeRAID M1015 with the possible expansion card down the road or would buying 2-3 of these be a more viable option?
Cables will depend on the case that I buy.

I used this link to calculate the power supply size. It says I'll need 456W and this was the next closest going slightly higher.

I'm still choosing between two hot swap cases: NORCO RPC-4220 and Rosewill RSV-L4411. Anyone have experience with one or both of these? I know that I can populate the 12 drives with 4TB Seagate drives, but I'm not sure if I will ever need space for more than that. The one reason that I'm thinking the NORCO is because if I ever need more space, it would be cheaper for me to spend the extra ~$150 than buying a whole new system.

-----------------

Few more questions:

- Does the 1GB RAM per 1TB disk space refer to usable space or to raw space?
- Does RAIDZ have any known issues like there exist with the write hole problems in RAID5 arrays? For the record, I will be using either RAIDZ2 or RAIDZ3 when I finally buy the parts.
- I set up a test of this in VirtualBox and was having an issue connecting to the web GUI. Is that an isolated problem to me on VirtualBox or are others experiencing this as well on their physical setups?

Is there anything that I'm missing now or something that I may need to think about for the future? I've been reading a bit about ZIL, L2ARC, and SLOG and determining if this will benefit me at all. I'm looking to do this rather quickly as I've just learned of the RAID5/6 Write Hole problem and I currently have a RAID5 setup (that's running out of space).

Thanks.
--CB

I'm sure that others will comment on other aspects of your proposed build, but I'll just comment on one: an MBD-X10SL7-F is only $70 more than the board you've chosen and already has the same functionality built in as you would gain from adding the M1015 costing (probably) an extra $100. It's true the corresponding V3 CPU is $20 more and has a higher Thermal Design Power, but I think I have read that the V3 versions are more efficient than the V2 versions at low loads, e.g., when idling.

 

[chalupa_batman]

I'm sure that others will comment on other aspects of your proposed build, but I'll just comment on one: an MBD-X10SL7-F is only $70 more than the board you've chosen and already has the same functionality built in as you would gain from adding the M1015 costing (probably) an extra $100. It's true the corresponding V3 CPU is $20 more and has a higher Thermal Design Power, but I think I have read that the V3 versions are more efficient than the V2 versions at low loads, e.g., when idling.

I think I will need to go with the M1015 to get faster speeds in the array. I did notice speed gains on my RAID card over the on-board SATA that I currently have on my existing setup.

Would I ever see a return on that $90 that it would cost me by going with that Mobo and V3 processor? I'm all for spending a little extra now if I will save the difference or if it even becomes cheaper over the next couple years

 

[Mguilicutty]

I don't think the M1015 is going to give you any more speed than the 2308 on the motherboard he quoted you. Both will give you 8 6Gbps ports in addition to the 2 6Gbps and 4 3Gbps ports on the mobo. The return is it should be cheaper right off the bat as well as cheaper to run.

 

[Mguilicutty]

You make no mention of what number or type of drives you intend to use. That is key info... As far as power supply, bank ~150W for the mobo & cpu and the rest depends on the spin up power required for your drives. When I setup my system I went with 6GB + 1GB per TB formatted space. I'm pretty sure the write hole in raid 5 is the reason many people look to ZFS for storage. Your GUI issue is yours. ZIL, L2ARC and SLOG likely do not apply to your situation.

 

[chalupa_batman]

I bought the Seagate 4TB drives a while back when they were $130 on Newegg. I have a handful of them now and eventually plan on buying a couple more for a RAIDZ3 bringing my total to 8. I believe they are a 5900RPM drives. I have a couple other older drives laying around that I will plug in as well. If the card will give equal performance, then I am all for using that, but my experience with HBAs show that they are faster than typical on-board SATA ports.

I figured the GUI issues were mine since I found nothing online. I will keep the ZIL, L2ARC, and SLOG in mind and research them on my own for possible future additions.

 

[Mguilicutty]

They are not "on-board SATA" ports, it has an LSI2308 raid controller on the motherboard, which you can flash to IT mode for FreeNAS use. The M1015 is an LSI2008, so the 2308 is basically the more modern version of the 2008. I think it is ideal to stick with 7 drives in a Z3, you can read up on that here on the forums. With somewhere around 14TB formatted space (with 7 4TBs in a Z3) you are borderline w/ 16GB of RAM. I'd be more comfy with 32, especially if you are adding other drives for additional arrays. Without knowing the specific drives I'd guess around 24w each at spin up so add those all into your power supply decision.

 

[chalupa_batman]

Oh, I see on the RAID controller. How does adding in additional cards later affect the existing RAIDs? Will two different RAID cards cause issues or would it be the same thing as using a RAID on the mobo and adding in a RAID card? I have 2 older 1TB drives that will be mirrored. Obviously I'm going to saturate the ports on the LSI2308 and would prefer the performance of the dedicated RAID over the SATA.

I did read around on the 7 disks in a Z3, but I never saw why 7 was better than 8. All I saw was it is recommended and move onto the next item, there was no explanation unless I missed it somewhere.

When I spec'd out the power supply, I based it on the NORCO case being full of 20 7200 RPM SATA drives, so I think that should be fine unless someone has an anecdote about this. The rest of the drives a mixture of WD and Seagate, nothing > 1TB.

As for the memory, I will eventually put in 32GB. That was just one of the spots that I was looking at cutting costs initially on since I wasn't going to be going over the 16TB at first and buying that later this year.

 

[Mguilicutty]

You can throw as many cards in there as you have ports for, FreeNAS will stay happy. You can even span pools across different controllers. As for the 7 disks thing, I can't explain it well, but you want to have 4, 6 or 8 "data" drives due to the way FN distributes things to the drives. You will achieve best performance this way. Since you are choosing to go Z3, you would end up with 7, 9 or 11 total drives. If you ever want to expand that pool, you would then add another 7 drives and it will essentially stripe the two Z3s together.

The way I read the memory recommendation is that you want about 6GB for system use and then add 1 GB per TB formatted capacity. Add another 6GB on top of that if using de-dupe. Anything more just adds extra happiness. If I am wrong someone please correct me.

 

[chalupa_batman]

You can throw as many cards in there as you have ports for, FreeNAS will stay happy. You can even span pools across different controllers.

This is good news. That will be cheaper than buying the M1015 + the expansion.

As for the 7 disks thing, I can't explain it well, but you want to have 4, 6 or 8 "data" drives due to the way FN distributes things to the drives. You will achieve best performance this way. Since you are choosing to go Z3, you would end up with 7, 9 or 11 total drives. If you ever want to expand that pool, you would then add another 7 drives and it will essentially stripe the two Z3s together.

I will look into this more for the exact reasoning.

The way I read the memory recommendation is that you want about 6GB for system use and then add 1 GB per TB formatted capacity. Add another 6GB on top of that if using de-dupe. Anything more just adds extra happiness. If I am wrong someone please correct me.

I will just bite the bullet and order all 32GB at once.

 

[chalupa_batman]

So Newegg has this motherboard in a combo with the E3-1230V3 for $40 off. I think I will order this tonight. Thanks for clearing things up, Mguilicutty. Thanks for leading me onto this board, Z300M.

Anyone have experience with either case? I'm leaning towards the NORCO for nothing more than the ability to go over 12 drives if ever needed.


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[Mguilicutty]

Before you order take a look at Provantage as well, they usually have SM stuff cheaper than Newegg. I haven't looked specifically at your situation but worth a shot.

 

[chalupa_batman]

I noticed that the Kingston RAM I selected is no longer supported so I bought M391B1G73QH0-YK0 by Samsung instead.

I've lurked around long enough the last month to realize that I need a UPS. Anyone have any experience with CyberPower CP1500AVRLCD? Does the shutdown feature work as advertised? It shows up in this list of compatible UPSs, but do I need to do anything to get it to be recognized by FreeNAS. Any other recommendations? The only thing I need it to do is shutdown after a few minutes of battery power.