BUILD My first FreeNAS setup

[u6f6o]

Hi,

Currently I have two builds to chose from. Initially I intended to go with a quite standard x10 build but thanks to the hints from @Stux and @Nick2253, I also created a second x11 build.

The main reason was to get rid off the 32 GB limitation that comes with the x10 boards.

Here is my x10 build:

• MAINBOARD: Supermicro MBD-X10SL7-F-O
• PSU: Seasonic X-650
  
• MEMORY: 2 x Crucial CT102472BD160B 8GB DDR3 PC3-12800 Unbuffered ECC
• CPU: INTEL Core i3-4370
  
• CHASSIS: Fractal Design FD-CA-NODE-804-BL-W
• HD: 6 x 3TB WD RED

And here is my x11 build (based on the build from @Ericloewe):

• MAINBOARD: SuperMicro X11SSM-F
• PSU: Seasonic X-650
• MEMORY: 1 x Samsung 16 GB ECC M391A2K43BB1-CPB
• CPU: INTEL Core i3-6300
  
• CHASSIS: Fractal Design FD-CA-NODE-804-BL-W
• HD: 6 x 3TB WD RED

Atm. I tend to go with the x11 variant. If anybody has to say something about it, I'd be glad :)

I finally decided to go with the x11 build, components have been ordered.

Thx in advance!

u6f6o

 

[Nick2253]

What is your planned use case for the NAS? How do you plan on configuring your hard drives?

 

[u6f6o]

What is your planned use case for the NAS? How do you plan on configuring your hard drives?

I'd like to use it as PLEX media server (mainly dvd rips) and to store my wife's photos. Space requirements are pretty low atm. (~1.5 TB) for data already existing, but I chose a case that allows me to add another 4 drives later on.

For the 4 drives I intend to use RAIDZ2 and if I need to expand I'd either create another RAIDZ2 or in case not-so-important data (dvd rips) increased drastically, I might consider RAIDZ1 or stripe for the remaining drives and copy data over. I also have additional backups but I want the photos and documents (tax etc.) to be "safer" in terms of redundancy.

Regarding PLEX, I think there will be at most 2 streams atm. (possibly with transcoding).

 

[Nick2253]

For two steams, your E3 will be more than enough.

I would recommend going with 6x4TB RAIDZ2 to start with, if you can afford it. That way, you're not losing a full 50% of your raw space to RAIDZ2 (only 33%), and it would double your available space (an additional ~8TB of usable space), which would be more than enough moving forward.

Instead, if you suddenly discover you need more space in a year or so, you'll have to get 4 more drives (instead of 2) for the same amount of space.

 

[Stux]

Do checkout skylake and an X11 motherboard before committing.

Your current system will be limited to 32GB of RAM.

 

[u6f6o]

Do checkout skylake and an X11 motherboard before committing.

Your current system will be limited to 32GB of RAM.

I already did and will again, thx! For my given use case 32GB should be fine I guess!?

 

[u6f6o]

For two steams, your E3 will be more than enough.

That's good, but a good choice as well or would you consider some cheaper/less powerful option?

I would recommend going with 6x4TB RAIDZ2 to start with, if you can afford it. That way, you're not losing a full 50% of your raw space to RAIDZ2 (only 33%), and it would double your available space (an additional ~8TB of usable space), which would be more than enough moving forward.

Yes, I am thinking about going with 6TB instead as well, but have to check if I can afford it. I fully agree with your points though.

 

[nojohnny101]

I do not think that @Stux was saying 32gb is inadequate for now.

Planning a FreeNAS build is all about future proofing as much as possible within your budget.

 

[Stux]

I do not think that @Stux was saying 32gb is inadequate for now.

Planning a FreeNAS build is all about future proofing as much as possible within your budget.

Right. I'm sure 16-32GB is totally adequate today, but wouldn't it be a shame if everything about your FreeNAS was super fine in 5 years time for your then usage, except you wished you could stick a couple more of those now super cheap 16GB sticks in to go with your ballooning storage requirements?

 

[Stux]

I would recommend going with 6x4TB RAIDZ2

Yes, I am thinking about going with 6TB instead as well, but have to check if I can afford it. I fully agree with your points though.

6*4TB in RAIDZ2 gives you more space than 4*6TB, and is probably cheaper.

circa 16TB vs 12TB for less dollars. (less overhead)

The 6 * 4TB option will also give you faster sequential read/writes.

Also, if/when you decide you need more than 16TB, you can then upgrade to 6 8TB drives, for 32TB... or even better, add 6 8TB drives and go to 48TB ;)

Which is why you might want to be able to go to 64GB of RAM, instead of being limited to 32GB.

 

[u6f6o]

6*4TB in RAIDZ2 gives you more space than 4*6TB, and is probably cheaper.

Ah sorry, I miss-read that, thx for pointing it out! When I started thinking about my build, I chose a chassis that is big enough to host at least 8 disks but still is small and quiet enough to place in my office. I also had in mind to leave enough bays unused to easily expand later on while still being able to keep the old disks running.

Going with the 6x4 TB variant, I'd probably would go cheaper as with 4x6TB but in case I'd like to expand I'd had to replace all disks. Also it limits the expansion options a bit more, as only 2 bays are left.

On the other hand, I could co with the Node 304 (6 disks max) chassis then. Difficult, have to think it through. Thx for the advice!

 

[u6f6o]

Yesterday evening I thought I am finally done with my build :D

I just saw that Node 304 only supports MINI ITX boards. I could still use the Node 804 and use 2 SATAS for SSD boot mirror but does anybody have a recommendation for a SuperMicro MINI ITX board that suits my needs?

 

[Nick2253]

That's good, but a good choice as well or would you consider some cheaper/less powerful option?

You could probably get away with an i3 or a Pentium, but unless you can save a decent amount, I wouldn't downgrade. I have a Pentium, and though I don't currently need for anything more right now, I'm still kinda kicking myself for not getting a Xeon, largely because of the extra features the Xeon brings to the table. Like I said, I'm not using more than that right now, but it's one of those "what if?" kind of questions.

 

[Stux]

Yesterday evening I thought I am finally done with my build :D

I just saw that Node 304 only supports MINI ITX boards. I could still use the Node 804 and use 2 SATAS for SSD boot mirror but does anybody have a recommendation for a SuperMicro MINI ITX board that suits my needs?

Far as I know, there are no mini itx skylake boards with 4 Dimm slots. So no 64GB. Which means you may as well look at haswell in that case.

The alternative is Xeon D or the new Atom thing. I'm hoping the situation might change after IDF in a week or two.

So, that puts you back to at least MicroATX. Gigabyte, Asus, Asrockrack and SuperMicro all have skylake mATX server boards, but there are not too many small mATX specific NAS cases.

Sucks huh ;)

 

[u6f6o]

Sucks huh ;)

Yeah, definitely does ;).

I checked the specs of Fractal 804 again, and it overall can hold 10 x 3.5 disks. Thus, I'd have 4 bays left for expansion with additionally 2 x 2.5 SSD mount locations.

As I don't have big space requirements yet, I'd start with a 6 x 3 TB pool RAIDZ2.

 

[u6f6o]

You could probably get away with an i3 or a Pentium

After comparing some CPUs, I think I'll go with i3-4370.

 

[u6f6o]

largely because of the extra features the Xeon brings to the table.

Could you state some of the features you are missing?

 

[Nick2253]

Could you state some of the features you are missing?

Other than the obvious (more cores, more threads, more speed), the biggest missing features are AES (for encryption) or VT-d (for virtualization). Like I said, I don't have a need for either of those at the moment, but if I ever wanted to encrypt my drives, or repurpose the hardware as a hypervisor, I'd wish I had the Xeon.

 

[u6f6o]

Other than the obvious (more cores, more threads, more speed), the biggest missing features are AES (for encryption) or VT-d (for virtualization). Like I said, I don't have a need for either of those at the moment, but if I ever wanted to encrypt my drives, or repurpose the hardware as a hypervisor, I'd wish I had the Xeon.

Initially one of my requirements was to encrypt all disks but people advised me not to do so with freenas as there have been many problems reported in the forums. Suggestion was to go with client side encryption instead.

I still believe that I'll be fine with an i3 for quite a while but as @Stux suggested, I'll consider a X11 board instead (X11SSM-F probably) to get rid off the 32 GB memory cap.

 

[u6f6o]

Looks like Amazon Germany is a bit more picky about x11 hardware compared to x10. As I looked for the SuperMicro x11ssm-f, it suggested this board. Could anybody check if this is really the board I want or tell me how I can find out on my own?

I can see that they state

• Modellnummer: X11SSM-F-O

but when I search for "SUPERMICRO 1XEONV5 C236 64GB DDR4 MATX" in Google, I find many different boards for the this search string.