My first NAS - Couple of questions

[Manyakus]

Hi guys,

Thank you for having me in this forum.
Been looking at Freenas from some time and decided to just do it.

I've read the forum a lot and bought these so far
- SuperMicro X9SRL-F
- 4 x 16GB Samsung PC3L-12800R DDR3-1600
- XEON E5-2640V2

After reading the thread core vs speed, i realize that my CPU choice was not smart.
Should I keep it or sell it and buy another?
It was cheap around 50 $
My NAS will probably be used by two user, and plex maybe for 1 stream 1080p at any given time.

Planning on using 4x3TB one pool (Main) ZF1
Planing on using 1 big or several small drive (ZF1) in another pool (backup) - dont know yet what i want for backup
One thing I want to ask is, can I add a power switch to my backup drive so they are not always on when not in use?
They will only be on when i choose to do a backup, maybe once a week.
Does someone has any experience with these?
Is it not reccomend?
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/HDD-Power-S...h=item41e41ad21a:g:1vgAAOSwkKBbGiXg:rk:5:pf:0

I have read that the reccomended PSU is seasonic.
Is this one good for let's say 8 drives?
https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151201

As for the LSI HBA card drive controller,
Can I add this later or must do it from the getco?
I might use more drive in the future, but for now i have enought sata ports on the mobo.
If adding an LSI card later, can i remove my drives connected to my mobo and connected them to the drive controller (LSI) without messing up my pools?
Never done that before, pretty sure my questions might be stupid but I want to learn and do it right from the start.

Thanks again

 

[Chris Moore]

SuperMicro X9SRL-F

Great board. I use one in my system.

XEON E5-2640V2

That is a bit slow. Faster is better that high core count. I would suggest selling it and get (at a minimum) a 2.6 GHz or 2.8 GHz processor.

ZF1

That doesn't have a meaning. You should probably take the time to review the following resources:

Slideshow explaining VDev, zpool, ZIL and L2ARC
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ning-vdev-zpool-zil-and-l2arc-for-noobs.7775/

Terminology and Abbreviations Primer
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/terminology-and-abbreviations-primer.28174/

Why not to use RAID-5 or RAIDz1
https://www.zdnet.com/article/why-raid-5-stops-working-in-2009/

One thing I want to ask is, can I add a power switch to my backup drive so they are not always on when not in use?
They will only be on when i choose to do a backup, maybe once a week.
Does someone has any experience with these?
Is it not reccomend?
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/HDD-Power-S...h=item41e41ad21a:g:1vgAAOSwkKBbGiXg:rk:5:pf:0

You could probably do that as long as you export the pool before you power the drives down. Once you power them up, you would need to import the pool. If done right, I could see this working for making backups. I leave my backup pool on all the time. It is actually less stressful on the drives.

That power supply should be fine.

Yes, you can add a SAS HBA later and move the drives from SATA to SAS interface. No problem.

 

[Manyakus]

Thank you @Chris Moore

That is a bit slow. Faster is better that high core count. I would suggest selling it and get (at a minimum) a 2.6 GHz or 2.8 GHz processor.

whould it be better going e5 1600 with higher speed or sticking with e5 2600 v2 with the best i can get for my budget?
If i have a 100$ budget what would you reccomend?

That doesn't have a meaning

you are right, i meant raidz1
but i see it is reccomended to go raidz2 if your drives are bigger than 1TB
ill need to do more research on that.

You could probably do that as long as you export the pool before you power the drives down. Once you power them up, you would need to import the pool. If done right, I could see this working for making backups. I leave my backup pool on all the time. It is actually less stressful on the drives

My thinking behind the sata power switch was to increase the life of the backup drive.
But i see there is no benefit for that?


And i forgot to ask about the boot drive:
Going used SSD enterprise is better than going with new SSD consumer type?
Is it for reliability or cost?
Buying used SSD intel 320 series is actually expensive in Canada, we dont have them much on ebay.

 

[Manyakus]

Question for the group forum:

Between an used Intel ssd 320 series 40gb and a new Kingston ssd a400 120gb, which one would you guys use for boot drive?

They are both the same cost 30 CAD
Planing to put 2x for redundancy.

Any benefit going used enterprise?
Thanks again.