SOLVED my new build, sugestions welcomed -- new questions specifically hard drive burn in ~!

[Mega Man]

Hello

my name is Mega Man ( aka ryan )

i am starting the learning curve of freenas

although i have alot to learn, ( still need to RTFM- working on it )

i think i have what i want in a NAS if i have missed anything please let me know i know my cpu is a little overkill but if you kjnow me i tend to like overkill ( atm i have 3 quadfire rigs, one 7970s, one 290x, one 295x2s ), i have not decided on a UPS as of now, i will get one ( a small 1500va for now, but when i get my ultimate case ( tx10 ) i will be running what looks to be 3 SMX3000HV + extra batteries ( 1 for each of my main systems and one for the nas. ))

so with that in mind

this is what i have found, i think i have covered all your expectations ( min amount of ram/memory of various things but please if i have missed anything please let me know

boot drive 16GB satadom SSD-DM016-PHI
MOBO MBD-X10SL7-F-O
CPU Intel Xeon E3 1231V3
Ram 2 kits of CT2KIT102472BD160B for a total of 32gb
PSU SS-520FL2 ( seasonic 520w fanless 80+plat )
from reading sounds like WD reds are good HDDs, i usually use seagates but as i am in your neck of the woods i will be using reds as that is what i seem to see suggested ,
looking at starting with raid z3- 9*2tb drives
i will be storing family photos and rips of my dvds that will be streamed

first my question is mixing ram ok ? in desktops it isnt but i cant seem to find recommended matched sets of 32 gb ?

i think i will start with 2tb hdds as that would give me 12tb of usable space if i am counting correctly
with 3 drive redundancies ( i will keep 2 drives on the shelf,

one thing that was also brought up that made alot of sense but i dont know how to do this, i snot to buy all your hdds at once from the same vender to lower failure chances of happeneing at the same time.

i can buy some from a few different venders but as i am looking to buy ~ 11 drives ( 2 extras to keep in the house ) it would seem my options for that are somewhat limited? am i right?

if my math is correct on the psu it will suffice without issue ( as in it is about double the power useage i need ) that puts me at full load @ 50% which is a good level of efficiency

Thanks so much for your help and i hope to become a helpful and active part of the community @!!~

 

[Ericloewe]

first my question is mixing ram ok ? in desktops it isnt but i cant seem to find recommended matched sets of 32 gb ?

Any sane DIMM will work fine with others of the same model. Nothing to worry about.
This was a much bigger deal a few years ago.

think i will start with 2tb hdds as that would give me 12tb of usable space if i am counting correctly
with 3 drive redundancies ( i will keep 2 drives on the shelf,

Right, but keep in mind that drives are smaller than advertised (@BiduleOhm has a handy calculator).

one thing that was also brought up that made alot of sense but i dont know how to do this, i snot to buy all your hdds at once from the same vender to lower failure chances of happeneing at the same time.

Opinions on this vary. It's much less of a problem when everything is burned in correctly.

if my math is correct on the psu it will suffice without issue ( as in it is about double the power useage i need ) that puts me at full load @ 50% which is a good level of efficiency

You're always limited by spin up current, but 500W is enough for 9 drives.
If you wish to expand a lot, consider a larger supply.

 

[jgreco]

Mixing RAM is not a good idea, but usually that's when you're using different types of RAM. Different manufacturers is fine, as long as the specs are the same. Different specs is a bad idea.

The 16GB SATA DOM might be a little small. Things have evolved over the years with FreeNAS, which started out wanting a 1GB boot device. The current system keeps multiple old copies of the firmware on the flash drive. It'd be fine for now, but *might* need to be changed in the future. A 32GB is much less likely to need to be upgraded in the future.

You might want to reconsider the choice of 2TB drives. If you add up the total cost of the system and then divide by the number of TB of storage you get. Your base system is approximately $1000, plus 9 * 2TB drives for about $100 each, so $1900. You have approximately 18TB of raw storage there, which gets you 12TB of usable space, so that's $158/TB. Now play the game a little differently and get 9 * 4TB drives at $160/ea, a system that costs $2440, giving you 36TB of raw storage, which is 24TB usable space. That costs $102/TB.

The smaller drives are almost never a good deal.

Keeping two drives as cold spares is a good idea, though with that level of redundancy you could feel fairly comfortable with just one. Also, if you are interested in getting drives from different manufacturing batches, it is worth pointing out that FreeNAS doesn't require your drives to be from the same manufacturer. You can certainly mix Seagate NAS drives into the mix as well, or HGST's. The old wisdom against mixing and matching drives comes from the days of parallel SCSI and hardware RAID controllers, and isn't applicable to ZFS. Heterogeneous arrays are just dandy. They all are prone to failure to some extent.

I'd argue against a fanless PSU. Also, be aware that the biggest impact on a power supply is drive spinup, where a typical drive may be taking up to an additional 2.1 amps on the 12V. That's usually the dominant factor in PSU sizing. Your power requirements might go something like this:

Base system (X10SL7 mainboard 25 watts, CPU 80 watts, memory 2 x 6 watts) -117 watts, peak consumption.
Fans - 15-30 watts.
Drives - 8 watts times 9 drives. This is idle current, NOT spinup current, and it is definitely additive ON TOP of the spinup. Which is ~216 watts, but could trend a bit higher. Depends on the actual drives of course.

That's 435 watts right there. However, you need to account for the fact that you shouldn't be peaking out a power supply, regardless of what the marketing glossies say. A 520 watt supply should never be asked to give more than 80% of its rated power, or around 416 watts. That's close enough it isn't likely to be an issue, especially since the power values I've quoted here are very conservatively safe.

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/i-need-some-data-points.32829/#post-204099

 

[Mega Man]

Thank you both !~ ill adj accordingly,

for the boot drive i can easily get a ssd all the guides i have seen said 16gb onry -

as to the psu in that case it works out perfectly i have a 650 seasonic x sseries i could also use - i thought that would be a bit overkill but it sounds like it would work well instead !~

the only thing about the 2tb drives - for me it is more space then i need at this point- not that that is a bad thing i can always upgrade to 4/6 tb drives if/when i need it, atm i have less then 1 tb to put on the nas, - so in my case right now i feel like the larger drives would be wasted at this time - the reason i am going with 9 drives is the fact though that i am lazy and want the 3 drive redundancy !~ but it is something ill have to think about, i really appreciate both of you looking at my system i will reevaluate then repost !

 

[jgreco]

By the way, that was a heck of a first post.

The boot drive can certainly be an SSD and that's likely to be less expensive than SATA DOM.

As for the drive size thing, the amount of data you have to store certainly plays a role. I'm just pointing out an issue I've pointed out to a lot of people in the past, where they've simply failed to consider the problem in those terms. The problem ends up being one of "what do I do with all these crummy small drives."

If we want to look at it from a space-based perspective, your 9 * 2TB drives cost about $900 for that 12TB of pool space in RAIDZ3. By way of comparison, 6 * 4TB drives in RAIDZ3 would also give you 12TB of pool space, and would cost $840 for the same 12TB of pool space in RAIDZ3, plus reduced electric consumption.

And that could play out two ways for you:

One, you could decide there's no way in hell you'll ever need more than that, at which point, you ditch the X10SL7 and save some money by going to a normal X10 board with six SATA ports (this precludes SATA DOM/SSD boot, but you could still do redundant USB thumb drives).

Or two, you make sure you have a chassis with space for at least 12 drives, and then you can add another vdev of six (or more) drives at some future date.

 

[Mega Man]

Ah I understand better now. I thought I needed 9 drives for z3. Thanks !

I'll keep the mobo for now. As I said I like overkill. My nation systems have 2kw and 3.2kw in power avail ( and I actually use it) in the end this will be going in a 4u enclosure in my tx10 so space won't be an issue ( I can add as many peds as I need.

As to the first post. Thanks. I try to understand and read before I post. I know it makes your job easier

I would also like to add a thanks to all who wrote guides on this to help people like me. They were a huge help!

 

[jgreco]

It's a lot easier to focus on the fun stuff if we're not having to trudge through the basics. ;-)

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

I thought I needed 9 drives for z3.

The only requirement with ZFS is that you have at least p+1 drives, where p is the parity level, so I would definitely lean towards fewer, larger drives.

 

[Ericloewe]

The only requirement with ZFS is that you have at least p+1 drives, where p is the parity level, so I would definitely lean towards fewer, larger drives.

Since p+1 makes no practical sense whatsoever, FreeNAS (correctly, in my opinion) enforces p+2.

 

[Mega Man]

so i think i like this lianli case, i would buy a nova x5 case but that is on hold.... permanently


i like this case, do you think it will keep the Hdds cool enough ? i am very likely going to use a h140x on it, or a low profile cpu cooler, i have yet to decide, i know stock cooler is fine, i just hate stock, i like overkill :D

http://www.lian-li.com/en/dt_portfolio/pc-v354/

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112300
pics- 7 hdds ( i will have 6 and 4 sdds - i will probably have 1 ( with a cloned backup- installed and the 7th bay with one of the extra HDDS obviously no power applied
http://homeservershow.com/mini-v1-server-pc-v354b.html
PC will stay in my basement does not go over 21c either 2150rpm gentle typhoons or 1850rpm GTs

do you guys have good life with seagates 4tb ??
or maybe the nas line ?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178326

or just stick with reds ?

or namebrand then what ever is cheapest ?

 

[diedrichg]

DO NOT get that LianLi 354!!! I have it and it's a terrible server case! I'm only using it because I'm recycling it from a previous HTPC build. The drives are screwed into the drive cage and would require removing the entire cage just to get one drive out! Plus, the side panel requires 8 small screws to be removed just to get the panel off!

My replacement box is probably going to be a Fractal Design Define Mini or Define R4/R5.

Your goal will be ease of access to get the side panel off as well as ease of removing a drive without having to disturb the other drives.

 

[Mega Man]

Thanks. That is why I ask these qs

 

[Mega Man]

Thanks to all

everything is bought ( should have it monday ish maybe tues - some of the stuff is from newegg )

i ended up buying these seagate drives

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178326

they were/are onsale at microcenter for 125 ( plus tax :( ) but still cheaper then the rest and personally i have always had really good luck we will see if it holds, i still need my extra drives ( bought an extra ssd ( 60 gb each ) but still need the drives, i figure i can pick them up tomorrow or next week and it will be fine.

just decided to re-purpose my old stryker, as the case i was going to get a new one but i know the wife would be less then happy- i have 3 cases in my basement atm hahaha --- maybe ill buy a nova x5 from CL when they come out.

either way i again want to thank everyone for all the guides and help you dont know how awesome you all have been. thanks !~ ill open a new thread when i am attempting to put the stuff together

oooo and i need to buy a UPS !~ that is the only thing i didnt see a size recommendation on assuming 1500va

i will probably wait for a sale as the nas will probably take me a month to get into service


of course i found more articles on what i should/shouldnt use for nas and now that i see i will probably switch my hdds for reds or seagate nas drives :/
end list is currectly see my sig,

 

[ethereal]

i second what was said about lian li pc-v354 it sits on my shelf now - i got a fractal design define r5 blackout for fathers day and it is night and day between the two

 

[joeschmuck]

they were/are onsale at microcenter for 125 ( plus tax :( )

Ouch, that $25 difference adds up!

 

[diedrichg]

Some googling turned up that your X5 is being shelved indefinitely.

 

[Mega Man]

trust me i know ( i also go as mega man @ overclock.net) tis sad :/ would be perfect

 

[Mega Man]

so at least half the build is otw, not sure what is up with the rest ( SSDs and mobo ) come on newegg ....

while trying to read up i have come onto more questions
-- other info network

modem SB6120- router netgear nighthawk
1 managed switch -- which would you guys recommend the freenas is just for my pics and movies, and other misc personal files nothing super security my business will die without it

2 firewall ( hardware ) --i read there should be one on the network is my router good enough or should i go further -- i dont need fortknox but obviously i want security -- what would you recommend -- i know nothing about networking :/

3 you are not supposed to connect the freenas to the internet-- how do i do this my home network is connected how do i exclude this from the internet ?

as always i really appreciate your guys help !~~!

--in other news i have decided to use the non nas drives for now, at this price i should be fine, in ~ 2-3 years ill just fully replace all my harddrives !~

 

[anodos]

so at least half the build is otw, not sure what is up with the rest ( SSDs and mobo ) come on newegg ....

while trying to read up i have come onto more questions
-- other info network

modem SB6120- router netgear nighthawk
1 managed switch -- which would you guys recommend the freenas is just for my pics and movies, and other misc personal files nothing super security my business will die without it

2 firewall ( hardware ) --i read there should be one on the network is my router good enough or should i go further -- i dont need fortknox but obviously i want security -- what would you recommend -- i know nothing about networking :/

3 you are not supposed to connect the freenas to the internet-- how do i do this my home network is connected how do i exclude this from the internet ?

as always i really appreciate your guys help !~~!

--in other news i have decided to use the non nas drives for now, at this price i should be fine, in ~ 2-3 years ill just fully replace all my harddrives !~

• You probably don't need a managed switch. The times when I consider one is when I'm deploying on a network with 10+ concurrent clients and/or dealing with VOIP. It's best to buy a switch with more ports than you think you'll need. You don't need to break the bank on this. Just don't buy the absolute cheapest one out there.
• A firewall is a firewall. It won't turn your network into Fort Knox. You want something that works correctly, is stable, and configurable. PFsense is a good option on commodity hardware. You don't need extremely powerful hardware. I have it running on a repurposed watchguard firebox with a PIII processor and 256MB RAM. If you run OpenVPN you'll want something a bit more powerful. There are some good atom-based devices out there.
• Use OpenVPN for remote access. It is fairly easy to configure in pfsense.

 

[diedrichg]

Depending on your Nighthawk, it should already have VPN support.

Click the ADVANCED tab.
Select Advanced Setup > VPN Service.
The VPN Service screen displays.
Select the Enable VPN Service check box and click the Apply button.

http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/d...n-my-nighthawk-router-with-my-windows-client?