New build and some questions

[Master Chief P]

Hello,

This forum has been a wealth of information on how to build a ZFS server. Thank you to all the regulars that have published the various FAQs and best practices. I've been digesting them now for a couple of weeks and would like some advice on the system I'm building.

Here is what I'm thinking:

Chassis:
Super Micro SuperChassis 933T-R760 / 933T-R760B (already purchased this used off ebay, got a good deal)

Motherboard:
Super Micro X10SL7-F

Processor:
Xeon E3-1231V3 Haswell 3.4 GHz

Memory:
2 X Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Unbuffered DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Server Memory Model CT2KIT102472BD160B
(in other words 4x8GB DDRs for 32 GB total RAM)

Disks:
4X4TB SATA drives (will use RAID-Z2, need manufacture & brand recommendations)

Here are some questions I have:

1. The chassis I already purchased doesn't say it supports the uATX form factor but I'm hoping it does so I can use the X10SL7-F motherboard. It does appear to have screw holes around the right spots for uATX but I've never used a uATX motherboard before so I thought I would check here to see if anyone knows?

2. The Super Micro site says the X10SL7-F motherboard supports the Intel® Xeon E3-1200 v3/v4 CPU. I'm assuming I'm okay with using the E3-1231V3 but wanted to check here in case there are any issues?

3. I was going to use SATA drives over SAS because the Backplane on the server chassis I purchased says it supports SATA and doesn't mention SAS. I've read the "Don't afraid to be SAS-sy primer" on these forums and believe I can plug the SATA drivers into the LSI 2308 SAS controller on the X10SL7-F? Any issues or downsides I should be aware of with this approach?

4. What 4TB disks are people using? I was thinking of going with WD Reds but the reviews on newegg are not very good.

5. Any other recommendations or comments?

This server will be used for Plex (replacing my current Windows 2008R2 server) and also to host Samba file shares for my various Windows and Mac clients. I also plan to put a couple of small Windows or Linux VMs on this server.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Cheers,
Paul

 

[nightshade00013]

The board should work fine from what I know of the systems. The standoffs may need to be shifted to the proper holes but I don't forsee any problems there.

Yes that CPU is supported.

The SAS controller will need to be flashed to IT mode. It's not hard to do and there is a tutorial on the forum. I know some people have said the support isn't great for that controller but with only 4 drives in use you could just run sata drives till the support is better with FreeNAS 10.2 and later.

WD Reds or Greens are pretty common. Just do your burn in and testing correctly and you should be good. Seagate drives have a lot more issues than the WD drives from what I can tell. You could also spend a little more and go with Toshiba or HGST NAS drives if you are worried.

The RAM you have selected is not on the list of certified for the board so it could be hit or miss. That doesn't mean it won't work but you are rolling the dice. With three way redundancy on the PSU you will likely want three battery backups if you want the server to be highly available. Plugging three power supplies into one backup will give a single point of weakness. The backplane for the drives from what I read will support both SATA and SAS connectors so if you do use SAS you will need a breakout cable to hook them up. The backplane will support SAS drives but only if that drive is plugged into a SAS controller, SATA drives should work fine with either one but generally don't like to be mixed and matched with an expander.

This is what a SAS breakout cable looks like for reference, it splits the one SAS port to four connectors that can be plugged into the backplane or directly to a drive.

 

[Master Chief P]

Thank you for the reply Nightshade. Glad to hear the motherboard should work in the chassis I purchased. I will look into the lack of LSI controller support, but yes I can run those drives using SATA for now. However my intent with this build is to give myself room to expand, so I can see myself adding another 4 disks in a year or two to bring the total up to 8.

I agree the RAM I selected was not certified by the board. However my understanding from the "RAM recommendations for Supermicro X10 LGA 1150 motherboards" sticky thread was the Crucial RAM will work in this board and that Crucial is Micron's consumer brand. The Crucial RAM can be easily found here in Canada unlike any of the certified memory, but maybe I misunderstood this thread?

Good to know about needing 3 battery backups as I had not thought about that. I was assuming I could just use one. Do you think I could get away with 2 battery backups for now? I don't actually need the server up for long in a power outage, it just needs to shutdown gracefully.

There are already two SAS breakout cables in the server chassis I purchased, something I was not aware of until you pointed it out. This also confirms what you said about the backplane supporting SAS. I guess I'm still leaning towards purchasing SATA drives but I'll likely research it a little more before making a final decision.

Thanks again for the reply. It was very helpful.

Paul

 

[SweetAndLow]

There are two types of sas breakout cable, I think you want a reverse breakout cable that goes from sata to sas.

To make it simple, if the host-controller side is a SAS connector (SFF-8470) and the target side is SATA drives then you must always use a SAS to SATA Forward Breakout Cable. If The Motherboard/host-Controller side are SATA connectors and the backplane is a SAS connector then you must always use a SAS to SATA Reverse Breakout Cable.

 

[nightshade00013]

As far as using two battery backups, I think it would be ok for the time being. You could use one but if one gets weak or fails then it's lights out for the server. Since you paid for the redundancy it would be a best idea to use it.

There are two types of sas breakout cable, I think you want a reverse breakout cable that goes from sata to sas.

Nope, if you look at the specs on the backplane it has multiple inputs, I believe one per drive. It is very odd with what we are seeing with SAS backplanes but I have seen smaller backplanes do this. I gave one to my father in a 1U case.

http://www.supermicro.com/products/chassis/3U/933/SC933T-R760.cfm

Backplane

3U Direct Attached Backplane, features:
• 3Gb/6Gb support
• SATA support
• 15 SATA connectors

This is what the backplane should look like:

 

[Ericloewe]

As far as using two battery backups, I think it would be ok for the time being. You could use one but if one gets weak or fails then it's lights out for the server. Since you paid for the redundancy it would be a best idea to use it.




Nope, if you look at the specs on the backplane it has multiple inputs, I believe one per drive. It is very odd with what we are seeing with SAS backplanes but I have seen smaller backplanes do this. I gave one to my father in a 1U case.

http://www.supermicro.com/products/chassis/3U/933/SC933T-R760.cfm



This is what the backplane should look like:

That would definitely require a forward breakout cable.