BUILD New Build Review + few related questions

[Greenman]

Hello everybody.

This is my first build and I would like to thank to all for the guides throughout the forum. It helped me a lot to see the right HW. Although I must to admit it is much more expensive than I have thought at the beginning (I had no clue about anything), but compared to the ready boxes it is cheaper. The primary goal is to have a home file server and perhaps backup for PCs. As I am still new to this I’ll see what other use I can make of it, I’ll have to go through the jail guides to see that :) (for ex. streaming 1 or 2 HD streams).

So the build:
· SuperMicro X10SLH-F-O
· Intel Xeon E3-1220V3
· 2x CRUCIAL 8GB DDR3 1600 ECC Unbuffered

· Fractal Design Node 804
· Seasonic S12G-450 450W

As for HDD I am thinking of 2 WD Red (EFRX) 6TB, for Freenas a 16GB flash drive and to connect everything - this switch: Netgear GS108E.

Now I have few doubts and questions. This build is based on the x10/v3 platform but Intel already launched the Xeon v5 and Supermicro X11. Would be better to wait for those new components? The advantage would be 8 sata ports on the MoBo and of course it would be based on current technologies (DDR4…). But it might take some time. In the shops they are not even listed yet.

The Xeon might perhaps be too powerful for file server what slower processor would you recommend? Or it is better to have it although not entirely used?

Now regarding the storage. I know that redundancy is widely recommended as well as backup :). The problem is of course money. For now I am thinking not to have any redundancy (all the data will be/are backed up). I have around 4,5-5 TB of data (on external discs) now and having a mirror straight away would max the server immediately. I have no problem with the potential downtime + the time to copy back the files. But few questions arises that I couldn’t find answers too. Can you add easily a mirror to the disks later? Can you set up (easily) to have 2 zpools (1 for data, 1 for the backups)? In the long run I would be thinking to have 3-4 mirrors (6-8 discs total).

Thank you everybody for any tips/help and of course your time.

 

[jgreco]

It is not unusual for it to take a little while, when a new motherboard comes out, for there to be some issues such as driver compatibility. The X10 was particularly bad, with the transition to USB3 and the newer ethernet chipset. There's not that much wrong with the older generation of technology, plus it is well-understood and known-to-work.

In general, having the Xeon makes more things possible, including the ability to run jails and fun stuff.

It should be possible to convert a single drive pool to a mirror later on, but not through the GUI. I'd try taking the new disk, making a second pool out of it, which gets the disk partitioned and labeled correctly. Grab the GPT ID of that disk ("zpool status") and make a note of it. Destroy the second pool, not wiping the disks. Now you have a conveniently labeled FreeNAS-compatible disk ready to go. Then get the GPT ID of the existing disk, and do "zpool attach ${poolname} ${existinggptid} ${newdiskgptid}" and it should do it.

 

[Greenman]

OK so I'll keep the Xeon and the v3/X10 platform. Plus the bonus is that I can have it for Christmas :), so I'll have something to play with.

Adding a mirror seems bit complicated (I am more Windows guy :), but when the time comes I'll try it and if it goes bad, well I have my backups :).

 

[jgreco]

Well, the fun part of ZFS is that it can make a large number of drives appear to be a single storage pool. Less worrying about individual drives and more focusing on the big picture.

 

[Fuganater]

IMO, having unique data and the backup in the same machine is pointless. If the machine goes up in smoke, you probably lost both copies of data. I know this isn't always the case but I'm paranoid.

Xeon is good if you are going to run some jails for Plex or Emby or w/e you want.

Get a second flash drive and mirror your install. Better to be safe than sorry. Also add your config file to your backup. (I think there is a thread about this somewhere)

If you are set on 6TB drives then you should do a mirror so your data is more secure. (I say that yet I am not a fan of mirrors at all) However, I would go with several 3/4TB drives and do a RAIDZ2 setup. (I have 2x 8 drive RAIDZ2 volumes in my pool and I have enough space for 8 more drives in my chassis.) (Sorry if my terminology is wrong ie "volumes and pool") I can add another 8x 2TB drives in a RAIDZ2 volume and increase my storage pool another 10TB. So yes, you can expand your space but just read up on it more.

And finally I say buy all the drives at once and be done with it. That way you build the server, configure it and forget about it. No mucking around with it at a later date.

 

[Jailer]

Get a second flash drive and mirror your install. Better to be safe than sorry.

I don't agree with this line of thinking for a home system. I would even question it's use on a high availability system as it's not an automatic fail over, just a mirror that still require user intervention to work in the event of a failure.

I do think that if you are going to use a usb flash drive as your boot device, especially for a home system, then it is prudent to buy 2 and keep one handy as a spare for when your boot drive does fail. 2 is one, one is none. Re installing and restoring your config is easily completed in little time especially on a board with IPMI so getting back running again is trivial.

That's just my .02

 

[Fuganater]

My understanding (which may be wrong) is that if you lose the primary boot drive, all you have to do is remove it (leaving the 2nd drive in) and boot the system and it would boot up like nothing happened. Is that not correct?

Either way adding a $5 drive for piece of mind is much better than spending time restoring your config and reinstalling FreeNAS. As a husband and father of 3, I look for HA because my system is used daily and as I travel a fair bit for work, so I need something that can easily be resolved by my wife while I am on the road. (She knows how to troubleshoot PS3 Media Server so that is a start :))

 

[Jailer]

My understanding (which may be wrong) is that if you lose the primary boot drive, all you have to do is remove it (leaving the 2nd drive in) and boot the system and it would boot up like nothing happened. Is that not correct?

That is correct except now you are booting from a usb drive that has been subject to the same amount of wear as the original and is more likely fail in short order as well. Having it sit unused it is also un stressed and will likely last longer than if you had it mirrored in the first place. But as I said that's just my opinion on the matter and is not neccessarily shared by others.

The warden repels technology in my home and is not allowed to touch anything because of it. For example I got a Harmony remote to make it easy to control the home theater equipment and after 4 years with it she still can't get it right.

 

[Greenman]

@jgreco That is why I am looking at this system :) and one of the advantages why I want one.
@Fuganater You're comletely right. Having backup of the server on it is pointless. What I meant is a backup of a (possible) PC and a laptop (files, system?) on the server - still thiking on it. The data including this backup will be also backed up to a external drive(s) to prevent data loss. That is why I am wondering about the necessity of redundancy... at least at the first stage.

Honestly I don’t want to have more than 6 drives in the system anyway (the max sata ports), so going for the max capacity drives. And I’ve read somewhere that raidz2 is not the most suitable for high capacity drives due to the time to resilver and the accompanying risk of disk failure and seeing that even 2+ drives might die due to age at the same time. That is why I was thinking of using mirrors and adding them as necessary (=when I have money for it :) ). So if all 6 would be 6TB that would give me roughly 15TB at the end (or more depending on the HDD capacities) that is triple for what I have now and should be enough for couple of years.

Anyhow I’ll be certainly playing with it at the beginning and see if I’ll have the mirror or no redundancy. I also have couple of 2 TB WD green that I might use at the first stage (after the respective fix). I'll see if I can get 4 new drives at the beginning or not.

Regarding the USB drives -> I am going for 2, but it is an interesting thought about not having it plugged but having it as a the copy in case of USB failure.