New builds of DELL machines

[cristim74]

Hi there,

I'm new to FreeNAS so please bear with me. I've got three DELL machines and I'm planning the following home setup:

Machine 1: Dell Precision T7500
It currently has a 2.4GHz E5620 quad-core Xeon processor with 4GB DDR3 ECC memory.

RAM will be replaced by 24Gb DDR3 ECC memory. For the drives I will use 6 x 3Tb WD Red drives in a RAID-Z2 configuration, connected to an Intel RS2WC080 controller. If you can recomand a better inexpensive controller please do so. Will also use 2 x 60Gb SSDs for mirrored ZIL and a 120Gb SSD for L2ARC (already have the 3 SSDs).

This will be the main NAS machine installed at home, used for storing both personal and work related data.

Machine 2: Dell Precision T7500
It is identical to the above one, with a 2.4GHz E5620 quad-core Xeon processor with 4GB DDR3 ECC memory.

This machine will run ESXi 5 and I will install on is various server and desktop OSs as needed. It will be installed at home as well.

RAM will be replaced by 48Gb DDR3 ECC memory. For the drives I will use a 180Gb SSD I already have for the OSs and if not enough will also add a HDD. Data for these VMs will be stored on the NAS.

Machine 3: Dell PowerEdge SC440
It currently has a 1.8GHz E2160 dual-core Pentium processor with 512Mb DDR2 ECC memory and a 80Gb HDD.

RAM will be replaced with 4Gb DDR2 ECC (maximum officialy supported ny the SC440). There are some reports of people using 6-8Gb of RAM in this machine but it looks only certain memory works. If you have more info about this please let me know as 8Gb will be much better than 4Gb.

The HDD drive will be replaced by 4 x 2Tb WD drives in a RAID-Z1 configuration. I understand only 2 drives can be connected directly to the motherboard so I need help with a cheap adapter for 2-4 drives.

This will be the back-up NAS will store copies of the most important data from the main NAS. What would be the easiest way to synchronize this data between the two NASes? Also, for safety reasons, this backup NAS will be installed at a different physical location were internet is provided by a 20Mbps ADSL connection.

Please let me know what you think about the above planned setup. If you have any sugestions please share with me.

 

[cyberjock]

I'd bail on the ZIL and L2ARCs. They aren't dumb write and read caches. If you read my guide then I'm somewhat to blame. It seems unless you are doing writes that are smaller than 64kbytes(database applications) a ZIL will not help much. There's a thread here discussing some new tests done by one of our FreeNAS wizards with ZILs, and they're not all they're cracked up to be. Also, L2ARC won't help alot except in very specific scenarios. Get rid of the extra complexity that won't add value, especially for home use. It's just a waste of money.

I haven't looked up the machines, but if you have Intel NICs on them(or plan to add them) then I'd say you have a good setup.

You do know that the free license of ESXi 5 only supports 32GB of RAM, right? :P

For adapter, the forum has a model(forget the exact one) that is used by ALOT of people. I'm sure if you start searching the forum you'll find it easily.

 

[cristim74]

Thanks for the feedback. Actualy I did read your guide. I was considering the ZIL and L2ARC as I already have the 3 SSDs, but if you say it's not worth the extra complexity maybe I can find some other use for the SSDs.

Regarding the NICs, the machines have builtin Broadcom gigabit adapters but I'm consideing adding Intel ones as everybody recomands.

As for ESXi yes I know the free version is limited to 32Gb. Probably I will also use 24Gb as in the NAS machine.

For the adapter I guess you are refering to the IBM one that is highly appreciated here on the forum. Unfortunately it's not available here where I live. I'll have to investigate a little more here.