New User Intro - PowerEdge 2950

[jvhutchisonjr]

All,

New to FreeNAS but loving it so far. Currently running on one PowerEdge 2950 w/Perc 6i and two WD Red 2TB drives in mirror. Plan to fill out this box w/4 more of the same drives. Will back up data to external Netgear NAS and destroy/rebuild using RaidZ2 when all the drives are in.

See a lot of hate on this box but it's performing flawlessly on latest FW/Bios serving up Plex and Transmission. Using it as a budget box (eBay for $50 delivered). Have another PowerEdge 2950 and 2900 sitting in rack waiting on this build to be completed (both eBay specials totaling $100 delivered). Both have been upgraded from 5i to 6i controllers, and I can't justify the purchase of a M1015, although it would probably improve performance. For home NAS w/only family using, 6i is working fine.

Spare 2950 has x2 E5335 w/16GB Ram
Spare 2900 has x2 5110 w/24GB Ram
(plan to swap all CPU for E5472's)

Great support on the forums and interweb as it's all configured up and humming nicely using forums and manual, and I haven't even had to ask a question, yet. Great work community & devs!!

 

[Mirfster]

Welcome. I think you should be fine with the 2950s. I run C2100/FS12-TY Servers myself. Only advice I would think to provide would be to give the IBM M1015, LSI 9211; or even a Perc H200 (I use these) a little more consideration. The Perc 6i is decent enough but can't see more than 2.2TB on drives. This will limit you in the future if you should decide to get drives >= 3TB.

 

[jvhutchisonjr]

You're absolutely right about the limitation, which I only learned of AFTER buying x2 WD 3TB Red drives that are going in the ReadyNAS as a result. It will be a few months before I can start getting more drives and plan to fill out the 2900 immediately after completing the first 2950.

Having to read up on the 8484, 8087, an like cabling to make swapping out the 6i to something better before I take that plunge but may give it a go on the 2900 if I can figure out what needs to be done to connect something like the M1015 to the dell backplane.

 

[Mirfster]

If the backplane has SFF-8484 connectors, then I think you could grab these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/291295357369?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT.

I think that there are different "generations" of the 2950; which you may want to check and see if there are any "gotchas".

Not trying to sway you; but give a C2100/FS12TY a look. It is cheap, can hold 12 drives and could possibly replace both the other systems (if you are okay with a 2U Server).

 

[Fuganater]

Only knocks on the 2950 is the high power usage and loud fans.

 

[jvhutchisonjr]

Read the wiki on SAS SFF pinouts and some forums on 29xx backplanes and that cable will work. Have read forums that mentioned problems with cheaper cables causing slow speeds and other problems and people are recommending the tripp-lite brand cables @ $40+ apiece. Guess the M1015 will be the way to go for the 2900 and larger drives, but that will be an expense for a while later. Until then it will continue to sit powered down.

That C2100/FS12TY looks really nice, and is a PowerEdge so that's a plus (my whole stack are PE's R200's and those listed above, and two supermicro dual-xeon machines).
Would have given that a go but already have so much invested in what I currently have. and my 2900 has 10 slots.

Noise won't be an issue as I plan to soundproof and enclose the stack, and mount a cabin blower fan from a John Deere 4960 to exhaust (and that will be much louder than the whole 16U stack combined, lol).

 

[Jeremy Foor]

Only knocks on the 2950 is the high power usage and loud fans.

That and the FSB.