Optimal build/setup

[MrKickkiller]

Hi

I have been looking at making a dedicated backup box for a business.
This box could also serve to host 1 - 5 plugins / jails / other services.
I have "constructed" 2 seperate parts lists and would like to know which one would be better for the money.

List 1:
- Asrock C2750D4i
- Crucial 16 GB DDR3-1600 CL11 ECC Ram STICK (so single) (Partnumber :CT16G3ERSLD4160B)
- 4 x 3 Tb WD RED hard drives

List 2:
- Xeon E3 1225 V3
- Some motherboard (Recommendations?)
- Kingston ValueRam 16 GB DDR3-1333 CL9 ECC (Dual sticks)(Part number: KVR1333D3E9SK2/16G)
- 4 x 3Tb WD RED hard drives

If any more information is needed, feel free to yell at me and ask for info.
If you have suggestions, feel free to drop them here aswell.

 

[marbus90]

You need 16GB UDIMMs, not any RDIMMs. Effectively that limits you to 32GB as well. If you plan on running jails, I'd prefer Xeon E3 1220 v3 or 1241 v3.

I hope you're going to go for a 4disk raidz2 in there.. and you might want to consider the FreeNAS mini from ixsystems. Business support and you don't get your fingers dirty with full lifetime warranty & support :)

 

[MrKickkiller]

You need 16GB UDIMMs, not any RDIMMs. Effectively that limits you to 32GB as well. If you plan on running jails, I'd prefer Xeon E3 1220 v3 or 1241 v3.

I hope you're going to go for a 4disk raidz2 in there.. and you might want to consider the FreeNAS mini from ixsystems. Business support and you don't get your fingers dirty with full lifetime warranty & support :)

As far as I see now, the FreeNas Mini would be more costly for the storage I need. I would really like > 4 Tb of usable space:
1. System backups (OS + Programs + Client databases) (This is mainly to recover fast from a failure in a system/ drive)
2. Small jails
3. General storage: Personal data, Video files from business surveillance system.

The system with the 8-core avaton would end up costing the businnes 1400 euro (1550 dollar) and would result in 6 Tb of usable space (in an RaidZ-2 setup).
As far as I see, the Freenas mini with 12 Tb of disks would cost 1625 dollar. (12 Tb because of RAIDZ-2, halving the amount of storage space)

+ As far I know and as I have read , the Mini uses the Avaton board.

About 1.: The system would be placed in my parents business and since my mother is quite a new person to computers (She didn't even know Copy-Paste until recently). These backups are so I can get her back up and running quickly in case of system failure, accidental deletion, etc.

About 2. : I noticed (during FreeNas VM testing) that FreeBSD offers a lot of applications for python and others. I may use some jails to do calculations/ monkey around with python and other languages.

About 3. : Video surveillance would feature 4 camera's that all record at 480p/ 720p (need to check) Now in about the period of half a year, half of the included 1 Tb seagate disk has already been taken with the recordings of 1 camera.

 

[Apollo]

You may want to look at upscaling HDD capacity especially with video surveillance.
ZFS which Freenas is based on doesn't overwrite data and you will need snapshots. If you are accounting for 6 month storage for the surveillance, it will be continuous copy, with of course the ability to recover the files based on your snapshot decay rate. Meaning that if you take snapshot that should last 6 month, then the snapshot will be deleted pat the 6 month period. If files where deleted in that last snapshot, ZFS will be recovering the available space. If the file has not been deleted, then deleting the snapshot will not free additional space.
In order to size you video surveillance you need to know what it will consume, which you already seem to have a grasp for it, however, do you have all the files on that drive or does the video surveillance software could be overwriting some of it or using disk space to buffer temporary data, if not based on ZFS the files could be written into a temporary folder or file and then written into an appropriate location before being purged. This kind of issue could be problematic with ZFS if the temporary folder is under snapshots.
The same applies to your backup area. This is going to be dependent upon the backup strategy, ie differential or complete backup over complete backups. Snapshot doesn't play nice when it comes to HDD capacity, but this is what ZFS is for, so that you can always recover your data if snapshot has been made.
So my final comment would be to design your system with HDD expansion capability.
A system like mine should be more than enough in term of performance and will allow for up to 14 drives I think.
Also, as a backup strategy for the business, you may want to create yourself a second Freenas box to do remote replication. If you business goes, due to fire, water damage and such you will have lost everything.