Planned Builds... Looking for storage config suggestions

[Dreded]

Hardware Planned:
Motherboard: Super Micro X11SSM-F-O
CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2603v4
Case: SUPERMICRO CSE-745TQ-R800B(8x Drive Bay w/Backplane, 2x 800Watt PSU)
Network: Chelsio's T520-SO-CR 10GbE
Network: 2x onboard GbE
Ram: Crucial 32GB ECC DDR4 Ram
OS Drive: 120GB SSD Boot Drive(cheapest decent branded I could find)
Storage: 7x WD Red 2TB 5400RPM(1 spare)

Im Either going with that or with a system built by IX Systems:
Motherboard: Supermicro X10SRH-CLN4F
CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2603v4
Case: 2U 12x 3.5" bay with backplane, 2x 920Watt ATX PSU,
Network: Dual Port 10gbe RJ45
Network: 4x onboard GbE
Ram: 32Gb ECC Ram
OS Drive: 2x internal boot drive(no idea what it is)
Storage: 7x HGST 2TB Enterprise Nearline SAS 12Gb/s 7200RPM(1 spare)

without going into to much detail the IX Systems Computer is about $2000 U.S.D. more but comes tested and theoretically ready to go and allows one contact point for future Hardware issues($1000 of the difference is just the HD's which I think are overkill for my use)

my plan for network is to have the FreeNAS connect to a Dell X1052 (210-AEIO) Managed Switch by 10Gbe and then all the systems on the network connect by 1Gb

This is primarily going to be used in an engineering firm with currently 10 users but will soon expand to 15(we have offsite backup as well) for Office/Cad file storage/access the system will probably end up with 1 or 2 Virtualized Windows Computers

From research I have done I am thinking that 2x RaidZ1(3 drives per pool) in a Stripe would be my best bet for speed and storage(according to these tests: https://icesquare.com/wordpress/zfs...aidz-vs-raidz2-vs-raidz3-vs-striped/#raidz1x2) given our rather meager storage requirements(currently use 2tb total so even this is overkill(use expanded by 2Gb this year)) I am happy to go with striped mirrors or something if that makes a ton more sense. or maybe a mirrored pair of 256GB ssd for Virtual computers and the storage a RaidZ2

I guess at this point I am unsure of what my best Pool config is and if the network card above will work for my use.

I mainly dont want to see much network slowdown when multiple(2-3) computers are doing a backup at once(all backup is from windows using rsync so typically quite quick)

 

[tvsjr]

The two systems are functionally quite equivalent. The big question is... does your employer want to take the risk of using something that has no support besides the community, or do they want to pay more and have a "throat to choke" when something goes wrong? Also, are you (or someone) confident in your ability to manage the system?

RAID-Z1 shouldn't be used for drives of this size. Full stop. RAID-Z and "Stripe" are also mutually exclusive. I think what you're considering is two 3-drive vdevs in a single pool, in RAID-Z1. Depending on your speed and IOPS requirements, and assuming you're stuck on that chassis (8 drives is pretty limiting... you can go to a 4U box and get 24 or 36 drives, leaving you much more open for expansion), an 8-drive RAID-Z2 wouldn't be a horrendous configuration for your office storage needs. However, virtualization adds a totally separate dynamic to things. In that case, you need striped mirrors and a SLOG, or SSD. I'd go 8-disk RAID-Z2 for your storage pool, and perhaps a pair of large PCIe SSDs mirrored for your virtualized environment.

 

[Dreded]

I am very confident in my ability to trouble shoot etc (so while having one centralized place to deal with on warranty would be nice, in the real world if we had a motherboard die or something I would more than likely get a new one locally rather than wasting down time on warranty)... our storage requirements are rather meager currently we use 2TB TOTAL on our current FreeNAS (will be the offsite backup) so 7TB will be quite overkill for our needs and I don't anticipate expansion needed within the next 5years at which point we would build a new system due to aging hardware.

and yes you are correct I had meant 2x 3-drive vdev in a single pool.

Perhaps the question I should be asking is this.. if you only needed 6 or 7TB of usable space AND planned on running 1-2 virtual computers that didn't do much of anything (think quickbooks server) what would be the fastest but still reliable drive configuration?

 

[tvsjr]

How much space do you need for your VMs? I'd probably consider a 6- or 8-disk RAID-Z2 array for your storage, and a pair of PCIe SSDs in a mirror for your VMs.

 

[Dreded]

How much space do you need for your VMs? I'd probably consider a 6- or 8-disk RAID-Z2 array for your storage, and a pair of PCIe SSDs in a mirror for your VMs.

base windows install plus some windows bloat would be 100GB each VM tops so 256GB SSD will be plenty... any brand suggestions? do the intel drives still hold some benefit in a server environment?

 

[tvsjr]

Personally, I'd stick with Intel or Samsung. They've proven themselves to be, for the most part, reliable. Other companies seem to have more questionable memory, firmware/controller issues, etc.

I would pick a drive that's intended for a fairly substantial number of writes. Some of the "value" drives are rated for a relatively small number of writes. For instance, Intel has drives that range from 0.3DWPD (drive writes per day) all the way to 10DWPD - over a 5 year period. For a 256GB drive, that equates to anywhere between 140TBW and 4,672TBW. Obviously, a major difference in endurance.

 

[Dreded]

ok decided to go with 512gb ssd's as I figure its easy to convince of the buuy now it might be more difficult later if needed...

now onto my next issue I am having trouble sourcing the motherboard ... Intel S1200SPLR seems very close to the Super Micro X11SSM-F-O

any thoughts? Or perhaps another motherboard suggestion that has 8x SATA?