Hi,
I'm going to build a storage server for a VFX company. In post-production you work with sequences of .exr files, let's say each file has approx. 10mb. There is going to be be 100K+, 200K+ and more amount of files. I would like to have a stable strong server which can provide a good speed for 5 artists and for small render farm, so it need to have read and write performance at the same time. Artists are going to cache those files into their NVMe workstations, that's will increase the speed and make those files local so server is a bit less busy.
I have a budget of 5000 usd to build a storage. After searching a lot of options I want to go with a refurbished Dell r730xd.
- CPU: is it better to have more cores or higher GHz? There is a few options I'm thinking to choose:
2 × Intel Xeon E5-2680 v3 (12C 30M Cache 2.50 GHz)
or
2 × Intel Xeon E5-2643 v3 (6C 20M Cache 3.40 GHz)
or a bit cheaper one:
2 × Intel Xeon E5-2623 v3 (4C 10M Cache 3.00 GHz)
- RAM: at least 256gb of DDR4 ECC ram, maybe 384gb. More RAM is always better? If you don't have a very big storage capacity, let's say 20tb and you have 256gb of ram, FreeNAS will use all the remaining RAM for the cache, right?
Is it a big difference between 2133MHz and 2666MHz?
- DRIVES: based on the drives I need to choose between SFF and LFF server. My main question is if there is a big advantage of having
x24 10K 2.5" 12Gb/s SAS over x12 7.2K SAS 3.5" 12Gb/s SAS?
Is there a difference between 6Gb/s over 12Gb/s for SAS drives? And also the speed of 10K over 7.2K for using them in ZFS pool?
2.5 are much more expensive then 3.5 and huge difference of the capacity.
Those 2 options below has approximately same price
If I go with x24 SFF I would like to make 3 vdevs each with 8 drives on zraid-2 (x3 6+2). So if it's USED 900gb SAS, it will have from 21,6tb only 16,2tb of storage.
If I go with x12 LFF, then will make only 2 vdevs each with 6 drives on zraid-2 (x2 4+2). NEW 8TB 7200 RPM SAS 12Gb/s 256MB Cache x12 is going to be from 96gb only 64gb.
- Is it going to be big speed boost if I use some ssd drives for SFF server? So instead will be x3 5+2, and 3 server SSDs/
- Does PCIe x8 SSD cache will increase the speed even more? For instance there is a good price value option Samsung PM1725b NVMe SSD 1.6tb. It's quite expensive and I'm not sure if it works with FreeNAS with his full potential?
For my use 16,2tb is a bit too less, more is better. But if 2.5 is going to be way faster then I would think to build one more storage with LFF to make it as a second less powerful storage to keep there some cold data.
I'm a VFX guy and I know only basic things about storage, all those specs I wrote it's just based on my research, I hope you can help me to choose the right solutions for my needs!
I'm going to build a storage server for a VFX company. In post-production you work with sequences of .exr files, let's say each file has approx. 10mb. There is going to be be 100K+, 200K+ and more amount of files. I would like to have a stable strong server which can provide a good speed for 5 artists and for small render farm, so it need to have read and write performance at the same time. Artists are going to cache those files into their NVMe workstations, that's will increase the speed and make those files local so server is a bit less busy.
I have a budget of 5000 usd to build a storage. After searching a lot of options I want to go with a refurbished Dell r730xd.
- CPU: is it better to have more cores or higher GHz? There is a few options I'm thinking to choose:
2 × Intel Xeon E5-2680 v3 (12C 30M Cache 2.50 GHz)
or
2 × Intel Xeon E5-2643 v3 (6C 20M Cache 3.40 GHz)
or a bit cheaper one:
2 × Intel Xeon E5-2623 v3 (4C 10M Cache 3.00 GHz)
- RAM: at least 256gb of DDR4 ECC ram, maybe 384gb. More RAM is always better? If you don't have a very big storage capacity, let's say 20tb and you have 256gb of ram, FreeNAS will use all the remaining RAM for the cache, right?
Is it a big difference between 2133MHz and 2666MHz?
- DRIVES: based on the drives I need to choose between SFF and LFF server. My main question is if there is a big advantage of having
x24 10K 2.5" 12Gb/s SAS over x12 7.2K SAS 3.5" 12Gb/s SAS?
Is there a difference between 6Gb/s over 12Gb/s for SAS drives? And also the speed of 10K over 7.2K for using them in ZFS pool?
2.5 are much more expensive then 3.5 and huge difference of the capacity.
Those 2 options below has approximately same price
If I go with x24 SFF I would like to make 3 vdevs each with 8 drives on zraid-2 (x3 6+2). So if it's USED 900gb SAS, it will have from 21,6tb only 16,2tb of storage.
If I go with x12 LFF, then will make only 2 vdevs each with 6 drives on zraid-2 (x2 4+2). NEW 8TB 7200 RPM SAS 12Gb/s 256MB Cache x12 is going to be from 96gb only 64gb.
- Is it going to be big speed boost if I use some ssd drives for SFF server? So instead will be x3 5+2, and 3 server SSDs/
- Does PCIe x8 SSD cache will increase the speed even more? For instance there is a good price value option Samsung PM1725b NVMe SSD 1.6tb. It's quite expensive and I'm not sure if it works with FreeNAS with his full potential?
For my use 16,2tb is a bit too less, more is better. But if 2.5 is going to be way faster then I would think to build one more storage with LFF to make it as a second less powerful storage to keep there some cold data.
I'm a VFX guy and I know only basic things about storage, all those specs I wrote it's just based on my research, I hope you can help me to choose the right solutions for my needs!
