Rack Mount Server Recommendations

[NAS-Plus]

Currently I use two FreeNAS servers which are re-purposed Dell PowerEdge 840 towers. They work great but are fairly old, not easily rack mountable, limited to 4 drives, and limited to 8 GB ECC RAM.

I would next like to build a rack mount server. I would also like to increase storage capacity, RAM, and might want to include redundant power supplies. It appears that Super Micro cases and motherboards are well regarded by the FreeNAS community. I don't know though how to get started selecting the proper components. The issue the confuses me the most is the interface between the drives & motherboard or the drives & host bus adapter & motherboard. I would like a reliable and dependable solution so I would like to avoid creating a cobbled together solution. I also want it to be somewhat cost effective. Can anyone recommend some Super Micro components that would work well to achieve this goal?

 

[scrappy]

I recently upgraded to a Supermicro X8DTN+ Mobo in a 2U, twelve bay rackmount server with 72GB RAM and dual power supplies. The only thing I had to buy separately was the IBM ServeRAID M1015 9240 HBA controller for my drives. You can find these servers fairly cheap on eBay. The only real downside so far is the extra power consumption of the dual Xeon X5660 CPUs since they are a few generations old and therefore more power hungry than the newer hardware. I spent approx. $450 for everything.

Here is a link to the server I bought: http://www.ebay.com/itm/232288098943?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

 

[NAS-Plus]

Thanks for the very helpful feedback!

If I don't need the processing power at this point could I remove the second Xeon processor to save on power consumption?

How would I connect from the backplane to the IBM ServeRAID M1015 9240 HBA?

How would I connect from the IBM ServeRAID M1015 9240 HBA to the Supermicro motherboard?

Can I ask what volumes you created and what the primary use of the FreeNAS server is?

 

[scrappy]

Yeah. You don't have to run dual processors. You could also run the low energy consumption Xeons. They have an "L" before the number series like L5630. If you can afford it just go with a newer CPU/MOBO combo.

For the cabling of the HBA, you would use a SAS SFF-8087 male to male cable. See here

The HBA connects to a PCI-E slot in the motherboard. Pretty straight forward and easy to connect. Your main concern with the HBA is flashing the ROM to IT mode. And depending on the hardware you have available, it can be a pain. I won't go into it here, but it's something you'll have to do unless you can find an HBA (preferably the M1015) already flashed to IT.

As for my server, I use it mainly for data backup as well as media storage and running VMs. Since one VM in particular is a dedicated game server which requires a good amount of RAM and CPU power.

 

[NAS-Plus]

This is very helpful. Thank you very much for your assistance.

 

[Spearfoot]

There are a slough of suitable rackmount servers on eBay these days!

I recently purchased a variation of this model, a 4U, 24-bay, dual E5-2660 system w/128GB of RAM and all of the LSI HBA cards to run 24 drives. This might be overkill for your needs, but there are other system available that may be a better fit.

 

[Dice]

Some notes on getting recycled SM gear:
- Beware of large drive (+2TB) compatibility. Anything "SAS2" is good to go.
- If noise is a concern, typically look for other options.
- Typically Gold rated PSUs are more noisy than Platinum rated.
- Older platforms are POWER HOGS compared to new gear. I did some calculations and found that a X8 dual cpu box vs a X11 skylake setup, ...would cost me about a 3-4TB drive per year in additional energy expenses.

 

[NAS-Plus]

This is very helpful.

Is this over 2TB compatibility determined by the backplane, HBA card, and/or motherboard?

 

[Spearfoot]

This is very helpful.

Is this over 2TB compatibility determined by the backplane, HBA card, and/or motherboard?

Usually it's the backplane, but it can be the HBA (if it's an older model, for example).

Many of the cheap server systems available on eBay have older expander backplanes that only support SAS 2.0 (3Gb/s, 2TB drives). Many (most? all?) of the direct-attached backplanes will work with larger, SAS 3.0 drives, but you have to use several HBAs to hook them up. Example: my new X9DRi-based system has a direct-attached backplane and supports 24 drives, but it uses 3 (!) LSI 9211s to do this. The advantage of an expander backplane is that you only need a single HBA card to drive it.

You can always ask the eBay seller about this, or post the information here and ask about compatibility, or you can email support@supermicro.com and ask them - they're very responsive.

 

[Stux]

Worth knowing about any Bhyve limitations etc with older platforms.

 

[Dice]

Worth knowing about any Bhyve limitations etc with older platforms.

Would you please expand this thought a little?

 

[Stux]

Would you please expand this thought a little?

nehalem for example doesn't have EPT support, but westmere does. So older CPUs might not support functionality currently required by the BSD hypervisor to run VMs, if that is something you're potentially interested in.

 

[Dice]

thnx.
"older platforms" as in Nehalem is synonymous with "dinosaur relics" :P
This is probably another point to add to the list of why Nehalem is not recommended for FreeNAS.
Westmere though, albeit powerhogs still gets stuff done.
Ran ESXi 6.0 on a Westmere setup a while.

 

[Ericloewe]

Nehalem is mostly the same thing as Westmere - Westmere was Nehalem's die shrink.

 

[danb35]

To discuss the 2TB limit issue a little further--this is (potentially--I don't know that we've actually seen this confirmed) an issue with SAS (i.e., SAS1) expander backplanes. SAS2 (or SAS3) expander backplanes don't have an issue, nor do direct-attach backplanes (the SuperMicro -A or -TQ part numbers).

For convenience, neatness, and ease of cabling, a SAS2/3 expander backplane is the way to go--a single SAS cable from your HBA to the backplane, and you're done. Of course, that convenience comes at a price; those backplanes (or chassis with those backplanes) are typically a bit more expensive than the direct-attach models. The -A backplanes aren't awful, but require more cabling than the expander models--they take one SAS cable for every four drives. The -TQ backplanes should be avoided, especially if you're dealing with more than 12 bays--they require an individual SATA cable to each drive bay. @jgreco wrote up some helpful information (with more detail) here: https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...-sas-sy-a-primer-on-basic-sas-and-sata.26145/

I'm very happy with my used SuperMicro server, and I think I got a screaming deal on it (about $1k a little over a year ago for everything but drives). But it's loud. Loud enough I want to put it in my workshop once I get that built, and run fiber from there to the house. OTOH, it gives me 36 bays, all the CPU horsepower I'll need for quite a while, and loads of RAM.

Other than SuperMicro, if 12 bays are enough, look at Dell. The C2100 can be had in a FreeNAS-ready configuration for under $400, and the R510 looks like a good choice as well.

 

[SweetAndLow]

Got my supermicro 846e16 for $375 and put in a x10 motherboard and e5 CPU. That chassie is great because it's sas2 backplane so only 1 cable for 24 drives. It's pretty loud and with 16 drives it idles at 200watt.

Someone mentioned 'L' series processors, don't get those they are a waste. They just limit your max performance. Usually the idle power draw is always the same as normal CPUs.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[danb35]

Here's a thread on the Dell C2100: https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/ode-to-the-dell-c2100-fs12-ty.43665/