Rackmount 12 bay system, supermicro pre-built, supermicro custom build, or used Dell/HP?

[funwithdickandjane]

Looking to replace my FreeNAS Mini XL. I would like it to be rackmount with 12 hotswap bays but I'm not sure if I should go with an older used enterprise server or a supermicro build.
I searched the forums but most of what I found related to this question was several years old and I assume newer hardware not originally available might be an option now.

I don't mind building something but I'd prefer to get optimal parts and not flash raid cards into IT mode or other things might be considered sketchy or not completely reliable.
I checked the supermicro website but they have a ton of options and I'm not sure exactly what I need. So the question at hand: Is there an ideal supermicro system (w/mobo,RAM, and CPU) that I should be looking at or should I just buy a used chassis and piece meal the components together?

FWIW, this server will just be a file server to start but may be the storage for VMs that run on another host at some point.

Any recommendation are appreciated.

 

[nabsltd]

I don't mind building something but I'd prefer to get optimal parts and not flash raid cards into IT mode or other things might be considered sketchy or not completely reliable.

If an HBA has an "IT mode" firmware available, then there is nothing "sketchy" about flashing with it. The company that made the card wouldn't release something unsupported. Most HBAs from LSI (or OEM versions of the same cards) sold new are flashed with "IR" firmware, but can easily be flashed to IT mode.

Your best bet is to find a Supermicro 2U chassis on eBay that has the 12x front hot swap bays and drive caddies included. Then, if you don't like the backplane, buy the one you like (also from eBay), since it's just a matter of 7 screws to change out. Supermicro backplane nomenclature:

• "TQ" (like BPN-SAS-826TQ) have one SATA-data connector per drive, plus separate sideband connections. Direct-connect, so you can get 12Gbps.
• "A" (like BPN-SAS-826A) have SFF-8087 connectors, with one connector for each 4 drives. Essentially direct-connect, but with ganged cables, and sideband connections built in, so you can still get 12Gbps.
• "EL" (like BPN-SASx-ELn) have an SAS expander, with either SFF-8087 or SFF-8643 connectors. Speed is limited by the expander, with the "x" replaced with either 2 or 3 for 6Gbps or 12Gbps per lane. The "n" is the number of ports to the expander, which allows multiple HBA to connect for redundancy.

Pretty much everything you want to know about the 826 line of chassis is available in the manual, including details on all the expanders.

I bought my first 826 chassis brand new straight from Supermicro about 8 years ago, but they weren't cheap. Now that I have purchased used chassis, I can tell you that you gain almost nothing purchasing new, especially since the glut of used makes them much, much cheaper. I just bought one with an 826A backplane, and replaced it with an SAS3-EL1. Total cost was less than US$400, and the chassis is considerably cleaner than mine that have been in service for 8 years.

 

[funwithdickandjane]

Appreciate the info! So this case and replace the backplane with this one to get an upgrade from 6Gbps to 12Gbps.

Do you have any recommendations for a motherboard?

And according to the hardware guide the LSI SAS 9207 doesn't require cross-flash so it should be [essentially] plug and play, correct?

Anything else specific I would need for this build? CPU and ECC RAM will be based on the mobo I assume.

 

[nabsltd]

Appreciate the info! So this case and replace the backplane with this one to get an upgrade from 6Gbps to 12Gbps.

That's a good chassis.

As for the backplane, that's more like a side-grade, because now you have to run 12 separate wires, which means you need an HBA that has at least 3 connectors (or two HBAs), plus breakout cables. Also, the one you link does not have the metal frame, so you'd also have to remove the old backplane from the frame, which is a bit more work. You're better off spending a bit more on an SAS3 expander backplane and only having to buy one HBA, although you'd also want an SAS3 HBA, like from this eBay search. There are some that are already flashed to IT mode, for less than $80.

And according to the hardware guide the LSI SAS 9207 doesn't require cross-flash so it should be [essentially] plug and play, correct?

That HBA only supports SAS2, so if you go with it, no need to replace backplanes. To be honest, I don't know what firmware the 92xx series comes with by default any more, and since both IR and IT firmware are available from Broadcom, you might have to flash to IT.

Do you have any recommendations for a motherboard?

This is mostly determined by how many PCIe cards you will ever need. For TrueNAS, I think the minimum you need is an HBA, a 10GBit NIC, and 1-2 NVMe drives. If the motherboard has some of these features built in (NIC, M.2 or U.2 connectors, for example), you don't need as many PCIe slots.

If you want to go full-on bleeding edge, the X12SPI-TF would be it, with on-board connectors for 8x NVMe and 2x 10Gbit NICs, plus plenty of PCIe slots. You'd likely want one of the hybrid NVMe backplanes instead, or else just treat the on-board NVMe as future-proofing. If you want to just plug in PCIe cards but still get DDR4 RAM and PCIe 4.0, the X12SPL-F would do.

For DDR4 and PCIe 3.0, you'd probably want the X11SRL-F or the X11SPL-F. You could also look at the X11SPM and X11SPH lines for their built-in 10Gbit and NVMe.

I have a ton of DDR3 ECC memory, so I use the X9SRL-F, but I would not recommend it for other people, since my use case is that it's so cheap because the memory is free.

Every motherboard listed supports at least 512GB of RAM, and has plenty of choices for processors that will fit whatever compute you need.

 

[Jessep]

Country?
Budget?

 

[funwithdickandjane]

Country?
Budget?

United States
I'd like to keep it under $1500 for the server (I already have the hard drives) but I'm flexible for the right parts/setup.
Noise it not an issue for me, the server will be in a server cabinet in my basement.

 

[Jessep]

R730xd 12 3.5" bay front 2x2.5" rear, H330 (can be flashed to HBA330), 128GB ram, rails, iDRAC ENT license
Seller has (1333) at 100%, so not bad

DELL R730XD SERVER PER730XD POWEREDGE 12BAY LFF DUAL E5-2650v4 4x32GB RAM H330 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for DELL R730XD SERVER PER730XD POWEREDGE 12BAY LFF DUAL E5-2650v4 4x32GB RAM H330 at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

Will need front and rear drive caddy, and flash to HBA330, otherwise turnkey

 

[funwithdickandjane]

R730xd 12 3.5" bay front 2x2.5" rear, H330 (can be flashed to HBA330), 128GB ram, rails, iDRAC ENT license
Seller has (1333) at 100%, so not bad

DELL R730XD SERVER PER730XD POWEREDGE 12BAY LFF DUAL E5-2650v4 4x32GB RAM H330 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for DELL R730XD SERVER PER730XD POWEREDGE 12BAY LFF DUAL E5-2650v4 4x32GB RAM H330 at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

Will need front and rear drive caddy, and flash to HBA330, otherwise turnkey

It doesn't specify if it's ECC RAM, is there a chance it's not or do these all come with ECC by default?
Also, assuming I flash to HBA300 will I need any additional hardware to plug in my SATA drives (aside from the drive caddy trays)?
Thank you for this, I appreciate the help.

 

[Jessep]

All ECC, all bays will take SAS (6/12 gbps) or SATA.

 

[funwithdickandjane]

Thank you for all the help. It's on it's way to me now.

 

[Jessep]

This previous post has some starting points for a used Dell server:

Newbie Build

I am scoping out hardware for a TrueNAS Core build designed to support heavy video file use. (Projects on the order of a few hundred GB) I was looking for opinions on a setup like such. I am not married to anything here, and am opening to suggestions...

www.truenas.com