RAM

[motionthings]

Hi all

A very simple question.

12GB of 'normal' RAM or 8GB of REG/ECC, what would give me the best performance?

Simon

 

[Mirfster]

Always go ECC. Big deal if you have more of Non-ECC...

My car uses unleaded gas (which is the recommended). But, I could stick in nitrous and get that sucker really going... Guess what happens to standard engines that run nitrous? ;)

P.S. Since your system can run ECC and Non-ECC, I am suspect of it being proper for FreeNAS in the first place...

Got Hardware Specs you want to share?

 

[Ericloewe]

Your question is nonsensical.

ECC has nothing to do with performance.
The DIMMs being Registered or not has nothing to do with performance.

 

[motionthings]

Your question is nonsensical.

ECC has nothing to do with performance.
The DIMMs being Registered or not has nothing to do with performance.

I thought it impacted ZFS in som way, my bad...

PS: I'm running FreeNAS 10 and this is my first FreeNas installation ever

 

[Mirfster]

PS: I'm running FreeNAS 10 and this is my first FreeNas installation ever :)

Just note that is BETA and not to be used for "Production". If you plan on just using it for evaluation, please do not put vital data on it or let any shortcomings/bugs/kinks impact your judgement of FreeNAS. Not saying FN10 it is bad or anything, just that it is BETA.

Otherwise, go with 9.10.1 for now.

 

[motionthings]

Always go ECC. Big deal if you have more of Non-ECC...
Got Hardware Specs you want to share?

Well that was a fail "no POST for you (me)".

I had only one stick of RAM with 8GB on it. My mainboard will not boot with just one stick :-(

But I did find ECC-RAM that is compatible with my mainboard (on the QVL-list).
It's here: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...nology_CT25672BA1067_2GB_DIMM_Memory_for.html

But I understand I have to go RTFM a bit more.

My setup is nothing special, it's an old gaming rig that I'm reassigning:

Mainboard - https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P6T_SE/specifications/
CPU: Core i7 920
RAM: 12GB, 6*2GB
GPU(!?): GTX 520, I need POST.
Extra Intel Gbit NIC (I don't use the onboard Realtek)
Disks: 2*1TB, 1*4TB, 1*256GB SSD for VM/Docker, 1*32GB SSD for OS.

When I have moved everything away from my current 4TB Seagate Central, that HD will end up in the FreeNAS

 

[motionthings]

Otherwise, go with 9.10.1 for now.

Don't worry, I have backups of my backups

I'm just playing around.

 

[Mirfster]

No worries, just providing the standard warnings...

BTW, not sure that board supports ECC (based on the link you provided):

6 x DIMM, Max. 24 GB, DDR3 2000(O.C.)*/1866(O.C.)*/1800(O.C.)*/1600(O.C.)/1333/1066 Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory

As far as reading, look in my sig there is a ton of good stuff under "Recommended Reading"

 

[Ericloewe]

The board might, but the CPU sure doesn't. Some LGA 1366 do have the traces for ECC laid out and there are (apparently) no artificial restrictions on ECC use on the chipset side, so you might be able to drop in a Xeon and use ECC. Totally not guaranteed, though.

 

[motionthings]

The board might, but the CPU sure doesn't.

That was my next question. Thanks.

So even if it boots with the ECC-RAM from the QVL-list, this will not protect against coldboot or rowhammer attacks?

About the protect against coldboot attacks, my strategy is to reebot the machine (simulate power failure from remote). It's not the best strategy, but it works in most scenarios.

"Ok Google" (Actually tasker), "Run command 3"
This sends a few emails that starts some scripts.
And then it Wipes my phone ;-)

/tinfoilhat
PS. I only have an imaginary opponent, not a real one.
I just really like security and opsec.

Sorry for wasting your time with noob questions.

 

[motionthings]

so you might be able to drop in a Xeon and use ECC. Totally not guaranteed, though

I just bought this
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Xeon-...486099?hash=item3aca7ff313:g:2lgAAOSwFqJWjPoK

For that price I can afford to try

 

[Ericloewe]

Unfortunately, there isn't a foolproof way to ensure ECC is working, short of bombarding the RAM with a high-energy beam of some sort.

 

[motionthings]

Unfortunately, there isn't a foolproof way to ensure ECC is working, short of bombarding the RAM with a high-energy beam of some sort.

I also bought an i7 950 ($45) for the mainboard in question.
The i7 920 that was in it, did not support extended VT-x.
https://bugs.freenas.org/issues/17473

I'll just buy a mainboard for the Xeon anyway, with ECC support (Intel WX58BP?)
And then I have to buy a mainboard for the now spare i7 920 that i have.

Down the hardware buying rabbit hole I go, ...again
It's expensive :-(

The feature of ECC that I want to take advantage of is that (if I have understood it correctly) it erases itself on poweron. Deleting any keys stored in RAM susceptible to a cold boot attack.

Well, back to my plan of putting a microwave oven emitter in the case

Could it be done with a CRT? I'll have to research some more.

I got some of my inspiration from this video (53min):
DEF CON 23 - Zoz - And That's How I Lost My Other Eye...Explorations in Data Destruction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bpX8YvNg6Y

PS. If you are a chemical reaction literate (ie. 2H2+O2 --> 2H2O). This video will teach you how to make very reactive chemicals.
Hope I'm not breaking the rules for posting this.
If so, please delete the link (maybe leave the title?).

Have a great weekend everyone. It's 2PM in Norway now.

Sorry for being so chatty. But I have too much free time¿

 

[Ericloewe]

Well, back to my plan of putting a microwave oven emitter in the case :)

No, think "ionizing".

Could it be done with a CRT? I'll have to research some more.

Possibly, if you got rid of the shielding. The extra lead around your server would make cooling harder, though. :p

 

[motionthings]

The extra lead around your server would make cooling harder, though. :p

Hahaha.

I added #unhelpful and #tinfoilhat to the tags of this thread.
Do you hane a #noindex tag, to remove it from search results?

You can probably close this thread. If you do that sort of thing here?

I must admit that I have not read the rules yet.
Promise I'll get around to it... One day.

edit: fixed some butchered markup

 

[Zofoor]

I also see that you want to use freenas in esxi. please note that freenas needs direct access to your disks to guarantee the data, and to make that you need to add an supported hda card to pass directly the disks to your freenas installation.

 

[Mirfster]

I also see that you want to use freenas in esxi.

Might just be me, but where was that mentioned?

 

[Zofoor]

Might just be me, but where was that mentioned?

In the hardware list I see 1ssd for vm/docker, so I thinked he was making the installation of more OS using esxi. Perhaps I'm wrong, it is just a deduction [emoji14]

 

[Ericloewe]

I'd assume they'd be using bhyve in FreeNAS as the hypervisor running on bare metal, not alongside FreeNAS on a different hypervisor.

 

[Mirfster]

I was just double checking really. Been overlooking stuff as of lately.