francisaugusto
Contributor
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2018
- Messages
- 153
After being inspired by this review, I decided to share my story here.
I really wanted to replace an old HP Elite I was using with FreeNAS. The machine was noisy, I couldn't get much things virtualized, and the space to grow was non-existant.
I also wanted to virtualize my FreeNAS, and read almost everything there is to read about it on this forum. My biggest question was if I would be able to passthrough the SATA controllers, as these motherboards have loads of SATA ports, so it would be a waste of so many ports if I had to use a HBA.
I therefore configured my box this way:
The installation went fine. The only trouble really was the hard disks, as they have only 4 holes for the screws. The support from Fractal Design was super kind and sent me the adapters so that those hard disks get more stable on the cage.
After installing ESXi, I saw that I had two SATA controllers available for passthrough. Since I was tired and just wanted to make a quick test, I chose the second one for passthrough, hoping that this would passthrough only the miniSAS connector (the motherboard has 4 SATA ports on board, plus two miniSATA connectors, which means 12 SATA connections without any PCI card). And it worked!
To make the test, I see that my SATA HD's are visible by my FreeNAS VM after I added the PCI SATA controller to the VM, but an SSD I connected to a SATA port on the motherboard (not via the miniSATA connector) isn't visible to the VM (and is shown as available by ESXi), which I believe proves my assumption was right and it was possible to partially passthrough the SATA connectors to the FreeNAS.
The original cooler is super noisy, and I'm considering replacing it. I had to manually set the fan to a lower speed following this post and now my CPU temp is stable around 44 degrees, and the fan is at 2200 rpm, not as noisy as the 3800 rpm it was before I changed its speed. But I want an even cooler fan, so I will eventually change the fan of my active cooler to a Noctua fan.
The performance is great, the IPMI capability is amazing, and overall, am loving the new machine.
A bit of my story on my blog.
UPDATE: I replaced the Supermicro fan with a Noctua A6x25 PWM. Not sure it was worth it.
UPDATE 4.9: After some testing, I realize it was worth to use the Noctua, at least for now. I did some testing, and most of the noise I was getting was from my hard disks.
UPDATE 13.9: Now I changed the hard disks to WD Red, and the machine is much quieter.
I really wanted to replace an old HP Elite I was using with FreeNAS. The machine was noisy, I couldn't get much things virtualized, and the space to grow was non-existant.
I also wanted to virtualize my FreeNAS, and read almost everything there is to read about it on this forum. My biggest question was if I would be able to passthrough the SATA controllers, as these motherboards have loads of SATA ports, so it would be a waste of so many ports if I had to use a HBA.
I therefore configured my box this way:
- Supermicro X11SDV-4C-TP8F motherboard with active cooler (SNK-C0111AP4L)
- 64 GB Supermicro-certified RAM
- Fractal Design node 804 case
- PSU: a Corsair RM750X
- Storage: Intel 660p SSD
- 2x 8TB Seagate Ironwolf hard disks (soon to be upgraded)
- HBA: This one, as it is already flashed with the right FreeNAS-friendly firmware (Thanks to @Chris Moore for the tip) - NOT IN USE - see below
- a few cables to connect the HBA to the hard disks.
The installation went fine. The only trouble really was the hard disks, as they have only 4 holes for the screws. The support from Fractal Design was super kind and sent me the adapters so that those hard disks get more stable on the cage.
After installing ESXi, I saw that I had two SATA controllers available for passthrough. Since I was tired and just wanted to make a quick test, I chose the second one for passthrough, hoping that this would passthrough only the miniSAS connector (the motherboard has 4 SATA ports on board, plus two miniSATA connectors, which means 12 SATA connections without any PCI card). And it worked!
To make the test, I see that my SATA HD's are visible by my FreeNAS VM after I added the PCI SATA controller to the VM, but an SSD I connected to a SATA port on the motherboard (not via the miniSATA connector) isn't visible to the VM (and is shown as available by ESXi), which I believe proves my assumption was right and it was possible to partially passthrough the SATA connectors to the FreeNAS.
The original cooler is super noisy, and I'm considering replacing it. I had to manually set the fan to a lower speed following this post and now my CPU temp is stable around 44 degrees, and the fan is at 2200 rpm, not as noisy as the 3800 rpm it was before I changed its speed. But I want an even cooler fan, so I will eventually change the fan of my active cooler to a Noctua fan.
The performance is great, the IPMI capability is amazing, and overall, am loving the new machine.
A bit of my story on my blog.
UPDATE: I replaced the Supermicro fan with a Noctua A6x25 PWM. Not sure it was worth it.
UPDATE 4.9: After some testing, I realize it was worth to use the Noctua, at least for now. I did some testing, and most of the noise I was getting was from my hard disks.
UPDATE 13.9: Now I changed the hard disks to WD Red, and the machine is much quieter.
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