Revised FreeNAS build after reading some Cyberjock stuff :)

[odragon]

Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor
Supermicro X10SLL-F Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Crucial 16GB (1 x 16GB) Registered DDR3-1600 Memory X2
Western Digital Red 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive X6
Thermaltake Core V21 MicroATX Mini Tower Case
EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply

If anyone would like to offer their expertise here I would love to have it. Basically looking to upgrade my curent NAS (QNAP 251+) and also use a jail for Plex. One question I do have is should I use a small SSD for the jail with Plex? It seems like a good idea but if the USB stick will suffice then I won't bother. I was thinking about running a few small VM's from it as well. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[skyline65]

Personally I would get a Seasonic gold power supply.

 

[odragon]

Personally I would get a Seasonic gold power supply.

Oh ok yea I was reading that Gold standard is preferred. If I am using a UPS already for my PC and NAS do I need this particular power supply as well?

 

[gpsguy]

If you're going straight to 32GB, you might want to consider one of the X11 motherboards (Skylake) that support up to 64GB.

See the current hardware recommendations: https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/hardware-recommendations-guide.12/

 

[skyline65]

A good power supply is important. I don't know much about the bronze one you suggested. For me it's like having a performance car and putting on budget tyres.

 

[SweetAndLow]

X10 systems don't support Registered memory. Also why are you going with a haswell build and not a skylake build?

 

[joeschmuck]

Oh ok yea I was reading that Gold standard is preferred. If I am using a UPS already for my PC and NAS do I need this particular power supply as well?

No, you do not need to match an UPS and Power Supply together, however this brings up the topic of if there is a power outage, how will the FreeNAS computer shut itself down properly. If you have two computers on an UPS and you leave your main computer powered on all the time then you need to solve this problem. If you turn off that main computer when you are not at home then you just need to ensure that your UPS has a communications cable and hook it up to the FreeNAS machine and setup the connection, this way when the UPS has an extended power loss, it can tell FreeNAS to safely shutdown.

Back tot he power supply... Any good power supply will do. Seasonic are very good power supplies. I'd stick with a 80 Plus Bronze to 80 Plus Gold level, anything higher is a waste of money. 500 Watt is a good rating for the hardware it looks like you may purchase.

One question I do have is should I use a small SSD for the jail with Plex? It seems like a good idea but if the USB stick will suffice then I won't bother. I was thinking about running a few small VM's from it as well.

Um, What? I don't think you understand how FreeNAS works. If you have a small SSD then I'd recommend that you use it as your FreeNAS boot drive. The jails and Plex and any other VM will be located in your pool storage (those six WD drives), and this is the smartest place to locate your files unless you have some obscure requirement that you haven't mentioned.

Please take the time to plan out your hardware and done skimp on the parts because in the end, it may cost you more. I'm not saying go nuts but if you had to spread out the items to purchase, maybe buy half your RAM now and the other half the following month, or maybe 2 hard drives a month, they are typically the single most expensive part of the project. You get the point.

 

[odragon]

No, you do not need to match an UPS and Power Supply together, however this brings up the topic of if there is a power outage, how will the FreeNAS computer shut itself down properly. If you have two computers on an UPS and you leave your main computer powered on all the time then you need to solve this problem. If you turn off that main computer when you are not at home then you just need to ensure that your UPS has a communications cable and hook it up to the FreeNAS machine and setup the connection, this way when the UPS has an extended power loss, it can tell FreeNAS to safely shutdown.

Back tot he power supply... Any good power supply will do. Seasonic are very good power supplies. I'd stick with a 80 Plus Bronze to 80 Plus Gold level, anything higher is a waste of money. 500 Watt is a good rating for the hardware it looks like you may purchase.


Um, What? I don't think you understand how FreeNAS works. If you have a small SSD then I'd recommend that you use it as your FreeNAS boot drive. The jails and Plex and any other VM will be located in your pool storage (those six WD drives), and this is the smartest place to locate your files unless you have some obscure requirement that you haven't mentioned.

Thanks for that info. I guess I am not understanding this as you mentioned I will have to search around more so I can understand this.

 

[odragon]

Back tot he power supply... Any good power supply will do. Seasonic are very good power supplies. I'd stick with a 80 Plus Bronze to 80 Plus Gold level, anything higher is a waste of money. 500 Watt is a good rating for the hardware it looks like you may purchase.

Thanks for this! I actually never set up this software on my PC so I have it now. Looks like I need the software installed in order to set up the rules to shutdown on battery. The link below is where the software is located so I am assuming that I cannot install this software on the FreeNAS? If not, is there a way to set up the FreeNAS to power off if it loses connection to a predefined machine (my PC)?

https://www.cyberpowersystems.com/products/ups/pfc-sinewave/cp1500pfclcd

 

[SweetAndLow]

freenas uses NUT which does the same thing and will auto shutdown after you configure it.

 

[joeschmuck]

What I'd do, and have done in my home is to setup the connection to FreeNAS and then let FreeNAS be the Master (the default setting) and then have your other computer(s) look at the FreeNAS computer for the shutdown monitoring, however the best way is likely just having a separate UPS for FreeNAS.

Something else I didn't mention, which some folks don't think about... The capacity of the UPS and how long it will run. If you are powering several devices from the UPS then you want to ensure it has a lot of capacity, or you may be better off just placing the FreeNAS system on it's own UPS. So if you have a 1000VA UPS, having a typical computer system and FreeNAS on it should be fine provided the battery is in very good condition. A printer should be located on the Surge side of the UPS.

Myself, I have a 1000VA UPS for all my computer equipment in my basement, this includes my ESXi machine which has FreeNAS and all the hard drives, my Firewall machine (use to be FreeNAS computer now re-purposed), and internet devices (router, modem, 8 port switch). With this setup I can have a power loss of about 20 minutes for certain without any impact to the system and everything is on the Battery powered side. I also have a 1500VA UPS on my main computer, I've owned this one for about 12 years and have replaced the batteries twice. It powers the computer, monitor, some peripherals, but the laser printer and external Audio power are the only items on the Surge Protected side. My UPS provides just over 1 hour of battery protection, not that I'd need that much but I use to live in an area which had frequent brownouts and this was the best solution.

This is slightly off topic but every other computer type piece of electronics in my home has an UPS. This means that my DirecTv receiver has an UPS, every TV is protected by an UPS, every network device like a switch (I have several) is connected to an UPS. Now some of those UPS's are shared but the point is, everything is protected. I didn't do this overnight, it took a while but these are just what I desired to make things a bit more robust. In fairness, that DirecTv receiver takes about 5 minutes to boot up after a power outage so it really needs one, and if I was recording a program then I get irritable when crap like that happens. At 350VA UPS takes care of it for about 15 minutes. If power is out too long, well I can't help that.

 

[odragon]

What I'd do, and have done in my home is to setup the connection to FreeNAS and then let FreeNAS be the Master (the default setting) and then have your other computer(s) look at the FreeNAS computer for the shutdown monitoring, however the best way is likely just having a separate UPS for FreeNAS.

Something else I didn't mention, which some folks don't think about... The capacity of the UPS and how long it will run. If you are powering several devices from the UPS then you want to ensure it has a lot of capacity, or you may be better off just placing the FreeNAS system on it's own UPS. So if you have a 1000VA UPS, having a typical computer system and FreeNAS on it should be fine provided the battery is in very good condition. A printer should be located on the Surge side of the UPS.

Myself, I have a 1000VA UPS for all my computer equipment in my basement, this includes my ESXi machine which has FreeNAS and all the hard drives, my Firewall machine (use to be FreeNAS computer now re-purposed), and internet devices (router, modem, 8 port switch). With this setup I can have a power loss of about 20 minutes for certain without any impact to the system and everything is on the Battery powered side. I also have a 1500VA UPS on my main computer, I've owned this one for about 12 years and have replaced the batteries twice. It powers the computer, monitor, some peripherals, but the laser printer and external Audio power are the only items on the Surge Protected side. My UPS provides just over 1 hour of battery protection, not that I'd need that much but I use to live in an area which had frequent brownouts and this was the best solution.

This is slightly off topic but every other computer type piece of electronics in my home has an UPS. This means that my DirecTv receiver has an UPS, every TV is protected by an UPS, every network device like a switch (I have several) is connected to an UPS. Now some of those UPS's are shared but the point is, everything is protected. I didn't do this overnight, it took a while but these are just what I desired to make things a bit more robust. In fairness, that DirecTv receiver takes about 5 minutes to boot up after a power outage so it really needs one, and if I was recording a program then I get irritable when crap like that happens. At 350VA UPS takes care of it for about 15 minutes. If power is out too long, well I can't help that.

nice! I completely agree that the UPS situation is needed in any setup and yea I guess I will have to get another one for the FreeNAS. Thanks for your input. Very insightful.

 

[skyline65]

I totally agree. I have a main APC 1400 UPS for my Freenas servers and switch, a Belkin for my Mac and even the TV/Sky box etc have a UPS. Make sure you get one that will switch off your Freenas server though...
http://networkupstools.org/ddl/
and search these forums.

 

[odragon]

I totally agree. I have a main APC 1400 UPS for my Freenas servers and switch, a Belkin for my Mac and even the TV/Sky box etc have a UPS. Make sure you get one that will switch off your Freenas server though...
http://networkupstools.org/ddl/
and search these forums.

Nice! Thanks for that link I am going shopping haha