Selecting First FreeNAS Server Build

[MalVeauX]

Just some fun. They tried to fail a FreeNAS RAIDZ1 setup as well.

Thanks, that's the kind of stuff I'm interested in to learn how to handle it when it does happen.

Looks promising.
PLEX however needs 2000 pass mark score CPU for 1080p transcoding of one LOW quality stream, that looks like 600MB 3 hours video = ugly as hell.
Medium transcoding settings max out i3-4170, comparably performing CPU, and produce very watchable stream.
for 2-3 users watching you will have to transcode beforehand -> "optimise for..." option in PLEX, or live with ugly streams

Thanks; I won't be using PLEX. My media is simply H264 content with AC3 audio in AVI container and is decoded client-side with Kodi or VLC. One or two clients at a time will be touching this. The library is about 2k of these videos (our DVD library backed up). Otherwise, just FLAC/MP3 serving. I don't think this CPU will see much work, beyond what it takes to simply operate the OS and basic sharing service via SMB. Maybe one day I'll get into more, but for now, it's mostly just a file server and I wanted to have a better file system for the future (ZFS) and redundancy in the form of mirroring (won't be using parity array options).

Very best,

 

[MalVeauX]

Update:

So here's where I am currently:

$50 for X8SIL-F, Xeon X3440, 16Gb ECC DDR3 RAM
$65 for PSU (EVGA 500BQ Semi-Modular)
$27 for Silicon Power 256Gb SSD
$25 for Arctic Freezer 33 CPU cooler (unnecessary, but I like to go overkill on it)
$8 for some right-angle SATA cables
$55 for Corsair Carbide Series 100R case

Currently planning to migrate/add data drives once I feel confident with the OS and dealing with configs, snapshots, mirrors, replacing a disc, resilvering, IPMI, etc.

Will initially add 2x 8TB WD Ultrastar Enterprise drives in Mirror & 2x 4TB WD Red drives in Mirror (I already have some, just pairing them up).

I cleaned up a bit and got some new cables (right angle SATA heads for easier organization), the CPU cooler showed up and the SSD boot disc showed up. I ended up with an Arctic Freezer 33 cooler ($25) and a Silicon Power SSD 256Gb ($27).

Here's the board naked with just the CPU (XEON X3440) after clean up:

The XEON itself:

The cooler is pretty big, but it fits. I had to install it sideways to clear the RAM since the memory slots are not in a typical location compared to a standard desktop/gaming motherboard, at least that I'm familiar with. This RAM is on the top of the board. I setup the fan to blow through the heat sink and then over the RAM and the top of the cast has open grills there, so it goes out from there.

Here's board placement in the case:

Just playing around and learning more about FreeNAS, sharing, users, permission, SMB, etc. Also playing around with resources to see how things operate under load, etc.

When idling my CPU temp is around 25C now with the new cooler. Under load it gets to about 33C and stays there. The air is pretty cool feeling coming out of the case, rather than a hot breeze, which is nice (Florida tolerances, sigh). The cooler is better than stock, but I will admit, it's not needed. This is overkill for this purpose as this CPU will rarely see 100% load for any sustained period of time. But I like knowing it will be cooler at all states.

Just copying over the network a while to test the network itself, see how the software works, etc, I noticed ZFS cache pretty much filled up the entire RAM capacity immediately. I'm currently just writing to some random old HDD's while learning the software to avoid any wear & tear on the final drives that will go in. The CPU sits at 10% load when copying data it seems. Sustained speeds are just over 100MB/s for large files. For a lot of smaller files (I tested 200GB of FLAC files) it was closer to 90MB/s. Not too bad. Not great though. Will do the job for my needs for now. Currently not setting these drives as mirrors yet, just playing with drives, shares, etc, to see how the end result is on the client side machine, interface, and how the resources are handled on the FreeNAS box side.

My next project(s) are to find out how to access the shares on a cellphone/tablet (android & iphone) and perform backups of pictures/videos from our devices. I may have to set it up to work by syncing with a computer and then backup the files from the computer to the FreeNAS server. But if I can find a way to do it directly to FreeNAS server that would be great. Also, I want to learn more about permissions and group structures to have access that shows some folders for everyone and all folders only for the super user.

Very best,

 

[Evertb1]

$50 for X8SIL-F, Xeon X3440, 16Gb ECC DDR3 RAM

I am a bit jealous on those second hand prices on the US market. For prices like that I would already have build my own data centre
I could buy on ebay of course but most of the time if I see something interesting it is from US sellers and the cost for shipping and import exceeds the cost of what I want to buy.

 

[MalVeauX]

I am a bit jealous on those second hand prices on the US market. For prices like that I would already have build my own data centre
I could buy on ebay of course but most of the time if I see something interesting it is from US sellers and the cost for shipping and import exceeds the cost of what I want to buy.

Yea shipping would likely make a deal not so great. I have the same problem for things out of the U.S., so I tend to only search for things physically shipping from a U.S. address.

I'm trying to figure out what drives I want to roll the dice with (keep in mind, this is buying a pair, as I will Mirror):

WD Ultrastar (14TB is $366; 8TB is $176)
SG EXOS (14TB is $305; 8TB is $184)

After using enterprise class drives, I just find it really hard to buy the cheaper drives these days, even for basic applications. I don't think I can just shuck an external and be ok with some white label drive or other binned drive that got put in the external category to have its problems hidden by USB. I noticed it's pretty common to get WD externals with 12TB for $215 or so, very inexpensive for the capacity, but it will be white label and have to use a molex to sata connector just to work and it's not an enterprise class drive, nor is it a NAS class drive (they obviously changed their habits when they saw the shucking in the community; and Seagate's version uses the surveillance drives. I don't care to gamble with what I get in these things).

All the 10TB & 12TB drives seem to have these issues with SATA and power supply connections with the 3rd pin? Even the brand new ones? Weird waters out there...

Either way, the value of the 10TB & 12TB don't seem to be as good as the 8TB and 14TB drives. At first I was looking at 12TB drives, but the price from 8TB and to 14TB isn't well bridged. The cost per capacity is better with the larger drives so far and I don't want to daisy chain a ton of drives, it's just more heat and I won't use parity. Just mirrors. There's too many renewered/refurbished HDD's out there. Those are scary. Prices are too good to be true. Those things have got to be bad gambles.

Very best,

 

[MalVeauX]

Forgive the messiness, just sharing what the case is and how it all fits. I will better route wires soon to keep it clean.

The HDD cage (bottom right) handles 4 drives without tools which is nice for fast swapping. They mount with their power and data connections to the rear so that the front of the drive, with its serial numbers out front, making for easier identification so I don't have to label them myself which is nice. The top 5.25 cage has inserted 3.5 & 2.5 drive conversions that hold 1x 3.5 and 2x 2.5 drives each, allowing another 2x 3.5 drives and 4x SSD's basically if I needed. This may come in handy in the future. For now, I plan on only having 4 total 3.5" hard drives, two mirrors, and the SSD boot disk for the time being. If I outgrow this, I will add a LSI SAS9211-8I SAS card and go from there. Air flow in the case is from front of case (two 120mm fans there, blowing inwards into the case over the drives), and exits the system at the rear 120 and the CPU 120 blows air up, the top of the case is an open grill where air exits as well. Overall flow is good, output exhaust at each exit point is cool feeling, not a hot breeze. The PSU draws in air from below the case and exhausts out of the case, it doesn't have direct sharing inside the case (open grill on bottom case with fine mesh for dust).

Temps do not exceed 33C under load so far with the case buttoned up and it idles around 48~51 watts, load is 68~71 watts so far with the current drives. This will change again when I add the new hard drives to replace these test drives.

Very best,

 

[Sasquatch]

Backblaze have interesting hdd reliability report and WD don't come out too good in it. If you look back they had 6TB WD drives with over 11% failure rate(here) as opposed to 2% average across over 67k drives.... from backblaze's reports HGST is the way to go, then Seagate, toshiba looks ok, then WD. Backblaze actually dropped WD drives from their datacentres....

 

[Evertb1]

Backblaze have interesting hdd reliability report and WD don't come out too good in it.

Every now and then I read those Backblaze reports, but to be honest, they have never played a big role in my choise of drives. Unless a certain drive is reported as being totally garbage. For my small pool of drives, user satisfaction is of more importance to me then the analysis of Backblaze. I am not running a data centre. And there are more then sufficient user reports and comments to make a half way informed descision. And no mather how small or big the chance on a failed drive, sooner or later it will happen to you. But to be honest I owned PC's with a harddrive since 1989 or so (those things were expensive) and in all those years I only have lost a handfull of drives.

I have come to trust on the fact that the chance of failure of a drive is high (relatively speaking) at the beginning and at the end of it's usefull life. If it fails at the beginning, no problem it's still under warranty. Is it at the end, also not a big problem. I expect to replace it anyway after five years. Fails it in between that's to bad. I replace it with a second hand drive.

With that being said you should always take care that the loss of a drive, while inconvenient, will not be fatal. So first of, have a decent (and tested!) backup strategy and second, take care that you have the proper amount of redundancy.

 

[MalVeauX]

Backblaze have interesting hdd reliability report and WD don't come out too good in it. If you look back they had 6TB WD drives with over 11% failure rate(here) as opposed to 2% average across over 67k drives.... from backblaze's reports HGST is the way to go, then Seagate, toshiba looks ok, then WD. Backblaze actually dropped WD drives from their datacentres....

Thanks!

I've been looking at various reports From BackBlaze. While certainly not a controlled test, it's more of an observation on their part, useful information. But it's more information than what is going on out there I suppose. They have a few were it goes back and forth on various drives. I think the big take away is that drives fail, all of them, and to have proper backups.

I come to trust on the fact that the chance of failure of a drive is high (relatively speaking) at the beginning and at the end of it's usefull life. If it fails at the beginning, no problem it's still under warranty. Is it at the end, also not a big problem. I expect to replace it anyway after five years. Fails it in between that's to bad. I replace it with a second hand drive.

This is a good point; drives are going to fail immediately or not until the very end, years later, typically.

Very best,