So after lots of reading - Will this freeNAS?

cmwwebfx

Cadet
Joined
Nov 9, 2020
Messages
7
Aft lots of reading I have started the build. I see much recommendation for Intel, however reading on quite a few AMD sites I see that the AM4 is supporting ECC.
  1. https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthre...hat-Support-ECC-Mode-with-Ryzen-(ECC-Enabled)
  2. https://www.overclock3d.net/news/cpu_mainboard/amd_confirms_that_ryzen_supports_ecc_memory/1
  3. https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/Pro-WS-X570-ACE/

So with this info, I have started the AMD build.
MB:
ASRock Mini-ITX Motherboard (B450 Gaming-ITX/AC) ECC Unbuffered max capacity 32GB
CPU:
AMD Athlon 3000G 2-Core, 4-Thread Unlocked Desktop Processor with Radeon Graphics
Memory:
Kingston KSM26ES8/8ME ValueRAM 8GB 2666MHz ECC Unbuffered DDR4
PSU:
SilverStone 500W SFX Power Supply, 80 PLUS Gold
CASE:
Fractal Design NODE 304 Black Mini ITX Case
Drives:
(4x) Seagate IronWolf NAS 4TB HDD, ST4000VN008 (storage / parity)
(1x) Kingston A400 120GB SSD (boot drive)
(1x) Kingston A400 120GB SSD (cache drive)
10GB Network:
ASUS XG-C100C 10G PCI-E Network Adapter HT




So the question with my equipment, will this freeNAS?
 

Jailer

Not strong, but bad
Joined
Sep 12, 2014
Messages
4,977
Will it FreeNAS? Likely yes. Is it optimal for FreeNAS. No. Also ditch the cache drive, it doesn't do what you think it does with ZFS.
 

cmwwebfx

Cadet
Joined
Nov 9, 2020
Messages
7
Welcome.

What is your performance target and use case here? I see you have a 10Gbps NIC, but only 8GB of RAM and a 4-drive setup.
Apologies, for the RAM, I ordered 2 sticks of 8GB, to cover minimum, but also to add an extra stick for future expansion.

I am wanting a faster connection than 1GB when transfering files direct from PC to NAS. Then use the MB built in network to connect to the router for remote storage. For remote backups/storage I am not too concerned for speed at this point.
 

cmwwebfx

Cadet
Joined
Nov 9, 2020
Messages
7
Will it FreeNAS? Likely yes. Is it optimal for FreeNAS. No. Also ditch the cache drive, it doesn't do what you think it does with ZFS.
Thank you for confirming. I was left to assume that th je 3000G will be fine for ECC support, as I had originally selected the 200GE. if I was sticking with AMD AM4, was there a better choice of CPU I could have chosen for a more optimal build?

At this stage I am building this to replace my very old 2 bay netgear RN102 NAS.

I thought I would need a cache drive from all the comments I read regarding cache and ZFS. If I dont neede it then 1 less thing I need to install.
 

danb35

Hall of Famer
Joined
Aug 16, 2011
Messages
15,504

cmwwebfx

Cadet
Joined
Nov 9, 2020
Messages
7
It doesn't look like this card is supported by FreeBSD (and therefore FreeNAS) at this time. See this open ticket to add the driver:
I will look for another card, I only ordered this one last night, so can at this stage cancel that order, and find a compatible network expansion card.

I must add, having a 10GB network card is a nice to have. It is always nice to have faster transfer but if it is going to be in the too hard basket, then offloading my files over the built in LAN will suffice.

The main job for this NAS is purely storage if photos and video from my wedding jobs.

My scenario is come home with all my SD cards and offload the raw footage to the NAS drive in each customer folder.
 

danb35

Hall of Famer
Joined
Aug 16, 2011
Messages
15,504
If you're wanting to do 10G networking, take a look at this resource (and discussion thread) for suggestions:

SFP+ gives you access to lots of relatively cheap used enterprise gear.
 

HoneyBadger

actually does care
Administrator
Moderator
iXsystems
Joined
Feb 6, 2014
Messages
5,112
jobs
customer

You've said a couple of "power words" here that means you definitely want to ratchet up the safety factor on your build, since you're going to be handling business data. Suggest that you go with RAIDZ2 for your vdevs so that you can handle two drive failure.

I imagine your SD card or reader will be your bottleneck during the offload process but if you're editing RAW files then beyond-gig networking has value certainly.

Make sure that once this is built, you run some good burn-in tests to make sure you don't get any DOA/early-failure units. Set up regular scrubs and email notifications, and make sure that your temperatures are under control especially in a small form factor case.
 

Inxsible

Guru
Joined
Aug 14, 2017
Messages
1,123
Nobody has asked, so I will.

What's the need for it to be a mini-ITX form factor? larger boards offer a lot of expandability down the road.
 

ChrisRJ

Wizard
Joined
Oct 23, 2020
Messages
1,919
When I recently built my new FreeNAS (third home-built NAS) I basically started my planning with components not too different from yours. In the end, though, I turned to a used Supermicro board (X9DRi-F) and 2*32 GB ECC RAM (Samsung M393B4G70BM0-YH9). Both components were cheap on eBay and I even got them here in Germany, where Supermicro boards are harder to find than in other countries.

General comment on your use-case: Unless you really you want to play around with hardware and FreeNAS I would probably recommend to go for something more end-user market, like e.g. Synology.

If your data are critical to you, you should definitely consider RAIDZ2 and also a burn-in period. Off-site replication is also something I would recommend. And, with ransomware on the rise, automatic snapshots against encryption are worth a couple of thoughts. And depending on where you live, a UPS might also be a good investment.

Good luck!
 

cmwwebfx

Cadet
Joined
Nov 9, 2020
Messages
7
If you're wanting to do 10G networking, take a look at this resource (and discussion thread) for suggestions:

SFP+ gives you access to lots of relatively cheap used enterprise gear.
Understandably my bottleneck in my workflow is mostly going to be the SD cards speed offload. I will certainly look into SPF+ as I have seen them, but do not know anything about them at all. Thank you.
 

cmwwebfx

Cadet
Joined
Nov 9, 2020
Messages
7
Nobody has asked, so I will.

What's the need for it to be a mini-ITX form factor? larger boards offer a lot of expandability down the road.
The reason for the ITX formfactor is I already have the ITX board as well as the Node 304. This way I am reducing cost slightly by having these on hand including the PSU. I ordered the CPU yesterday, and hoping this will suffice for an ECC build.
 

cmwwebfx

Cadet
Joined
Nov 9, 2020
Messages
7
When I recently built my new FreeNAS (third home-built NAS) I basically started my planning with components not too different from yours. In the end, though, I turned to a used Supermicro board (X9DRi-F) and 2*32 GB ECC RAM (Samsung M393B4G70BM0-YH9). Both components were cheap on eBay and I even got them here in Germany, where Supermicro boards are harder to find than in other countries.

General comment on your use-case: Unless you really you want to play around with hardware and FreeNAS I would probably recommend to go for something more end-user market, like e.g. Synology.

If your data are critical to you, you should definitely consider RAIDZ2 and also a burn-in period. Off-site replication is also something I would recommend. And, with ransomware on the rise, automatic snapshots against encryption are worth a couple of thoughts. And depending on where you live, a UPS might also be a good investment.

Good luck!
I tried to find a second hand Supermicro board second hand here in Australia, but was out of my budget and none were showing. So I thought may as well use the ITX board that I have that supports ECC and is TDC of 35w with the AM4 3000G CPU. The only thing I have not purchased yet is RAM. As the CPU has not been sent yet from Amazon USA, I may still have time to cancel the order and use a slightly more expensive CPU if totally need be. However this is simply going to be backing up my files from wedding shoots. I will not be using the box for any streaming.
 
Top