Storage NAS for video editing, need support!

[zerdionk]

Hi,

Im planning to build a NAS to complement my video editing machine. I work editing big video productions. I need a storage solution to manage TBs of info and also to be able to work directly from the NAS.

I found this in Youtube: https://youtu.be/L4gVh7th8GM And started reading about Freenas

Then i found this
Refurbished Supermicro 2U 12 Bay Server

Includes:
X8DTi-F motherboard
2 x E5645 CPUs
6 x 4GB DIMMS
AOC-SAS2LP-H8iR RAID Controller
Comes with 2U rack rail kit
This system includes 12 caddies but NO HDDs, but we can supply.

https://www.ebay.es/itm/Supermicro-...490245?hash=item2ad45cfcc5:g:dioAAOSwK1Ndehh5

And this:
SuperMicro CSE-826 2U Rack Server
2x Intel Xeon 6-Core E5-2620v2 @ 2.1GHz
64GB RAM
12x HDD Trays
LSI RAID
Redundant PSU
Rack Kit

https://www.ebay.com/itm/SuperMicro...ID-12x-Trays-X9DRi-F-/283009971375?nav=SEARCH

I was wondering if i could install Frenas in on this kind of seever. And if its posible to add a 10Gbe out to connect and exit from there.

Im open to suggestions, i need help!

Thanks.

 

[Heracles]

Hey Zerdionk,

The second one is a clear cut above the first one. 4 times more RAM and twice as many drives, that is very significant. Be sure to put the RAID controller in IT mode for FreeNAS to reach and manage the drives directly. As for the NIC, Intel are the ones to go to avoid most problems.

Next step will be to design your pool : its size, structure, options, etc.

Have fun designing your system,

 

[Rand]

I am sure you would be able to find systems similar to the second one for cheaper... seems quite expensive

 

[zerdionk]

What about this?

QTY 1 x Supermicro 2U SuperChassis 825TQ-563LPB 8 Bay 3.5" drive storage chassis

Configured with :

MBD-X9DRi-F motherboard (16 DIMM slots, IPMI, i350 Dual Lan)

2 x Intel Xeon E5-2620 6 Core 2.0Ghz CPU

4 x 8Gb DDR3 1333Mhz ECC Registered DIMMs

On-board IPMI for remote access

8 x 3.5" Hard Drive Bays including sleds (No hard drives included, but we can supply)

2U Supermicro Rail Kit included

Fixed 560w PSU

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/183286831906

 

[Rand]

Well how about you define your requirements a bit better before spending money on something that might or might not be adequate to fullfill them?

This will start with budget, number of concurrent users, access path (clients?), speed and size requirements and so on

 

[zerdionk]

Well how about you define your requirements a bit better before spending money on something that might or might not be adequate to fullfill them?

This will start with budget, number of concurrent users, access path (clients?), speed and size requirements and so on

You are right!

Budget:
200-900€

Im the main user. But the producers should have access to the data also. Im dont have experience with NAS.

Speed: 600MB/s or more

Size: 10TB x 6. Im working with really big files. RAW footage.

 

[Rand]

So you have one concurrent user (yourself), and every now and then somebody (producers) are going to see/copy/extract some files.

You want 600MB/s of speed and also large size. You will not be able to achieve that with 6 drives.
Whats your workflow?

 

[zerdionk]

So you have one concurrent user (yourself), and every now and then somebody (producers) are going to see/copy/extract some files.

You want 600MB/s of speed and also large size. You will not be able to achieve that with 6 drives.
Whats your workflow?

Thats it.
So i could go with 5TB x12

What system should i build or find?

 

[Rand]

Well do you need to work on the storage system or is that for storage only and you got a bunch of local drives too?
Whats your client OS, how do you want to access the storage box. How important is the data. Do you backup externally ? Will producers access via web or locally.
You should go back one step and think it through.

Have you seen this one? https://www.servethehome.com/configure-your-own-jellyfish-fryer-all-flash-nas/
O/c totally different league price wise, but might give you some pointers on how this whole thing works

 

[zerdionk]

Well do you need to work on the storage system or is that for storage only and you got a bunch of local drives too?
Whats your client OS, how do you want to access the storage box. How important is the data. Do you backup externally ? Will producers access via web or locally.
You should go back one step and think it through.

Have you seen this one? https://www.servethehome.com/configure-your-own-jellyfish-fryer-all-flash-nas/
O/c totally different league price wise, but might give you some pointers on how this whole thing works

Yeah i know that case.
But i dont have that budget...

 

[Rand]

You dont need that either - if you are single user you can o/c get away with significantly less HW.
But you'll need to think about your actual needs ...
I assume you have an editing workstation?
ideally you have a local (fast) storage there and then copy over to the storage solution for mid/long term storage. That means that you primary focus would shift from an editing capable storage box to a fast copy capable storage box.
Now if you plan to use cifs/smb then that probably means a lot of ram (depending on the size of your files) and enough drives to hold your data/maintain your speed.
Speed means that you'll want to keep the box filled less than 50% ideally, else speed will go down.
Single user means that you'll want a low core, high frequency CPU, 10Gig+ networking.
Still havent mentioned if you're using a Mac or not

 

[zerdionk]

You don't need that either - if you are single user you can o/c get away with significantly less HW.
But you'll need to think about your actual needs ...
I assume you have an editing workstation?
ideally you have a local (fast) storage there and then copy over to the storage solution for mid/long term storage. That means that you primary focus would shift from an editing capable storage box to a fast copy capable storage box.
Now if you plan to use cifs/smb then that probably means a lot of ram (depending on the size of your files) and enough drives to hold your data/maintain your speed.
Speed means that you'll want to keep the box filled less than 50% ideally, else speed will go down.
Single user means that you'll want a low core, high frequency CPU, 10Gig+ networking.
Still havent mentioned if you're using a Mac or not

My workstation is a PC.

1Tb Samsung 970 pro for the system
2TB Intel 660p files
1TB 960 evo for editing software cache
30TB 3x 10 TB HDD raid 0 for big project files, such as long documentaries and features. I always have a backup in external drives. This gives me 230MB/s... That isnt enough for my needs.

 

[Rand]

Is it the external backup that does 230MB/s or the 3 disk Raid0 ?
Do you have a free x8 slot for a 10+ GB/s card?

 

[zerdionk]

Is it the external backup that does 230MB/s or the 3 disk Raid0 ?
Do you have a free x8 slot for a 10+ GB/s card?

I have the 10gbe free slot

The one with 220MB/s is the raid. But is the one that is done in windows 10 storage management tool.

 

[Rand]

So each disk provides about 75MB/s ... if you're looking for 600 MB/s thats 8 drives worth of writes (in Raid0). Now if you add any redundancy ( mirror's as they provide the most vdevs to speed up), you are looking at 16 drives - without considering network induced delays (which you still have on 10g networking).
Or you need higher speed drives... what drives are your current ones? Although the 75MB/s seem realistic (based on my experience). the higher peak speeds the vendors provide are usually not sustainable with filled drives...

16 drives puts you in Supermicro SC836 or 846 territory - 3U/4U boxes... (or 2u + expansion unit(s) with another 2u o/c, but lets leave that out for now)

 

[zerdionk]

So each disk provides about 75MB/s ... if you're looking for 600 MB/s thats 8 drives worth of writes (in Raid0). Now if you add any redundancy ( mirror's as they provide the most vdevs to speed up), you are looking at 16 drives - without considering network induced delays (which you still have on 10g networking).
Or you need higher speed drives... what drives are your current ones? Although the 75MB/s seem realistic (based on my experience). the higher peak speeds the vendors provide are usually not sustainable with filled drives...

16 drives puts you in Supermicro SC836 or 846 territory - 3U/4U boxes... (or 2u + expansion unit(s) with another 2u o/c, but lets leave that out for now)

The Drives are fast, but the raid is not working well (I dont know why).
In theory my 10TB Seagate Barracuda have 220MB/s each one. BUt i dont know what happens with the windows 10 raid... Im getting the same speeds with the drives themselves, x2 raid 0 and 3x raid0...

I want redundancy o f course.

 

[Rand]

As I said the vendor given speeds are usually best case scenarios, so not necessarily representative of later real life performance.
O/c the win 10 software Raid might not be the best, but hard drives are not known for their high speeds in the first place.

If I were you I'd plan for using more drives (i.e. more smaller than less larger one). You can either get a 12 bay box now and then extend that later at additional cost or you get larger box now and only get the drives you need.
Depends on whether you think 12 drives will be sufficiently fast (12 mirror'ed drives = 6 vdevs => write speed of 6 drives, capacity of 6 drives)
Other redundancy levels (raid z2/3) will increase capacity but reduce speed.

Can you build yourself or do you need a premade system (similar to the ones you linked)?
If you're builing yourself I'd recommend a x9 board, maybe a cheap 2670v1, 256GB DDR3.
Networking I assume you are planning for direct attached? Then you can get Mellanox CX356's which do 40/56 Gb/s and might be cheaper then 10G cards (but less interoperable). Or some old X520 based cards, these should be cheap too.

I hope you don't mind power consumption?