SuperChassis 847E16: MB/CPU/HDs recommendations

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tvsjr

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One backplane per port. Theoretically, if you're using spinning rust, cascading them still wouldn't put you at the performance ceiling... but, sine you have the ports, you may as well use them.

My 847 came with each backplane connected to a separate port, then cascaded to another PCI bracket with two external connections for JBOD enclosures.
 

Ericloewe

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Connecting the backplanes individually is probably more compatible.
 

jgreco

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Noob question: Do I connect both back-panes to single HBA controller (using two cables). Or I connect both outputs to 24 bay back-pane and cascade it to the 16 bay pane?

"Yes."

As in, yes, and yes, those options both work.

The best option is to connect one SFF8087 from each backplane to the HBA.

If you need to conserve lanes, you can daisy chain one backplane to another, then connect that backplane to the HBA with an SFF8087.

Please refer to the SAS sticky.
 

Tenek

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Guys, Merry Christmas!

I'm selecting UPS now. I need to select powerful enough to handle server with all 36 slots filled with HGST Ultrastar 7K6000 drives.
Will this one will work?: APC SMT2200RM2U 2200VA RM 2U LCD 120V Smart-UPS
Also the following options available: SMT3000RM2U and SMT1500RM2U

I bought my chassis (CSE-847E16-R1K28LPB) on ebay and still didn't get it delivered.
If it doesn't come with rails can I still mount in rack like this or this. Or I will need to get rails separately?

Thanks!
 

jgreco

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The SMT2200RM2U is a nice unit but be aware that it needs a dedicated 20 amp circuit with an L5-20R receptacle.

The Supermicros really need their rails, unless they're going to be put on a rack shelf.
 

tvsjr

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I don't want this to turn into a religious argument... but, you might do some research into APC. They have a real tendency to eat batteries due to overcharging, resulting in either battery bulging (making them damn near impossible to remove from the case) or outright rupture. I've been pretty happy with Cyberpower's offerings of late. They are also substantially less expensive, and I've been pleased with their customer service (out-of-warranty unit, simply went tango uniform one day... lights were on, no one was home... called them up - don't know why that happened, but give me the serial number and I'll ship you a brand new unit with a return label for the old unit, no charge...)

You could get away with a 1.5KVA UPS, although you won't have a ton of headroom to add other stuff. You need to size the UPS based on the spin-up current, which will be pretty high. My system (in my sig) idles right at 500 watts, and will jump up to 600-650 under intense CPU load. However, for about a minute at boot, it'll hit 1.2KW as all the drives spin up, before the BIOS posts, etc. That's what you need to size for.

As @jgreco points out, you'll almost certainly need a dedicated circuit to run a system of this magnitude. Don't forget the cooling as well... these beasts produce quite a bit of heat.
 

jgreco

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I probably have as much of a love/hate relationship with the old SmartUPS series as anyone, and yes they had a terrible tendency to lose calibration and overcharge their batteries.

However, the SMT and SMX series are based off of a new design for the hardware, and seem to be much better in this regard. After about five years, our first test SMT unit finally needs a battery replacement, and all of the newer units aren't requiring the biennial battery replacement cycle of the 1990's era SmartUPS units.
 
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tvsjr

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Interesting. I don't have much experience with those, but have many years of experience using crowbars, hammers, 2x4s, and occasionally saws on their older products to remove bulged batteries. Glad to know they've made some improvements!

I'm actually considering the addition of an external voltmeter/ammeter on my big 3KVA UPS, just so I can watch the string. 72V at 27Ah isn't really something I want getting overcharged and coming apart in my home...
 

jgreco

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Yes, indeed, the older products ranged from "yay this one isn't a battery cooker" to "argh" to just plain awful. There's a whole bunch of knowledge out there about various hacks and ""fixes"" for these problems but the real problem is more likely that they just aren't as good a quality as the units made today (which isn't any guarantee of awesomeness anyways).
 

Tenek

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Guys,

I'm going to receive chassis soon, hard-drives and HBA will come a bit later.
I'm planning to install windows (or use Live CD) to run Memtest86 and prime95. Any other particular recommendations about hardware testing?

I noticed that many people install OS on mirrored SSDs. I never did it. I guess FreeNas can be pointed to two SSDs during installation? Also, what is the point having SDDs for OS vs USB flash drive. I understand mirroring part it is for redundancy. But why SSDs? FreeNAS loads everything to RAM and then only touches the stick for config changes. It will be almost zero improvement from using that SSD over flash. Also using USB will save two hard-drive bays. Although I like redundancy idea...
 

jgreco

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Because the people who used to advocate installing on USB flash drives found out the hard way that after a while that the USB flash drives were basically the cheapest possible P.o.S's and tend to fail after too-short a lifetime. The SSD's are a TON faster in terms of responsiveness and they usually don't just magically crap out unexpectedly.
 

Tenek

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jgreco, makes sense.

Now when I have -2 bays for SSDs for OS. I have 34 left to play around.

I can go with a single zpool with:
- 5 RAIDZ2 vdevs (6 drives) that will require 30 bays and I will have 4 extra for SLOG or L2ARC if necessary in the future (btw is it worth to setup hot spares?)
Or
- 3 RAIDZ2 vdevs (10 drives) that will require 30 bays and I will have 4 extra for SLOG or L2ARC if necessary in the future
Or
- 4 RAIDZ2 vdevs (8 drives) that will require 32 bays and I will have 2 extra for SLOG or L2ARC if necessary in the future

Which configuration will be most optimal?
 

jgreco

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Or you find somewhere inside the chassis to tape the boot SSD's and don't lose two bays.
 

Tenek

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Or you find somewhere inside the chassis to tape the boot SSD's and don't lose two bays.
I like that :)!
I will just connect them to SATA ports on MB and will form Raid1 using MB controller and will drop OS in there.
 

jgreco

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You don't want to use the mainboard controller to create a RAID. Just let FreeNAS do it. In the event of a problem, boot from the second device instead of the first.
 

Tenek

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Still didn't get chassis yet. Meanwhile, any recommendations on BIOS settings? I'm getting X9DRi-LN4F+. Thanks. Happy New Year.
 

jgreco

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There aren't any meaningful "BIOS settings" that the average user should need to tweak from defaults, aside from maybe super obvious stuff like "wait for F1 on error".
 

Tenek

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I received chassis. That is heavy! It came with the rails, although server will be on shelf for now before I get a server cabinet.
Getting ready to run some tests on it. I also installing a separate 20 amp circuit for APC SMT2200RM2U.

When I open cover I see some plastic transparent screen. Do I need to keep it or remove?

Also as a little bonus it came with Supermicro AOC-STGN-I2S 10Gigabit Ethernet Card.
I don't need it right now. But, can it be used to setup 10GB link to another backup box eventually?
 

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Bidule0hm

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When I open cover I see some plastic transparent screen. Do I need to keep it or remove?

You need to keep it because it's important for airflow.
 

jgreco

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For a dual CPU system, it is definitely necessary to keep the air shroud in place. These machines are carefully engineered systems that are designed to keep your stuff cool and working. That's one of the reasons it is so much better to buy the good stuff than it is to try to parts-together your own.

I don't know what chipset the Supermicro add-on card is and I'm too busy to dig right now, but if it's an Intel, it may be usable. There's a 10 gig networking primer in the Networking subforum that talks about related stuff.
 
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