The $1000 FreeNAS 2019 prosumer build. Will it FreeNAS? Will it TrueNAS?

Mr. Slumber

Contributor
Joined
Mar 10, 2019
Messages
182
Did some reading and now upgraded to 11.3. Everything went well, constantly happy with this machine.

Bildschirmfoto 2020-01-30 um 20.44.53.png


Before upgrading I think it's a good advice to read "move your dataset before upgrading"and "how to upgrade a zfs pool". Did both, no problems!

Thank you iXsystems!!! :cool:
 
Last edited:

Mr. Slumber

Contributor
Joined
Mar 10, 2019
Messages
182
Update to 11.3-U1 done.

Bildschirmfoto 2020-02-29 um 12.20.34.png


Everything is working fine except the eMail scripts that are called via cron jobs still don't work.

Error:

Code:
Status:
FAILEDStart Time: Sat Feb 29 2020 12:18:27 GMT+0100 (Central European Standard Time)
Finished Time: Sat Feb 29 2020 12:18:28 GMT+0100 (Central European Standard Time)
Error: [EFAULT] Failed to send email: string payload expected: <class 'list'>


I think some more details can be found in this thread here

But everything else: again just great. Thank you iXsytems and all the people involved in FreeNAS and the forum here! :)
 

Mr. Slumber

Contributor
Joined
Mar 10, 2019
Messages
182
Wow, such a quick troubleshooting! :) So now: no problems!

Please take a look here and thanks a ton @Spearfoot !!!

FreeNAS is just great, love it! :)
 

RSA

Dabbler
Joined
Mar 25, 2018
Messages
18
one question - why are you using PCH SLOT5 on this mb for HBA ? SLOT 4 and 5 - from PCH and 3.0 x4 .
 
Last edited:

Mr. Slumber

Contributor
Joined
Mar 10, 2019
Messages
182
one question - why are you using PCH SLOT5 on this mb for HBA ? SLOT 4 and 5 - from PCH and 3.0 x4 .
Yes, didn't notice until now, thank you! :) Slot 1 should give me 3.0 x8 for my HBA so I'll check this out!
 

Velcade

Contributor
Joined
Mar 28, 2019
Messages
108
How do you like those ICY DOCK Fat Cages?

I'm looking to move from my tower setup to a 4U Server case and these cages are on my short list. In their description they mention "5 in 3 RAID backplane module." However when looking at them they don't seem to drive a RAID config on their own.

Would I be able to plug in drives currently managed by Dell H310 and not lose any of the data?
 

Mr. Slumber

Contributor
Joined
Mar 10, 2019
Messages
182
How do you like those ICY DOCK Fat Cages?
Well, I tested different "cages" from different vendors but for me these were the best. Of course they are not quite like professional quality e.g. in comparison to Dell caddies but they are of a good prosumer quality. 4 out of 5 stars.
(change the original fans and get some good Noctua fans for a good cooling solution of your HDDs)

In their description they mention "5 in 3 RAID backplane module." However when looking at them they don't seem to drive a RAID config on their own
No RAID is possible by the cage itself and of course you wouldn't want this for FreeNAS. :)

Would I be able to plug in drives currently managed by Dell H310 and not lose any of the data?
Are you actually running FreeNAS with your Dell H310? (in IT mode I presume?) If yes then you can change to these cages because it is nothing but a casing for your HDDs. So if you change nothing speaking of wiring you should have no problems.
Beware: before tinkering around make sure that you have at least one full backup of your data. (better 2: one onsite, one offsite)
 

Velcade

Contributor
Joined
Mar 28, 2019
Messages
108
Are you actually running FreeNAS with your Dell H310? (in IT mode I presume?) If yes then you can change to these cages because it is nothing but a casing for your HDDs. So if you change nothing speaking of wiring you should have no problems.
Beware: before tinkering around make sure that you have at least one full backup of your data. (better 2: one onsite, one offsite)
I am running in IT Mode. This was my thought as well. Should be plug and play. Just wanted to confirm with someone who actually has these cages.

Thanks for the response. And yes, I have (onsite and offsite) backups. :cool:
 

Mr. Slumber

Contributor
Joined
Mar 10, 2019
Messages
182
Thanks for the response. And yes, I have (onsite and offsite) backups.
You're welcome :)

You can also take a look at this video 1 and this video 2 this guy does a fantastic job with all of his FreeNAS videos. In this video hardware changes with FreeNAS are explained. Great! :)
 

Mr. Slumber

Contributor
Joined
Mar 10, 2019
Messages
182
Update to 11.3-U2 done.

Haven't discovered any problems yet. But what is awesome: the bug introduced with 11.3-U1 (change of filedate when you called the file via SMB) is now fixed! That bug caused a lot of trouble on my machine especially for users who uploaded there photos in their home directory. Glad that this is fixed now!

So thanks again iXsystem for fixing this and for an amazing product! :)

Bildschirmfoto 2020-04-07 um 22.10.07.png
 

Mr. Slumber

Contributor
Joined
Mar 10, 2019
Messages
182
Quick update to 11.3-U2.1. Reboot. Done. It just works! :)


Bildschirmfoto 2020-04-28 um 17.25.03.png
 

LeDiable

Dabbler
Joined
May 6, 2020
Messages
36
So happy I found this thread, as I'm looking to either buy a used server or build something. One of my concerns has been noise since it will be at my desk, no more than 4 feet from my head.

I wanted to ask about a suggestion made by Constantin, of using Supermicro's X10SDV-2C-7TP4F SoC. My server will be used primarily for a Plex server with some amount of transcoding, so would something like the X11SDW-4C-TP13F be a better choice than the i3 or that X10 SoC? It gets more expensive of course (cheapest I see is about $570), but you are getting a 4-core Xeon for the premium. My budget is more flexible I guess, but no sense spending the money if it isn't going to benefit the system performance.

Anyway, I'm definitely using this build as a starting point for pricing out the build so I can decide if I'll build it buy, so a huge thanks from this FreeNAS novice!
 

Constantin

Vampire Pig
Joined
May 19, 2017
Messages
1,828
Plex has published recommendations re: what passmark scores a CPU has to meet in order to transcode without issues. As you can imagine, it depends in part on the resolution of the source material, how many simultaneous streams, etc.

I’d review those recommendations vs. the published Passmark scores of the CPUs in question. If there is uncertainty re: the future CPU load, I’d consider the removable processor option. You cannot upgrade a embedded cpu other than replacing the motherboard.

That said, I’m not a fan of transcoding at the server. I prefer having dedicated media appliances for that kind of workload. That way the server can stick to being a good server and the media appliance can do what it does best, ie transcoding, for example.

I have been very happy with my CPU but likely overspent... and the 2-core unit would have likely performed the same or better in my use case.
 

Yorick

Wizard
Joined
Nov 4, 2018
Messages
1,912
Depending on what you are transcoding to what, and how many in parallel, you can have good results with throwing not CPU but iGPU at it. A G5400 will do fine for a few VC1 to H.264 or 1080p to 720p, for example. Even 4k is doable, though if it’s HDR, don’t do that, and keep an SDR 1080p original source alongside, because washed out colors otherwise.

Depending on timeline you can go for Kaby Lake today, or buy coffee lake and use the hardware transcode when TrueNAS 12 is stable.

Unlike Constantin, I don’t want a second box to do a job that’s only needed now and then and that a FreeNAS unit can handle perfectly well. Different strokes and all that.

Concretely, if all you are doing is file serving and light transcoding: x11sch-f and g5400/5500. A bit more oomph: i3-8100/9100 instead. Need more than 64GB ram (do you though?): xeon e-2124g or e-2224g. Choose by price, 9th gen isn’t going to get you noticeably more than 8th gen.
That assumes you are okay to wait a couple months for Hardware transcode, which will require TrueNAS 12 on this hardware.

Gotta hardware transcode now: x11ssh-f or x11ssm-f with kaby lake equivalents to the above. I think these are now actually more expensive than coffee lake options, so I don’t know I’d recommend that.
 
Last edited:

LeDiable

Dabbler
Joined
May 6, 2020
Messages
36
Thanks for the input. The content is 90% DVD rips so not even 720p content (either our 4k TV's scalar is amazing, or my eyes suck, but it looks fine on a 60" LED TV). Generally there is only 1 LAN stream at any time, although that could bump up to 2-3 as the kids get older. We mainly use the Plex app on our LG smart TV, but also on our phones and occasionally through a Chromecast. These may not actually require transcoding, however I've been encoding the movies with h.265 instead of h.264, and I'm not sure which devices can handle that natively, so I'll look into that before going much further.

My current "server" is 9yrs old, running a desktop mobo & AMD Athlon CPU. So, spending money on something that may be overkill now but will be capable of handling heavier loads for years to come is important.
 

Yorick

Wizard
Joined
Nov 4, 2018
Messages
1,912
H.265 transcode requires a Kaby Lake or better. Personally, I rip 1:1 to an MKV, no changes to encoding. The Roku Ultra can stream H.265 directly, not sure about others, test your player.

For your use case, provided you are comfortable with a bit of a learning curve, I am recommending the Coffee Lake G5400 on x11sch-f (1). You'd use @danb35 's script to create your Plex jail, so you are ready to enable hardware transcode when TrueNAS 12.0 rolls around. The learning curve is to become comfortable with CLI to a degree, and know how to create datasets and mount them into a jail, which requires an understanding of what a "file path" is. We have written guides, and videos as well, to help someone understand that process - and, fair enough, we've had users on these forums who struggle for a week with a task that should take 5 minutes, because the concept of a "file path" is just utterly foreign.

How steep that learning curve will be for you depends on your comfort level. You can gauge that by looking at this video, only the first 14 minutes, the rest isn't relevant to you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvM32lWc_r4

If that has you running for the hills, then getting Plex with hardware transcode working is going to be bear.
If that has you going "yeah I can learn how to do that", you are in good shape.

(1) Specifically that board because it has C246 AND enables iGPU on the board / in BIOS
 

LeDiable

Dabbler
Joined
May 6, 2020
Messages
36
Thanks for the tips, I'll check the video out this weekend. Since I don't want to continue hijacking this thread, I'll put in some time when I can and come back with a new thread when I have some better ideas on hardware that I find inside my budget.
 

Mr. Slumber

Contributor
Joined
Mar 10, 2019
Messages
182
Waited on purpose with the 11.3-U3x updates to avoid "troubles"... Good choice because today I updated directly to 11.3-U3.2, reboot and... no problems. Happy :cool:

Bildschirmfoto 2020-06-09 um 17.22.30.png
 

Mr. Slumber

Contributor
Joined
Mar 10, 2019
Messages
182
waited for some days but now went for the update... sailing smoothly, everything is working well :smile: Now waiting for TrueNas 12 final :smile:

Bildschirmfoto 2020-08-04 um 19.03.32.png
 

Mr. Slumber

Contributor
Joined
Mar 10, 2019
Messages
182
Last update before the next big step and upgrading to TrueNAS 12.0 ... :smile:

So far no problems, reboot, done :smile: Thanks iXsystems :smile:

Bildschirmfoto 2020-10-04 um 08.33.57.png
 
Top