BUILD Very first NAS build & no server experience - disaster?!

[yourmate]

Hi guys,

already tried to hijack somebody else's thread but more and more questions surface so probably it's better to start my very own ;)
As I've said I was lurking around for a while, read the hw recommendations and also the slideshow presentation and I finally feel I am ready to go. Not really :/

I have managed to buy a brand new SuperServer 7047R-TRF which comes with a chassis, PSUs and mobo.

Chassis
SuperChassis 745TQ-R920B

PSU
Built in 920W High-efficiency Platinum Level (94%+) Redundant Power Supplies

Motherboard
Supermicro X9DRi-F

CPU
Either an Intel Xeon E5-2309 or E5-2350 or E5-2370 *

Memory
Samsung 32GB 4X8GB DDR3 1600MHz PC3-12800R ECC Registered RAM

Boot device
TRANSCEND TS8GSSD25-S SSD 8GB SLC SATA II

Storage
4x WD Red 2TB and 2x WD Red 4TB (already have in my W7 install) in RaidZ2 or RaidZ3**

UPS
yes, I need a ups as well :)

Purpose
- strictly home use for general file serving
- backup server to backup my phone & laptop on the fly
- download server for torrents
- media server to stream my music and movie collection to a couple of Kodi boxes
- and provide remote access for me when I need some of my clients config files working on site

I use Kodi so I probably won't use Plex but I'd definitely run a central database for Kodi there and whatever cool stuff I discover FreeNAS is capable of running. I would like to use compression*** on most of the files and some of the files I'd like to encrypt (probably a couple hundred MB, so no big deal - mainly text files, password and financial data backups)

First, I wanted to buy a HP ProLiant MicroServer Gen8 G1610T and hack in a SATA card and two more HDDs which would have been around £160-£190 plus the 4x 2TB drives I don't have. Problem is you cannot really upgrade the mobo as the tray is tailored to accommodate their own.

Then I have read a bit more and started to look for different cases and mobos and finally find this SuperServer for £400 brand new. This is a bit over my initial budget but it's future proof and hopefully faster than the HP ;) The "problem" is now that it's a dual CPU board so I have to buy 2 Xeon CPUs...

I'd like to get your inputs on *CPU, **RaidZ3 on six disks & ***compression type and of course on the build in general!

Thanks for your feedback and sorry for the long post.

 

[Dice]

**RaidZ3 on six disks

This is somewhat odd. RaidZ2 is generally recommended. The third parity drive both eats performance and has doubtly any benefit in this scenario. Ie, 'what is the likely hood that 3 out of 6 drives fails without you being able to resilver?'. If drives, ram and cards are properly burned in (follow the stickies!), this should greately reduce the likely hood of such events happening. Go for Raidz2.
Cheers /

 

[yourmate]

Ie, 'what is the likely hood that 3 out of 6 drives fails without you being able to resilver?'

Thanks Dice,
I've thought the same originally but as I cannot modify my vdev anymore after I have finalized my setup I have to stick with 6 disks which in a year will all be 4TB ones and I was told so many times "not to be a statistic" that I am getting rather paranoid ;)

I've seen in the other thread recommending a 500GB "scrap" disk for downloads and stuff in its own pool to avoid the main pool from corruption - would that be useful and where can I read more about that?

 

[Dice]

I have to stick with 6 disks

6 drive radiz2 is golden.

500GB "scrap" disk for downloads and stuff in its own pool

I've sort of implemented this, to reduce stress and fragmentation on the main pool. Since there are no straight forward tools to defragment ZFS (other than what I've found: moving data to new datasets/drives which requires a lot of free space to be meaningful).
Ie, I've a temp drive on my utility server that acts as this 'stress&defragmentation alleviator'.

 

[anodos]

Hi guys,

already tried to hijack somebody else's thread but more and more questions surface so probably it's better to start my very own ;)
As I've said I was lurking around for a while, read the hw recommendations and also the slideshow presentation and I finally feel I am ready to go. Not really :/

I have managed to buy a brand new SuperServer 7047R-TRF which comes with a chassis, PSUs and mobo.

Chassis
SuperChassis 745TQ-R920B

PSU
Built in 920W High-efficiency Platinum Level (94%+) Redundant Power Supplies

Motherboard
Supermicro X9DRi-F

CPU
Either an Intel Xeon E5-2309 or E5-2350 or E5-2370 *

Memory
Samsung 32GB 4X8GB DDR3 1600MHz PC3-12800R ECC Registered RAM

Boot device
TRANSCEND TS8GSSD25-S SSD 8GB SLC SATA II

Storage
4x WD Red 2TB and 2x WD Red 4TB (already have in my W7 install) in RaidZ2 or RaidZ3**

UPS
yes, I need a ups as well :)

Purpose
- strictly home use for general file serving
- backup server to backup my phone & laptop on the fly
- download server for torrents
- media server to stream my music and movie collection to a couple of Kodi boxes
- and provide remote access for me when I need some of my clients config files working on site

I use Kodi so I probably won't use Plex but I'd definitely run a central database for Kodi there and whatever cool stuff I discover FreeNAS is capable of running. I would like to use compression*** on most of the files and some of the files I'd like to encrypt (probably a couple hundred MB, so no big deal - mainly text files, password and financial data backups)

First, I wanted to buy a HP ProLiant MicroServer Gen8 G1610T and hack in a SATA card and two more HDDs which would have been around £160-£190 plus the 4x 2TB drives I don't have. Problem is you cannot really upgrade the mobo as the tray is tailored to accommodate their own.

Then I have read a bit more and started to look for different cases and mobos and finally find this SuperServer for £400 brand new. This is a bit over my initial budget but it's future proof and hopefully faster than the HP ;) The "problem" is now that it's a dual CPU board so I have to buy 2 Xeon CPUs...

I'd like to get your inputs on *CPU, **RaidZ3 on six disks & ***compression type and of course on the build in general!

Thanks for your feedback and sorry for the long post.

• You don't have to buy two CPUs for the board. I'm not sure what the market is like on sandy/ivybridge CPUs, but you might be able to find a sandy/ivy E5-1620 or 1650 processor for a cheaper price and run it as a single-socket board. (I'm pretty sure of this, but I'll let @jgreco weigh in on the matter) Just be SURE to buy a sandy/ivy part.
• Encryption is an all-or-nothing thing in FreeNAS. I'd personally avoid encrypting the pool as it only protects you against a few minor threats (someone physically stealing your server) but introduces the real possibility that you will screw something up and lose all your data. On alternative is to store a truecrypt (or veracrypt) volume on one of your shares. Just make sure that you periodically snapshot the share where it resides.
• If you have 6 drives, RAIDZ2 is a much better option.
• There is no reason to use an SLC SSD for your boot device. I'd just get the cheapest 2.5" SSD available from some sort of reputable manufacturer and stick it somewhere inside the chassis (don't burn a hotswap bay on it). Or use a SATADOM. Or use a USB flash drive.
• It looks like you don't have any mechanism to back up your NAS (yes, you need backups). There are lots of different ways to achieve this, but they cost money. Give yourself a proper budget.

 

[yourmate]

I've a temp drive on my utility server that acts as this 'stress&defragmentation alleviator'.

So if I get this right it's in a different pool and Transmission downloads to that pool and when you have the file downloaded you move it from that pool to the main one...

 

[yourmate]

Thank you for your suggestions!

You don't have to buy two CPUs for the board. I'm not sure what the market is like on sandy/ivybridge CPUs, but you might be able to find a sandy/ivy E5-1620 or 1650 processor for a cheaper price and run it as a single-socket board. (I'm pretty sure of this, but I'll let @jgreco weigh in on the matter) Just be SURE to buy a sandy/ivy part.

Yes, I think you're right it can be used as a single CPU board - with the restriction of not using certain mem slots (no problem) and some PCIe slots (that's OK as well).
However as far as I understood from the mobo's manual it needs to be either E5-26xx v1 or E5-26xx v2. So 1620 is probably no good.
As I could buy the CPUs damn cheap my thinking was I'd buy 2x E5-2609 because its price (half of the 2670) and wattage and in a couple years time I'd upgrade to the v2 family when its price goes down. This only works if the TWO E5-2609 is powerful enough for this thing. Because I have NO server experience at all I need you guys to chip in and tell me. Also the 2609 works almost at half of the wattage needed for the 2670 so it would not generate as much heat so the chassis would be more silent.

Encryption is an all-or-nothing thing in FreeNAS. I'd personally avoid encrypting the pool as it only protects you against a few minor threats (someone physically stealing your server) but introduces the real possibility that you will screw something up and lose all your data. On alternative is to store a truecrypt (or veracrypt) volume on one of your shares. Just make sure that you periodically snapshot the share where it resides.

I've thought I could encrypt different datasets... VC would work, it's a very good idea, thanks! Should it be a different pool?

If you have 6 drives, RAIDZ2 is a much better option.

Duly noted.

There is no reason to use an SLC SSD for your boot device. I'd just get the cheapest 2.5" SSD available from some sort of reputable manufacturer and stick it somewhere inside the chassis (don't burn a hotswap bay on it). Or use a SATADOM. Or use a USB flash drive.

It would be £15 new so not a big deal really but I'll look around. I don't like the SATADOM due to the layout of the board as it would restrict my access to the SATA ports next to it (by the look of it ;) )

It looks like you don't have any mechanism to back up your NAS (yes, you need backups). There are lots of different ways to achieve this, but they cost money. Give yourself a proper budget.

The 95% of the data has no value to me (music & movie files) so I will only back up roughly 1TB of data (clients' images and my own photos and videos) and I can do that to a 2TB external drive.

 

[anodos]

Thank you for your suggestions!



Yes, I think you're right it can be used as a single CPU board - with the restriction of not using certain mem slots (no problem) and some PCIe slots (that's OK as well).
However as far as I understood from the mobo's manual it needs to be either E5-26xx v1 or E5-26xx v2. So 1620 is probably no good.
As I could buy the CPUs damn cheap my thinking was I'd buy 2x E5-2609 because its price (half of the 2670) and wattage and in a couple years time I'd upgrade to the v2 family when its price goes down. This only works if the TWO E5-2609 is powerful enough for this thing. Because I have NO server experience at all I need you guys to chip in and tell me. Also the 2609 works almost at half of the wattage needed for the 2670 so it would not generate as much heat so the chassis would be more silent.

Supermicro server and silent are not terms commonly associated in my mind. The reason why the E5-2609 is cheap is because it's a piss-poor CPU that no one in their right mind wants. You'd be much better off with a single 2670.

 

[yourmate]

The reason why the E5-2609 is cheap is because it's a piss-poor CPU that no one in their right mind wants.

Did I mention my lack of server experience?!? :D

The only reason I am asking because I have second thoughts and need some reassurance that I spend my budget in the right way...

1) the 745TQ-R920B chassis/920W redundant PSU/X9DRi-F + 2x E5-2670 will cost me $800 - all of them server grade Supermicro stuff and - apart from the CPU - brand new
2) on the contrary for less than half price ($350) I can buy a Fractal R5 case/Corsair HX750i Platinum PSU/X9SCA + Xeon E3-1225 and NONE of them new or at least not BNIB and to be fair I'd probably need an IBM SATA card for another $80 'cos the X9SCA has only 6 ports.

All the rest is the same cost: memory/USB or SSD/UPS/etc

So my question is after all that how much superior would be build #1 over #2 (if any) regarding speed / reliability / longevity (or future proofness)? Would it justify spending twice as much for a home server rather than spending the difference on bigger/more disks?

Thanks

 

[vrod]

If it's just for home use you would be better off building the server in a non-hotswap case, where you can perhaps reach the HDD's from the side. Just go for a simple E3 setup with 32gb of memory, this will serve you well. There's no reason to go all extreme on it unless it's datacenter usage.

 

[anodos]

Did I mention my lack of server experience?!? :D

The only reason I am asking because I have second thoughts and need some reassurance that I spend my budget in the right way...

1) the 745TQ-R920B chassis/920W redundant PSU/X9DRi-F + 2x E5-2670 will cost me $800 - all of them server grade Supermicro stuff and - apart from the CPU - brand new
2) on the contrary for less than half price ($350) I can buy a Fractal R5 case/Corsair HX750i Platinum PSU/X9SCA + Xeon E3-1225 and NONE of them new or at least not BNIB and to be fair I'd probably need an IBM SATA card for another $80 'cos the X9SCA has only 6 ports.

All the rest is the same cost: memory/USB or SSD/UPS/etc

So my question is after all that how much superior would be build #1 over #2 (if any) regarding speed / reliability / longevity (or future proofness)? Would it justify spending twice as much for a home server rather than spending the difference on bigger/more disks?

Thanks

Both options should be fine. (2) will probably be quieter. Make sure that you buy the correct HBA. You want something based on the LSI SAS2008 chipset that is known to work well with FreeNAS. If you go with (2) make sure you have adequate cooling for your hard drives (they should not be running hotter than 40C). You might also want to look at the supermicro X10SL7 motherboard (which has an integrated HBA).

 

[yourmate]

You might also want to look at the supermicro X10SL7 motherboard (which has an integrated HBA).

Thanks.
As the X10SL7 being over £200 would take away the financial benefit of the #2. It seems I need to do some serious thinking in the next few days.

 

[jgreco]

• You don't have to buy two CPUs for the board. I'm not sure what the market is like on sandy/ivybridge CPUs, but you might be able to find a sandy/ivy E5-1620 or 1650 processor for a cheaper price and run it as a single-socket board. (I'm pretty sure of this, but I'll let @jgreco weigh in on the matter) Just be SURE to buy a sandy/ivy part.

Dang forumware didn't alert on the tag, sorry. I think we already discussed the cheaply available E5-2670 in another thread? Use just one socket (need to read the manual to get the RIGHT socket) and you lose some PCIe slots, but other than that... cheap way to get a hell of a server. Most of the guys here are E3, and would be jealous of a nice E5 octa-core box.

 

[yourmate]

Looking at the mobo specs I've found that the max supported TDP is 135W (see attachement)

I suppose (given the relatively high TDPs of the E5-26xx family) this means PER processor so two 115W CPU is fine, isn't it?
Although I think I would take the advice of running on a single CPU for now, but hey, we never know what the future brings...

 

[jgreco]

Yes, all the Supermicro server boards would easily support the full 135 watts, and yes, that's definitely per socket.