Will it TrueNAS - Chenbro RM41416

[gggr]

Hi all,

Looking to upgrade my 4 bay HP microserver to something with a lot more storage. I'm located in Australia so stock levels not always the best. The following system has come up on marketplace

Chenbro RM41416 - Tech data
Asus Z8PE-D12X - Asus tech Data
2 x Xeon X5680 CPUs - Intel tech data
12GB DDR3 ECC RAM
4 port SAS raid controller with 4 x mini SAS to SATA cables

I am new to trueNAS and a bit of a newbie generally with servers / storage.

Based on my reading here I will probably just run TrueNAS core, but may try out proxmox with a TrueNAS VM. I know there are some complications there (e.g. pass through the HDDs to TrueNAS) but will worry about that down the line. If I can't get it to work I will be okay with running TrueNAS on its own.

Either way I was planning spin up a pool with 8x10tb HDDs in Z1 as the main storage pool, plus a handful of smaller pools utilising HDDs I have laying around unused. Understand that Z2 or Z3 may be recommended at these sizes but I am okay with the risk

Looking at the 2nd hand equipment on offer, I am aware that:

• All equipment is a bit old so is a few generations behind, e.g. DDR3 RAM. Fans may be noisy but look to be standard 80mm so could possibly swap for something quieter.
• I should get more RAM. I would look at getting some ECC DDR3 also 2nd hand so exact amount will depend on stock but ideally around 32GB total?
• Depending on the actual brand / make of the RAID controller, it may not work with TrueNAS. I am okay with replacing it with a new HBA(s) as needed. I am assuming I will be able to just plug a new HBA into one of the PCI slots.
• Should get an SSD to use as a boot drive.

Are there any other dealbreakers or big issues I should be aware of before trying it out? A 16-bay case seems like a rare-ish find in this market so I am kind of keen to jump in.

 

[gggr]

Forgot to add, the main pool will be used to serve files to a separate NUC running kodi / libreelec. So shouldn't be any transcoding / plex required.

 

[sretalla]

4 port SAS raid controller with 4 x mini SAS to SATA cables

Careful...

What's all the noise about HBA's, and why can't I use a RAID controller?

This is relevant to FreeNAS and TrueNAS CORE. Some parts of it might also be relevant to Scale, but I don't really know how reliable the Linux drivers are. 1) An HBA is a Host Bus Adapter. This is a controller that allows SAS and SATA devices to be attached to, and communicate directly with...

www.truenas.com

You're nearly there, but you want an HBA, not RAID card with the same ports.

 

[sretalla]

ideally around 32GB total?

Yes, that's probably reasonable for your use case, leaving some headroom for ARC to do its work.

 

[ChrisRJ]

2 x Xeon X5680 CPUs - Intel tech data

Those CPUs are 13 years old, consume a lot of power (2*130 W as per your link) and create the corresponding amount of heat. Unless you get electricity for free, I would advise against them.

12GB DDR3 ECC RAM

That is below the official minimum and certainly extremely low for the amount of storage you want to attach.

Based on my reading here I will probably just run TrueNAS core, but may try out proxmox with a TrueNAS VM.

That is a risk as well

I know there are some complications there (e.g. pass through the HDDs to TrueNAS) but will worry about that down the line. If I can't get it to work I will be okay with running TrueNAS on its own.

No, you don't pass through HDDs but their controller in its entirety.

Either way I was planning spin up a pool with 8x10tb HDDs in Z1 as the main storage pool, plus a handful of smaller pools utilising HDDs I have laying around unused. Understand that Z2 or Z3 may be recommended at these sizes but I am okay with the risk

Quite frankly, are you actually aware what the risk is?

Are there any other dealbreakers or big issues I should be aware of before trying it out?

There are several issues with this setup as described above. It is applaudable that you are going for server gear. But in this configuration it does not make sense from where I stand.

 

[gggr]

Thanks for the responses all, I think I mostly anticipated the issues with the 2nd hand gear!

It may all be for naught as the seller hasn't responded to me yet, but I hope you don't mind if I follow up on some of the comments as a learning experience.

You're nearly there, but you want an HBA, not RAID card with the same ports.

Agreed, that is just what the seller has installed. I will replace.

Those CPUs are 13 years old, consume a lot of power (2*130 W as per your link) and create the corresponding amount of heat. Unless you get electricity for free, I would advise against them.

Good point. For my use case I could probably get away with removing 1 CPU and just running with 1 off?
Looking at the mobo tech data it has support for the Xeon L5600/L5500 Series which should be lower power usage - could possibly source one of these.
I get your point though, it is a few hoops to jump through.

No, you don't pass through HDDs but their controller in its entirety.

Gotcha. I was aware there was some additional step but evidently didn't have the details correct.

Quite frankly, are you actually aware what the risk is?

Probably not entirely!
My understanding is I can lose 1 HDD without data loss, but if 2 fail then everything is lost. And the odds of a 2nd failing shortly after the first (whether due to the extra stress from resilvering or murphy's law) before it rebuilds is high. In my instance, nothing in this pool would be irreplaceable, and the pool would exist as a secondary copy with the original living on a separate machine. So losing 2+ HDDs would be an inconvenience but not world shattering for me?

There are several issues with this setup as described above. It is applaudable that you are going for server gear. But in this configuration it does not make sense from where I stand.

Unfortunately there is not a huge amount of stock suitable that I can find here.
If I go for 2nd hand gear it is most likely going to be 5-15 yrs old. It is mostly poweredge rx10, some rx20 and the occasional rx30 or rx40 (or similar vintage proliant) - which typically don't have the required number of 3.5" HDD bays.
I could look at going a ~2015 server and add a SAN or similar HDD only enclosure but I assume that would end using more power overall plus introduce even more headaches getting it to run?

 

[sretalla]

For my use case I could probably get away with removing 1 CPU and just running with 1 off?

Probably, but you'll need to consider what that does to your RAM slots... usually means half of them can't be used.

 

[NickF]

I ran a Dell R710 for a number of years at home that has similar specs. I moved onto newer hardware more for performance reasons than power consumption reasons. Registered DDR3 DIMMs are pretty cheap, so as a platform you are considering something that's not wholly unreasonable. But as stated by others above, there is some nuance to how you would configure it and use it for TrueNAS.

 

[gggr]

Hello all,
Chenbro chassis is up and running! I can boot into TrueNAS, but haven't done anything else with it so far.
I replaced the RAID card with an LSI HBA, so far it can see the drives. TrueNAS is running off an SSD connected to a mobo SATA port direct.

As expected it is quite loud, so am looking for ideas / options to reduce this.
There are 3 off 375W slot type redundant PSUs (as in this picture) and 5 off 80mm fans which seem to be main source of sound.

For the PSUs, I can't find any BIOS settings or similar to adjust the fan speed. I could look at running it with only 1 off module powered but that 1) isn't ideal and 2) is still a bit noisy.
My understanding is a standard ATX PSU should still fit the case - maybe not totally perfectly but should be close enough. So I am going to see about finding a quieter PSU - ideally a fanless model but will see what is out there. I will try and double check what the internal backplane power connection is as it might be something not included with a normal PSU.

For the 80mm fans I have a few more options. They currently seem to be powered from the backplane and just run at 100% automatically.
The mobo has 6 off (4 'front' 2 'rear') fan header connections so I could try and recable so the mobo can control the fan speed, assuming the cable length allows it. Additionally / alternatively I could look at replacing the included fans with some quieter models. Unfortunately I only have 120mm fans spare at the moment, but will have a look at marketplace to see what is available.

Are there any other suggestions or concerns with this I should think about?

 

[gggr]

Hello all,

I'm eyeing off a Corsair RM750e to replace the PSUs in the Chenbro chassis
The backplane looks to take 8 off 4 pin molex connectors. So I need 8 off molex connections to power 16 off HDDs (assuming in the future I'll eventually fill it out), plus 1 off SATA power for the boot SSD.
That particular PSU has 4 off SATA / Periph connections.
Simplest way to do things would be to find 2 off PSU-to-4xmolex cables (PSU will come with 1 off only) to power the backplane, such that each PSU connection is only powering 5-6 HDDs. These look to be available as after market generic products but not super easy to find. I know low quality cables pose a melting risk but not sure how to tell what qualifies as low quality.

I also had some questions about the switches on the backplane controller.
Below screenshot from the manual, the controller pictured matches mine pretty well.

SW1 - any guesses as to where / how the fan monitoring takes place?
SW2 - self explanatory
SW3 - is this different to SW1?
SW4 - self explanatory
SW5 and SW6 - no idea what these control, I'm guessing you use each state to tell it how many HDDs you have installed? What would it mean to have it in 16 HDD mode and only have 1 HDD?

I understand these questions are getting a bit off topic for TrueNAS but hopefully still okay under the hardware forum.

 

[gggr]

Still not sure about the switches but I can confirm that a regular ATX PSU does fit in the chassis but the screw holes do not line up. I've got it screwed in at the moment by having the lip of the screw pinch the edge of the chassis against the PSU. Not ideal but it won't be moving around much so should be fine.