Will it TrueNAS? Upgraded, bigger server

[Stephen2]

Time to upgrade! Would love everyone to tell me:

1. Do these parts fit together
2. What cables/setup I need to connect so many HDDs to the motherboard? I can never remember this part...

FINAL(?) EDITED TABLE:

Part	Product	Price	Shop
Case	Define 7 XL	315	Megabuy
CPU	E-2236	527	Megabuy
Mobo	X11SSM-F or X11SCH-F Must be C246	430	Amazon AU
RAM	2 x MTA36ASF4G72PZ-2G6E1	645.94	Megabuy
PSU	RM1000X	324.95	Megabuy
HDD	9 x WD80EFAX	3095.28	Megabuy
SSD	2 x SDSSDA-120G-G27	65.9	Megabuy
HBA	OEM LSI 9201-16i 6Gbps 16-lane SAS HBA P19 IT Mode ZFS FreeNAS unRAID	185	ebay
Breakout cables	4 x SFF8087 -> SATA	60	Amazon AU
		5649.07

Thanks!

Edit: should have mentioned, the point is to be able to add 64GB more RAM & 9 more HDDs in... whenever... as an upgrade path.

How the heck does one connect 18 HDDs (+2 boot SSDs) to a motherboard?

 

[hescominsoon]

*That was a stupid answer*

 

[jgreco]

How the heck does one connect 18 HDDs (+2 boot SSDs) to a motherboard?

You use SAS. You can connect hundreds of drives using shelves, expanders, and one or more HBA's to attach it to your system.

Please do go visit

https://www.truenas.com/community/t...-sas-sy-a-primer-on-basic-sas-and-sata.26145/

our SAS primer to learn about the technology. HBA's can also be used to directly attach to HDD's via breakout cables. An "8i" card can manage 8 drives directly, and a "16i" card can do 16.

 

[hescominsoon]

oops..yes if you have sas on the motherboard you can use a sas exander if you need to or breakout cables depending on what the onboard controller supports..my bad.

 

[Stephen2]

Thanks for the refresher course! I've updated the table to include:

• 2 x SATA SSD for boot/OS
• 9201-16i HBA
• Breakout cables

Between 16 SATA to the HBA, 8 onboard SATA = 24 SATA spots for drives covers me! No SAS expanders required.

Does this all sound right?

 

[ChrisRJ]

Have you looked at used enterprise gear? Not sure how it is in Australia, but I would hope you can find something comparable for less than half the price of your list. Yes, there are power consumption and noise levels to consider. But Supermicro cases have a reputation (did not verify this myself) for being relatively open to fan modifications.

The HDD choice seems odd, given that WD Reds are for entry-level NAS boxes. I am pretty certain that they are certified for not more than 8 drives per enclosure. BTW: I have recently moved from WD Red to Seagate Exos, which are currently pretty cheap (at least where I live) and also data center-grade.

 

[Stephen2]

The HDD choice seems odd, given that WD Reds are for entry-level NAS boxes.

Ooooh thanks for the tip! I'll do some more research here.


Sounds like I've got the bits & pieces right now, at least, that would fit together and work so thanks heaps :)

 

[hescominsoon]

I tend to pull from ebay myself but they are SAS drives. I've been using hitachi and segate SAS 7.2k drives..:) It all depends on your capacity needs..:)

 

[Stephen2]

The HDD choice seems odd, given that WD Reds are for entry-level NAS boxes.

I found:
Western Digital Ultrastar DC SATA HDD - 7200 RPM Class, SATA 6 Gb/s, 3.5" DC HC320 8TB
HUS728T8TALE6L4

for $266AUD or $193.40USD

So.... bargain :) Glad you raised this, got better drives cheaper

 

[ChrisRJ]

I am happy that my post helped you

 

[Tabmowtez]

I found:
Western Digital Ultrastar DC SATA HDD - 7200 RPM Class, SATA 6 Gb/s, 3.5" DC HC320 8TB
HUS728T8TALE6L4

for $266AUD or $193.40USD

So.... bargain :) Glad you raised this, got better drives cheaper

Where did you get these from at this price point? I'm from Melbourne building a NAS at the moment too and haven't seen these this low...

 

[jgreco]

Where did you get these from at this price point? I'm from Melbourne building a NAS at the moment too and haven't seen these this low...

I would never spend that much on a drive. You would be much better off shucking some 14TB drives for $189 on Black Friday. The much greater amount of free space more than makes up for the 5900 RPM. 7200 RPM drives are mostly meaningless for ZFS in my opinion, much better to keep pool occupancy lower (faster writes) and to use L2ARC to speed up reads.

 

[Tabmowtez]

It's hard to find prices like that in Australia unfortunately...

 

[Stephen2]

Western Digital Ultrastar DC SATA HDD - 7200 RPM Class, SATA 6 Gb/s, 3.5" DC HC320 8TB: Internal Hard Drives: Amazon.com.au

Western Digital Ultrastar DC SATA HDD - 7200 RPM Class, SATA 6 Gb/s, 3.5" DC HC320 8TB: Internal Hard Drives: Amazon.com.au

www.amazon.com.au

@Tabmowtez

I think is a great deal for drives with 2M hrs MTBF

 

[Tabmowtez]

Very good price I must admit, I've heard they are quite noisy though and they do draw a fair bit more power. I don't need the extra grunt as even the lower end disks in a RAIDZ2 of 8 disks will saturate my 1gbps network. It's a toss up I guess... The NAS is right next to my desk so I wouldn't be keen on the extra noise and stuff, from reading a bunch of reviews they are quite loud.

 

[Stephen2]

I'll let you know in a few weeks