Hello,
Variations needed on Backblaze storage POD. Pertinent links below (if you want a lot of background)
Their version 2 http://blog.backblaze.com/2011/07/20/petabytes-on-a-budget-v2-0revealing-more-secrets/
Their version 1 http://blog.backblaze.com/2009/09/01/petabytes-on-a-budget-how-to-build-cheap-cloud-storage/
extra reading http://extrememediaservers.blogspot.com/ (26 comments after the picture of the crimping tool/set - 3/4 way down page)
We bought a mostly assembled POD (version 2 - minus the hard drives), installed 45 3TB Hitachi drives, installed FreeNAS, put it in a datacenter, and all is "mostly good." There is a bug in the SuperMicro motherboard that does not allow a soft reboot that reads the USB stick on the MB even though it is listed first in the startup disk order. It's been reported to them back and forth - but we'll see what happens. Hard reboots work fine (but it's in a datacenter).
I am building #2 from scratch mostly, and have 2 main issues.
#1 - Power.
The original has 2 power supplies, one for 25 drives + 3 fans, and the other for 20 drives + MB, fans and the rest. We want to cut this down to one power supply. If you look near the very bottom of the blogspot linked page (in the comments), you'll see startup is the issue (which makes total sense), and the pictures of the regular usage is what would be expected (in terms of wattage). Our 3TB drives are rated as 1.2A(+5V) and 2.0A(+12V). Do the math and it's easy to see that you'll never find a PSU that is rated for a minimum of 54A on the 5 volt rail. The easy solution seems to be to use staggered spin up on the BIOS of a controller card (a SATA "option" according to the SATA spec). Easy for a smaller number of drives, more difficult because of the port multipliers (9) feeding all the drives (45). Not all RAID/SATA controllers are port multiplier compatible, especially when you are talking a larger number of drives.
So, 1) any suggestions on cards (we can use 3 PCI)? The Syba cards (from the original build) do not have staggered spin up as an option, it seems highpoint aren't very compatible with FreeNAS (according to a bunch of posts) but some do have the option but are not port multiplier friendly.
Or 2) and out of the box ideas on how to get the drives spun without killing/damaging something? Btw, I'm assuming that trying to start 45 drives at once would damage something.... what would the something be????
btw, the Seasonic Platinum 860 get incredible reviews..... and even though there is a 1000w version, once the drives are spinning that would be way overkill.
#2 - Motherboard
I don't like not being able to soft reboot the system and not have it come up correctly. Any suggestions on a MicroATX MB that will allow at least 32 GB memory, 3 PCI, etc? The Supermicro we're using now is great (X8SIL-F) but getting memory for it has been a challenge (to get 32GB), and the i3 processor is fine.
Thanks for any responses,
Rich
Variations needed on Backblaze storage POD. Pertinent links below (if you want a lot of background)
Their version 2 http://blog.backblaze.com/2011/07/20/petabytes-on-a-budget-v2-0revealing-more-secrets/
Their version 1 http://blog.backblaze.com/2009/09/01/petabytes-on-a-budget-how-to-build-cheap-cloud-storage/
extra reading http://extrememediaservers.blogspot.com/ (26 comments after the picture of the crimping tool/set - 3/4 way down page)
We bought a mostly assembled POD (version 2 - minus the hard drives), installed 45 3TB Hitachi drives, installed FreeNAS, put it in a datacenter, and all is "mostly good." There is a bug in the SuperMicro motherboard that does not allow a soft reboot that reads the USB stick on the MB even though it is listed first in the startup disk order. It's been reported to them back and forth - but we'll see what happens. Hard reboots work fine (but it's in a datacenter).
I am building #2 from scratch mostly, and have 2 main issues.
#1 - Power.
The original has 2 power supplies, one for 25 drives + 3 fans, and the other for 20 drives + MB, fans and the rest. We want to cut this down to one power supply. If you look near the very bottom of the blogspot linked page (in the comments), you'll see startup is the issue (which makes total sense), and the pictures of the regular usage is what would be expected (in terms of wattage). Our 3TB drives are rated as 1.2A(+5V) and 2.0A(+12V). Do the math and it's easy to see that you'll never find a PSU that is rated for a minimum of 54A on the 5 volt rail. The easy solution seems to be to use staggered spin up on the BIOS of a controller card (a SATA "option" according to the SATA spec). Easy for a smaller number of drives, more difficult because of the port multipliers (9) feeding all the drives (45). Not all RAID/SATA controllers are port multiplier compatible, especially when you are talking a larger number of drives.
So, 1) any suggestions on cards (we can use 3 PCI)? The Syba cards (from the original build) do not have staggered spin up as an option, it seems highpoint aren't very compatible with FreeNAS (according to a bunch of posts) but some do have the option but are not port multiplier friendly.
Or 2) and out of the box ideas on how to get the drives spun without killing/damaging something? Btw, I'm assuming that trying to start 45 drives at once would damage something.... what would the something be????
btw, the Seasonic Platinum 860 get incredible reviews..... and even though there is a 1000w version, once the drives are spinning that would be way overkill.
#2 - Motherboard
I don't like not being able to soft reboot the system and not have it come up correctly. Any suggestions on a MicroATX MB that will allow at least 32 GB memory, 3 PCI, etc? The Supermicro we're using now is great (X8SIL-F) but getting memory for it has been a challenge (to get 32GB), and the i3 processor is fine.
Thanks for any responses,
Rich