24-48+ HDD Server - Some questions

[danb35]

I've often wondered about the fan noise on that chassis when it's populated.. Hovercraft?

Yeah, pretty close to hovercraft. But at least it isn't full of eels.

 

[Stux]

Refer to the user manual for the motherboard and find out. They generally tell you.

Supermicro are pretty poor at that sort of detail. FWIW, I've tried a single DIMM in my X10-SRi and it seemed to work.

Btw, the case the OP linked only has 11 drive bays. Get a 24 drive bay case.

 

[Stux]

Here's my build, at a similar scale to yours: https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...24-supermicro-x10-sri-f-xeon-e5-1650v4.46262/

 

[danb35]

Supermicro are pretty poor at that sort of detail.

Strange, I've found them to be very good in that regard. The manual for my motherboard is pretty clear, and specific, about what memory configurations are possible.

 

[Stux]

Strange, I've found them to be very good in that regard. The manual for my motherboard is pretty clear, and specific, about what memory configurations are possible.

Anyway, in the X10SRi-F manual, there was not a definitive answer on if you could use just one DIMM. Maybe it was implied by a careful reading... or maybe it was not...

I've tested it, it works.

The X10SRi-F supports up to 256GB of RDIMM and 512GB of LRDIMM DDR4 2400 MHz (max.) in eight memory slots. Populating these DIMM slots with a pair of memory modules of the same type and size will result in interleaved memory, which will improve memory performance. Please refer to the table on the next page

 

[AlexIsNas]

Can I use a SSD as boot device and cache? or will all space left on the boot device be lost?

 

[danb35]

Can I use a SSD as boot device and cache?

No, the boot device is only the boot device.

 

[AlexIsNas]

Ok, that's bad. But then I will go with the usb solution for the boot device.

Can you tell me how big the improvements of and sad cache would be?

 

[Ericloewe]

Ok, that's bad. But then I will go with the usb solution for the boot device.

Can you tell me how big the improvements of and sad cache would be?

If you have to ask, the answer is most likely "none".

 

[AlexIsNas]

If you have to ask, the answer is most likely "none".

Thank you, but that is not really helpful...
Yeah and SSD is faster, but how big are the improvements while writing onto the NAS? Why is this a bad or silly question? When I can double the NAS writing speed it would be worth a decision.

NAS write speed without cache - 150MB/s (WD Red 4TB)
NAS write speed with SSD cache - ?

Will there be an improvement by big and small files?
Will a Raid 1 SSD cache be slower than a single SSD?
How long will FreeNAS keep the data on the SSD?
And yeah! I've got a switch that is capable of more than 1Gbit a second...

 

[Dice]

Thank you, but that is not really helpful...

While it may come across a bit harsch, it actually is accurate.

Why is this a bad or silly question?

Because - if you visit the documentation, or the recommended newbie primer (see my sig), or the highlighted hardware guide, you would have an idea what "ssd cache" does, and does not do ..for the user experience on FreeNAS.
It is not windows / unraid (sorry for the prophane language).

At this point, you will be best off by doing some reading and contemplation.
Once your questions reflect your homework, you will experience the outmost helpful forum.

 

[danb35]

Yeah and SSD is faster, but how big are the improvements while writing onto the NAS?

ZFS doesn't use a cache, as such, for writes. It uses a cache for reads (the ARC in RAM and the L2ARC, if present, typically on an SSD), and a log (the ZIL in RAM, a SLOG if present on an SSD) for writes. For the use case you describe, you would have no use at all for a SLOG device. If you're anticipating a large volume of sync writes (which would typically be associated with using your FreeNAS box as a VM datastore, connecting via NFS), a SLOG device could be beneficial. If you're going to use one, it needs some fairly unique characteristics which typically result in it being fairly expensive.

Really, you have some reading to do on ZFS. It doesn't work like most other filesystems.

Edit: One resource is here: https://www.ixsystems.com/blog/o-slog-not-slog-best-configure-zfs-intent-log/

 

[Stux]

How do you have a switch which is faster than gigabit? Is it 10gbe?

 

[danb35]

Just happened to run across a couple of listings from Mr. Rackables on eBay for prebuilt servers very similar to mine but with E5-2660s (rather than 2670s), including a SATA DOM for a boot device, for US$1200 plus shipping. Don't know if they'd ship to .de, or if it'd be worth using a freight forwarding service, but that's still looking like a very good deal.

Edit: Linky

 

[AlexIsNas]

I would likely buy a Supermicro chassis but I had servers with server fans and power supplies... And they are too loud. I will go with a selfmate version and post my progress.

How do you have a switch which is faster than gigabit? Is it 10gbe?

I've got a 48 port managed Gbit switch with link aggregation for up to 4 ports and 4 SFP port. So I could give the NAS a 4 Gbit connection.

 

[danb35]

Yeah, the noise is an issue--as is the heat, for that matter, of having an extra kilowatt or so in the closet. That room is a good 5 degrees warmer than the rest of the house. I'll be building a workshop shortly, and I'm leaning toward running fiber out there and moving the entire rack to the shop, which would solve both problems.