Another old hardware question for FreeNAS install

[Bizquick]

Okay got another old hard issue.
These server are going to the dumpster soon too.
we got a bunch of these old servers with dual L5420's 2.5 ghz most have 32gigs of ram and 4 drive bays.
cant expand much more than that. Maybe add on a PCIe card for a SSD boot or something but not much more than that.
or I have the older Dell R310's I talked about in a different post. they have a 3430x and most only have about 16gb. some I got 24 gigs in them working. But that was pushing it.
the Dell R310's I can add up to 2 PCIe expansion cards. I'm looking to use for testing FreeNAS stuff. The primary function is really for a home Plex box.
Both boxes are USB 2.0 so installing the OS on a 16gb flash drive does limits the speed a little bit too.
I really don't see why I would need much more than this hardware for my home network plex box.
Right now I'm using a old desktop I have frankinstined with a 1 TB drive. and 2 SSDs
1 for boot and 1 for jails 8GB or ram.
And its running pretty ok. But I need something with just a little more storage and fail over.

 

[Chris Moore]

The servers with 32 gigs of RAM sound pretty interesting but we need more details about the exact Hardware that's in there before we can make any sort of educated guess 2.5 gigahertz is plenty of processor speed but the question is what other Hardware is in there

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[Chris Moore]

PS. don't throw away anything sell it on eBay. somebody can use it.

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[nightshade00013]

The L5420's do operate on a 1333 FSB so while they will work as a CPU they are not ideal. For Plex they do have enough power to do some stuff and transcode but don't expect stellar performance. Some other hardware info will be good as well but from what I can tell the ram will be DDR2 and guessing 667Mhz.

So from what I can tell it will work but it will be right on the edge of watching the pot waiting for water to boil type of situation.

 

[mrm13440]

32 gigs memory....wow my best system has 6 gigs...and you want to throw them out?

 

[Chris Moore]

32 gigs memory....wow my best system has 6 gigs...and you want to throw them out?

Times change in computing. I have a 1990 model car that I still drive because cars still run on gas and I can still get tires for it, but computers are not the same. You can't run a modern operating system on a computer from the 90s. If you want a modern operating system, you need a reasonably modern computer. You don't need a brand spanking new computer, but something a bit more modern than what you are talking about.
If you would like some suggestions, I will be happy to help with that, but you have to get your mind around the idea that you can't use that old computer forever.

 

[Inxsible]

Both boxes are USB 2.0 so installing the OS on a 16gb flash drive does limits the speed a little bit too.

Not quite. My NAS stays up 24/7, so once its booted up, it runs from RAM and doesn't need to go back to the USB for anything. The speed of USB2.0 vs USB3.0 vs SSD should not be a concern for FreeNAS.

The only advantage of using an SSD is that SSDs are more reliable than USB drives and can usually hold a lot more data (although that's not completely true these days with USB keys being available in large sizes like 128GB etc)

 

[Chris Moore]

I really don't see why I would need much more than this hardware for my home network plex box.
Right now I'm using a old desktop I have frankinstined with a 1 TB drive. and 2 SSDs
1 for boot and 1 for jails 8GB or ram.
And its running pretty ok. But I need something with just a little more storage and fail over.

This thread was started back in August of 2017. I am guessing the OP has made a decision and taken action. Is that true, or would you like some additional input to help make your decision?

 

[Inxsible]

This thread was started back in August of 2017.

I didn't notice that to be quite honest. I just saw the last few posts were made earlier today so I posted in it. Maybe we should have a thread locking after a particular build has been completed or if the original OP has had all his/her questions answered.

 

[wblock]

Not quite. My NAS stays up 24/7, so once its booted up, it runs from RAM and doesn't need to go back to the USB for anything.

It does, though. FreeNAS has not been run from RAM for several years now. The boot device is read and written. Writes are small but periodic.

 

[Inxsible]

It does, though. FreeNAS has not been run from RAM for several years now. The boot device is read and written. Writes are small but periodic.

I stand corrected then.

I have been running off of a single USB for such a long time without breakage that I must have mixed it up. I guess I have been lucky in terms of not having my USB crap out. Although the primary reason I used USB was the lack of SATA ports on my motherboard. I have 6 SATA ports and I needed each one for my 6 drives.

I do advise people to install to a SSD if they can spare a SATA port and some cash for a 32GB SSD. If not, then USB is not so bad.

 

[Chris Moore]

I stand corrected then.

I have been running off of a single USB for such a long time without breakage that I must have mixed it up. I guess I have been lucky in terms of not having my USB crap out. Although the primary reason I used USB was the lack of SATA ports on my motherboard. I have 6 SATA ports and I needed each one for my 6 drives.

I do advise people to install to a SSD if they can spare a SATA port and some cash for a 32GB SSD. If not, then USB is not so bad.

This is an interesting thing to look at. It is a USB DOM (disk on module) that plugs direct to the 9 pin USB header on the system board instead of needing a regular USB port or a SATA port.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/272857218830

 

[Inxsible]

This is an interesting thing to look at. It is a USB DOM (disk on module) that plugs direct to the 9 pin USB header on the system board instead of needing a regular USB port or a SATA port.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/272857218830

It is. I didn't know such a thing existed. What advantages, if any, would this give over regular USB?

Or converting the header into 2 USB ports and putting the usb drives in type A ports using one of these?

You also get one for converting a USB3 header to dual type A ports as well. But most older server boards still don't have USB3 headers as far as I have seen.

 

[wblock]

What advantages, if any, would this give over regular USB?

It's internal and less likely to be broken off accidentally. The DOM part of it might have speed or reliability advantages over a standard USB stick (or might not), but otherwise it's just an expensive internal USB. A true SSD would be better, if a port is available.

 

[Inxsible]

It's internal and less likely to be broken off accidentally.

Fair enough. Although personally I don't have the problem as only I touch my server in my house and the server is also in a server closet which is locked. And with a usb header --> type A converter that I linked above, you can still keep your usb keys internal. The converter also helps when you have a server board with less number of external USB ports.

The DOM part of it might have speed or reliability advantages over a standard USB stick (or might not), but otherwise it's just an expensive internal USB. A true SSD would be better, if a port is available.

Yeah, it would probably come down to cost when deciding on USB DOM vs regular USB keys. SSDs, if you can spare the port

 

[Chris Moore]

Fair enough. Although personally I don't have the problem as only I touch my server in my house and the server is also in a server closet which is locked. And with a usb header --> type A converter that I linked above, you can still keep your usb keys internal. The converter also helps when you have a server board with less number of external USB ports. Yeah, it would probably come down to cost when deciding on USB DOM vs regular USB keys. SSDs, if you can spare the port

We have a server at work that has been running Linux from one of those for 2.5 years and it is detected as a 'drive'.
If I were doing it, I would buy the SAS HBA for my data drives and put the boot drives on SATA, and I would just use a mirrored pair of regular hard drives.
That's just me.

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[Inxsible]

my new build will probably use old PATA drives that are sourced from my ancient laptops (circa 1999) I might need a pata to sata converter though. When those drives die, I will put in SSDs

 

[Chris Moore]

my new build will probably use old PATA drives that are sourced from my ancient laptops (circa 1999) I might need a pata to sata converter though. When those drives die, I will put in SSDs

For the boot drives or the data drives?

 

[Inxsible]

For the boot drives or the data drives?

boot. I wouldn't trust those old drives for my data. I do regularly backup the config so if the drive fails it should take me too long to get back online.