Budget rackmounted hardware in 2019

Dotty

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What is a good budget rackmounted hardware in 2019?
Ive seen supermicro motherboards and cases, sometimes pricey.

I definitely need dual PSU.
IPMI with KVM capabilities is desirable.
64-128 GB of RAM and 12-15 HDD bays.

Thanks !
 

Chris Moore

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I definitely need dual PSU.
IPMI with KVM capabilities is desirable.
64-128 GB of RAM and 12-15 HDD bays.
Do you want to put some parts together or do you want it mostly pre-built? What price range?
 
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Chris Moore

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Dotty

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That server looks nice, but 4U would be too big.
My limit would be 2U, sorry I didnt say that before.
I was considering this one (new):
https://www.wiredzone.com/supermicr...bone-dual-processor-ssg-6027r-e1r12l-10022230
But I still have to get CPUs and RAM.
What would be a similar option from eBay, used?
I could put parts together, but I dont think is worth the risk, Ive done it before with Dell C2100s, but Im not familiar with any other platform.
Thanks a lot
 

Chris Moore

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My limit would be 2U, sorry I didnt say that before.
That is going to limit you to only 12 bays if you want 3.5" drives.
I could put parts together, but I don't think is worth the risk
There are many more systems available that were configured with hardware RAID, so it wouldn't be much trouble to get a good system if you are willing to pull the hardware RAID card and put a SAS HBA in place of it. It is normally a very simple card swap.
If that is a possibility for you, this would likely do the job, but it does make some difference what you want to do with it:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Supermicro...80-2-7GHz-8C-128GB-12x-Trays-10G/382547310720

The 2U systems are usually louder and hotter in general terms.
 

Dotty

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I will probably go with a used 2U like that one.
12 bays will be enough, I have to decide which ZFS level I will use.
Im thinking on getting 12 WD RED HDDs, and then split them in two ZFS volumes, each of them on RAIDZ-2, one volume for regular SMB share and another for iSCSI volumes and jails.
Im trying to find a good ZFS calculator so I get accurate usable space for each volume.
 

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HoneyBadger

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I will probably go with a used 2U like that one.
12 bays will be enough, I have to decide which ZFS level I will use.
Im thinking on getting 12 WD RED HDDs, and then split them in two ZFS volumes, each of them on RAIDZ-2, one volume for regular SMB share and another for iSCSI volumes and jails.
Im trying to find a good ZFS calculator so I get accurate usable space for each volume.
What are you planning on doing with the iSCSI ZVOLs? If the intention is to present them to a hypervisor I would advise using mirrors instead for performance reasons.
 

Dotty

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I finally settled for a Supermicro SuperStorage 6027R-E1R12L with 2x E5-2650, 128GB RAM and a LSI 9211-8i
Wish me luck, I never installed FreeNAS on a SuperMIcro board (done it multiple times on Dell C2100s).
Any advise will be immensely appreciated.
 

Chris Moore

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Probably mirror, like you advised, the server will take 15 days to deliver, and I havent ordered HDDs yet, so I have some time for "light" reading.
Here are lots of links with some very useful information.

Building, Burn-In, and Testing your FreeNAS system
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/building-burn-in-and-testing-your-freenas-system.38/

Github repository for FreeNAS scripts, including disk burnin
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...for-freenas-scripts-including-disk-burnin.28/

solnet-array-test (for drive / array speed) non destructive test
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/solnet-array-test.1/

Useful Commands
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/useful-commands.30314/#post-195192

The ZFS ZIL and SLOG Demystified
http://www.freenas.org/blog/zfs-zil-and-slog-demystified/

Some insights into SLOG/ZIL with ZFS on FreeNAS
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/some-insights-into-slog-zil-with-zfs-on-freenas.13633/

Testing the benefits of SLOG using a RAM disk!
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/testing-the-benefits-of-slog-using-a-ram-disk.56561/

SLOG benchmarking and finding the best SLOG
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/slog-benchmarking-and-finding-the-best-slog.63521/

How to relocate swap to an SSD or other partition - [not needed in v 11.1 and newer systems]
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/how-to-relocate-swap-to-an-ssd-or-other-partition.68/

Also, this is a good guide even though it was written for a previous version of FreeNAS.
Uncle Fester's Basic FreeNAS Configuration Guide
https://www.familybrown.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=fester:intro
 

Chris Moore

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LOL, Yes, that kind of "light" reading !
Thanks !

PS. I think it is even easier to use a Supermicro system than a Dell because of the IPMI remote management that does not need any licensing or management module installed to make it work.
Here is a demo video that shows it in action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPv_ikws7A0
 

Dotty

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I already decided to get WD RED SATA Drives for that server, but Im having second thoughts and I wonder if I should get SAS instead. The server comes with two 920 Watts PSU. Price of the SAS is similar to the SATA and I think the backplane and HBA supports SATA or SAS.
 

Chris Moore

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I wonder if I should get SAS instead.
I would not. SAS drives are usually a bit more expensive but there is no advantage unless you are going to implement a multipath SAS infrastructure.
The SAS drives that support dual controllers are significantly more expensive than the single interface drives because of the additional controller integrated in the drive.
Price of the SAS is similar to the SATA
If the price is close, you are looking at the single interface drives and they are actually mechanically identical with the only difference being the controller on the drive end of the link. It doesn't make them faster or more reliable because the limiting factor is the mechanical component.
 

Chris Moore

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I think the backplane and HBA supports SATA or SAS
SAS drives would work, but I also find the diagnostic data from SATA drives to be more useful to try and detect potential faults early. Seagate got a bad reputation five or six years ago because they had several models that were all based on the same mechanical platform and the platform had a high failure rate. This affected their 750 GB, 1.5 TB, and 3 TB drives. The failure rate was so high that some people decided Seagate was just no good, but there have been two or three generations of better designs since then and they are producing very reliable units now. If you are buying new drives, you should give serious consideration to the Seagate models.
 

Dotty

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SAS drives would work, but I also find the diagnostic data from SATA drives to be more useful to try and detect potential faults early. Seagate got a bad reputation five or six years ago because they had several models that were all based on the same mechanical platform and the platform had a high failure rate. This affected their 750 GB, 1.5 TB, and 3 TB drives. The failure rate was so high that some people decided Seagate was just no good, but there have been two or three generations of better designs since then and they are producing very reliable units now. If you are buying new drives, you should give serious consideration to the Seagate models.
You mean like the IronWolf? , I used to work with Cheetah in the past, and they were very good, but thats SAS. My experience with NAS SATA devices has been only with WD Red, and since they worked well for me (my home FreeNAS box is U-NAS NSC-800 with eight 6TB WD Red), I was going that way. I did have two of those HDD failed over the last 5 years, but I think thats still pretty good considering the box is in my storage, with no AC, most of the year over 75 degrees ambient temp and it runs 24/7 with Plex, Urbackup, Time Machine for 5 Macs, all my video and photo editing, iSCSI for my ESXI server, Nextcloud, etc,. Cant complain. Do you think those WD Red are not up to par with the new Ironwolf?
 

Chris Moore

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You mean like the IronWolf?
The ones we bought at work most recently were these Seagate Exos 10TB drives:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA9948TF7484

We liked them well enough that less than a year later we decided to buy a bunch more of the 12TB model:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA9948RX2313

The 10TB ones were our second choice at the time, we wanted the 12TB model even then, but couldn't get them. The 10TB drives have been solid and we expect to be just as happy with the 12TB model.
 
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