build questions (general/cache ssd/usb boot)

[Jonathan Dell]

Hi, I have been asked to create a large fast storage box for my work's video team (multiple mac pros running Final Cut). They were using a drobo pro but found it slow and bad for sharing.

After doing a lot of research this is the build I am thinking of

Norco 4220 Case
Intel Xeon X3-1220 Quad Core CPU
SuperMicro MBD-X9SCL+-F Motherboard
2x Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB)
Corsair AX650 80+ Gold PSU

HBA
2x LSI SAS3081E-R (or Intel SASUC8I) Flashed to IT

Data Drives
16x Hitachi 5K3000 2TB
in a RAIDZ2+0 setup (two 8 drive raidz2 arrays)

OS/FreeNAS Drives
2x Hitachi 5K3000 2TB in raid 1 for security

Few things I was wondering
Would going for the
LSI 9201-16i be an ok option? It seems like it (LSI SAS2008) might not be supported in FreeNAS. It would be cheaper and only 1 slot

Should I scrap the raid1 os drives for a usb flash drive for FreeNAS and an Intel 320 80GB drive as a cache?

Are there any other suggestions anyone has?

I am hoping for > 60MB/s over 2 gigabit lacp connections
They want it to be as fast or faster than there local disks (which are nothing special)

Thanks

 

[danb35]

FreeNAS takes over the boot drive and doesn't allow it to be used for anything else, but it only takes about 2GB of space. It'd be a complete waste of two 2TB drives to use them for booting. Go for a 2GB or 4GB USB drive and use the hard drives for data, as spares for your array, or something.

 

[Spacedj1]

What file system are you going to use?

Hi, I have been asked to create a large fast storage box for my work's video team (multiple mac pros running Final Cut). They were using a drobo pro but found it slow and bad for sharing.

After doing a lot of research this is the build I am thinking of

Norco 4220 Case
Intel Xeon X3-1220 Quad Core CPU
SuperMicro MBD-X9SCL+-F Motherboard
2x Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB)
Corsair AX650 80+ Gold PSU

HBA
2x LSI SAS3081E-R (or Intel SASUC8I) Flashed to IT

Data Drives
16x Hitachi 5K3000 2TB
in a RAIDZ2+0 setup (two 8 drive raidz2 arrays)

OS/FreeNAS Drives
2x Hitachi 5K3000 2TB in raid 1 for security

Few things I was wondering
Would going for the
LSI 9201-16i be an ok option? It seems like it (LSI SAS2008) might not be supported in FreeNAS. It would be cheaper and only 1 slot

Should I scrap the raid1 os drives for a usb flash drive for FreeNAS and an Intel 320 80GB drive as a cache?

Are there any other suggestions anyone has?

I am hoping for > 60MB/s over 2 gigabit lacp connections
They want it to be as fast or faster than there local disks (which are nothing special)

Thanks

I'm building a fcpro file server too, what file system would you use for max performance ufs or zfs?

 

[xbmcg]

RAID10 stripe/mirror configuration - what ever you want, but zfs is more secure.

Depends on your performance needs...

 

[Spacedj1]

Well, I need it for final cut video editing. So the faster access speed the better. I heard apple limits the UFS speed compare to hfs+ and also not fully supporting zfs. So I'm just a little unsure what format my raid should be at this point.

 

[pcourtney]

Few things I was wondering, would going for the LSI 9201-16i be an ok option? It seems like it (LSI SAS2008) might not be supported in FreeNAS. It would be cheaper and only 1 slot

yes, the LSI 9201-16i is a very good option, new drivers were released by LSI on 17th February 2012
ver 13.00.01.00 drivers for FreeBSD 7.2.0, 7.4.0, 8.2.0

http://www.lsi.com/channel/products/...S9201-16i.aspx

these are great cards, and three of them work really well in a 9U chassis like the Chenbro model RM91250H01, which is a 50 Bay Hotswap box that we use

http://www.chenbro.com/corporatesite...ail.php?sku=45