Building new fileserver

[Matus]

Hello everyone,

I'm trying to build my first RAID-Z 2TB fileserver filled with pictures and documents via CIFS. Fileserver will be accessed with about 50 network users but there won't be any bigger data transfers than pictures and documents. I 'm limited with low budget on this so I tried my best to pick affordable components. I would be grateful if anyone could look at my configuration and tell me if there is anything wrong. Also if you have any tips how to upgrade this configuration feel free to reply.

CPU
AMD FX X4 FX-4350
SPECS
Since Intel processors are much more expensive than AMD I picked an AMD processor with the best power/price ratio.

MB
ASUS SABERTOOTH 990FX
SPECS
I'm not 100% sure with this one but it seems good.

RAM
2x CRUCIAL 8GB DDR3 1600MHz CL11 ECC UNBUFFERED (16GB total)
SPECS

VGA
ASUS EN210 SILENT/DI/1GD3/V2(LP)
I just picked first cheap graphic card with passive cooling and low power consumption

HDD
3x Western Digital RE 1000GB WD1003FBYZ
SPECS
I'm not sure if I should go for SAS drives instead of SATA III drives.

PSU
Fortron Raider 550
SPECS
I think 550w seems appropriate for this kind of server.


Thank you all!

 

[pirateghost]

FYI: SAS and SATA drives are not interchangeable on SATA ports. If using a SAS card, you can use either but if using standard SATA ports on a motherboard you cannot use SAS. Just to clear up any confusion on that aspect.


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[Matus]

FYI: SAS and SATA drives are not interchangeable on SATA ports. If using a SAS card, you can use either but if using standard SATA ports on a motherboard you cannot use SAS. Just to clear up any confusion on that aspect.

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Thanks for reply but I wasn't confused about that :) (I should be clearer on that) If I wanted to use SAS I would buy a card for that or look for different MB (but I think mobos with SAS ports are more epensive - I didn't look for that yet).

 

[cheezehead]

Thanks for reply but I wasn't confused about that :) (I should be clearer on that) If I wanted to use SAS I would buy a card for that or look for different MB (but I think mobos with SAS ports are more epensive - I didn't look for that yet).

SATA is fine for home use as long as the drives are NAS rated. If your thinking of SAS because of dual-porting FreeBSD doesn't have support for it, really the only benefits are around warranty and MTBF (which some of the NAS-rated SATA drives are good enough in that department).

 

[cyberjock]

This is not a guide... as such I am moving it to the noob section of the forum.

 

[jgreco]

"NAS rated" is largely a marketing gimmick, they do enable some useful features like TLER and a better warranty, but really you may see more value in saving the cost and just using standard SATA desktop drives. A home user is unlikely to find TLER meaningful.

SAS will likely be faster. However the economics don't really favor it; more SATA drives at a cheaper price will perform similarly, or SSD options will beat the tar out of SAS at a somewhat higher price.

 

[Matus]

Thank you guys for explaining the situation with harddisks. I just find out that the motherboard I picked is not listed in the NAS supported motherboards list. I think that would be a problem right? If I can't use that MB I'll choose this one (Asus M5A88-M) as it is most similar to my first one.

Also is there any noticeable difference in NAS with RAM 1600MHz and 1333Mhz?

 

[Matus]

And I just found out that almost none of the MBs in the supported list here in forum are available in e-shops. Can anyone tell me if my first chosen MB is compatible with FreeNAS?

 

[joeschmuck]

Your first MB choice should be fine and just ensure the RAM is on the approved list for the MB. The CPU is fine, I'm running the FX-4300 and it has a lot of extra power I'm not even tapping into, and I'm using the stock boxed cooler which is very quiet, I can't even hear it (boxed coolers have come a long way). I am also running the ASUS M5A78L-M/USB3 MB and it runs great! (see my tag line) and my MB has built in video so it steals a small portion of RAM (user selectable in the BIOS and I select the minimum) but it saves me the money in buying a separate video card and the extra power draw. I have one concern about my MB and that is whenever I swap out the USB Flash drive (because I test frequently), I need to enter the BIOS and re-establish the boot drive as it will default to the first hard drive. It's the only con I can think of for my motherboard. The difference between 1333 and 1600 for RAM in this application is negligible. I don't know how that might factor in should you decide to encrypt your hard drives but I wouldn't start this project off with encrypted drives. Also I think it's good that you selected 16GB in two sticks vice 4 sticks as you can buy two additional sticks of RAM to max out the 32GB later should you need it. The extra RAM would be utilized as a fast ARC to cache your frequently used data which will speed things up quite a bit, assuming that is the type of work the NAS would experience.

A few posters here are looking at this project from a Home User standpoint however your first posting clearly states you are looking to support up to 50 users at a time with documents and photos. Since this sounds like work product you should factor in the safety of your data and I would run a RAIDZ2 system thus you would have five 1TB hard drives which give you a capacity of 2.7TB of expected storage. You don't have to start with a RAIDZ2 provided your data is going to be backed up frequently to another location or you deem the data not important. Also 2TB of data can be easily saved off later should you want to upgrade the system to a RAIDZ2 later. And keep in mind the rule that you must leave 10% free space at all times for ZFS to work optimally. And I liked your selection of hard drives as well. Again you are keeping it in the business area which I feel is a good choice.

Once you get your hardware together, test it out by burning in the CPU and RAM to ensure you don't have any poor hardware up front. The CPU test is up to you but I like to run MemTest86+ for three complete passes (overnight) even though you have ECC RAM. And ensure the BIOS is setup to enable ECC support or ECC RAM does you no good.

Last thing, leave the USB3.0 ports alone. They are trouble waiting to happen. I disabled min in the BIOS. FreeNAS/FreeBSD support isn't great and for a work product I would just leave it alone as there is nothing gained by it's use and everything to loose.

Hope this helps.

 

[Matus]

Finally someone answered all my questions :) Thank you joeschmuck.

I have troubles with Memory QVL for my motherboard. I don't see any 8gb ram there with ECC support. Now I'm looking for 4gb RAM with ECC but still no luck finding one. Am I doing something wrong or ASUS SABERTOOTH 990FX R2.0 does not support ECC RAM?

About RAIDZ:
You are basically saying that if I'll have regular data backup I don't need RAIDZ2, and if I'll use RAIDZ2 I won't need backup? I think backup is a must in every case so having 3 HDD RAIDZ is cheaper than 5 HDD RAIDZ2.

Thanks for the tips with MemTest and USB3.0. I was going to use USB3.0 port to run OS on a stick but now you warned me and I'll use USB2.0.

 

[Dusan]

I have troubles with Memory QVL for my motherboard. I don't see any 8gb ram there with ECC support. Now I'm looking for 4gb RAM with ECC but still no luck finding one. Am I doing something wrong or ASUS SABERTOOTH 990FX R2.0 does not support ECC RAM?

Don't pay much attention to the board manufacturer's QVL lists. They don't care much about keeping it updated. Just get a memory that meets the specs (DDR3 ECC unbuffered) from a reputable vendor (Kingston/Crucial/...) and it should work. For example all these Kingston modules should work: http://www.ec.kingston.com/ecom/con...=SABERTOOTH Motherboard 990FX R2.0&ErrCheck=3 (and no, you do not need to buy the "Guaranteed Compatible" Server Premium memory, the rest on the list should work too).

 

[Matus]

Don't pay much attention to the board manufacturer's QVL lists. They don't care much about keeping it updated. Just get a memory that meets the specs (DDR3 ECC unbuffered) from a reputable vendor (Kingston/Crucial/...) and it should work. For example all these Kingston modules should work: http://www.ec.kingston.com/ecom/configurator_new/modelsinfo.asp?SysID=85083&mfr=ASUS/ASmobile&model=SABERTOOTH Motherboard 990FX R2.0&ErrCheck=3 (and no, you do not need to buy the "Guaranteed Compatible" Server Premium memory, the rest on the list should work too).

Oh good, I was starting to be worried :) And thanks for the link.

 

[joeschmuck]

About RAIDZ:
You are basically saying that if I'll have regular data backup I don't need RAIDZ2, and if I'll use RAIDZ2 I won't need backup? I think backup is a must in every case so having 3 HDD RAIDZ is cheaper than 5 HDD RAIDZ2.

Nope, that's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is there is a significant risk of data loss if you use RAIDZ1 because if you have a drive failure then you must replace it fast before a second drive fails and you have full data loss. With a RAIDZ2 you can afford to lose two drive without data loss but a third drive failure would be bad. And a 3 hard drive system can be more expensive if you ever have to factor in a true data recover expense. Pray you don't.

Backups are required in any place where your data is valuable to you and I would never advise against a routine backup scheme. If you have a routine backup scheme where each night your data from the FreeNAS machine you build will be backed up elsewhere then maybe a RAIDZ1 is acceptable. I would recommend for any business a RAIDZ2 at a minimum regardless of how frequently you backup that data. And backups aren't just for drive failures, you got fire, water, theft. Theft would be the reason you consider encryption and the CPU you are looking at has built-in AES encryption so it should fly fairly fast. Again to start with I'd leave it off and once you got everything working the way you want, go down that road.

As for the RAM, I took a leap of faith as well because mine were not on the compatible list but I chose a high quality item that had a positive reputation for it's compatibility with similar motherboards and on the QVL there were similar models so mine just were not tested. Well I've tested them and they work great. I overclocked them on my MB without pushing more voltage to them to check stability and I could push them a little faster but then I returned them to the rated speed and was happy they are very stable. While pushing them I ran MemTest86+ each time until I got failures. It took 2 days of testing before they failed. I forget how far I pushed them but since I wasn't changing any voltages it wasn't very far. If I had really wanted to run them overclocked I would have tweaked the settings other than just the clock rate.

And you're welcome for the answers.

 

[Matus]

I would like to thank you all for you inputs and these are my chosen server components (with price in EUROs):

• ASUS SABERTOOTH 990FX R2.0 139,49
• CPU AMD FX-4350 107,12
• 8GB DDR3-1600MHz Kingston ECC CL11 w/TS 74,53*2
• MSI R6450-MD1GD3H 31,78
• HDD 1TB WD1003FBYZ RE 88,52*3
• Fortron RAIDER S 550W 80PLUS SILVER 50,70
• Acutake case ACU-CLASSIC 21,65
• ADATA USB S102 Pro 8GB blue (USB 3.0) 7,24

TOTAL PRICE 772,60
This configuration can be upgraded by adding 2 more RAMs and with chosen case i can add 3 more internal HDDs.
I decided to go with RAIDZ1 with regular backup (even with failure of 2 disks we would loose maximum of only several days of worth work and that's not so critical :) ). Maybe later I'll decide to upgrade to RAIDZ2 (maybe after first 2disk failure :) ).

And about data encryption - thanks for tip (I'll definitely think about it when I'll deal with more sensitive data) but it would be really an overkill for this project.

 

[cyberjock]

Keep in mind you can't "upgrade" a vdev from any one type to any other. Once its created, its done. More than 90% of users that lose their data had a RAIDZ1, hence the rampant paranoia in the forum over RAIDZ1. It's totally earned though.