Can I rebuild current box to support ECC and fix issues?

[pcmofo]

Hey guys. I have a FreeNAS box that has been having issues with memory on and off for the last two years now. I've replaced all 4 sticks of memory in the last year but I keep getting CRC errors in my monthly scrubs and then I have to resliver a drive or two. After testing the drives it turns out the drives are fine. After testing the memory I find that the memory is suddenly bad.

I guess I should have read more about ECC memory when I was building this box a few years ago. Anyway, I have the whole thing in a large ATX case made by Fractal seen in my avatar. I'm trying to figure out the best plan to turn my now unreliable NAS into a reliable one. I'm looking at $2,000+ to get a new Supermicro case, motherboard, processor, and ecc memory to put my 8x 2tb drives into. I was planning on using a Supermicro case and server grade components for my next build but I dont think I can spend $2-3k on a new server at the moment.

The next best idea was to replace the motherboard, processor, and ram with server grade components that support ECC, reinstall FreeNAS with the new hardware, verify the memory etc is good through some additional testing, then hook up the existing drives and load the current configuration and be up and running with my same gear in the same box. I estimate this could be done for about $600-$800.

What are your thoughts on fixing my existing server and what parts would you recommend? I'd also be interested in upgrading anything like the boot drive from a USB to SSD etc while I am changing things around.

Here is is what I found so far
Motherboard $270
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182341
(would require a SAS expander to get 8x 6gb ports, $153)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...6115100&cm_re=sas_card-_-16-115-100-_-Product

Processor $210
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116936

Memory $125
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148669

 

[danb35]

It'd probably make it easier on the rest of us if you'd name your items, rather than just giving newegg links. It looks like your board is the X9SRL-F, and it already has 10 SATA ports onboard. Spinning rust can't even saturate SATA1, much less SATA2, so I'm not sure why you'd spend the extra for a SAS expander.

The CPU, the E5-2603, should be fine.

For the RAM, a single 16 GB DIMM would be about the same price, and leave more rules for expansion.

 

[pcmofo]

Sorry about that. Thanks for your response. Good call on the SAS expander, looks like I wont need that then. The motherboard was chosen based on its' size, single cpu, 8 memory slots, and 8+ sata connections. The CPU and memory were just chosen based on compatibility and price. One idea would be to eventually transfer this to a Supermicro case, add more memory and drives in the future.

So it should be pretty strait forward to backup my config, rebuild the Nas box with the new hardware, reinstall FreeNAS, reload my configs, and mount the existing vdevs?

SUPERMICRO X9SRL-F Motherboard - $270
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182341

Intel Xeon E5-2603 v2 Ivy Bridge-EP 1.8 GHz Processor - $210
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116936

1x Crucial 16GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Registered DDR3 1600 - $120
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148646

$600 total.

Anything else I am missing? Is there a better motherboard/processor/memory choice then what I picked?

 

[danb35]

So it should be pretty strait forward to backup my config, rebuild the Nas box with the new hardware, reinstall FreeNAS, reload my configs, and mount the existing vdevs?

Yes, it should. Or you could even just move your USB stick over to the new machine and boot from it. Worst case, you might need to reconfigure your network interface if you'd set it up manually (rather than getting the config via DHCP).

I don't really know the Socket 2011 hardware very well. What you've picked certainly looks like it should do the job. If you don't think you'll need > 32 GB of RAM, you could also look at the X10SL7-F, which is a little less than the board you've listed, and run it with an i3, or even a G-series Pentium. You could save $150 or more that way, depending on your CPU needs.

 

[tvsjr]

Be careful with your BIOS versions. You've picked a 2603 v2 CPU... that motherboard will support it, but requires BIOS >= 3.0. If you get an old stock board without this version, it may not boot.

I also wonder if you would be better with something with a faster clock. This primarily depends on your workload.

 

[pcmofo]

Be careful with your BIOS versions. You've picked a 2603 v2 CPU... that motherboard will support it, but requires BIOS >= 3.0. If you get an old stock board without this version, it may not boot.

I also wonder if you would be better with something with a faster clock. This primarily depends on your workload.

Thanks for the reply. Good point about the bios. Any recommendations for the CPU?

 

[tvsjr]

Thanks for the reply. Good point about the bios. Any recommendations for the CPU?

What's your workload? I'm far from an expert, but that's really what matters. Do you want to run lots of jails (especially intensive stuff like Plex)? More cores may be your friend. High-performance CIFS? Less cores, higher speed.

 

[pcmofo]

What's your workload? I'm far from an expert, but that's really what matters. Do you want to run lots of jails (especially intensive stuff like Plex)? More cores may be your friend. High-performance CIFS? Less cores, higher speed.

A little of both actually. I edit photos and video remotely via CIFS at around 110mb/s, and run Plex in a jail with the current i3, dual core, 3.1ghz, 16gb ram, 8x 2tb setup setup.

 

[tvsjr]

A little of both actually. I edit photos and video remotely via CIFS at around 110mb/s, and run Plex in a jail with the current i3, dual core, 3.1ghz, 16gb ram, 8x 2tb setup setup.

Get one of the gurus to weigh in, but you may be setting yourself up for failure going to much slower cores. Samba is single-threaded for sure, and I believe the Plex transcoding is also single-threaded (one thread per stream).

Since that's a single-processor board, I don't think a 2600-series chip is buying you much. Unfortunately, most of the v2 family is no longer available new, since it's an older chip. You might consider looking for a secondhand E5-1620, 1650, 1670 v2 on eBay. I would recommend avoiding purchases from known-sketchy locations, and you should probably avoid anything saying "engineering sample" or "ES". You can find a 1620 v2 (which is 4C/8T @ 3.7GHz) for roughly the same price. I've been happy with the chips I've bought there, just exercising caution.

 

[Ericloewe]

Samba is single-threaded for sure

Samba is singlehtreaded per connection. Besides, even a puny Avoton core will easily saturate GbE.