zerocool2007a
Dabbler
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2015
- Messages
- 14
Hello all – this build is the result of quite a bit of research on the forums as well as (recently) on the IRC channel. I did go by abrazier on IRC but recently changed to zerocool2007a (because who doesn’t love a good hackers reference, amiright?). I’ve been lurking for around one to two months and I’ve developed a ‘checklist’ of items to aid in building my FreeNAS setup. I have to thank everyone who has posted a how-to guide or a build log to the site because they were very helpful in helping me determine this ‘checklist’ and I’ve probably read and re-read so many posts it’s hard to keep them organized.
Tl;dr – Thanks to everyone who has posted on the forum as it was very easy to find a lot of the information I was looking for. Please feel free to critique my build below.
Part I – Hardware
MOBO - Supermicro X10SL7-F Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard – $250
CPU - Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor - got on sale at jet.com for $195
RAM - Changed to 2x Crucial CT2KIT102472BD160B 16GB (2x8GB) ECC RAM - $112 x 2 (32GB total) = $224
HDDs – 8x3TB Western Digital Reds (bought on Newegg sale $125 off) - $753
Case – Fractal R5 Blackout Edition - $110
PSU – SeaSonic SSR-450RM 450W - $70 (after $10 MIR)
Boot Drives – 2 x SanDisk Ultra Fit 32GB USB Flash Drive - $23
Case Fans –3 x Fractal Design HP14-PWM 78.1 CFM 140mm Fan (changing from 3 wire to 4 wire) - $57 - changed to only 1 extra Fractal Design Dynamic GP-14 Black 140mm Case Fan - $14
Server Total (no storage) –$817 $886
Hard drives – $753
Total –$1,570 $1,639
*NOTE: I did end up ordering 32GB ram.I’m starting with 16GB of ram but I think I’ll eventually upgrade to 32GB. I already have the hard drives and CPU being shipped, the other items I would like to order soon. I also will be looking into a UPS in the near future.
Part II – Hardware Installation
I think the hardware installation is pretty straightforward if you’ve built a computer in the past. I would reference Pheran’s build (here), since he has already done an excellent job with pictures showing his MOBO in the R5. The one note I wanted to make here is that I need to make sure I order at least five (5) molex to sata adapters because I have five (5) 4 pin connectors on the PSU and I’ll need at least two (2) of them for my 7th and 8th hard drive (as the PSU only has 6 sata connectors) and one for the fan controller as well. I will also order a bunch of sata cables because they’re cheap and I’m OCD about them all matching (http://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=8778). I know the PSU comes with four (4) sata connectors, but again I want them to be the same. Can never have enough cables sitting around the house too.
Part III – Startup / Burn In
1) Smoke Test (obviously)
2) Verify all the fans are spinning (check if any weird noises in general)
3) Configure power button to not shut off host immediately on press
4) Configure the boot priority to the USB drives and disable booting from the reds.
5) MemTest86+ (for a longggggg time of course)
6) Use the IPMI to upgrade the LSI firmware to IT mode (following Pheran’s build instructions)
7) Install hard drives, configure an instance of FreeNAS (will be blown away later) and do burn in testing for the hard drives (per qwertymodo’s guide located at https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/how-to-hard-drive-burn-in-testing.21451/). SMART and badblocks.
Part IV – FreeNAS Installation
Again I think Pheran has done a great job with photos going through the FreeNAS installation and I’ve played around with the installation on a virtual box and it seemed to be very straight forward. One note to remember is to select both USB flash drives when installation so I have mirrored boot devices. Once installed the first thing I’ll do is setup and confirm that the server can email me. Next I’ll build my RaidZ2 volume with all 8 x 3TB drives and then create my top-level data set. I should be looking at 14.17TB (12.89TiB) using the handy calculator located at https://jsfiddle.net/Biduleohm/hfqdpbLm/10/embedded/result/.
That’s all I have for now as the next steps are setting up permissions and building some datasets. This box will mainly be for backups, plex transcoding (2 or 3 simultaneous streams at times), house all my TV Shows / Movies, and a lot more I’m sure as I get going.
Any feedback / comments / critiques are more than welcome and I hope to be around for quite some time!
Tl;dr – Thanks to everyone who has posted on the forum as it was very easy to find a lot of the information I was looking for. Please feel free to critique my build below.
Part I – Hardware
MOBO - Supermicro X10SL7-F Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard – $250
CPU - Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor - got on sale at jet.com for $195
RAM - Changed to 2x Crucial CT2KIT102472BD160B 16GB (2x8GB) ECC RAM - $112 x 2 (32GB total) = $224
HDDs – 8x3TB Western Digital Reds (bought on Newegg sale $125 off) - $753
Case – Fractal R5 Blackout Edition - $110
PSU – SeaSonic SSR-450RM 450W - $70 (after $10 MIR)
Boot Drives – 2 x SanDisk Ultra Fit 32GB USB Flash Drive - $23
Case Fans –
Server Total (no storage) –
Hard drives – $753
Total –
*NOTE: I did end up ordering 32GB ram.
Part II – Hardware Installation
I think the hardware installation is pretty straightforward if you’ve built a computer in the past. I would reference Pheran’s build (here), since he has already done an excellent job with pictures showing his MOBO in the R5. The one note I wanted to make here is that I need to make sure I order at least five (5) molex to sata adapters because I have five (5) 4 pin connectors on the PSU and I’ll need at least two (2) of them for my 7th and 8th hard drive (as the PSU only has 6 sata connectors) and one for the fan controller as well. I will also order a bunch of sata cables because they’re cheap and I’m OCD about them all matching (http://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=8778). I know the PSU comes with four (4) sata connectors, but again I want them to be the same. Can never have enough cables sitting around the house too.
Part III – Startup / Burn In
1) Smoke Test (obviously)
2) Verify all the fans are spinning (check if any weird noises in general)
3) Configure power button to not shut off host immediately on press
4) Configure the boot priority to the USB drives and disable booting from the reds.
5) MemTest86+ (for a longggggg time of course)
6) Use the IPMI to upgrade the LSI firmware to IT mode (following Pheran’s build instructions)
7) Install hard drives, configure an instance of FreeNAS (will be blown away later) and do burn in testing for the hard drives (per qwertymodo’s guide located at https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/how-to-hard-drive-burn-in-testing.21451/). SMART and badblocks.
Part IV – FreeNAS Installation
Again I think Pheran has done a great job with photos going through the FreeNAS installation and I’ve played around with the installation on a virtual box and it seemed to be very straight forward. One note to remember is to select both USB flash drives when installation so I have mirrored boot devices. Once installed the first thing I’ll do is setup and confirm that the server can email me. Next I’ll build my RaidZ2 volume with all 8 x 3TB drives and then create my top-level data set. I should be looking at 14.17TB (12.89TiB) using the handy calculator located at https://jsfiddle.net/Biduleohm/hfqdpbLm/10/embedded/result/.
That’s all I have for now as the next steps are setting up permissions and building some datasets. This box will mainly be for backups, plex transcoding (2 or 3 simultaneous streams at times), house all my TV Shows / Movies, and a lot more I’m sure as I get going.
Any feedback / comments / critiques are more than welcome and I hope to be around for quite some time!
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