FreeNAS Build advice

[bolobg]

Chasis: Supermicro CSE-846TQ-R900B
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=9SIA5EM39C4148

Mobo: X10SRL-F
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182927&cm_re=x10srl-_-13-182-927-_-Product

Proc: Xeon E5-2609 (LGA 2011)
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116935

RAM: Hynix 16GB (x2) DDR4 2133 ECC
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...718&cm_re=ecc_ddr4-_-1WK-002C-00006-_-Product

Random Stuff:

There are going to be 24 SATA drives here. This is where it gets sketchy... I'm assuming I'm going to need something like:

LSI 9211
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118112

x3 with a bunch of mini SAS to SATA breakout cables to get all this connected? I don't imagine I can get all that directly to my board.

Any thoughts are appreciated. I've got some experience with FreeNAS- I converted an old supermicro box that used to be a DC at my last job, and ran it for a couple years, but never built one from scratch. This build will be used as storage place for some extra backups to an off site location. I'm trying to avoid having to buy an LTO drive.

Thanks!

 

[Ericloewe]

What backplane does that chassis have?

 

[bolobg]

Looks like it comes with this guy:

https://www.supermicro.com/manuals/other/BPN-SAS-846TQ.pdf

SKU:
BPN-SAS-846TQ

 

[Ericloewe]

TQ

Eww. Yeah, ideally, you wouldn't touch those with a ten-foot pole. They're painful, with all the individual connections.

If that's not an option, breakout cables it is for you, plus an expander or a total of three HBAs. Or a mixture of SAS and SATA.

 

[Spearfoot]

Chasis: Supermicro CSE-846TQ-R900B
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=9SIA5EM39C4148

Mobo: X10SRL-F
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182927&cm_re=x10srl-_-13-182-927-_-Product

Proc: Xeon E5-2609 (LGA 2011)
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116935

RAM: Hynix 16GB (x2) DDR4 2133 ECC
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...718&cm_re=ecc_ddr4-_-1WK-002C-00006-_-Product

Random Stuff:

There are going to be 24 SATA drives here. This is where it gets sketchy... I'm assuming I'm going to need something like:

LSI 9211
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118112

x3 with a bunch of mini SAS to SATA breakout cables to get all this connected? I don't imagine I can get all that directly to my board.

Any thoughts are appreciated. I've got some experience with FreeNAS- I converted an old supermicro box that used to be a DC at my last job, and ran it for a couple years, but never built one from scratch. This build will be used as storage place for some extra backups to an off site location. I'm trying to avoid having to buy an LTO drive.

Thanks!

First of all: welcome to the forum!

Regarding your new system... there are thousands of used 24- and 36- bay, 4U Supermicro systems available on eBay. Do a little shopping there and you can save a ton of money!

The TQ-series backplane you've selected requires an individual connection for each drive, which means it will look like a rat's nest if you install 24 drives. Each 4 drives you install would require an SFF-8087 forward breakout cable. So for 24 drives, you need 6 breakout cables and there would be 24 individual backplane connections to hook up. Yikes! Avoid these if you possibly can...

A better choice of direct-attached backplane is the BPN-SAS-846A. Like the TQ backplane, you'll need 3 HBAs to fully populate a 24-bay system. This model requires 6 cables, too, but they're simpler to connect because the backplane end only has a single connection, versus 4 on an SFF-8087.

The third alternative is to get an expander backplane. These have an expander chip on-board which allows a single HBA to connect to 24 drives using only 1 or 2 cables. The trick is to get the right kind, i.e., ones that support SAS2 devices at 6Gbps and with capacities > 2TB. There are a lot of old SAS expander backplanes out there that only connect at 3Gbps and can't handle drives larger than 2TB. Be careful not to get one of these.

I recently purchased a modified version of this complete Supermicro 4U server. The eBay system had 128GB of memory in a 16 x 8GB configuration. I didn't like the large number of 'slot stuffer' memory modules, so I called the seller and negotiated a custom system with 8 x 16GB of memory. He was happy to oblige, with a small up-charge. This system has the BPN-SAS-946A backplane described above, plus it has 2 of the 920W SQ (Super Quiet) power supplies, which are also very desirable -- especially if you value your hearing!

Except for hard drives, a system like this would pretty much be everything you need.

Good luck!