Mastakilla
Patron
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2019
- Messages
- 203
Hi,
I have been happily running an internal hardware RAID5 (LSI 9260-8i) for almost 10 years with no data loss. First it was 4x 2TB, then 5x, 6x, 7x, 8x (online expansion is awesome!). Later I've upgraded to 5x 4TB, then 6x, 7x and finally (now) 8x 4TB (again using online expansion). I am aware of the risks involved with RAID5 on such large arrays and I have an (often outdated, but still...) offline backup to cater for this risk...
This is all inside my main desktop computer, which I turn off @ night (mainly because of the noise).
But now I'm running out of space again and need to upgrade. Instead of moving to even larger HDDs in an internal hardware RAID5, I'd like to switch to a NAS running the FreeNAS OS. This way I hope to increase the reliability a bit compared to the HW RAID5, while hopefully minimizing loss of performance (If I spent this amount of money, I'd like it to be an upgrade instead of downgrade to the stone-age aka performance of 10 years ago). I am considering going for a RAIDZ2.
Network clients
About the HDDs
Although I was planning for simple SATA HDDs, these HDDs are actually Dual-Port 12 Gbit/s SAS Interface. But they were quite a bit cheaper than normal (331 euro / HDD)
About the SAS Controller
The LSI 9311 is quite difficult to find in webshops and also very expensive for a non-hardware-RAID (around 400 euro), but I did find them quite a lot on ebay for around 100 euro. This is usually from China or Hong Kong. To be honest, I have no experience in using eBay (since being ripped off by PayPal as a seller more than 10 years ago, I refused to use it). So can anyone tell me if these China-cards are reliable, non-fake? And what to pay attention to when buying one?
Boot / SLOG / L2ARC Device
I still need to read a bit about this, but feel free to give advise anyway :)
I tried doing some research on this, but it is still a bit unclear on what I need for this...
MOBO / CPU / RAM
As these are very new, I don't expect much info on this yet. But can I assume that this will work fine and reliable, as this is all "server-grade-material"?
(I am checking with Asrock Rack on how reliable their ECC should be on this mobo)
I have been happily running an internal hardware RAID5 (LSI 9260-8i) for almost 10 years with no data loss. First it was 4x 2TB, then 5x, 6x, 7x, 8x (online expansion is awesome!). Later I've upgraded to 5x 4TB, then 6x, 7x and finally (now) 8x 4TB (again using online expansion). I am aware of the risks involved with RAID5 on such large arrays and I have an (often outdated, but still...) offline backup to cater for this risk...
This is all inside my main desktop computer, which I turn off @ night (mainly because of the noise).
But now I'm running out of space again and need to upgrade. Instead of moving to even larger HDDs in an internal hardware RAID5, I'd like to switch to a NAS running the FreeNAS OS. This way I hope to increase the reliability a bit compared to the HW RAID5, while hopefully minimizing loss of performance (If I spent this amount of money, I'd like it to be an upgrade instead of downgrade to the stone-age aka performance of 10 years ago). I am considering going for a RAIDZ2.
Network clients
- My desktop should be able to use the FreeNAS as if it is local storage (hence the 10GBe). It will use the FreeNAS for backups, media (also for direct editing), software packages, my documents, pictures, etc. I will store installed applications / games and some VMs locally on the desktops SSD, but all other things will be stored on the NAS. I'm hoping for at least 400MB/sec and after expanding the number of HDDs even more (600+MB/sec).
- My mediacenter will use it for media (just simple read) and backups (no extreme speed requirements for this)
- My wifes laptop will use it for media, software installers and backups (no extreme speed requirements for this)
- My work laptop will use it for media and backups (no extreme speed requirements for this)
- Phones (no extreme speed requirements for this)
- It will often (mainly @ night) be idling, so idle power consumption is important.
- After some re-thinking, I will locate the server in the attic instead of my office. So extreme low noise is less important, but reasonably low noise is still important. A consequence of this is that it will need to handle pretty high ambient temperatures (with the recent heat wave, it became up to 39°C in there, but that is pretty exceptional).
- It will run some clients like Transmission and Plex
- Perhaps also some VMs? Not sure yet
- Fractal Design Define R6 USB-C
- Asrock Rack X470D4U2-2T (includes onboard Intel X550-AT2 for 10GBe)
https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=X470D4U2-2T#Specifications - AMD Ryzen 2600 or 3600 (still need to investigate / compare idle power consumption)
- 2x Kingston KSM26ED8/16ME (32GB DDR4 ECC RAM)
- Seasonic Focus Plus 650 Gold (or something comparable)
- Intel Optane H10 512GB (as boot / SLOG / L2ARC device?)
- LSI SAS 9211-8i controller
- 8x WDC H510 (10TB) in RAIDZ2 (negotiating about an interesting deal with rectified HDDs)
Can I easily attach these to the LSI SAS Controller?What cables do I need for this?For using dual port, I suppose I need a 2nd controller? (not planning that)Anyone have experience with these HDDs? Are they noisy? I actually couldn't find any decent noise-comparison on 12+TB HDDs anywhere. As they're all 7200rpm, I suppose they'll be louder than my 4TB WD RED HDDs...Is there any other reason why I would not buy these HDDs for my requirements?I can sometimes find "rectified" HDDs for even cheaper (300 euro). Do you think this is worth to consider as well?
The LSI 9311 is quite difficult to find in webshops and also very expensive for a non-hardware-RAID (around 400 euro), but I did find them quite a lot on ebay for around 100 euro. This is usually from China or Hong Kong. To be honest, I have no experience in using eBay (since being ripped off by PayPal as a seller more than 10 years ago, I refused to use it). So can anyone tell me if these China-cards are reliable, non-fake? And what to pay attention to when buying one?
Boot / SLOG / L2ARC Device
I tried doing some research on this, but it is still a bit unclear on what I need for this...
- It isn't entirely clear to me how "required" or "beneficial" a SLOG and/or L2ARC would be in my use case. In a way, I think my workload can be considered as "medium/light", as only 1 concurrent client requires very good performance and normally max 2/3 concurrent clients will use it. On the other hand, my goal is very good performance to/from the NAS on my desktop, mainly for large sequential uploads and downloads (10-100GB @ +-500MB/sec in both directions is my goal) and sometimes I may also require at least reasonable non-sequential performance (doesn't have to be SSD-like-performance, but should come near internal HDD performance if possible).
- I couldn't find any info on how well (if at all) the Intel Optane H10 performs as SLOG (and perhaps also L2ARC / boot device?). It is cheap, it has powerloss protection and it has 16/32GB of Optane memory in a 256/512GB M.2 SSD.
- As I understand it, I only need a limited amount of SLOG (16GB or perhaps 32GB?). Can I use a different partition on the same device as boot device or perhaps even as L2ARC? Or would that destroy the performance advantage completely?
MOBO / CPU / RAM
As these are very new, I don't expect much info on this yet. But can I assume that this will work fine and reliable, as this is all "server-grade-material"?
(I am checking with Asrock Rack on how reliable their ECC should be on this mobo)
Last edited: