FreeNAS - Hardware Selection recommendations for home use with VM/Encryption

[Jim_holden]

Friends, I need some help please. below are my requirements.

1) Storage for entire family - 24 TB usable storage space.
2) I got an ablecom CS-T80 from a friend who got it from somewhere in Asia. - so, I want to use this chassis.
3) I want to run 2 to 3 VMs.
4) Encryption is must as I am a bit of hypochondriac when it comes to data security.
5) Snapshots, PLEX required.
6) I have saved enough to spend some serious money, but don't want to go overboard.
7) Will use WD Red, all 8 bays populated

with this, I am looking for an updated parts list which can help me achieve the goal?

Please help me with selection of the following.

Motherboard which has enough SATA ports and option for SATADOM/USB keys (I will use mirrored boot devices) and IPMI support.

CPU - a CPU that can handle the above mentioned requirements and support AES-NI (for encryption)

ECC Memory - I will get 32GB - but would love to have the option for 64GB upgrade later - kindly help with boards / CPU that can handle this.

Power supply - a good one that can handle 8 Drives.

as I said above, I don't want to cheap out - but at the same time don't want to go overboard.

any help would be appreciated as I am not very highly tech savvy like you guys, but can assemble computers and do stuff that requires some common sense and have intermediate skills.

 

[Redcoat]

Welcome to the forums!

A good place to start will the guide in the resources section here (see masthead), this one: https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/hardware-recommendations-guide.12/
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/hardware-recommendations-guide.12/
Its last update was May 6, 2017 - best practice is for you to make a preliminary selection from it and run it up the flagpole here for community help in refinement.

You should anticipate getting lots of help in your decision process about encryption - there are frequent tales of woe here that support the view that the decision to encrypt should not be taken lightly.

One more thing for now - "Search" is your friend here on the forum. Lots of good info out there for the picking!

 

[Chris Moore]

I need some help please. below are my requirements.

It is always best to have a thread title that actually describes the problem, to catch the interest of those passing by.

 

[Jim_holden]

It is always best to have a thread title that actually describes the problem, to catch the interest of those passing by.

Sorry Sir - new here... :(

 

[Redcoat]

@Jim_holden, you can edit your thread title ...

 

[Jim_holden]

After lot of reading, I have the following selections.

Case - ablecom CS-T80
MB - Asrock C2750D4I
HDD - Red 5400 RPM (Will decide capacity later)

Now I need your help on selecting the

1) ECC RAM - please provide link if possible.
2) PowerSupply
3) Fans
4) Cables / misc items for cable management inside the case.

 

[danb35]

ECC RAM - please provide link if possible.

Whatever crucial.com recommends for your board. But if you want the option to upgrade to 64 GB, you might be better off with a Supermicro Socket 1151 board.

PowerSupply

Seasonic is well-liked around here.

 

[Jim_holden]

As

Whatever crucial.com recommends for your board. But if you want the option to upgrade to 64 GB, you might be better off with a Supermicro Socket 1151 board.

Seasonic is well-liked around here.

Thank you danb35
Asrock motherboard i selected supports upto 64 gb too when I checked - am I wrong to assume so?

 

[Linkman]

That motherboard supports 64GB, but with four DIMM slots - Good luck finding 16GB DDR3 UDIMMs, which is what you need to get to 64GB total.

 

[Jim_holden]

That motherboard supports 64GB, but with four DIMM slots - Good luck finding 16GB DDR3 UDIMMs, which is what you need to get to 64GB total.

thanks Linkman

 

[danb35]

Asrock motherboard I selected supports upto 64 gb too when I checked - am I wrong to assume so?

It does, but it's my understanding that the 16 GB DIMMs you'd need are very hard to find, and thus very expensive. Unfortunately, crucial.com is down for me right now, so I can't look them up. Besides, that board is awfully expensive (over $450). Do you really have to use the Mini-ITX form factor? Because an X11SSL-CF and a Pentium G4600 would be faster (Passmark ~5200 vs. ~3800), nearly $100 cheaper, give much more room for expansion (CPU upgrades would be possible), and have a much more trustworthy disk controller.

 

[Chris Moore]

Case - ablecom CS-T80

That chassis must be marketed under a couple different names. It is my understanding, because of another thread using what looks to be the same chassis, that the cooling of the drives and CPU were not good enough and the system overheated constantly. If you are absolutely stuck on that chassis, you will need to get better fans because the stock fans just don't cut it.
Be sure to monitor your temperatures and make adjustments accordingly. Here are some scripts that will help:

Github repository for FreeNAS scripts, including disk burnin
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...for-freenas-scripts-including-disk-burnin.28/

 

[Jim_holden]

It does, but it's my understanding that the 16 GB DIMMs you'd need are very hard to find, and thus very expensive. Unfortunately, crucial.com is down for me right now, so I can't look them up. Besides, that board is awfully expensive (over $450). Do you really have to use the Mini-ITX form factor? Because an X11SSL-CF and a Pentium G4600 would be faster (Passmark ~5200 vs. ~3800), nearly $100 cheaper, give much more room for expansion (CPU upgrades would be possible), and have a much more trustworthy disk controller.

Hi Dan - I am totally open for such suggestions to the tweaks that you mentioned as long as it can do the encryption and also option to run VMs etc. Also the number of SATA ports - Could you please spec the board with CPU and memory I should go for?

That chassis must be marketed under a couple different names. It is my understanding, because of another thread using what looks to be the same chassis, that the cooling of the drives and CPU were not good enough and the system overheated constantly. If you are absolutely stuck on that chassis, you will need to get better fans because the stock fans just don't cut it.
Be sure to monitor your temperatures and make adjustments accordingly. Here are some scripts that will help:

Github repository for FreeNAS scripts, including disk burnin
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...for-freenas-scripts-including-disk-burnin.28/

Hi Chris - I loved the case only because it looks similar to the miniXL and comes with hotswap options. I would be grateful if you can help me select a different one with the hotswap and enough options such as ventillation etc - any recos?

 

[loch_nas]

Hi Dan - I am totally open for such suggestions to the tweaks that you mentioned as long as it can do the encryption and also option to run VMs etc. Also the number of SATA ports - Could you please spec the board with CPU and memory I should go for?

Just go to the Supermicro product page of this mainboard:
https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C236_C232/X11SSL-CF.cfm

There is a link called "Tested Memory List". Click it and see which 2400 MHz ECC RAM is available at the place you live. The availiability of RAM varies from country to country. So you will have to look yourself which RAM you could buy. You can post that RAM here so we can check if you've chosen the right one.

 

[loch_nas]

Hi Chris - I loved the case only because it looks similar to the miniXL and comes with hotswap options. I would be grateful if you can help me select a different one with the hotswap and enough options such as ventillation etc - any recos?

A small case might be nice, but often needs some tweaking for better air-flow. The Fractal Design boxes work great out of the box, but don't have Hot-Swap-Bays.

Another option could be the following: SilverStone CS380 (SST-CS380B). It's not a small box, but has 8 Hot-Swap-Bays.

 

[danb35]

...and as to CPU, it's hard to say. What kind of VMs do you intend to run? What do you plan on doing with them? What kind of media (SD? HD? 4k?) do you plan on running with Plex, and how many streams?

 

[Jim_holden]

Just go to the Supermicro product page of this mainboard:
https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C236_C232/X11SSL-CF.cfm

There is a link called "Tested Memory List". Click it and see which 2400 MHz ECC RAM is available at the place you live. The availiability of RAM varies from country to country. So you will have to look yourself which RAM you could buy. You can post that RAM here so we can check if you've chosen the right one.

Thank you Sir! - i will post the updated shopping list for you all great folks to ratify!

A small case might be nice, but often needs some tweaking for better air-flow. The Fractal Design boxes work great out of the box, but don't have Hot-Swap-Bays.

Another option could be the following: SilverStone CS380 (SST-CS380B). It's not a small box, but has 8 Hot-Swap-Bays.

checking the suggestion of silverstone. - Thanks a ton!

...and as to CPU, it's hard to say. What kind of VMs do you intend to run? What do you plan on doing with them? What kind of media (SD? HD? 4k?) do you plan on running with Plex, and how many streams?

I would like to run 2 or 3 windows servers to check few AD DNS etc for studies. I would like to run some Linux VMs for some syslog to collect data from some network equipment, run VPN, etc..

Media mostly HD, would be great to have 4K for later use. Streams - 1 or max 2...

Thanks!!

 

[Nick2253]

checking the suggestion of silverstone. - Thanks a ton!

Unfortunately, I haven't found a Mini ITX case yet that can properly cool 8 scrubbing drives without lots of noise.

I have the DS380, and it has more or less the same rack from the CS380. Unfortunately, the drives tend to overheat in the rack, because it doesn't vent very well. You need to modify the rack to add vent space in the back (same side as the connectors). This is how I modified mine:

I got an ablecom CS-T80 from a friend who got it from somewhere in Asia. - so, I want to use this chassis.

The CS-T80 (or something almost identical) is what is used for the FreeNAS Mini XL (Ablecom is one of Supermicro's largest suppliers). I don't think it's particularly better or worse than any of the others, but it really does require careful thought to prevent overheating (whether that's watching your TDP, upgrading fans, or modifying the airflow in the case).

 

[Redcoat]

Based on my own experiences with a hot FreeNAS Mini I can tell you that there's some excellent on-point advice above and I urge you not to ignore it.

For the duty you plan and in a box with 8 drives I would not choose the C2750D4l mobo - it has the embedded passively cooled processor that needs careful consideration for air supply and case ventilation. As remarked above, the 16GB memory sticks are costly and not-so-easy to find. @danb35's suggestion beats it hands down (though I guess you need to add a few bucks for an HBA to get a further two ports to make up your desired 8 HDD's and also one for an SSD for boot, but it won't be worse that even $$$ for a much superior, more robust, solution.. I suspect that you may need more CPU than the G4600 to do what you have suggested, but that's just a gut feeling and someone more knowledgeable than I am will have to advise as you continue to refine your BOM.

The Mini's case and the CS-T80 of its larger sibling are very small in volume and space on back and front panels. I had to carry our surgery on my Mini to get a couple of small additional fans on the front, I also upgraded the rear fan, to get enough air flow through the box to keep the processor and 4 red drives cool, even also adding a fan to the passive-cooling heat sink on the Avoton processor.

For home use I would not bother (again) with hot swap capability unless it is at no cost - just shut the box down and swap the drive. Even though I have it in both my machines, as I can shut them off at will I would always do so rather than risk an issue during hot swapping. The Mini's hot swap caddies are crude and cheaply made - nothing to commend them.

 

[Nick2253]

For home use I would not bother (again) with hot swap capability unless it is at no cost - just shut the box down and swap the drive.

I wish this advice were given and followed more often. Personally, I fell down the rabbit hole of hot-swappable drives, and I honestly wish I hadn't. My DS380 was nothing but problems until I extensively modified it, and it cost a premium over a comparable case. If I was building my FreeNAS a second time, I'd keep everything else the same, but change the case to a Node 304.