FreeNas on a Dell T-310?

[dakotta]

I first started looking at FreeNas a couple of years ago. https://www.ixsystems.com/community/threads/i-am-so-green.70543/
but due to lack of money and time I wandered off in other directions.

My goal for this year is to get back on track and get a FreeNas system up and running. I am still busy with other projects and I still lack money, but my projects are winding down (I hope) and I think if I buy a few items each month, I should be ready to start building by Fall. I am sad to say, however, that I am almost as green now as I was a few years ago. :(

I am still looking at the above system, but I go back and forth between wanting to put it in a Fractal Design Define R5 and putting it in a 2U or 3U chassis in a server rack. I like the idea of the server rack for ease of maintenance, but I am sensitive to noise and I'm not sure where I'd put it.

However, the reason I am writing now is that I picked up an old Dell T-310 server (2012) that the IT people were throwing away, and I'm wondering if it would be worth the money to adapt it to FreeNas, or if I am better off just saving my money and buying the system I want.

Code:

CPU                Intel Xeon X3450 / 2.66 GHz, 8M Cache, Turbo, HT
Socket             LGA1156
Chipset Type       Intel 3420
RAM                4GB Memory (2x2GB), 1333MHz Single Ranked UDIMM, DDR3 SDRAM - ECC
??                 Dell SAS 6/iR, internal RAID adapter, PCI-express
Power Supply       non-redundant 375W
Hard Drives        2 x 600 GB, SAS 6Gb/s, 15,000 rpm

There are (4) hot swappable hard drive bays and (2) 5.25" bays accessible from the front of the chassis. There are (6) SATA ports and (2) USB ports on the motherboard. The optical drive is connected to one of the SATA ports, the other (4) are empty. The hard drives plug into an adapter plate which is connected to a PCIe card.

1. From looking at the specs, it looks like I can install 32 GB DDR3 RDIMM ECC for around $200, but the speed will drop to 800 MHz. Would 800 MHz be a problem?

2. Is the SAS 6/iR PCIe card a type of HBA that can be flashed to IT mode? Or is it a RAID only card?

3. The technical reference manual lists the 6/ir as an "internal" controller, but also lists available "external" controllers (e.g., LSI2032 PCIe SCSI HBA, or PERC H800). As near as I can tell they all plug into PCI slots. So what do "internal" and "external" mean in this context?

The owner's manual states:

Your system supports up to four internal hot-swap 3.5-inch SAS or SATA hard drives, or 2.5-inch internal hot-swap SAS or SSD hard drives in 3.5-inch hot-swap hard-drive carrier. It also supports up to four 3.5-inch cabled SAS or SATA internal hard drives. Depending on your chassis, the hard drives are installed internally (see Figure 3-10) or at the front of the system (see Figure 3-8). Internal hard drives are connected to the system board or an optional controller card. Front-mounted hard drives are connected to a SAS backplane through hard-drive carriers and can be configured as hot-swappable.

The technical manual states:

T310 supports up to (4) HDDs, using one of the following options:
4x 3.5”cabled SATA from motherboard SATA connector
4x 3.5”cabled SAS or SATA via add-on storage controller
4x 3.5”hot-swap SAS or SATA via add-on storage controller
4x 2.5”hot-swap SAS or SATA or SSD via add-on storage controller

The maximum size listed is 2TB.

4. Is the maximum size of the drives (2TB) a limitation of the 6/ir? Or the motherboard? Or the CPU? Or is this maybe the largest standard size drive that was manufactured at the time the manual was written and larger drives can be used?

5. Does the system support only 4 drives? Or 8? And if only 4, then why are there (6) SATA ports? (1 white, 1 blue, 4 black?)

6. I guess what I really want to know is: how many hard drives can I connect, what is the maximum size, and will I need a different type of HBA.

And... is the T-310 going to be more trouble than it's worth?

Any thoughts are appreciated.

Cheers,

 

[JaimieV]

If you're happy to consider a rackmounted machine, take a look at my specs in the Show panels below. The Dell R-series can be tuned to be almost quiet, though I'd generally recommend a 2U or taller device. My R410 is quiet, but I have to lock down the Xeon cores to non-hyperthreading in order to get it to throttle the fans. The R5xx series are easier to live with, and come with up to 12 3.5" slots, plus enough builtin SATA that you only need one HBA. Unlike your 310 they take cheapo RDIMMs - and the servers cost peanuts too. You can get an entire functional machine off ebay or corporate surplus sites for less than the Fractal Design retail!