Hello from Socal

[Mynorx]

Hi Guys

I live in Southern California, I've been building computers for my self and family since 1998. I own a small business and have been using an infrant ready nas nv+ with 600GB running raid 5 backed up by crash plan I purchased in 2007 . I fear its on its last leg and need to find a solution. I found out about FreeNas by way of Tekzilla, I have been reading up on the forum posts and via youtube videos and have some questions brewing. I hope to post my first question and learn from you guys as soon as I read up a little more. I've already purchased 4, 3TB WD reds (newegg $112 with promo code) and will be researching what mobo and CPU to purchase next.

BTW I'm not convinced that it's REALLY necessary to purchase ECC RAM. Can someone elaborate a bit more about this? (just kidding)

Thanks

 

[cyberjock]

TW I'm not convinced that it's REALLY necessary to purchase ECC RAM. Can someone elaborate a bit more about this? (just kidding)

*gets out the town's pitchforks and torches*


lol

 

[jgreco]

I've already purchased 4, 3TB WD reds (newegg $112 with promo code) and will be researching what mobo and CPU to purchase next.

As soon as you remove all those pitchforks from your butt (that looks like that hurts!), there's some great guidance over in the hardware forum. Take your time, ask questions, and you should wind up with a machine that'll take you another seven years.

 

[Ericloewe]

http://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/ecc-vs-non-ecc-ram-and-zfs.15449/

The ECC discussion.

I'll just add to the thread that every once in a while we see the unlucky guy who lost his data because he didn't have ECC. We also see the lucky guys who had memory problems but didn't lose all their data - because they were using ECC. The extra cost is small, so there's no reason not to use ECC.

 

[cyberjock]

Speaking of ECC I just worked with someone that had bad ECC RAM and it POSTs and popped up a message that said something like "Uncorrectable ECC RAM error. Press F1 to continue". Whoops! The user had been using the system the previous night and went home and came back the next morning to find the box rebooted and that message. He pulled the bad stick of RAM and the box came up and pool mounted without a problem. :D

 

[Mynorx]

http://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/ecc-vs-non-ecc-ram-and-zfs.15449/

The ECC discussion.

I'll just add to the thread that every once in a while we see the unlucky guy who lost his data because he didn't have ECC. We also see the lucky guys who had memory problems but didn't lose all their data - because they were using ECC. The extra cost is small, so there's no reason not to use ECC.

I had just finished reading that thread, it made it very clear to use ECC. Thanks BTW Hows that Supermicro X10 SLM+-F Treating you?

 

[Ericloewe]

I had just finished reading that thread, it made it very clear to use ECC. Thanks BTW Hows that Supermicro X10 SLM+-F Treating you?

It has a few quirks that aren't immediately obvious, but it's stable and useable.

If you can get the desktop IPMI application working (it's Java, so you're in for headaches one way or another), I guess solving said quirks is easy.

If not, you're in for a learning curve with various command line IPMI tools.

The good part is that Supermicro support answers very quickly.

Concretely, the following issues popped up:

• Temperature sensors would not work in IPMI (working fine with the OS) - fixed by reflashing the BIOS with one of the maintenance jumpers set to on.
• Default fan thresholds are unrealistic unless you're using one of their enclosures, leading to constant up- and downramping of the fan speed (guaranteed to make you go crazy long-term) - unfortunately, the web interface only exposes some very basic IPMI functions, so you need to access the IPMI with Supermicro's program (which they do a magnificent job of hiding on their website) or one of the third-party universal tools.

Not quite issues:

• You'll need a DOS environment to flash the BIOS
• The CPU fan header is oddly-positioned, but still easily accessible
• Jumpers galore like it's 1993
• The internal USB 3.0 header only has one port (bad for OCD)
• The packaging Amazon uses for the bulk motherboards will make you glad you ordered it with other stuff and is thus nicely placed in a box full of filler material (Retail packaging should be about the same as for desktop motherboards).