Hello World

[Bender B. Rodriguez]

Hello everyone. I'd just like to take a quick minute and introduce myself.

I am a senior EE/Physics double major with strong interests in CompSci and ME. I've had a computer hooked up to my TV in one way or the other for 10 years or so now. Mostly just a WinXP box combined with a gyro-mouse, with a short time spent failing at LinuxMCE and then moving on to Win7. That is, until a year ago, when I discovered Plex MS.

I have also, for no real reason, had a Linux firewall for about the same length of time. For awhile it was Smoothwall, and now, for the last couple of years, pfSense.

With regard to storage, I've always just had a bunch of drives on a Winbox with. Luckily, I have never had a data drive fail on me. I have, however, had an OS drive fail and needless to say, it sucked.

I have finally decided to build a legitimate file server. My current one is an old AMD socket 939 gaming rig from 2005 or so and I'm thinking that it may be a good time to retire it. So far I have slowly bought a few 3TB Reds and recently, a Norco 4220. :D

My overall goal in the short term is to have a 24/7 FreeNAS server running by the beginning of March. I will most likely start with a 6x3TB Raid-z2 on a Supermicro motherboard with 16GB of ECC RAM and an Intel Xeon CPU. I'll add more 6-drive vdevs and RAM as needed. Currently, Supermicro's X10SL-F-O seems to be a decently good motherboard. The shear amount of SATA/SAS ports on it, (14!) makes a single M105, without a SAS expander, a real possibility for my chassis. Although, the 32GB RAM limit worries me with respect to how long the server will perform well as the vpool grows as I populate the 20-bay Nocro.

I'm sure I will have some neurotic questions in the coming days and weeks as I progress with my build. Hopefully I will not irritate any guard-dogs. :p

BBR

 

[gpsguy]

Welcome to the forum. It sounds like you've been doing your FreeNAS homework.

The guard dog probably won't bite you. ;-)


Sent from my phone

 

[Michael Wulff Nielsen]

Guard dogs mostly bite people who smell of non-ecc memory. :)

Welcome to the forum. :)

 

[cyberjock]

*sniff* *sniff* *sniff*

Finds nothing offensive on this thread...

Moves on....

 

[jgreco]

The right kind of neurotic will typically result in a much better than average experience.

 

[KMR]

Things are shaping up! A couple of comments though:
1) A Xeon might be overkill for what you are doing. If you have a need for encryption or other CPU intensive activities then by all means grab a 1230v2 - I use one and they are great! However, if you are just building a basic file server then consider a G2020. They support ECC RAM and are fantastic for basic duties.
2) Plan your cooling requirements for that case carefully! You need to keep those drives below 40 degrees at all times and to do this in one of those cases you will need some high static pressure fans. Hopefully you have an out of the way place to put this thing because these fans will typically be loud.

Good luck!

 

[Bender B. Rodriguez]

Thanks everyone! The FreeNAS community seems to be a well developed and dedicated community. This should be fun. :D

KMR:

1: The reason I am thinking of going with an Xeon is mainly to keep my options open in the future. More often then not, as my needs change, so to does my home server configuration. I currently have two 24/7 boxes, the old WinXP file server and an ESXi box. The ESXi hosts pfSense, a windows-based Plex MS, an Ubuntu www/ftp/mail server, and a FreeNAS testbox. I can see myself moving the Plex MS to FreeNAS as I increase my familiarity and skillset on FreeNAS. My Plex system currently Transcodes to two Rokus and Direct Plays to one PC.

2: Cooling is a large concern of mine. Summers are hot and my AC system is borderline pathetic. I have tried to read every Norco 4220 post that I could find on here and on other forums and I will most likely emulate what others have done with respect cooling. Basically, replacing the Norco's fan wall and stock fans. My office has my workstation, servers, and recently an electronics bench. I am still impressed without much heat the bench generates when I have all the supplies and test gear running for a couple of hours. I see a floor AC unit in my future. :(

Thanks again everyone.

BBR

 

[Michael Wulff Nielsen]

I'll chime in and suggest the core i3 4130. It's sort of midway between the g2020 and a Xeon.

 

[Bender B. Rodriguez]

I'll chime in and suggest the core i3 4130. It's sort of midway between the g2020 and a Xeon.

Thanks for the suggestion. I will definitely check out both the i3 and g2020.

BBR

 

[jgreco]

2: Cooling is a large concern of mine. Summers are hot and my AC system is borderline pathetic. I have tried to read every Norco 4220 post that I could find on here and on other forums and I will most likely emulate what others have done with respect cooling. Basically, replacing the Norco's fan wall and stock fans. My office has my workstation, servers, and recently an electronics bench. I am still impressed without much heat the bench generates when I have all the supplies and test gear running for a couple of hours. I see a floor AC unit in my future. :(

Thanks again everyone.

BBR

Be aware that "floor" or "portable" AC units often intake their exhaust air from the room being cooled, which causes a low pressure zone inside, and causes outside (hot) air to infiltrate into the cooled area. This is substantially inferior to a unit that has hoses both to intake and exhaust hot air from outside.

 

[Bender B. Rodriguez]

Be aware that "floor" or "portable" AC units often intake their exhaust air from the room being cooled, which causes a low pressure zone inside, and causes outside (hot) air to infiltrate into the cooled area. This is substantially inferior to a unit that has hoses both to intake and exhaust hot air from outside.

Thanks for that heads up jgreco. Your explanation makes perfect sense and is actually intuitive, although I don't know if I would have seen that issue straight away. I have not put too much thought into a portable AC unit, other than that I might need something by this Summer.

 

[jgreco]

Those of us who are vaguely neurotic about such things might have redundant temperature controlled fans as backup cooling and a redundant pair of 5000 BTU window units as primary cooling for the office rack; much more expensive options exist but I find a carefully designed and sized solution can be cheap and also some fun to do.