HO Media Build w/10 drives using current HW (If possible)

[Gotolondon]

I was hoping I could get some advice on building a FreeNAS setup using existing hardware. If I need to replace a few things I am okay with that.

I have a Hackintosh that I would like to use for this project as I have authentic Apple computers. I really built this thing to learn, and I have learned a lot.
My main focus for this project is for a Plex Media Server as this is what I am using the Hackintosh for at the moment. So, instead of buying a Synology which will have lower specs than what I already have, I would rather go the FreeNAS route. I am sure I will learn a lot doing this as well. - Also, I am thanking anyone in advance who chimes in here on this, as well as all of the people who have contributed to this forum and site for all of the articles that have already been very helpful.

My hardware at the moment =
Intel i-5 8400 - 16 gb 3200 G-Skill Ram (Non-ECC) - ASRock 370 Taichi MOBO (8 SATA OB Controllers and 2x 1GBE ports) - Define R-5 Case (8 HD Bays) - 1x 1tb Samsung Evo 2.5" SATA SSD - 7x WD 8TB Drives (Shucked from Best Buy Easystore externals, which is a mix of actual red drives and some are white label).
Network is 1GBE. ATT 1G fiber to house and Switch is 8 port Trendnet (if this matters as the Box will be connected to ATT ports directly) Also, I do not use the ATT box for Wireless as I use a Netgear X6 - Again, not sure if that matters, but better more info than less.

All of the Apple systems have their own external drives directly connected for TimeMachine and CCC Backups so will not be using NAS box for that.
I would like the ability to add another 8 drives ( a mix of 8TB and 10TB drives - same source BB easystore shucked) in another Define R-5 enclosure to the first box if possible.
After reading through the 4 page hardware guide it looks like this is possible with perhaps a few add ons.

Ideally I think I would like something similar to the Hybrid Synology RAID config. I am saying this due to my ignorance of of FreeNAS and RAID in general as this is my first foray in to this and perhaps there are better options. I am very open to suggestions and as I said before this will be a valuable learning experience for me - So thanks again , in advance, for any help/sugestions. I truly appreciate it.

 

[PhiloEpisteme]

I think it really depends on what you want out of this machine. Generally this community is very data integrity focused. That means that you'll get a lot of advice focused around keeping your data safe, like VERY VERY safe. For example, folks will recommend that you run regular SCRUBs and short and long SMART tests. Folks also recommend that you use RAIDZ2 for your storage pools where possible to reduce the risk of pool integrity loss during a resilver of 1 drive. I also see a lot of reminders that you shouldn't treat any level of parity as a replacement for a backup. ZFS is great at keeping your data safe and RAIDZ2 is a good level of parity but things do go wrong. Always have a backup.

Folks also recommend having ECC memory. If you have non-ECC memory and some parts of it go bad ZFS will happily write that now-corrupt data to disk. In fact, it will also write that corrupt data to backups! <insert scream face here>.

I myself caught the bug over the last 6 months and have build 2 FreeNAS machines to keep my data as safe as I know how to keep it while still being under my control completely.

Okay, so what does that mean for your build.

Intel i-5 8400 - 16 gb 3200 G-Skill Ram (Non-ECC) - ASRock 370 Taichi MOBO

Well, your board doesn't support ECC memory. G.Skill makes great fast memory for gaming. FreeNAS doesn't care as much about the speed of your memory as gaming does. Also, ECC memory is preferred if you're trying to keep your data safe.

8 SATA OB Controllers

Those on-board SATA ports are a nice convenience but you can pick up an HBA off ebay for ~60 bucks to add more drives easily. For ~100 bucks you can get an HBA AND a SAS Expander that will run > 20 drives no problem. You can also opt for a newer LSI-9207 to take advantage of a board's PCIe 3.0 lanes. I would say performance and budget are the deciders here.

1x 1tb Samsung Evo 2.5" SATA SSD - 7x WD 8TB Drives

You've got plenty of HDD for a RAIDZ2 vdev and that 1TB SSD is WAY WAY more than enough storage to use as a boot device if you wanted. Or use it in another machine that would benefit from 1TB SSD.

So I guess the question is what you want out of the build and what your budget is. If you wanted to just learn about FreeNAS, ZFS, etc and you don't care about losing your data if something goes wrong I'd say you've got plenty of hardware to make that happen. Be careful though because you may go along for a long time without any issues only to find out one of your memory modules went bad and silently corrupted a lot of your data, including backups.

If, on the other hand, you're willing to replace a few parts to do it in a way that makes data integrity more reliable I'd suggest you replace that motherboard for one that

1. Supports ECC memory
2. Doesn't have support for things you don't need like audio jacks, built-in wifi, etc (don't spend $ on features you won't use)

If budget is an issue take a look at the supermicro x9 or x10 series boards. You can pick up an X9SCM-F board for ~50 bucks on ebay. 1x8GB DIMM memory will run you around 100 each and a used CPU off ebay can be anywhere from $10 to > $100 depending on how much power you need. So, realistically for ~$350 you could pick up a board, cpu, and 16GB of memory and use the drives you've already got to have a great starting build.

 

[Chris Moore]

Ideally I think I would like something similar to the Hybrid Synology RAID config.

You closest you can get with FreeNAS is to add disks in mirrored pairs. ZFS, the file system of FreeNAS, is just not made that way.

 

[Chris Moore]

@PhiloEpisteme That is all very good, well thought out advice. I couldn't agree more.

@Gotolondon If you want to have a look at some of the suggested hardware that has been documented to work well with FreeNAS, we have a couple lists to look at:

FreeNAS® Quick Hardware Guide
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/freenas®-quick-hardware-guide.7/

Hardware Recommendations Guide Rev. 1e) 2017-05-06
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/hardware-recommendations-guide.12/

Hardware Recommendations by @cyberjock - from 26 Aug 2014 - and still valid
https://forums.freenas.org/threads/hardware-recommendations-read-this-first.23069/

You might also be helped by looking over these guides:

Slideshow explaining VDev, zpool, ZIL and L2ARC
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ning-vdev-zpool-zil-and-l2arc-for-noobs.7775/

Terminology and Abbreviations Primer
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/terminology-and-abbreviations-primer.28174/

Why not to use RAID-5 or RAIDz1
https://www.zdnet.com/article/why-raid-5-stops-working-in-2009/

Also this, when it is time to put the parts together:

Uncle Fester's Basic FreeNAS Configuration Guide
https://www.familybrown.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=fester:intro

 

[PhiloEpisteme]

@Chris Moore Thanks :) Also, thanks for providing those links.

@Gotolondon If you do decide you want something more focused on data integrity feel free to post some hardware you're looking at after going through the suggestions and links above. If you've got a strict budget as well lots of folks on here are quite good at helping come up with budget friendly solutions.