Hello all,
FreeNAS newbie, putting together my first system..
I have been doing a lot of reading on this website and google about hardware recommendations.
We are planning to build a High Availability, High Density storage in a single Chassis. Here are the parts identified. I want to know your thoughts and suggestions.
Key requirements:
I wanted to put the Intel 16 port SAS expander and run the cables over to external Norco DS-24D case (via 8087-8088 cables), but I am stuck when it comes to the HBA card --- I dont know if the LSI card below will work well and more importantly, the dell server will not have enough PCI slots... (I need 4 -- 1 for 10GB SFP, 1 for LSI HBA, 2 for SAS expanders and dell servers only have 3 - cheap servers dont have 10GbE)
Having said that....
Chassis: Norco RPC-4224
HBA/RAID Card: LSI SAS 9211-8i
SAS Expander: Intel RES2SV240NC
Motherboard: ASUS Rack EPC612D8
Total Cost = $1338 + misc items + tax = approx $1,700
PS == Forgot to mention that the storage will be setup as NFS share that only the servers can access. Users will not be able to get to it. They will only see the SR exposed in XenServer.
FreeNAS newbie, putting together my first system..
I have been doing a lot of reading on this website and google about hardware recommendations.
We are planning to build a High Availability, High Density storage in a single Chassis. Here are the parts identified. I want to know your thoughts and suggestions.
Key requirements:
- Large number of drives -- 24 down the line
- High Speed networking
- High availability - Uptime is important as this would host lots of VMs
- 6Gb SAS minimum required (for 8087 cables- and SATA SSD drives)
I wanted to put the Intel 16 port SAS expander and run the cables over to external Norco DS-24D case (via 8087-8088 cables), but I am stuck when it comes to the HBA card --- I dont know if the LSI card below will work well and more importantly, the dell server will not have enough PCI slots... (I need 4 -- 1 for 10GB SFP, 1 for LSI HBA, 2 for SAS expanders and dell servers only have 3 - cheap servers dont have 10GbE)
Having said that....
Chassis: Norco RPC-4224
- $429 on Newegg --- https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...gnorebbr=1&cm_re=norco-_-11-219-038-_-Product
HBA/RAID Card: LSI SAS 9211-8i
- I know - I don't want to use hardware RAID feature, but all LSI cards seem to be RAID cards, and they are recommended ones -- how should I set it up? I don't have experience with this card... Can it be setup as JBOD?
- $65 on eBay --- http://www.ebay.com/itm/LSI-Logic-C...790224?hash=item58e50a7690:g:548AAOSw8w1X9Eee
- 1 8087 port will be used as RAID 1 for boot drive. Is that a good idea or bad idea with ZFS on root partition?
- 2nd 8087 port will go to the Expander via 8087 to 8087 cable
SAS Expander: Intel RES2SV240NC
- $139 on eBay x2 - http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-SAS-R...845192?hash=item51f3099fc8:g:UWoAAOSw44BYCkCa
- yes, I will make offer for $60, and want to buy 2 to support all 24 disks
- Second expander will be connected to first expander's 8087 port.
Motherboard: ASUS Rack EPC612D8
- $309 on newegg - https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157557
- $119 on newegg X2 - https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...18&cm_re=16gb_ecc_ddr4-_-20-242-018-_-Product
- $38 on eBay - http://www.ebay.com/itm/332102905234
- EVGA SuperNOVA 750
- $100 on newegg -- https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438017
Total Cost = $1338 + misc items + tax = approx $1,700
PS == Forgot to mention that the storage will be setup as NFS share that only the servers can access. Users will not be able to get to it. They will only see the SR exposed in XenServer.
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