Howdy Folks from Western Australia - I looked at QNAP, Synology etc. but I prefer to torture myself.

[Levene]

Starting out in the FreeNAS world I have been reading for a few weeks so just started to gain basic self awareness.

Parts list in stock but not built yet:

Case: Lian Li PC-M25B (To match my other builds and be compact I like the understated design and quality of Lian Li cases e.g. Lian Li PC-x900, Lancool PC-K9 WX but aluminum still bugs me as I prefer the rigidity of steel cases the Lancool cases are the best of both worlds with brushed aluminum exterior and steel chassis)
PSU: Seasonic X-650 650W
Motherboard: Supermicro X11SSH-LN4F
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230v5
RAM: Crucial CT16G4WFD8213 16gb x2 (walking distance to shop for this so easy if it doesn't work or faulty)
CPU FAN: Noctua NH-L9x65 (I like the prosthetic limb coloring)
CASE FANS: Noctua NF-A14 IndustrialPPC 2000RPM IP67 PWM 140mm (these are black colored a little disappointing)
Noctua NF-F12 IndustrialPPC 2000RPM IP67 PWM 120mm
SSD: Samsung 950 PRO MZ-V5P256BW 256G M.2 SSD Solid State Drive (I have a couple of these in stock so it's technically the cheapest option for a boot drive)
HDDs: WD 3.5" Red NAS 4TB WD40EFRX 64M SATA3 HDD (Seven is my lucky number and the case holds 7 3.5" HDDs vertically with five hot swap bays I'll put the dodgy looking drives in those slots)
UPS: EATON 5S850AU 5S 850VA/510W UPS (This is an Aussie version of the Eaton 5S Series)

Any thoughts welcomed positive or critical I can handle it or you can just look no worries :)

Regards,
Levene

 

[wblock]

Welcome! Nice overall, but a 256G SSD will be mostly wasted as a boot drive, and will not improve operating speed. A mirror of 120G consumer-grade SSDs there would cost much less and have some fault tolerance. Save the fast SSD for something else.

 

[Levene]

Hi wblock,

Thanks for dropping by it is appreciated I was thinking what you're thinking it's a waste I can get the Supermicro SSD-DM128-SMCMVN1-P SATA DOM at my local haunt for a decent price but they only have one 128gb version in stock it's still cheaper than buying a 64gb version off ebay with the hassle of "if it fails", shipping etc. it also uses up a SATA port. You're gonna tell me to use a USB boot device (I'm assuming) I don't think I need a ZIL or L2ARC is there any useful way to use a single consumer grade M2 drive in a FreeNAS build other than a boot drive in your humble opinion?

Kind regards,
Jason
PS: Where can I find your hardware info?

 

[danb35]

If you're looking to torture yourself, I don't think you're doing it very well. Looks like a nice list of components though. As @wblock says, the SSD is gross overkill for a boot device, but that won't hurt anything.

 

[wblock]

The DOM modules are fine, but I would go for one or a pair of ordinary 120G SSDs unless you can get smaller-capacity ones for less. Yes, they occupy SATA ports. One or a pair of USB memory sticks saves those ports. The M.2 drive will work, but that's an expensive, high-performance drive whose performance and capacity will not help at all in that use. That drive might be useful for other things, but it depends on the load put on the FreeNAS system. Likely it would be more appreciated in a desktop system rather than the NAS.

My current NAS is an X10SSL-F with a Pentium G3258, booting from a Toshiba 120G SSD. It is running full FreeBSD at the moment, essentially FreeNAS without the GUI.

 

[Levene]

If you're looking to torture yourself, I don't think you're doing it very well. Looks like a nice list of components though. As @wblock says, the SSD is gross overkill for a boot device, but that won't hurt anything.

Hi dan35, (dan34 on break?)
I appreciate you stopping by I was looking for a cheap SSD e.g. 128gb Samsung SM961/951 (OEM) but here in Australia small SSDs are scarce and/or over priced. I acquired these Samsung 950s from work I did asked the boss first if you're wondering. I mentioned earlier I can get a Supermicro SSD-DM128-SMCMVN1-P SATA DOM from my local for reasonable $$ but it will use up a SATA port I prob need someone to tell me "just use a USB for goodness sake geez!"

How do I find you build info btw?

 

[Levene]

The DOM modules are fine, but I would go for one or a pair of ordinary 120G SSDs unless you can get smaller-capacity ones for less. Yes, they occupy SATA ports. One or a pair of USB memory sticks saves those ports. The M.2 drive will work, but that's an expensive, high-performance drive whose performance and capacity will not help at all in that use. That drive might be useful for other things, but it depends on the load put on the FreeNAS system. Likely it would be more appreciated in a desktop system rather than the NAS.

My current NAS is an X10SSL-F with a Pentium G3258, booting from a Toshiba 120G SSD. It is running full FreeBSD at the moment, essentially FreeNAS without the GUI.

So the advantage of SSDs over USBs is faster updates and/or..., should freeNAS be updated regularly for security and stability or left alone if it running fine?

 

[Levene]

I was looking on the Supermicro website they recommend not to mirror SATA DOMs in RAID1 so why does the motherboard have two yellow powered SATA ports?
I guess breaking rules is my destiny...

 

[danb35]

How do I find you build info btw?

It's in my signature, but if you're using Tapatalk it won't show. Here it is:

FreeNAS 9.10.1-U2
SuperMicro SuperStorage Server 6047R-E1R36L (Motherboard: X9DRD-7LN4F-JBOD, Chassis: SuperChassis 847E16-R1K28LPB)
2 x Xeon E5-2670, 128 GB RAM, Chelsio T420E-CR
Pool: 6 x 6 TB RAIDZ2, 6 x 4 TB RAIDZ2, (2 x 2 TB + 4 x 3 TB) RAIDZ2
Jails: Plex Media Server, VirtualBox, Urbackup, Transmission/SABNZBd+/Sonarr/CouchPotato, BOINC
APC SUM3000RMXL2U UPS

It is, to be honest, ridiculous overkill for my needs, but I found a good deal on eBay so I jumped on it.

 

[danb35]

So the advantage of SSDs over USBs is faster updates

Mainly, faster updates and better reliability. An SSD will be faster overall, but most of FreeNAS lives in RAM most of the time due to ZFS caching, so that isn't usually a big deal. USB sticks are notoriously unreliable, as has become evident since FreeNAS changed to using ZFS for the boot device (scrubs will show errors well before they'd otherwise become apparent).

 

[Levene]

It's in my signature, but if you're using Tapatalk it won't show. Here it is:

FreeNAS 9.10.1-U2
SuperMicro SuperStorage Server 6047R-E1R36L (Motherboard: X9DRD-7LN4F-JBOD, Chassis: SuperChassis 847E16-R1K28LPB)
2 x Xeon E5-2670, 128 GB RAM, Chelsio T420E-CR
Pool: 6 x 6 TB RAIDZ2, 6 x 4 TB RAIDZ2, (2 x 2 TB + 4 x 3 TB) RAIDZ2
Jails: Plex Media Server, VirtualBox, Urbackup, Transmission/SABNZBd+/Sonarr/CouchPotato, BOINC
APC SUM3000RMXL2U UPS

It is, to be honest, ridiculous overkill for my needs, but I found a good deal on eBay so I jumped on it.

What would happen if the world was destroyed and all they found was your server I'm guessing it's sufficient.

 

[Levene]

Mainly, faster updates and better reliability. An SSD will be faster overall, but most of FreeNAS lives in RAM most of the time due to ZFS caching, so that isn't usually a big deal. USB sticks are notoriously unreliable, as has become evident since FreeNAS changed to using ZFS for the boot device (scrubs will show errors well before they'd otherwise become apparent).

Noted I'm going to take yours and wblock's advice on this and find some small SSDs.
Where are jails stored? is it on the Vdev e.g. Jails: Plex Media Server, VirtualBox, Urbackup, Transmission/SABNZBd+/Sonarr/CouchPotato, BOINC (I can look this up but since you have some of the things I'm interested in running like all of them I thought I'd ask how you have them setup)

 

[Stux]

As has been said an SM950 Pro M.2 is gross-overkill for a boot drive... put it in a client system somewhere...

It would make a good L2ARC. But you would want to have expanded your RAM to 64GB first.

I would use 2 mirrored USBs.

BUT, its your choice, it should work fine.

Front mounted hot swap boot drives ;)

 

[Levene]

As has been said an SM950 Pro M.2 is gross-overkill for a boot drive... put it in a client system somewhere...

It would make a good L2ARC. But you would want to have expanded your RAM to 64GB first.

I would use 2 mirrored USBs.

BUT, its your choice, it should work fine.

Front mounted hot swap boot drives ;)

View attachment 14364

Hi Stux,
I'm starting to get it through my head to just use USB boot drive but but...

 

[Stux]

If you're going to use a USB boot drive.... use two.

 

[Levene]

If you're going to use a USB boot drive.... use two.

Yep two like yours - SanDisk Ultra Fit USB 3.0 Flash Drive 16gb x2

 

[Levene]

Went down to my local haunt (just now it's across the road) ordered a couple of Supermicro SVSM-SSD-DM016-PHI SATA DOMs for reasonable $ they didn't have them in stock but they will be here early next week.