Life cycle cost vs CPU generation

[diedrichg]

I need it to work essentially unattended, to minimize the demand on the other party. Thus I plan to have it running 24/7. I'll return the favour by allowing the host to back up to my FreeNAS, either using replication or CrashPlan.

IPMI boot through proxy or VPN would allow you to boot without having physical human action.

 

[jgreco]

Holy cr*p that is a lot of power consumed at idle!

Yup. But in fairness it is a very powerful box.

 

[joeschmuck]

I've got enough info now so I can move to the next phase, which is to determine exactly where this new server will live, and find out whether the host will want to use its services as well, or whether it will only be doing back up duties for me. That will determine how much CPU processing power and disk space it will need.

I'd be careful here... If you put this into someones house and let them play with it, your data could be at risk. Also, don't forget about an UPS that FreeNAS would be connected to. You want FreeNAS to shut down nicely.

And if you want a quiet box, a large box with large slow moving fans is likely the best bet. It may consume more floor space but if no one can hear it, well it's better than half the size and an irritating fan noise.

 

[Kevin Horton]

I'd be careful here... If you put this into someones house and let them play with it, your data could be at risk. Also, don't forget about an UPS that FreeNAS would be connected to. You want FreeNAS to shut down nicely.

I would definitely be the admin for the box, and would have their access restricted to specific shares and services. Hopefully that would prevent them from borking something up. I've also got to look into how to encrypt specific datasets, so my backed up data wouldn't be at risk. Good point on the UPS. I hadn't got that far in the though process, but it is a must.

 

[joeschmuck]

I would definitely be the admin for the box, and would have their access restricted to specific shares and services. Hopefully that would prevent them from borking something up.

Not really possible with FreeNAS, I don't think we removed Admin capabilities from the local box. Have keyboard and monitor, will hack away. But if that person clearly agrees to not play around with it, then all is okay, unless they have a young child who can't keep their hands off of it.

As for encrypting your data, yup, you may find a few threads in the forums about that. Plan and test it out in advance, before it leaves your home. Make sure it's exactly what you want. You could even test things out in a VM of FreeNAS (I like VMWare Player (free) or Workstation (paid)) to test things out like this small scale. You will not want to encrypt your drives, that doesn't protect your data from access when the system is running normally.

 

[adrianwi]

I'd be looking at this as an opportunity to build myself a new FreeNAS box and repurpose the existing one to receive the replicated snapshots :D

 

[Kevin Horton]

I'd be looking at this as an opportunity to build myself a new FreeNAS box and repurpose the existing one to receive the replicated snapshots :D

I am very happy with the current system (G3258 CPU on an X10SL7-F board, in a Node 804 case), but I will admit I have considered building a Skylake system. If I did, it would be hard to relegate the "better" system to be the backup server.

 

[joeschmuck]

I am very happy with the current system (G3258 CPU on an X10SL7-F board, in a Node 804 case), but I will admit I have considered building a Skylake system. If I did, it would be hard to relegate the "better" system to be the backup server.

Now that is how I think too. Build a better system and place the old one in the friends house. For the unit in the friends house, if you could get away with a mirrored pair of drives, I'd do that. Less heat and less noise.

 

[techmattr]

You sound as though you are serious about accuracy in regards to this, so consider this.
Your current costs of electrical service will rise in that 5 year period, the increase in the
cost to power your server will mean you get to buy better, more efficient hardware...

I'm not sure about electricity costs in Ottawa but here in western PA my electrical has gone down significantly over the past 5 years and will only continue to do so as more competition enters the area. The cost difference between a 56xx and current gen would never be realized through electrical savings within the lifetime of the hardware. So someone with less expensive electrical doesn't really make sense to not buy the $5 L5630 or something similar.

 

[Dice]

I am very happy with the current system (G3258 CPU on an X10SL7-F board, in a Node 804 case), but I will admit I have considered building a Skylake system. If I did, it would be hard to relegate the "better" system to be the backup server.

Perhaps it is one of the better arguments to build yourself a new box - your current box is tried and tested. Perfect for 'off site' location.

As for encrypting your data, yup, you may find a few threads in the forums about that. Plan and test it out in advance, before it leaves your home. Make sure it's exactly what you want. You could even test things out in a VM of FreeNAS (I like VMWare Player (free) or Workstation (paid)) to test things out like this small scale. You will not want to encrypt your drives, that doesn't protect your data from access when the system is running normally.

I agree.
I'd be soon looking into using VeraCrypt. It runs on Linux, MacOS X and Windows (as far as IIRC).
I'm not skilled yet to figure out how to make it work in a jail, as point of departue. If it could be configured to run in a jail, encrypt a dataset shared to that jail, then ...manageing access into that jail somehow.. to get the 'decrypted version' of the files. Doesn't appear very intuitive or easy to pull off.
The other option I've considered is to run it from a windows client, over CIFS shares. Potentially that could be done through VirtualBox or Bhyve once that get's released. Or ...through an ESXi solution (probably my goto option).