Looking at building a replacement NAS

[rmccullough]

I currently have this setup:

FreeNAS 11.2 (U4.1)
Supermicro 2U (CSE-826A-R1200LPB) 12x 3.5" Drive Bays
2x Supermicro (PWS-920P-1R) 920Watt Power Supply - 80 Plus Platinum
Supermicro X9DRi-LN4F+

• 1x Intel Xeon E5-2620 v1 HEx (6) Core @ 2.0GHz
• 1x Intel Xeon E5-2630 v1 HEx (6) Core @ 2.2GHz
• 4x Intel® i350 GbE controller
• 32GB Hynix ECC Registered PC3-10600 (8 x 4GB)

32GB Supermicro SATADOM (boot drive)
2x LSI 9210-8i (8 port HBA flashed to ITMODE for JBOD)
9 x 2TB SAS 6GB/S Hitachi GST ULTRASTAR (1 x 2TB Seagate IronWolf as spare)

It has been great, but it is a bit load, and while I have not personally measured it, my understanding is this is not the most energy efficient setup for a home NAS.

My biggest complaint is the noise. This system is quite loud, especially when transcoding video on Plex.

What is my best option for building something that is much more quiet?

I would like to be able to do the following:

• Jails
  • Plex w/ PlexPass
  • Sonarr
  • Radarr
  • Lidarr
  • Transmission
  • SabNZBD+
  • OpenVPN Server (so having something capable of hardware encryption is desirable)

I mostly use this store Audio & Video files, but it does act as a backup of work files (Office docs, code, etc.) Note on code, it is not uncommon for me to have several Git repositories that are small (~100mb) but have a very high number of files (>30k).

I also use this to transcode by running Plex on my tablets and having it download transcoded versions of video files.

My current server is setup in my crawlspace beneath my entry. At idle, I can barely hear the system running if I listen really closely in the entry. This doesn't bother me most of the time. However, when I load up my tablet with video (like throwing a season of shows on it), the transcoding pegs the 12 cores, which cause the fans to start running faster, etc. When this is happening, I can hear the server running from the 2nd floor. This is what is agitating.

What is my best option? Should I look at building something more modest?

Is it better to split my Plex server onto a separate machine that is built to transcode?

 

[microserf]

I use pfSense as an edge firewall and OpenVPN server. It can utilize Intel's AES-NI when present on the CPU. Your WAN bandwidth, what you expect to push through the VPN, and whether you end up running a router on a stick would determine hardware. Personally, I'd run the rest as VMs on a dedicated host and leave storage to FreeNAS. Otherwise,

https://www.rockwool.com/products/safensound/?selectedCat=safensound® downloads

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[rmccullough]

@microserf I actually already run pfSense on a micro appliance that has AES-NI. I have it configured to VPN all of my traffic (and yes I know this is somewhat dubious), but I had trouble setting up the VPN server as well. I was able to connect from an external source, and I could reach internal resources, but I couldn't reach the internet while connected.

Conversely, when I connect to the OpenVPN server on my FreeNAS Jail, it can see internal resources and connect to the internet.

Hmm, I may need to look at adding that insulation for sound dampening.

Now that I have setup my FreeNAS server, I was starting to look at replacing it with something less powerful/robust, and breaking out the Plex server into a separate machine/appliance. Perhaps the insulation is the better option at this time.

 

[pro lamer]

2U chassis are known to be noisy because their small fans need to rotate fast to push enough air. You may consider a bigger case (3U/4U/pedestal server) and put some big fan equipped CPU coolers/quiet coolers.

• 1x Intel Xeon E5-2620 v1 HEx (6) Core @ 2.0GHz
• 1x Intel Xeon E5-2630 v1 HEx (6) Core @ 2.2GHz

Good to know they work together. I used to think one needed two identical CPUs for a dual socket config. Were you expecting them to be compatible with each other? How did you learn they would?

Sent from my phone

 

[rmccullough]

@pro lamer I ordered this used sever off eBay and it came this way. It was actually advertised as 2 x E5-2620 v1, but came with the 2nd processor as a 2630 v1. I suspect either the 2nd processor was bad or not installed and this was the backup they had laying around.

Overall I have been happy with the functionality of this setup, and the build quality of a SuperMicro chassis & motherboard is hard to beat.

That said, what is my best option for moving to a 3/4U chasis? Is there a reasonably strong market for a used 2U chassis? I wouldn't want to keep the chassis if I replace it with a 3/4U.