Looking for: FreeNAS on ARM solution

Henius

Cadet
Joined
Jun 10, 2016
Messages
7
Hello.

I'm successfully using FreeNAS at home for already three years. Running racked DIY solution on Intel i5 T desktop CPU, rated TDP 45W, 32GB of ECC RAM and 4TB storage with 1gbps VLAN connection. Running mainly for personal storage, serving NFS, iSCSI and Samba clients for family and friends in my home/lab environment.
Despite it works really well, feeling I'm not utilizing all the CPU potential on it and thus wasting power, so starting to think about an upgrade.

Does anyone have working ARM solution to share? Not really sure what to start looking into...

Hardware cost is not an issue, 4U chassis has plenty of space inside.
Looking to end up with something like:
  • Decent, low power ARM CPU, coupled with enterprise grade mobo maybe
  • 32/64GB of ECC RAM
  • HBA/SAS to support 8-12 hot pluggable HHD's/SSD's
  • 10 gbit connection
  • 280GB Optane SSD
Any comments or recommendations would be highly appreciated.
Thanks!
 

sretalla

Powered by Neutrality
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Jan 1, 2016
Messages
9,702
Does anyone have working ARM solution to share?
There are a few other threads that talk about this subject.

TL/DR

No, and it's not coming. Use a Linux distro-based media solution instead like OMV or UnRAID.

All of the low power options at your disposal in the x64 world are also valid options. Xeon E3 for example. (you can also pick up some used Atom based systems from the days when those were a thing).
 
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Jul 2, 2019
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JaimieV

Guru
Joined
Oct 12, 2012
Messages
742
I would say that your proposed upgrade (side or downgrade really) is pointless in a 'saving power' sense. i5 chips throttle to well under 5W when they're not under load, which is most of the time for a NAS, and less power draw than one storage drive. You're attempting unnecessary optimisation, as well as making a currently impossible ask for FreeNAS/ARM.

If your motherboard BIOS allows it, reduce the active core count on the i5 to two and that'll gain you a few watts. Make sure you enable all CPU power states.

Now look to your disks - how many are you running at 6W to 12W each?

Check your PSU - what's its rated efficiency at low power draw? It'll be worse the more powerful the PSU is. If your total max power draw is say 100W and you're using a 500W Gold PSU, then swapping that out for a 200W PSU of the same efficiency rating will reduce total power usage.

A lot of these changes may only make 5W difference each. It's up to you to do the cost/benefit analysis, money saved on power vs money spent on new parts (and externalities like generating more electronic waste if you discard the old kit).

If your firmware doesn't show power usage, get a wattmeter that works at the mains socket outside the computer. Trial different configurations and measure the power usage.
 
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