Morning from Nairobi, Kenya

deenmeister

Cadet
Joined
Apr 24, 2019
Messages
3
Hey guys,
Getting into FreeNAS to build storage for a post production house I started last year. Had initially built a raid 5 but found I wasn't getting good enough read performance. Research pointed me toward hardware RAID 10 (for best perfomance) or a FreeNAS setup to balance between redundancy and performance.
 

Mihalich

Patron
Joined
Mar 14, 2017
Messages
297
Basic Requirements
Directly-connected storage disks are necessary for FreeNAS to provide fault tolerance. Hardware RAID cards are not recommended because they prevent this direct access and reduce reliability. For best results, see FreeBSD Hardware Compatibility List for supported HBA disk controllers. LSI/Avago/Broadcom HBAs are the best choice with FreeNAS.
 

deenmeister

Cadet
Joined
Apr 24, 2019
Messages
3
Thanks Mihalich!
Been doing alot of reading since my last post and finding the forum and I think I've finally dialled in what I want.

We are replacing one of our older servers (dual e5-2650 96gb ecc on a supermicro x9dri-f) and I'm leaping at the opportunity to to setup a shared storage box using that as a foundation.

As of right now, we are editing off of a RAID 5 setup hosted on one of the editing computers with the rest (2-3) accessing via a 1Gbe network. We edit and grade at HD aside from a few 4K projects here and there. Our current setup is too limiting and I would like to correct this. I have looked at commercially available options but being in Kenya presents its own issues.

The RAID 5 is 3x3TB (mixed) and I have another 4x4TB Ironwolfs.

I would like to setup shared storage for all the computers within the office (2-3 currently, may expand to 5) and also have the machine act as a render server. From research, it would appear I would have to get a HBA as the chipset wouldn't allow directly connecting (?).

The current parts I'm not sure about are how possible doing both with FreeNAS would be and what best setup would be for the vdevs/pools to give good read performance.

Thanks for any comments and advice!
 

geekmaster64

Explorer
Joined
Mar 14, 2018
Messages
50
Thanks Mihalich!
Been doing a lot of reading since my last post and finding the forum and I think I've finally dialled in what I want.

We are replacing one of our older servers (dual e5-2650 96gb ecc on a supermicro x9dri-f) and I'm leaping at the opportunity to to setup a shared storage box using that as a foundation.

As of right now, we are editing off of a RAID 5 setup hosted on one of the editing computers with the rest (2-3) accessing via a 1Gbe network. We edit and grade at HD aside from a few 4K projects here and there. Our current setup is too limiting and I would like to correct this. I have looked at commercially available options but being in Kenya presents its own issues.

The RAID 5 is 3x3TB (mixed) and I have another 4x4TB Ironwolfs.

I would like to setup shared storage for all the computers within the office (2-3 currently, may expand to 5) and also have the machine act as a render server. From research, it would appear I would have to get a HBA as the chipset wouldn't allow directly connecting (?).

The current parts I'm not sure about are how possible doing both with FreeNAS would be and what best setup would be for the vdevs/pools to give good read performance.

Thanks for any comments and advice!


Welcome!


That's a great box to start with. I highly recommend reading about the supported hardware, the LSI controllers are a popular bunch and work very well. I'm using a 9211-8i myself among others.

Also, I very strongly recommend reading https://www.ixsystems.com/community/resources/introduction-to-zfs.111/ so that you gain a firm grasp on the different terminology between RAID and ZFS architecture. A lot of people will give you flack if you say things like RAID-5 vs RAID-Z1.

Good luck with your build!
 
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