Multipurpose server on FreeNAS

[Pařanoik]

Hi guys,

I was inpired by friend of mine who use server with FreeNAS to store media.

Here is my planned configuration:

Intel XEON E3 1240v6
SuperMicro X11SSH-F
2x Kingston Value 16GB DDR4 2400 ECC
6x WD Red (EFRX) - 4TB (4+2)
+ fans, PSU, case and probably some SSD as boot (I know I could use usb flash, but I think this will be much faster to load?)

Board with GBps network is intended, same for two free ram slots for future upgrade.

What is it supposed for?
- Virtualization (containers with git server, web server, ftp server, factorio, win server for learning purposes)
- Backup for desktop and two laptops in home network
- Media storage (samba) .. curently about 4TB (stored locally and external drives). Rest 12GBs is reserve till next upgrade (I hope it will take like 5 years).

So .. do I need UPS? And, are there PSUs with integrated UPS? If so, is it good idea to use it?

I really appreciate any ideas, improvements and/or concerns about this configuration. Thank you.

P.

 

[danb35]

So .. do I need UPS?

Yes.

And, are there PSUs with integrated UPS?

No. At least, not any that would be worth using.

 

[Chris Moore]

I know I could use usb flash, but I think this will be much faster to load?

Rebooting happens very rarely and the amount of difference in boot time will not be of great concern, the advantage will be in durability as a good quality SSD will last for many years where the USB drives will fail more often. The smallest capacity SSD from a quality manufacturer will be perfectly adequate as the space used is under 8GB most of the time although there are some ways that more space can be used if you try.
These drives are pretty much ideal, unless you want to buy new:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-32GB-2-5-SATA-SSD-SSDSA2SH032G1GN-3Gb-s/302283293441

You want to have a good quality power supply, probably around 550 watt would be enough but you might want to buy a 650 watt if you think you will want to add more drives later.
UPS should be sized to keep the system running for a minimum of 15 minutes to ensure everything can be synced and shutdown cleanly. The more VMs you run, the longer it takes for the system to shutdown because all the VMs have to exit before the system can shutdown.

 

[Pařanoik]

What about SuperMicro SataDOM instead of SSD?

 

[Chris Moore]

What about SuperMicro SataDOM instead of SSD?

I don't think they are a very good value for the money. It would work, but they don't have much better wear endurance than the USB drives.
If you don't have a place to put a laptop sized hard drive or SSD, I guess they would be an option, but I would not do it. I use 2.5 inch laptop style hard drives (40 GB capacity) that I bought new for the specific purpose of using them as boot drives in my servers. I have six (two in each server) and they have been running flawlessly for around two years and I anticipate they will continue to do so for the anticipated life of the servers. I have systems at work that I have decommissioned after six and eight years that were running from those little 2.5 inch drives the whole time with no faults at all.
You have several options. Out of an abundance of caution, I suggest that you mirror what ever you decide on using to safeguard against single disk failure.
If you get something with decent wear endurance, you can move the system dataset onto the boot drive.

 

[diedrichg]

I don't think they are a very good value for the money. It would work, but they don't have much better wear endurance than the USB drives.

Surely you jest! A SLC SATADOM has superior endurance over a consumer TLC USB or even a high-end MLC USB.

 

[Chris Moore]

Surely you jest! A SLC SATADOM has superior endurance over a consumer TLC USB or even a high-end MLC USB.

SLC, TLC, MLC, whatever. I have seen SATA DOM devices fail and although the endurance is a bit better than a USB memory stick, it isn't that much better and the real comparison was against a full SSD as that was the question to begin with.

 

[Ericloewe]

Surely you jest! A SLC SATADOM has superior endurance over a consumer TLC USB or even a high-end MLC USB.

Are they even SLC? There's no reason for them to be. It's insanely expensive, insanely rare and the application does not require performance.

Besides, when you're talking 120GB for FreeNAS and a handful of boot environments, you're lucky (or unlucky) if you do two full drive writes. Not per day, per life - let's call it two orders of magnitude fewer writes than it is specced for.

Even MLC is a dying species these days. TLC performance is close enough for consumer Joe to not care and enterprise just throws more capacity at the problem. Reliability has surprised me. Either people just write much less than you'd think they do, or the write cycle ratings for TLC were extremely pessimistic. And here we are on the verge of QLC, with numbers as low as 100 write cycles being thrown around.

 

[Pařanoik]

Well, space depends on case .. I was thinking about common
Fractal Design DEFINE R4
however, I'm limitted by height and using this case, I would not be able to use top fan.
alternatives are ..
Fractal Design Define Mini or Fractal Design Node 804 (feel free to shoot anyhting else)
Mini is great (based on size) but it's also really tiny and I'm not sure even about which cooling to choose (Noctua NH-D9L, Noctua NH-L12, ... ?). Also, it has only 6 x 3,5 hdd bays (well, another 2x5,25, but I wasn't thinking about placing ssd into two reductions).
804 looks great, but it's also a bit wide for space dedicated and looks like waste of space.

Based on what I read, flash will be probably enough, as I'm not planning to boot it like 2 times per week.

 

[Stux]

Go with a pair of flash drives, and if it doesn’t work out down the line for you, then work something out

 

[Xelas]

Well, space depends on case .. I was thinking about common
Fractal Design DEFINE R4
however, I'm limitted by height and using this case, I would not be able to use top fan.
alternatives are ..
Fractal Design Define Mini or Fractal Design Node 804 (feel free to shoot anyhting else)
Mini is great (based on size) but it's also really tiny and I'm not sure even about which cooling to choose (Noctua NH-D9L, Noctua NH-L12, ... ?). Also, it has only 6 x 3,5 hdd bays (well, another 2x5,25, but I wasn't thinking about placing ssd into two reductions).
804 looks great, but it's also a bit wide for space dedicated and looks like waste of space.

Based on what I read, flash will be probably enough, as I'm not planning to boot it like 2 times per week.

Look at cases from U-Nas:
http://www.u-nas.com/xcart/product.php?productid=17617
Has 2 x internal 2.5" (perfect for OS SSD + another SSD for SLOG/ESXi VMS/etc) + 8 x hot-swap bays. Downside is ITX-only - rules out some great mATX boards from SuperMicro. Thanks, Stux. OK - so this was wrong. It DOES support mATX. That makes it a VERY interesting contender for a home lab NAS case. I currently have an ESXi setup with 7 x 2.5" spinning rust and 3 x SSDs in a Lian Li PC-V354 case. It's very compact, but replacing a drive (or doing any work in it, really) is a huge PITA because every fastener is a screw, and there are about 723 of them.

 

[Inxsible]

Look at cases from U-Nas:
http://www.u-nas.com/xcart/product.php?productid=17617
Has 2 x internal 2.5" (perfect for OS SSD + another SSD for SLOG/ESXi VMS/etc) + 8 x hot-swap bays. Downside is ITX-only - rules out some great mATX boards from SuperMicro.

Yes and a price which is more than getting a whole new NAS server (HP ML10 -- available most times for $169)

Other options exist for ITX cases -- Node 304 (~$80 -- I got it on sale for $49), Corsair has ITX cases for around $50-$60

But you are right, everyone wants ITX for some reason, but the server boards available in ITX are few and far between. Much more choice in mATX. I will eventually (once I have enough data to warrant out of 6x6TB drives) convert my current ITX setup into an off-site NAS at my sisters place --- or convert it into a pfSense router.

 

[Stux]

Look at cases from U-Nas:
http://www.u-nas.com/xcart/product.php?productid=17617
Has 2 x internal 2.5" (perfect for OS SSD + another SSD for SLOG/ESXi VMS/etc) + 8 x hot-swap bays. Downside is ITX-only - rules out some great mATX boards from SuperMicro.

UNAS810A is mATX

 

[Chris Moore]

How about this one, just tuck it under the desk.
https://www.ixsystems.com/blog/serv...0NzVkQ3BcL3JMY0lJNmQ4Q2tmYjgrSEZoOE9nPT0ifQ==

 

[Xelas]

Yes and a price which is more than getting a whole new NAS server (HP ML10 -- available most times for $169)

Other options exist for ITX cases -- Node 304 (~$80 -- I got it on sale for $49), Corsair has ITX cases for around $50-$60

But you are right, everyone wants ITX for some reason, but the server boards available in ITX are few and far between. Much more choice in mATX. I will eventually (once I have enough data to warrant out of 6x6TB drives) convert my current ITX setup into an off-site NAS at my sisters place --- or convert it into a pfSense router.

How about this one, just tuck it under the desk.
https://www.ixsystems.com/blog/serverenvy-jupiter/?utm_source=internal&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2017-10+ix+newsletter&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiT0Rrd01qWmtaV0UwWkdFMSIsInQiOiJaRjZ3dTFHUDFNcWNta2FLaDZpTXpHSU9ZZjBieFUxRXZWZ05lUVQ0MEFHT1d4RWRzV2lsVHV6aldVdDRZS2NDeFM2YXRcL1QyMis4U0ZON3ZJa3psXC9XQ2JrRjZ1ejkySERVdGt0YWtTa1wvbU1jYzBMaUFKOWg5N2VGeDE0NzVkQ3BcL3JMY0lJNmQ4Q2tmYjgrSEZoOE9nPT0ifQ==

LOL - with 60 drives in it, forget the desk. You'll need to reinforce the frikken floor! And you'll need hearing protection (and a CRAC).
Astounding density, though!

 

[Chris Moore]

I don't know the exact price, but figured it is about $45000.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

 

[LTCM]

How about this one, just tuck it under the desk.
https://www.ixsystems.com/blog/serverenvy-jupiter/?utm_source=internal&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2017-10+ix+newsletter&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiT0Rrd01qWmtaV0UwWkdFMSIsInQiOiJaRjZ3dTFHUDFNcWNta2FLaDZpTXpHSU9ZZjBieFUxRXZWZ05lUVQ0MEFHT1d4RWRzV2lsVHV6aldVdDRZS2NDeFM2YXRcL1QyMis4U0ZON3ZJa3psXC9XQ2JrRjZ1ejkySERVdGt0YWtTa1wvbU1jYzBMaUFKOWg5N2VGeDE0NzVkQ3BcL3JMY0lJNmQ4Q2tmYjgrSEZoOE9nPT0ifQ==

Those dual SSD trays on the rear of the server...so sexy.