My first freenas build idea

[lachdanan]

My next build for my media I am hoping will be Freenas. However, it will also be the first time I try to use an HBA so I'm a little cautious.

Currently my "server" is running off of an Intel i3-7100 processor with a nvidia k2000 and 16 GB of memory (RAM). For attaching enough drives I am running x3 of the "pci to sata" cards. They seem to be posted under several "company" names and I'm not sure what mine were under but are identical to "Ziyituod PCIe SATA Card, 4 Port with 4 SATA Cable, SATA Controller Expansion Card with Low Profile Bracket, Marvell 9215 Non-Raid"

I have ran this without issue for ~3 years. My processor would occasionally get to ~80-90% utilization but it has been enough (this is to help give a good idea of how low my processing requirements are.)

What I think I want for my new build is this,
AMD Ryzen 3700x - the reason I have been looking at this is 8 cores is more than I need, Ryzen can have ECC memory, and its a TDP of 65w (I want everything as low power as reasonably achievable)

ASRock X470 Taichi Ultimate AM4 - the reason I have been looking at this is because it accepts ECC memory, has 2x ethernet ports (one being a 10Gbps). I wanted to avoid the x570s because they have much higher power draw than the x470s and I don't think I need PCIe 4.0 and I want as much SATA 3 as I can get which makes me move away from B450 etc.

Crucial 64GB (4 x 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM ECC Registered DDR4 2133 - My motherboard has a ceiling of 64 GB of memory, I want ECC memory and I have heard from reading online that Freenas really like as much memory as you can give it. I won't be able to achieve the 1gb of memory for every 1 tb of storage like some recommend but it appears that isn't a requirement and I don't need a lot of performance (my current build is probably a good indication of that, I survived with using sata through PCI that was bottlenecking my 5400rpm spindles)

Nvidia K2000 - I don't think I need or want a more powerful graphics card. The one I use currently is always very low on utilization. I also like that its a decently low power card (51w max)

Now is when I'm really in the realm of having no idea what will work or what I am doing,
From the looks of it I will either need to spend ~$50 for an HBA that is internal or ~30 for one that is external. I really don't want it to look ghetto so I would prefer one that is internal. For drives I will have ~14 including mirrored boot drives. I have read that using the sata ports on your board first is the best thing to do so I will have 8 from the board, and will need about ~6 more. I believe that each ?HBA socket? goes to x4 sata ports. So if I get a card like LSI SAS 9207-8i PCI-E 3.0 Adapter I should be able to connect 8 drive to it. I may however end up expanding past that for drives. Would the recommendation be to buy a 16i card or 2 8i cards? If that is the case? I would think there is more redundancy with x2 8i's but I dont know enough about HBAs to know if that is actually true. Would one configuration be lower power than the other?

I have read that the LSI cards are good choices for Freenas (not sure where I read it). Is that true?, and if it is, what version would be acceptable (remember I was running 4 drives through a 1x pci lane before without issue so I don't need anything that even resembles performance)

Thank you for reading, please let me know any thoughts or opinions on this, what you would get for an HBA with this setup, whether you would change anything with the setup and why etc.

 

[jgreco]

https://www.ixsystems.com/community...-sas-sy-a-primer-on-basic-sas-and-sata.26145/

https://www.ixsystems.com/community...s-and-why-cant-i-use-a-raid-controller.81931/

 

[lachdanan]

https://www.ixsystems.com/community...-sas-sy-a-primer-on-basic-sas-and-sata.26145/

https://www.ixsystems.com/community...s-and-why-cant-i-use-a-raid-controller.81931/

Thank you, I think that has helped answer a lot with my HBA questions,
Looks like I definitely want an LSI card, and it looks like SFF8087 will be plenty fast for my needs.
LSI 6Gbps SAS HBA 9200-8i - is the card I think I want.

Does anyone know if there is any issues with that card and the build I am currently planning on? I really want to make sure I do this right the first time.

 

[Bikerchris]

Hi @lachdanan ,

Hi @Iachd

Just a little disclaimer before I give my 2 cents - I'm woefully inexperienced compared to many on here (only 3-6months experience compared to their decades), and @jgreco 's recommended reading is the first place you should go.

Just wondering, but:

• What O/S are you coming from?
• Are you only intending to run VM's?
• Have you read about how much storage you lose through FreeNAS redundancy?

CPU: You might just want to double check that the Ryzen 3700X has already had some good testing time with FreeNAS. People tend to use this O/S on well proven hardware, I recall that support for some new AMD CPU's is a relatively recent event.

RAM: Good for you getting ECC, my only concern is that I've read that while some boards may boot up with ECC, they 'may' not operate in ECC mode - do check.

If you're not VM'ing FreeNAS, the K2000 GPU is likely overkill - FreeNAS is a headless system, but personally I have a little 512MB or 1GB fanless GPU, just so I can see the FreeNAS screen in the event of network failure - some motherboard/CPU's will have iGPU's (with supporting CPU's of course).

It does sound like you'll need an HBA and at least 1, you'll read that LSI's are the popular and reliable choice. Some have 2 ports that provide connection to 8 drives - I say there's no harm in having two, check both work and then use one and have one as on-site spare. Make sure that you either know how to fiddle with them or make sure you buy one that's in "IT Mode". Generally - and this is only my philosophy, but the fewer components, the less chance of failure and easier diagnosis of a problem. I.e. One stick of RAM and RAM issues, and you know which one is the problem :)

I do appreciate your confidence with your past setup using PCI to SATA adaptors, but do be aware that FreeNAS doesn't have a 'oh that'll do' reaction to hardware. Your past config may have been having multiple read/write errors and the OS may not have told you - FreeNAS would.

I hope that helps!

 

[Yorick]

ASRock X470 Taichi Ultimate AM4

Look at the ASRock Rack X470D4U instead. It's a Ryzen "server-ish" board, with IPMI. You won't need a GPU at all when you choose this.

There's also the X570D4U but that's more if you know you'll want M.2 PCIe connectivity.

ASRock supports ECC on all of their boards, with Ryzen-class CPUs.
AMD APUs don't support ECC, with the notable exception of "Pro" models, which are fiendishly hard to find.

For 10Gbit, SFP+ is cheaper than 10GBase-T on the switching side. If and when you are ready for 10Gb, an add-in card from the list of well-supported ones for FreeBSD is very affordable.

If you already have a 10GBase-T wired environment, then the X470D4U2-2T has 2x10GBase-T.

jgreco covered the SAS part. The 8i is usually your best bet, for performance and density per dollar. You'll have 16 ports between SATA and one HBA.