Hello,
I'm new to this scene although I have been peeking over the playground wall quite a lot over the past year. I have several questions that I could not find the answers to by searching google.
I'll start off with my build:
The NAS will also take on the role of a centralized home/office server. I am quite new to the Virtual Machine world, but the idea is to run ESXI and have a firewall VM (possibly pfSense), FreeNAS VM, and possibly a Windows OS VM for other things like a hosting a Ventrilo (or other VoIP) server, FTP server, Torrents and JDownloader...
It will be storing mainly media (movies, music, family photo albums, etc.) but also sensitive documents that I have digitized (both business and personal). Since that is the case, I thought about setting up the box to run a Raid-Z2 with vdevs of 3TBx4 hard drives providing 5.5TB of storage per vdev. Every time I add HDDs, I will do so in increments of 4 HDDs to the same pool.
Please let me know if there is any component that I should change. I believe all the components are compatible, but if anyone has information that says otherwise, I would greatly appreciate your advice. Is the system build too much or too little? The idea is that it holds up for as long as possible, without going overkill. Money is not an issue, although it's not like I have much more than this to spend on it (I specifically saved up for this project). Is the HDD setup correct or would it be better to do it another way?
The IPMI KVM over IP should provide me with the visual in case I need to connect to the server, although I'm not entirely sure if I can connect to the server, then choose which VM to access, and then control the server (?). I have used VNC and others in the past so I'm comparing it to that, but please correct me if I'm wrong. Would I need to set it up initially by connecting the box to a monitor? If so, then I would need a video card since the motherboard and CPU don't have an integrated one.
Hmmm.... I am trying to think if I am missing something, but I am coming up blank. If there is anything please let me know.
I thank you all for your help!!
Respectfully,
Ghendi
Edit: I remembered one thing: Should I connect my HDDs to the 2 SATA 6.0Gbps and then two more to the controller card? Or should I connect all HDDs to the SATA 6.0 Gbps on the controller card, and leave the motherboard ones free for the future upgrade of perhaps a L2ARC and/or ZIL SSDs? If so, then I could use two break-out cables for a total of 8 HDDs onto the controller card and leave the motherboard's SATAs free.
I'm new to this scene although I have been peeking over the playground wall quite a lot over the past year. I have several questions that I could not find the answers to by searching google.
I'll start off with my build:
- Case - Fractal Design Define R4 Black Pearl w/ USB 3.0 ATX Mid Tower Silent PC Computer Case ~$100
- Motherboard - SUPERMICRO MBD-X9SCM-F-O LGA 1155 Intel C204 Micro ATX Intel Xeon E3 Server Motherboard ~$185
- CPU - Intel Xeon E3-1230 V2 Ivy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 69W Quad-Core Server Processor BX80637E31230V2 ~$200
- PSU - Rosewill CAPSTONE Series CAPSTONE-550-M 550W ATX12V v2.31 & EPS12V v2.92 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply ~$75
- RAM - Kingston 32GB (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Unbuffered DDR3 1600 Server Memory w/TS Model KVR16E11K4/32 ~$260
- Fan+Heatsink - COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R2 Continuous Direct Contact 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler Compatible with latest Intel 2011/1366/1155 and AMD FM1/FM2/AM3+ ~$25
- HDDs - TOSHIBA DT01ACA300 3TB 7200 RPM RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive ~$100 x4 = ~$400
- Case Fans - Fractal Design Silent Series R2 FD-FAN-SSR2-140 140mm 140mm Fan ~$15 x2 = ~$30
- After the initial purchase and setup, I will eventually be adding 4 more 3TB hard drives (~$400) a HighPoint RocketRAID 2720SGL PCI-Express 2.0 x8 Low Profile SATA / SAS Controller Card (~$150), and a 3ware CBL-SFF8087OCF-05M 1 Unit of .5M Multi-lane Internal (SFF-8087) Serial ATA Breakout Cable (~$20).
The NAS will also take on the role of a centralized home/office server. I am quite new to the Virtual Machine world, but the idea is to run ESXI and have a firewall VM (possibly pfSense), FreeNAS VM, and possibly a Windows OS VM for other things like a hosting a Ventrilo (or other VoIP) server, FTP server, Torrents and JDownloader...
It will be storing mainly media (movies, music, family photo albums, etc.) but also sensitive documents that I have digitized (both business and personal). Since that is the case, I thought about setting up the box to run a Raid-Z2 with vdevs of 3TBx4 hard drives providing 5.5TB of storage per vdev. Every time I add HDDs, I will do so in increments of 4 HDDs to the same pool.
Please let me know if there is any component that I should change. I believe all the components are compatible, but if anyone has information that says otherwise, I would greatly appreciate your advice. Is the system build too much or too little? The idea is that it holds up for as long as possible, without going overkill. Money is not an issue, although it's not like I have much more than this to spend on it (I specifically saved up for this project). Is the HDD setup correct or would it be better to do it another way?
The IPMI KVM over IP should provide me with the visual in case I need to connect to the server, although I'm not entirely sure if I can connect to the server, then choose which VM to access, and then control the server (?). I have used VNC and others in the past so I'm comparing it to that, but please correct me if I'm wrong. Would I need to set it up initially by connecting the box to a monitor? If so, then I would need a video card since the motherboard and CPU don't have an integrated one.
Hmmm.... I am trying to think if I am missing something, but I am coming up blank. If there is anything please let me know.
I thank you all for your help!!
Respectfully,
Ghendi
Edit: I remembered one thing: Should I connect my HDDs to the 2 SATA 6.0Gbps and then two more to the controller card? Or should I connect all HDDs to the SATA 6.0 Gbps on the controller card, and leave the motherboard ones free for the future upgrade of perhaps a L2ARC and/or ZIL SSDs? If so, then I could use two break-out cables for a total of 8 HDDs onto the controller card and leave the motherboard's SATAs free.