My Post Synology Build - First Freenas Build.

[memyselfundnas]

My Introduction Thread got a bit outta hand, so I´ll switch it to over here.

CASE: https://www.fractal-design.com/home/product/cases/define-series/define-r6-blackout

MB: https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/atom/A2SDi-H-TF.cfm

RAM: 2x https://www.computeruniverse.net/en/kingston-16gb-ddr4-kth-pl42416g-ram

HDDS: 8x WD RED 6TB

SSDs: 2-3 256gb Samsung Pro 840 (but not sure if I will use them from the get go)

PSU: Corsair CX Series CX450M Modular 80+ Bronze

and a few drive caddies, breakout cables and hdd power cables.

I can fit 10 drives into the Fractal:

and still have room for a few ssd´s - if I actually need them. Still not 100% sure if I will be adding a pair auf 256gb Samsungs 840 I have laying around for a new nas with SSD Cache (Qnap or Synology.. but now freenas)

Goals of this build:
The Freenas will be just that, a nas - I don´t plan on ever letting anything running on it, except of the basics. I have a heavy hitting esxi box for that, with a bit of DAS in it. The NAS will be datastorage for a few VM´s that are used in a lab for tests, log files, next cloud stuff for the whole family. And of course film, videos, music, audiobooks hosted in plex (but plex running on the beefier esxi - it mounts the files from the nas) So I want it to host files for a ESXI system, I want to be able to connect it via 10g to the esxi, and to the network. I know I proably wont be getting sustained 10g speeds from this build, but more then the 2 1gb LACP is getting me at the moment should be reasonable. A big problem I was having with the old nas, was rebuild times. I had 3/4 TB drives in that one, and rebuilds after multiple failed Seagate drives, I was always bitting my nails for 2-3 days until the rebuild was done. I had all 8 original Seagate drives fail within the first 2 years. I never had that before. So I wanted something with 2 drive redundacy for peace of mind.

The 1812 Synology is getting in there with age, and I was looking for something larger and more expandible. I upgrade my network at home to 10gb, and now the nas was more and more the bottleneck of things. Not really slow, but I wanted more :D So I started looking into NAS with 10gb / multigig interfaces, and hmm.. somehow nothing seemed really appealing. The prices seriously start to ramp up if you want 8 drives, and 10gb interfaces. A friend said - if you just buy your ESXi server again and install freenas on it? That got me thinking to have a look at freenas, and thats how I ended up here.

Thanks alot for your help and I am really looking forward that the parts trickle in :D and I hope it will freenas nicely.

 

[Chris Moore]

My Introduction Thread got a bit outta hand, so I´ll switch it to over here.

I thought it was a good discussion, but it is probably better had in this section of the forum.
Here is a link for anyone that wants to see what was discussed:
https://forums.freenas.org/threads/long-time-synology-user-ready-to-switch.74034/post-513597

 

[Chris Moore]

Corsair CX Series CX450M Modular 80+ Bronze

I can fit 10 drives into the Fractal:

I just noticed, this might be a little under powered for a ten drive configuration. You might want to reevaluate after reading this guide:

Proper Power Supply Sizing Guidance
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/proper-power-supply-sizing-guidance.38811/

 

[memyselfundnas]

yeah I was not sure with the power supply size - but it is ordered and I´ll start off with it. but I probably might have to switch it to something bigger. if I add more drives. for the start, I hope it is enough :D

 

[Chris Moore]

yeah I was not sure with the power supply size - but it is ordered and I´ll start off with it. but I probably might have to switch it to something bigger. if I add more drives. for the start, I hope it is enough :D

It should be fine for eight drives, but I would worry about more than that. I like to get a little extra capacity with my power supplies because I figure it is better safe than sorry.

 

[rvassar]

You may want to investigate running with a staggered spin up with that PSU. Just a little insurance.

 

[memyselfundnas]

the old synology is running on a 250watt psu with more drives (2 USB Drives attached too + 8 drives in the bays) I hope that 450watts will work :D Is a stagered start up something that comes as an bios option?

 

[Chris Moore]

the old synology is running on a 250watt psu with more drives (2 USB Drives attached too + 8 drives in the bays) I hope that 450watts will work :D Is a stagered start up something that comes as an bios option?

Not unusual for systems like that to have lower power requirements and the numbers we suggest on the forum include an abundance of caution.
Better to have a larger power supply and not need it than to not have enough power.
I don't think you will need to worry about staggered spinup, but there should be a setting for it under the SATA configuration in the system board BIOS.

 

[memyselfundnas]

So my freenas build is done. I still have a few chinks to iron out, but all together, everything is working fine, and the smoke stayed in the system after a few days of stress tests.

The supermicro board is just soooo tiny.

8 Drives in, and still room for more! Yeah!

And performance wise, pretty decent for 5400 rpm drives:

first test - DAS Adaptec Raid card,
second test - old synology 1gb link
third test - new freenas connected via dedicated 10gb link. If I repeat this very basic test, the speeds ramp up to 900MB/s

So I´m happy with the results! Still have to figure out a few things to get it running like the old synology setup, but I have all the shares running of the freenas and that changed worked well. The app´s running from there seem alot more "peppy" then running of the synology.

Thanks alot for your help!

 

[Mr. Slumber]

Nice machine. Congrats :)