Kristan McDonald
Dabbler
- Joined
- Jun 13, 2013
- Messages
- 25
Hi all,
My (very) ageing microserver based FreeNAS box is really starting to creak and I've decided to sort it out. It currently 6 x 2TB drives in 2 RAIDZ1 vols and 16GB ram, running a few jails and CIFS shares. It's mostly a media storage box so I'd like to add Plex to it, but there's no way it would cope.
So.... I want something that's just going to work with minimal hassle and maximum data safety and reliability. It's basically a build-from-scratch, so I can leave the old one on-line until everything is copied over. Once that's done, I'll probably re-use the 2TB's in the new box. Though god knows I won't need the storage :
Some notes on my reasoning on the config:
The new 3TB drives will be in a single RAIDZ2 vol. I've gone with two brands of 3TB disks to try and reduce the chance of multiple failures in a short time frame. While price/TB on 4TB drives is a few pennies better, I don't need the extra space (or cost) and I want to keep RAIDZ2, so 6 disks is the ideal (as far as my recent reading tells me!). I went for the X10SL7 to get the extra controller and drive sockets so I can re-use the existing drives.
So questions:
My (very) ageing microserver based FreeNAS box is really starting to creak and I've decided to sort it out. It currently 6 x 2TB drives in 2 RAIDZ1 vols and 16GB ram, running a few jails and CIFS shares. It's mostly a media storage box so I'd like to add Plex to it, but there's no way it would cope.
So.... I want something that's just going to work with minimal hassle and maximum data safety and reliability. It's basically a build-from-scratch, so I can leave the old one on-line until everything is copied over. Once that's done, I'll probably re-use the 2TB's in the new box. Though god knows I won't need the storage :
- 3 x 3TB WD Red drives (£85 each - £255 total)
- 3 x 3TB Seagate NAS drives (£85 each- £255 total)
- Corsair CXM 600W Bronze PSU (£58)
- Supermicro X10SL7-F (£205)
- Xeon E3-1230 v3 3.3Ghz (£195)
- 4 x Crucial CT102472BD160B 8GB modules (£55 each - £220 total)
- NZXT Source 210 Elite case (£38)
- Many, many sata cables
- Extra fans
Some notes on my reasoning on the config:
The new 3TB drives will be in a single RAIDZ2 vol. I've gone with two brands of 3TB disks to try and reduce the chance of multiple failures in a short time frame. While price/TB on 4TB drives is a few pennies better, I don't need the extra space (or cost) and I want to keep RAIDZ2, so 6 disks is the ideal (as far as my recent reading tells me!). I went for the X10SL7 to get the extra controller and drive sockets so I can re-use the existing drives.
So questions:
- The case looks ok and is dirt cheap. I was looking at a Node 804 but I'm a little concerned about all the drives being cramped together. Any alternatives I should look at? I'd like a rack mount but I'm not sure I can justify the cost. I'm way over budget as it is :D
- What's the best way to re-use the existing 2TB disks? A totally separate pool?
- Anything I've missed or anything that looks silly? Most of the above is cribbed from forum posts here, so it's entirely possible I've misunderstood something.
- I've got a spare 64GB SSD lying around. I played with using it as combined ZIL/L2ARC before but it seemed to make no discernible difference (which was pretty much what I expected from what I'd read and my use case). Should I just bung the OS on it or can I make better use?
- I want to add a UPS to the above, but I can't find many recommendations. Is there anything to look for/avoid when shopping?