New build of 12 TB Box...Ideas?

[kjemison]

Hello,

I have a project coming up for a customer that needs a minimum of 12 TB of storage space.

My idea of a good solution is qty 4, 4TB NAS drives with a 5th as a hot spare.

32 GB RAM

Intel Xeon or Core i5 CPU - Quad Core

Supermicro MB

Gigabit NIC cards.

Configured as JBOD with freeNAS providing RAID 10

I am looking for more advice from others who may have more experience with FreeNAS and this type of build.

Best configurations? Best tuning for performance etc...

Thank you for your input.
Sincerely,
Kell

 

[Robert Smith]

Core i5 has is not compatible with ECC memory. Always use ECC memory with ZFS.

 

[Gonzalo]

My idea of a good solution is qty 4, 4TB NAS drives with a 5th as a hot spare.

Better idea is 6x3TB and RaidZ2 (18TB total, 12TB usable).

32 GB RAM

Ok.

Intel Xeon or Core i5 CPU - Quad Core

Intel Xeon as @Robert Smith said, you need ECC memory.

Supermicro MB

Ok.

Gigabit NIC cards.

Ok (use only Intel NIC).

Configured as JBOD with freeNAS providing RAID 10

RaidZ2 is the way to go.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

I have a project coming up for a customer that needs a minimum of 12 TB of storage space.

My idea of a good solution is qty 4, 4TB NAS drives with a 5th as a hot spare.

4x4TB drives will not give you 12TB of storage:

1. You will get somewhat close to 12TB of raw storage if you use RAIDZ1, but that would be a horrible mistake with 4TB drives, so plan on RAIDZ2 at minimum.
2. You need to keep the pool below 80% full to maintain reasonable performance, so for 12TB of usable storage you need more like 15TB of raw storage. Let's round that up to 16TB, because doing so fits nicely into a 6x4TB RAIDZ2 pool.
3. Don't bother with a hot spare unless the pool is already configured with RAIDZ3 vdev(s).
4. Read the various hardware recommendation threads. This will help you to avoid basic mistakes like choosing a Core i5. Avoiding basic mistakes is going to be very important if you're building for a customer. Plan to study and experiment for several weeks before proceeding.

 

[Ericloewe]

Why anyone would consider RAIDZ1+hot spare instead of RAIDZ2, which is like having an already-resilvered hot spare always ready, is beyond me.

 

[zambanini]

so a customer needs something you have no clue about. do not get mw wrong, but why do you want to offer something you hace no knowledge about?

 

[tpmeredith]

so a customer needs something you have no clue about. do not get mw wrong, but why do you want to offer something you hace no knowledge about?

This... But put even better: You never want to let a customer be your guinea pig. You can buy an old used Dell 2950 or R610/T610 or 710 to learn on easily for yourself. A 2950 can easily be had to experiment with for less than $150 with 32gb ram (not state of the art or power efficient by any means).

Also, what kind of data are they needing 12tb for and how many users are accessing it? This could have a big impact on your solution..

 

[kjemison]

Thank you for all the input. It is appreciated very much!
Sincerely,
KJ