New FreeNAS Build Recommended Hardware

[JonnyAlpha]

Hi;

I have a really old FreeNAS setup in my garage and later this year I will be upgrading it, I will also be upgrading my Gaming Rig so I am looking to re/up-cycle some existing hardware.

If I recycle I will have the following hardware available:

Motherboard - ASRock DGS FM2
CPU - AMD A6 5400K Dual Core
Memory - Corsair Ballistix DDR3 PC3 14900 (2 x 4GB)
PSU - Corsair CX500V2 500Watt

Couple of questions if I may:
1. Looking at the recommended hardware list it strongly recommends an Intel CPU so should I replace the Mobo and CPU above and if so what would be the Intel equivalent, (price wise compared to those items above) (I have always used AMD in my PC builds - apart from my old FreeNAS which is a donated Intel setup).

2. My build is in the garage and I am using a Dlink Powerline setup but its a mix of DHP-309AV 200Mbps kit (2 x adaptors) and DHP W311AV/B (2 x Adaptors (1 is also a wireless AP), just lately I am suffering from very low (unusable) connection speeds in the garage. Any recommendations on a better setup (poss alternative to powerline). The garage is about 20m from the house.

 

[Mr_N]

Yes you'll need to replace the mobo so you can get one that takes ECC ram, so might as well get an intel cpu while your at it.

Any way to run 20m of cat6e between the house and garage?

 

[adamgoldberg]

If you have a way to get the cable out of the house and into the garage, there's plenty of options for outdoor, direct-burial cat6 cables (an example below). You can just lay this on the ground and use a flat spade to cut a slice in the ground and slide the cable in -- a few inches is all that's necessary.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002HFEBYM/?tag=ozlp-20

 

[traderjay]

Your CPU is far too weak to properly run FreeNAS and will be very prone to pool failure. What is your budget?

 

[SweetAndLow]

Your CPU is far too weak to properly run FreeNAS and will be very prone to pool failure. What is your budget?

Not true, CPU is just fine. Maybe using amd and non server grade equipment will be a problem but the CPU will not cause pool failure.

 

[nightshade00013]

While you can make an AMD cpu work the question is what is worth more to you, your time solving potential problems that could arise or the money in your wallet and the time it takes to make it. Some people build AMD systems that work fine and others have had nothing but problem after problem with the potential that something could eat their data.

With an FM2 cpu I have a hard time imagining that you will find a server grade board to support it. They may be out there but likely be overpriced and potentially buggy.

Since it seems that you are running your current FreeNAS on old hardware you may be better off finding a used server that will fit your needs for a cheap price point compared to new. I don't know what you are currently using and not going to take the time to search for it in case it has been posted somewhere so I don't know what would be a potential upgrade. Suffice to say that if you have something in the Xeon 5500 or 5600 series you are probably doing pretty well as it is and should be able to last for a while and potentially could do a couple upgrades to increase the performance rather than build a new system. You may also find that if you fix your network issues your current system will work just fine for the time being so I would do that before I did ANYTHING else.

As far as the connectivity power lines can have varying quality and little to no way to block signal interference. Your neighbors could have something that is emitting RF which is messing things up or it could just be an old freezer that you got causing the problem. I see two options that would be able to solve some issues and increase the connected speed. The best option IMHO is a direct line of Cat5 or Cat6 cable. Get some conduit or pex dig a trench and run the cable in it would be my way, you can direct bury a cable but the potential to have to do the work over again is a lot higher especially if the local utility company decides to replace a line to the house without actually letting you know they are doing an upgrade. They knife in a cable and hit another one you put in they won't even know it happened. They hit conduit and it's a little safer/less likely to be cut plus you can replace it later if you need to for whatever reason.

The other option is to get a pair of wireless AP/bridges. Right now you are at a theoretical maximum of 200Mbps so to step up to even a N300 device will be a gain though I would at least try and find an AC 750 or N600 device. It would be overkill but a pair of http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...wireless_ap/bridge-_-0ED-000E-00044-_-Product would get you up and running. Basically mount one outside on the house and the other on the garage facing each other. Configure a couple things and you are good to go. If you have an AC wireless router you could potentially do it with one though anything using the WiFi at the same time can potentially suffer throughput problems. This could also be done with a couple routers and DD-WRT firmware but it's a lot more legwork finding products that will work and getting things setup as well as working through the potential problems. I used something around the same level as the ones linked that were 5Ghz N band to shoot a connection 3/4 of a mile (1.2KM) for a friend who owned two buildings with zero issues so 20M should be easy.

 

[jgreco]

Is the garage grounded separately? If it is a different grounding domain, running direct burial copper cable creates the very real possibility of a nearby lightning strike creating a large grounding differential which can blow out your switch and also potentially even any attached gear.

I almost always encourage people to run fiber instead. If you use 50/125 multimode and just get a 40 meter patch cord, you can just plug that into a switch with SFP port on one end and then either into a switch in the garage or even an Intel Ethernet card that supports SFP on the filer. This can easily be upgraded to 10 gig in the future... and is totally safe as far as grounding potentials are concerned.

 

[JonnyAlpha]

Is the garage grounded separately? If it is a different grounding domain, running direct burial copper cable creates the very real possibility of a nearby lightning strike creating a large grounding differential which can blow out your switch and also potentially even any attached gear.

I almost always encourage people to run fiber instead. If you use 50/125 multimode and just get a 40 meter patch cord, you can just plug that into a switch with SFP port on one end and then either into a switch in the garage or even an Intel Ethernet card that supports SFP on the filer. This can easily be upgraded to 10 gig in the future... and is totally safe as far as grounding potentials are concerned.

the wiring to the garage was done by the previous occupants, TBH it looks like Twin and Earth run under the garden, whether its earthed separately is another question.

I am not familiar with Fibre setups suffice to say I guess at either end you have a fibre to ethernet converter? What would be the approximate cost of such a setup?

 

[JonnyAlpha]

While you can make an AMD cpu work the question is what is worth more to you, your time solving potential problems that could arise or the money in your wallet and the time it takes to make it. Some people build AMD systems that work fine and others have had nothing but problem after problem with the potential that something could eat their data.

With an FM2 cpu I have a hard time imagining that you will find a server grade board to support it. They may be out there but likely be overpriced and potentially buggy.

Since it seems that you are running your current FreeNAS on old hardware you may be better off finding a used server that will fit your needs for a cheap price point compared to new. I don't know what you are currently using and not going to take the time to search for it in case it has been posted somewhere so I don't know what would be a potential upgrade. Suffice to say that if you have something in the Xeon 5500 or 5600 series you are probably doing pretty well as it is and should be able to last for a while and potentially could do a couple upgrades to increase the performance rather than build a new system. You may also find that if you fix your network issues your current system will work just fine for the time being so I would do that before I did ANYTHING else.

As far as the connectivity power lines can have varying quality and little to no way to block signal interference. Your neighbors could have something that is emitting RF which is messing things up or it could just be an old freezer that you got causing the problem. I see two options that would be able to solve some issues and increase the connected speed. The best option IMHO is a direct line of Cat5 or Cat6 cable. Get some conduit or pex dig a trench and run the cable in it would be my way, you can direct bury a cable but the potential to have to do the work over again is a lot higher especially if the local utility company decides to replace a line to the house without actually letting you know they are doing an upgrade. They knife in a cable and hit another one you put in they won't even know it happened. They hit conduit and it's a little safer/less likely to be cut plus you can replace it later if you need to for whatever reason.

The other option is to get a pair of wireless AP/bridges. Right now you are at a theoretical maximum of 200Mbps so to step up to even a N300 device will be a gain though I would at least try and find an AC 750 or N600 device. It would be overkill but a pair of http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=0ED-000E-00044&ignorebbr=1&cm_re=wireless_ap/bridge-_-0ED-000E-00044-_-Product would get you up and running. Basically mount one outside on the house and the other on the garage facing each other. Configure a couple things and you are good to go. If you have an AC wireless router you could potentially do it with one though anything using the WiFi at the same time can potentially suffer throughput problems. This could also be done with a couple routers and DD-WRT firmware but it's a lot more legwork finding products that will work and getting things setup as well as working through the potential problems. I used something around the same level as the ones linked that were 5Ghz N band to shoot a connection 3/4 of a mile (1.2KM) for a friend who owned two buildings with zero issues so 20M should be easy.

Thanks for the detailed response, looks like i'll stick to Intel for my upgrade. My existing setup is really old and when I created it I used some old donated hardware, its an Acer Aspire mobo with (I think a Pentium D) CPU and only 2GB of RAM. I did buy 3 x WD 1TB SATA Drives which I intend to re-use in the next build.

I want to build a new setup but don't want to break the bank, I could buy a ready built Synology NAS box for £220 so don't really want to spend much more than this.
I found one of several build blogs here and although haven't found the same setup here is an example of what I may get.

I will keep looking and post back.

 

[Mirfster]

How many drives are you going to be using? May want to give a Dell T20 a looksy (would need to add RAM). If interested in a T20 ask @Robert Trevellyan ; he is running one.

 

[JonnyAlpha]

How many drives are you going to be using? May want to give a Dell T20 a looksy (would need to add RAM). If interested in a T20 ask @Robert Trevellyan ; he is running one.

I'll be using 3 x WD 1TB Drives.

 

[Mirfster]

Well looks like the Dell T20 would fit that.

Drive Bays
Up to six internal (cabled) hard drives in total:
Up to four 8.8cm (3.5) SATA hard drives, plus Up to two 6.3cm (2.5) SATA hard drives (require expansion kits)

 

[Yatti420]

Powerline? How does that work? Can you stream etc? I might invest in your network first.. T20 isn't bad.. You can shove alot of drives in an old case if you reallly want..

 

[jgreco]

the wiring to the garage was done by the previous occupants, TBH it looks like Twin and Earth run under the garden, whether its earthed separately is another question.

I am not familiar with Fibre setups suffice to say I guess at either end you have a fibre to ethernet converter? What would be the approximate cost of such a setup?

No. Skip the fiber to ethernet converters, they #$*@# suck @$)*(%@.

You get two switches. One for the garage, one for the house. If you want something new, the Netgear GS110TP is around $125. But if you're smart you can trawl around on eBay for some Dell 5324's (caution: can be a little noisy). These have SFP slots. Into them you stick an SFP module, one on each side. For the Dells, they're a generic Finisar. For the Netgear, I think it may require the Netgear optics. You want SX (multimode) optics which are dirt cheap, use LED's, and are designed for short range transmission over multimode fiber. That module gives you a 1Gbit fiber (instead of copper) link. Just like copper, you then connect the two switches together with a patch cable. Except here it can be a fairly long fiber patch cable.

If you go the Dell 5324 route you ought to be able to source two switches for about $50 each, plus about $10 for a SFP, or $120 total for both ends. The fiber you lay is probably best if it is a good quality patch cord and laid through some sort of conduit underground. I suggest getting a 10G capable one but you can scrounge around for cheap 1G.

https://www.cablesandkits.com/lclc-...uplex-50125-fiber-patch-cable-40m-p-3828.html

Total cost with some 5324's and conduit and all that is probably around $300. And you gain a great switch in both the garage and the house.

 

[jgreco]

Also I should point out that if you are technically inclined and haven't been introduced to the Ubiquiti EdgeRouter stuff, their EdgeRouter X SFP is very nearly made for this sort of thing, and at $80 per end, is very attractive. Do note that they're not able to do full 1Gbps line rate routing, though I believe the switching is in silicon so you can probably abuse it as a cheap six port switch.

The great thing about fiber is that once you get your head around it being "just ethernet minus the copper" all sorts of things become possible. For example if the NAS is the only thing you have in the garage and also the only thing you'll ever want in the garage then you could just skip a switch on that end and use a PCIe SFP card instead (obDisclosure: haven't tried that but I believe it ought to work). Fiber is great for isolating gear.

 

[JonnyAlpha]

Well looks like the Dell T20 would fit that.

Had a look at the Dell T20, short supply in a few place and looks like a popular entry level server for small businesses.

I have been out of the scene for a while and never really been into Intel CPU's, the Dell T20's IO have been looking at come with an Intel G3220 3Ghz, where do these sit in the Intel CPU line as far as performance is concerned and what AMD would it rate against?

Well looks like the Dell T20 would fit that.

Had a look at the Dell T20, short supply in a few place and looks like a popular entry level server for small businesses. I have seen it on Amazon for about £240, now currently unavailable.

I have been out of the scene for a while and never really been into Intel CPU's, the Dell T20's IO have been looking at come with an Intel G3220 3Ghz, where do these sit in the Intel CPU line as far as performance is concerned and what AMD would it rate against?

I have also compared the cost of the Dell T20 against a DIY build and have come up with the following:

1. Dell T20 - £240

2. ASUS H81-Plus Mobo, Pentium G3220 3Ghz, Cooler, 8GB DDR3 1600 Memory, Thermaltake Core V1 Mini ITX case, Corsair 430W CPU - £282

3. ASUS H81M-Plus Mobo, Core i3 4130 3.4Ghz, Cooler, 8GB DDR3 1600 Memory, (Mobo, CPU, Mem, Cooler Bundle) Thermaltake Core V1 Mini ITX case, Corsair 430W CPU - £275

The DIY build option 3 is £35 more than the DELL but its an i3?

 

[religiouslyconfused]

Dell is better because you get ecc ram and a server grade mainboard. All you need is another 4 gb of unbuffered ecc for 8gb of ram. H81 is not a server grade chipset and does not support ecc which is recommended for zfs. Also you might get a Realtek network card which is not recommended for free as as it works best with Intel cards. Just letting you know. Pentium is still pretty good can do a couple of transcodes at 1080p. Plus the Dell is super quiet which is nice.

 

[KevinM]

Also I should point out that if you are technically inclined and haven't been introduced to the Ubiquiti EdgeRouter stuff, their EdgeRouter X SFP is very nearly made for this sort of thing, and at $80 per end, is very attractive. Do note that they're not able to do full 1Gbps line rate routing, though I believe the switching is in silicon so you can probably abuse it as a cheap six port switch.

I am amazed at how cheap the EdgeRouter X SFP is, especially since it also does passive POE. We are using media converters at some of our remote locations basically as disposable buffers due to the power concerns raised above, but even those are more expensive than these switches.

For those wanting more ports the HP 1810-24g switch has 24 gb rj45 plus 2 gp sfp ports. It's been a while but I believe I paid less than $200 on Amazon for the one I have at home. The gui is a pita but it's a decent price for a managed layer 2 switch. It's connected via a fiber dot1q trunk to my juniper ex2200c. I used hummingbird sfps. So far no problems.

 

[jgreco]

Yeah, the Ubiquiti stuff is pretty cool. Unlike a lot of the enterprise-y gear which typically views SFP as backhaul from a wiring closet, and therefore has a few dozen ports and then only two or four SFP, the Ubiquiti stuff was really designed for wireless ISP's and much smaller, more specific port requirements at a reasonable price.