One year later, ready to build a FreeNAS?

[OiD]

Hello!

After not posting anything since just over a year ago (wow, time flies!) I'm back with my new plan for building a FreeNAS!

My current plan will be to use my i5 8GB PC to host 8 2TB 3.5" drives (2.5" made for a nice small box but the difference in price no longer seemed worth using the hot swap drive cages as I HOPE not to be needing more space... ever).
I will get a dual x5650 with 24GB ECC RAM running (can pickup the RAM and the second CPU for under 100€) and use it as my main PC for a while until I've finished playing around with the old i5 8GB non ECC FreeNAS playground.
I'll then move on to a server as my main PC (still looking for a good deal on RAM, less than 140€ for 64GB and a suitable GPU that fits and can be adapted to the case airflow path) and use the dual xeon for FreeNAS. Then the old i5 PC will be a dedicated Linux box for home automation/CNC controller/comand line server!

I hate wasting old hardware, but the i5 and 8GB of RAM is over 6 years old and I can really feel the lack of performance for my daily tasks :( I will need some elbow grease to get the xeon fitted to a standard case and a good deal of sound proofing for the jet... i mean the server. Granted that using the server as a work PC is overkill it's better than not using it!

Anyway, ramblings aside, the main specs would be;

Dual xeon x5650
24 GB ECC RAM (6x4GB)
2 Dell 6/iR (need to be flashed)
8 2TB Toshiba 7200RPM 64MB drives
1 1000tx link (will try dual link over network or direct 10Gb if needed)
Nice workstation PSU
Pure sine wave converter to take over from a comercial UPS

The main uses will be data storage for raw photo and video editing, video streaming and download server.

Any input is welcome!

Edit: Link to previous thread. https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/hello-freenas-simple-server-build.39755/

 

[JustinClift]

still looking for a good deal on RAM, less than 140€ for 64G

Maybe this? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/282306383622

Note - I don't know the seller at all. I was just looking at ECC ram stuff yesterday too. :D

 

[OiD]

Maybe this? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/282306383622

Note - I don't know the seller at all. I was just looking at ECC ram stuff yesterday too. :D

Thanks! But They don't ship to Spain. For now looks like the best offers are new stick from china (Hynix anyway, generic RAM is cheaper but I'm not going near those!)

Related to the FreeNAS build I'm taking the lack of negative feedback as something positive!

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

I'm taking the lack of negative feedback as something positive!

Well ...

2 Dell 6/iR (need to be flashed)
8 2TB Toshiba 7200RPM 64MB drives

Do you really want to use those obsolete HBAs for a new build? They'll work, but only with 2TB drives. If you already have the drives and the HBAs, I suppose you don't have much to lose starting off with them (and one 6/iR should be able to run 8 drives). If you're buying new drives, the €/TB ratio for 2TB models is not very good.

 

[OiD]

Well ...

Do you really want to use those obsolete HBAs for a new build? They'll work, but only with 2TB drives. If you already have the drives and the HBAs, I suppose you don't have much to lose starting off with them (and one 6/iR should be able to run 8 drives). If you're buying new drives, the €/TB ratio for 2TB models is not very good.

Regarding the PERC it's what I have lying around :P I bumped the drive capacity from 1TB to 2TB as budget allowed. As usuall most of the budget goes to hdd. I can look into other controllers if I find them lacking but I'd rather give them a shot first else what would be the cheapest available alternative?

Thanks for the input!

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

How many SATA ports does your motherboard have? You might find reallocating your budget to fewer, larger hard drives (preferably NAS-specific drives) makes sense.

 

[OiD]

How many SATA ports does your motherboard have? You might find reallocating your budget to fewer, larger hard drives (preferably NAS-specific drives) makes sense.

Sorry, I should've made it clear I've had the drives for a while. I can't seem to source at a competent price any 4TB 7K drives. There are a few 5K ones from WD but the 18% increase in price doesn't seem worth it for me as a home user.
I'd like a powerfull and fast and cheap setup (who doesn't?) and it will not be running 24/7 the average will be around 6h a day at most. Should be well under 4h as I juggle projects around.

This is for light home use, but when I need the data I'd like it fast. For now I'd be using half the drives with a backup, and if needed (in quite a few years based on projected storage use) add larger capacity drives.

I'm not sure if I'm making sense.

The motherboard has 6 SATA ports. Most of the hardware I have are from swaps and the only "new" parts for this build are the drives and RAM.

Arrg, I feel like I can't express myself in writing... In short, I feel that the 2TB drives should suffice my needs and in the far future add a larger array. I feel that the weakest link of the system is the controller. In the event of moving onto larger drives the card will have to be upgraded but I already have them.

I definitely understand what you mean with going for large drives, but considering that I'm building this with minimum budget I'm hoping to use what I have I just hope that it won't fall apart. I'm using the best stuff I can get as plenty of other projects are demanding the rest of my budget. If this was a data critical project it would be different. I'm aiming for a local data backup (i should always be able to manage keeping a regular offline backup so I should never loose everything), speed and not bumping into a dead end in the next 7-9 years.

Thanks a lot for your input, if you could point me to a suitable 8 port low cost 2TB+ controller I will definitely look into it. As to the drives I will contact a few providers and see I there is anything I can do and what offers I can get.

I'm very excited to start getting FreeNAS running in due time. It something I've been putting of for years, and would love to have the three systems up and running. I'd switch to linux but a few main programs I use don't have sufficiently convincing alternatives, so having two "permanent" linux boxes around will be very welcome.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

I can't seem to source at a competent price any 4TB 7K drives. There are a few 5K ones from WD but the 18% increase in price doesn't seem worth it for me as a home user.
I'd like a powerfull and fast and cheap setup (who doesn't?) and it will not be running 24/7 the average will be around 6h a day at most. Should be well under 4h as I juggle projects around.

I'm going to pick a few more holes in your plan.

• There will be no measurable performance benefit with 7K drives vs 5K drives in a typical FreeNAS system. You may have other reasons to choose the 7K drives, but relative performance is not a valid reason.
• FreeNAS is designed to run 24/7. Shutting it off for a large part of each day prevents a lot of routine testing and maintenance tasks from running.

The motherboard has 6 SATA ports

A 6-drive RAIDZ2 vdev layout is very popular, for its decent tradeoff between capacity, redundancy and physical constraints. You could start with that, with the comfort of having two spare drives on the shelf. But if you know 8TB of raw storage (i.e. about 6.4TB usable) isn't enough to start, it's obviously not such a great idea.

if you could point me to a suitable 8 port low cost 2TB+ controller I will definetly look into it

There are lots of good recommendations for HBAs in the hardware recommendations, and in previous threads in the topic we're in now. Cards like the IBM M1015 and the Dell H200 are often mentioned, so you could try a forum search for those.

 

[OiD]

Hi Robert,
Tomorow I'll try to contact the providers and see if I can do something with the drives, they know me and they are still in their original packaging/crate so i'll check if anything is possible.
Thanks for pointing out the daily routines, would it not suffice to have FreeNAS running on the weekend?

I could start with 6 drives, but I would relativly quickly need more space. I've checked the prices for the cards you mention and compared to the 9€ I paid for mine it's a steep step! But yeah, it's a critical part for a NAS, if I can swap the drives for larger ones I could use the internal SATA controller, otherwise they will one day need to be purchased!

Please feel free to continue picking holes : )

Edit: Post got borked by timeout...

 

[JustinClift]

FreeNAS is designed to run 24/7. Shutting it off for a large part of each day prevents a lot of routine testing and maintenance tasks from running.

Interesting. Any idea how that's scheduled? (eg cronjob?)

I'm guilty of also not leaving my system running 24/7. It's probably worth my looking into the scheduling side of things, to work out if/what could do with kicking off manually instead.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

it's a critical part for a NAS

Yup.

would it not suffice to have FreeNAS running on the weekend?

Sure, you can set it up that way if you like, it's just a bit more limiting. The most important scheduled tasks are pool scrubs, SMART self-tests and SMART checks.

Any idea how that's scheduled? (eg cronjob?)

Under the hood they are scheduled with cron jobs. In the GUI, the most important tasks have their own interface.

As a broad generalization, I would suggest that with modern hardware, most users don't see enough power saving to offset the inconvenience of shutting down their FreeNAS. Some will also argue that shutting down and restarting accelerates hardware failure, but I haven't seen anyone cite evidence to support that.

 

[JustinClift]

Under the hood they are scheduled with cron jobs. In the GUI, the most important tasks have their own interface.

As a broad generalization, I would suggest that with modern hardware, most users don't see enough power saving to offset the inconvenience of shutting down their FreeNAS. Some will also argue that shutting down and restarting accelerates hardware failure, but I haven't seen anyone cite evidence to support that.

Excellent, thank you. :)

 

[OiD]

Ok, just got off the phone with the providor. I can swap the drives. Ditching the 8 Toshiba 2TB ones for 4 WD Purple 4TB ones. No, i can't afford more than purple, well yes but... :D Thanks for telling me to go with 4TB ones, I wasn't expecting to be able to swap them after having them for so long.
Less load on the PSU, integrated controller (for now) and space for 4 more future drives.

Just found two heatsinks for the cpu's, need to check that a least one of them fits... nope.. they don't. Guess I'll have to buy one then! 1366/socket B are hard to come by. Originals are bloody expensive. Fortunatly its not propieraty to the motherboard so there is enought to choose from if you live in the states...

Custom cables are made, fans are ready... now to find a case and make the board fit. Guess i'll use an old 512MB video card.

Regarding the scheduled tasks, I'm assuming that the more use and the more files you have the longer they will take (except the SMART tests). If it can be done on the the weekends then great.

 

[OiD]

Ok, finally setup, just waiting for the 24GB or ECC RAM to arrive : )
Just finished stuffing a workstation into a mid tower case, I'll have to but a full tower down the line (better ventilation, filters, space for the PSU, more drives...) but for now this will do.

Ended up with two Hyper TX3 EVO heatsinks, with 3 heat pipes instead of the original 2 I don't think they'll have any issues managing the heat. Max temps are about 45ºC.

I have a few sticks of DDR3 ECC RAM laying around but they are registered and unbuffered types. If I can mix them for each CPU I can provably have 10GB, if not I'll be stuck with 4 or 6GB. Will this be a problem to play around with for a few weeks in FreeNAS?

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

I'll be stuck with 4 or 6GB. Will this be a problem to play around with for a few weeks in FreeNAS?

Not if you accept the risk of data loss, and recognize that if FreeNAS doesn't behave correctly, it could be due to lack of RAM.

 

[SweetAndLow]

Minimum is 8GB no exceptions.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[brando56894]

I would make each dimm higher density so its easier to upgrade later, I would go for 3x 8 GB or 2x 16 GB

 

[OiD]

Well I'm going to try it for a few weeks to play around and set it up. I still won't tranfer all my files over, for now just 100GB. Toping out at 97MB/s.
Uptaded the bios (lots of changes!) and disabled the onboard RAID.
Trying to acces from android using ES explorer... I can get to the root folders, but nothing else. Any ideas?

As to the RAM it's 6 sticks of 4GB for 35€. They can always be passed on to another machine or two when an upgrade is needed.

 

[brando56894]

Trying to acces from android using ES explorer

Get rid of that bloatware and ad-filled garbage, it used to be good. Give Solid Explorer or X-Plore File Manager a try :) As for your access the only thing I can think of is permissions. Check the Samba logs on FreeNAS.

 

[OiD]

Get rid of that bloatware and ad-filled garbage, it used to be good. Give Solid Explorer or X-Plore File Manager a try :) As for your access the only thing I can think of is permissions. Check the Samba logs on FreeNAS.

Found out ESX was logging on anonymously, entered the credentials and worked fine. Will deffinetly check out the alternatives, I liked it more when it was less flashy!