Please Critique my TV attached ZFS linux build.

[xekon]

let me start by saying I realize this is the FreeNAS forums, and that I am building a ZFS linux build, however there are a lot of knowledgeable people here that I would like to get input from, so I posted this in Off-topic.

The reason I am planning to use ZFS under linux is because I use my older kubuntu server(single drive, limited space) for gaming and watching videos in Kodi/Xbmc.

Planned Build:
motherboard: ASUS P10S WS or Gigabyte GA-X170-WS
cpu: Xeon E3-1275 v5
memory: 32GB Kingston ValueRAM (2x 16GB KVR21E15D8/16), later expand to 64GB if needed.
drives: 10 WD RED 6TB NAS in RAIDZ2, and 1 SSD sata boot drive.
case: possibly NZXT H440 STEEL Mid Tower Case. (seen one fully loaded, half the drives mount upside down, not sure I like that)
controller: 9240-8i or 9211-8i
power supply: CORSAIR HX Series CMPSU-620HX (80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Compatible)

memory is another conern with motherboard choice, it looks like both boards support ECC as long as its unbuffered, the gigabyte board says to use 1Rx8/2Rx8, all Im really seeing on newegg is Kingston, Im used to buying gskill ram with heatsinks, I guess I could add some heatsinks.

so far I have 2 of the 6TB disks, I am going to keep buying 1-3 each month(depending on funds) until I have them all, testing them as they arrive.
Once I have all the drives, the case and cpu cooler, I will save enough to buy all remaining computer parts at same time, so that I can return any problem parts.
I already have the power supply, from my old kubuntu server that just has a single hard drive.

I am hoping to have all parts purchased within 6months, so that I can finally use the new server.

I am thinking that somepeople will tell me I should use a seperate machine for my file server, currently its nice using the single kubuntu machine as both a server and TV computer, the TV computer is always on, so all I have to do is turn my tv on and its already ready to go, plus if I am going to buy such a powerful xeon processor it would be awesome to take advantage of that in some of my emulated games. Maybe its a bad idea to multipurpose it, but I can't think of any specific reasons not to.

Thank you to everyone that reads my post, and thank you very much for any advice or critique everyone can give me.

 

[SweetAndLow]

Fun build and I hope you get it working the way you need. For memory you can Kingston, crucial/micron or Samsung. Don't worry about the heatsinks that if just so gamers spend more money on looks. I don't think they really matter. You are building a sky lake system so get a 16GB dimm instead of 2x8GB. It will give you more room to expand in the future.

The only other observation is don't go more than 10 drives in a single vdev. With 6tb disks I probably would go above 8 because rebuild times will take forever.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[xekon]

I assumed server ram on newegg didnt have heat sinks because most servers have a ton of airflow. and yeah, I was planning on 2 16gb dimms at first, and then i could get 2 more later if needed.

after reading a lot of posts, I seen a couple that said NEVER have more than 11 disks in a single vdev, for raidz2 i seen 4, 6, or 10 recommended, so I will go with 10, it will be more space efficient.

so at first I would have a single vdev of a 10disk raidz2 in my zpool. Reading through the help documents in the resource section I see that I can later add another vdev to expand my usable space, preferably with the same number of disks.

so i could later add a second vdev of 10 disk raidz2 and my zpool would have 2 vdevs, the result is any data written to the zpool would be striped accross both vdevs if I understand correctly.
What is the result if I dont add another vdev until the first vdev is like 80% full, obviously it cant fit as much data on vdev1(80%full) as it could vdev2(0%full)

will it just put more data onto vdev2 while still striping? if so it seems that would give less drive performance than if I would have used enough drives for 2 vdevs from the get go, since it wouldn't be writing or reading data in roughly equal amounts from the two seperate vdevs.

also I am wondering if there is a way to rebuild all the data across both vdevs after adding another vdev. I have read about resilvering, but from what i've read that may only be for when replacing existing drives.

I know some of these questions have to of been asked before, but im not finding anything relevant in any of the stickies or the resource section. But I have learned a LOT from what was available in those sections.

 

[MrToddsFriends]

also I am wondering if there is a way to rebuild all the data across both vdevs after adding another vdev. I have read about resilvering, but from what i've read that may only be for when replacing existing drives.

Bottom line in this thread: You could rebalance the data by destroying the pool and recreating it followed by restoring the data from a backup, but it's not worth the effort.
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/possible-re-balance-when-adding-a-vdev.35450/

Side note: I'm pretty sure that I would not like to have a server with 10 spinning disks (later: 20 of them) near my TV in the living room. Reason not to have such a multipurpose "TV computer": Noise of the disks an noise of the fans to cool all the disks.

 

[xekon]

Thank you both of you, I had considered that restoring from backup would work. I wont start building a backup solution until after this project is done.
I was thinking i could just setup a second ZFS at my parents house for the backup, that would keep it offsite, while still being able to manage it when I needed to.

Also good note on the noise aspect, unfortunately my home is a small 400 sq ft cabin, so the drives would have to be in either the bedroom, living room, kitchen, or bathroom. there are no closets or utility rooms so to speak. I do have a seperate building where the washer and dryer are, but it often gets pretty dusty in there, so I don't think it would make a good place for the server, also the temperature swings are larger in that building because i dont regulate the temperature with heat or ac in that building.

 

[SweetAndLow]

I assumed server ram on newegg didnt have heat sinks because most servers have a ton of airflow. and yeah, I was planning on 2 16gb dimms at first, and then i could get 2 more later if needed.

after reading a lot of posts, I seen a couple that said NEVER have more than 11 disks in a single vdev, for raidz2 i seen 4, 6, or 10 recommended, so I will go with 10, it will be more space efficient.

so at first I would have a single vdev of a 10disk raidz2 in my zpool. Reading through the help documents in the resource section I see that I can later add another vdev to expand my usable space, preferably with the same number of disks.

so i could later add a second vdev of 10 disk raidz2 and my zpool would have 2 vdevs, the result is any data written to the zpool would be striped accross both vdevs if I understand correctly.
What is the result if I dont add another vdev until the first vdev is like 80% full, obviously it cant fit as much data on vdev1(80%full) as it could vdev2(0%full)

will it just put more data onto vdev2 while still striping? if so it seems that would give less drive performance than if I would have used enough drives for 2 vdevs from the get go, since it wouldn't be writing or reading data in roughly equal amounts from the two seperate vdevs.

also I am wondering if there is a way to rebuild all the data across both vdevs after adding another vdev. I have read about resilvering, but from what i've read that may only be for when replacing existing drives.

I know some of these questions have to of been asked before, but im not finding anything relevant in any of the stickies or the resource section. But I have learned a LOT from what was available in those sections.

You are pretty spot on with your assumption. Yes you can add a 10 disk vdev. You can actually add any kind of vdev but best practices is to make sure they match.

If vdev 1 is more full the new data will get written to the vdev with more free space. If you want to balance out the vdev you just need to rewrite the old data. To make a new dataset and move the data to that dataset locally on the cli. This will copy everything to the new dataset and delete the old data, while striping it across both vdev.

Noise and heat will be interesting. Cooling 10-20 drives is really hard to do and will create lots of fan noise. That many HDD will also just make lots of noise.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[Stux]

A common approach is to put plex/myth TV on the NAS box and have a thin client in the living room.

Fixed disk sizing advice is outdated. 8 is a fine number for Raidz2.

You can probably rebalance by doing mv across datasets On a single pool

But if your content is not 100% static it will work itself out eventually.