Please, tell me a feedback about my first FreeNAS build (proposal). Will it work OK? Is it optimal? Up to 12HDDs in a tower :)

[CobraPL]

Greetings,

I want to build cheap, stable, clever FreeNAS build based on new components. I decided to choose Supermicro's stuff, not consumer one. It will be bought from authorized SM's partner in Poland.

Idea will be to provide backup server on 1Gb/s ingress speed (while remote machines will rarely exceed 100Mb/s on their upload speed, but may be concurrent).
Rather no VM stuff (maybe one or two, but not more due to CPU/RAM cheapness).
NOTE: Until I need sth more, there will be Microtik rb750gr3 or rb760igs as WAN.

Stuff will be in my office for X weeks/months before moving to a proper server room. So rather not RACK from the beginning.

Proposed build:

1. Supermicro CSE-GS5A-754K:
HDD places, not hotswap:
3x3.5 (airflow)
4x2.5 (lower airflow)
3x3.5 (airflow)
2x2.5 or 2x3.5 (in 5.25, low airflow)
750W Gold Modular PSU (too big, but I don't have any choice, since non-PSU variant is absent in Europe, 4w waiting)

2. Supermicro MBD-X11SCH-F-O:
2xM.2 Ultra connectors
8xSATA
2xPCIe for optional/future 10GB NIC and/or SAS/SATA controller.

3. Intel Core i3-9100F 4c/4t up to 4.2GHz (cheap!!!, superior 1c speed)

4. 4x16GB DDR4 UDIMM ECC 2666@2400 (maxed out for CPU/MB tandem). Can I force 2666 via BIOS?

Concens/questions are:
5. HDDa controller scenarios, should I:
a) sttick with MB's SATA AHCI mode (cheapest for an entry),but buy AOC-S3008L-L8E after trying to exceed 8 SATA drives
b) Buy AOC-S3008L-L8E from the beginning and SOMEHOW (how?) connect >8 SATA devices
c) buy AOC-S3216L-L16IT-O to rule them all !!!
Extra questions are:
d) is my MB's SATA HBA/IT?
e) Can I mix MB SATA with LSI? If yes, what are limitations?

6. CPU supports 16 PCIe Lanes, Chipset supports 24 PCIe Lanes. Does this MB use over 16 PCIe Lanes?

7. Should I use any extra cache (L2ARC, SLOG) for above mentioned usage? Should I move SWAP or sth to a SSD? Please note, that ingress speed id 1Gb/s, which is 125MB/s max at write. Until I try running VMs.

8. I plan to use big 3,5 hard drives. I will just store big archives.

9. What are recommended BIOS/UEFI settings? AFAIK AHCI ON, in case of having an option, should I use UEFI or non-UEFI? Anything else important?

Some people suggested AMD. No cheap (AM4) SM's offer. AMD AM4 Asrock's server MB is 80% more expensive and retains 64GB RAM limit which will limit extensive VM usage anyway. Anything more will cause price to skyrocket. Current proposal may be just backup server in the future.

So, what do you think about my build ?

 

[CobraPL]

PS:
10. Any reason to buy Quad NIC over Double NIC? Since there is X11SCH-LN4F
11. Any reason to use LSI over MB even if MB has HBI ?

 

[PhiloEpisteme]

4. 4x16GB DDR4 UDIMM ECC 2666@2400 (maxed out for CPU/MB tandem). Can I force 2666 via BIOS?

Your memory will run as fast as the chipset and cpu allow. Typically you cannot overclock memory and boards of this type. The amount of memory is way more important here than the speed anyway so I wouldn't worry about it.

a) sttick with MB's SATA AHCI mode (cheapest for an entry),but buy AOC-S3008L-L8E after trying to exceed 8 SATA drives
b) Buy AOC-S3008L-L8E from the beginning and SOMEHOW (how?) connect >8 SATA devices
c) buy AOC-S3216L-L16IT-O to rule them all !!!

I would stick with on-board SATA until you need more slots then pick up an HBA. Which HBA you get depends on

d) is my MB's SATA HBA/IT?

Typically the board won't use any kind of RAID until you tell it to. If you don't tell it to you're fine.

e) Can I mix MB SATA with LSI? If yes, what are limitations?

Yes, absolutely you can. They don't really have serious limitations since FreeNAS uses zfs which is happy so long as it has direct and full access to your disks.

Should I use any extra cache (L2ARC

You can always add this later if you see a low ARC hit ratio. Before you consider L2ARC, max out your system's ram.

SLOG) for above mentioned usage?

If you're doing a lot of sync writes a SLOG may be helpful. This too can be added after the fact. If you need SLOG devices the M.2 slots are great choices for that just make sure you get drives with PLP.

10. Any reason to buy Quad NIC over Double NIC? Since there is X11SCH-LN4F

If you needed multiple parallel connections the LN4F may be worth it, otherwise no. Often adding the extra connections sacrifices features elsewhere on the board, but that isn't always the case.

 

[blanchet]

If you buy new hardware, it would be easier to buy a ready-to-use server with FreeNAS installed.
You will be sure that everything works well.

Open storage systems (OSS)

Flexible storage hardware with open source software from openATTIC pre-installed if desired. Choose the storage server optimized for your needs from various configuration levels.

www.thomas-krenn.com

 

[CobraPL]

@blanchet well, thank you.
OSS Office v1.1 is in comparable price and inferior in most aspects to what I plan to buy.
@PhiloEpisteme

 

[CobraPL]

(hit enter by accident and can't edit above post)
@PhiloEpisteme
Does SLOG help in simple FTP/Samba archive uploading into the NAS?

 

[PhiloEpisteme]

Does SLOG help in simple FTP/Samba archive uploading into the NAS?

SLOG helps when you have sync writes. So any time you have sync writes, you may benefit from a SLOG device.

 

[CobraPL]

SLOG helps when you have sync writes. So any time you have sync writes, you may benefit from a SLOG device.

OK, so I am noob and I simply don't know - when actually FreeNAS uses sync writes and when not?

 

[CobraPL]

https://www.ixsystems.com/blog/zfs-zil-and-slog-demystified/ - so it seems, I will not encounter SYNC too often. Maybe never. Since simple incoming FTP/Samba will not invoke sync.

 

[JaimieV]

Agreed. Your use case is as a data dump, so SLOG/L2ARC will not be needed. Just lots of disk, and not even particularly fast (1gigE) so you don't really need to worry about your pool architecture too much. Use a couple of your 2.5 spaces for a boot mirror, then all your 3.5" spaces as a RAIDZ2.

Skip the HBA to start with, unless you start with over 8 drives of course. You can mix in 2.5" HDD RAIDZ's into your pool without any exciting issues (2.5" come in up to 5TB currently, so it's not too limiting).

Don't worry about memory speed - quantity is far more important. Don't consider trying to overclock/eke out every bit of speed at all, in fact - this is a corporate style build, not a domestic one. Stability is far more important. Plus you're on 1gigE so a single HDD could saturate the network link! Perf tuning is only interesting when you're running different loads to your archiving purpose - if you were doing VMs or iSCSI you might have to worry, but as it is just throw RAM and HDD RAIDZ2s at the device and you're good.