pls help: Reliable Hardware for 60TB JBOD Nas

[nzero]

I came across the freenas project couple of weeks ago while researching to build a NAS server for our security cameras. Originally i was going to build a windows system, but now i am liking freenas running off FreeBSD. My only doubt/concerns are i read that freenas is a bit picky with some hardware (but in some other places, it says it will take any hardware), so i want to make sure i dont run into any issues.

Originally i was thinking to go with a gaming motherboard + latest i7 + raid/sata expansion card so i can fit 10x 6TB drives + SSD to run the OS or just run it off USB. But now looking at some freenas builds iam seeing server motherboards such as the ASRock C2750D4I that have embedded CPU and 12x Sata ports.

What i'd like help on is if someone can please let me know what motherboard/cpu/ram/sata expansion card i should get. I only have access to newegg for hardware :(

the purpose of server: to have NAS server for storage of IP camera footage. there will be no raid, just individual disks. There will be 1 user (windows server: video management server) that will be connected to the NAS 24/7 writing at a rate of 150-175mbps. There will also be 1-3 additional users that will access the system to retrieve video footage(15-30mbps READ), maybe once a week. There will be no apps or VM running off the NAS, just storage.

thanks in advance for any help, i'd appreciate it.

 

[danb35]

Single post, please—don’t cross-post. But I think you may need to reconsider what you’re doing. If you set up a bunch of disks, each as it’s own pool, your video management server is going to need to know when to use which one. If you put a bunch of disks striped into a single pool, you avoid that problem, but the failure of any disk results in the loss of all your data.

As to your hardware question, start by taking a look at the hardware recommendations guide and go from there.

 

[Chris Moore]

is a bit picky with some hardware (but in some other places, it says it will take any hardware

We have a Hardware Recommendations Guide and a FreeNAS® Quick Hardware Guide that you can examine. These are suggestions based on experience of the community. It is absolutely NOT true that BSD (FreeNAS) will run on "any" hardware. There are, for example, network cards that might work, but not work reliably. If you select hardware that is recommended, you results are very likely to be good.

Originally i was thinking to go with a gaming motherboard + latest i7

Due to the recommendation of ECC memory, i5 and i7 processors are specifically NOT recommended as they don't support ECC function.

What i'd like help on is if someone can please let me know what motherboard/cpu/ram/sata expansion card i should get. I only have access to newegg for hardware

Why is it you can only use NewEgg? If you are able to purchase elsewhere, the options for hardware are greatly expanded.
For example, this system from eBay, just needs some memory, hard drives and a SAS HBA to be a fine FreeNAS system. To buy equivalent hardware new, would set you back a couple thousand more.

 

[Chris Moore]

there will be no raid, just individual disks.

PS: I would suggest using RAID-z2 for your disks, if you are not going to take advantage of the features of FreeNAS, there isn't any point in using it to begin with. With RAID-z2, you should expand storage in steps of either 6 or 8 disks, so you would either have 8 drives or 12 drives.

 

[nzero]

thanks for the replies, okay so here is what i was thinking so far, but i want to know whether or not my motherboard/cpu combo is too weak or will it run well? also since iam not doing raid, do i really need 1gb ram per 1tb of space?

Motherboard: ASRock C2750D4I w/ Intel Avoton C2750 (i like this for the 12x sata ports and intel NIC)
Ram: 32GB Crucial DDR3 ECC Unbuffered CT2KIT102472BD160B (will 32GB be enough? or should i go with 64GB?)
Drives: 9x 6TB HGST 7200rpm Deskstar H3IKNAS600012872SN or Western Digital Red 6TB WD6002FFWX
Power: 1000W Corsair RM1000i (12 sata connectors)
Case: Norco 16-bay RPC-3216

Another motherboard i was thinking was SUPERMICRO MBD-X11SSL-F-O, but still not sure how powerful of a CPU i'd need for non raid setup.

here are some additional details:

Why iam not running raid? dont need redundancy, need maximum storage. i want to have 9x windows smb drives or active directory for NAS with 9drives that the (Windows server: video management server) can access, from the video management server i can group cameras to write to different drives. This way if a drive fails, only certain group of footage is lost. I just prefer to do this using freenas and a separate box rather than just putting the drives into a windows server.

 

[danb35]

also since iam not doing raid, do i really need 1gb ram per 1tb of space?

RAID or not, you're still using ZFS, so that rule of thumb is still there--but it's a very rough rule of thumb. For your stated use case, 32 GB would probably be plenty, and there's a good chance you could manage with 16 GB. But I still think you're either (1) introducing a pointless complication by adding the FreeNAS box in the first place, or (2) not going far enough in not setting up a redundant arrangement.

 

[Chris Moore]

Why iam not running raid? dont need redundancy, need maximum storage. i want to have 9x windows smb drives or active directory for NAS with 9drives that the (Windows server: video management server) can access, from the video management server i can group cameras to write to different drives. This way if a drive fails, only certain group of footage is lost. I just prefer to do this using freenas and a separate box rather than just putting the drives into a windows server.

I think you are wasting time thinking about using FreeNAS for your application. You are not utilizing the features of FreeNAS and as @danb35 said, you are introducing a pointless complication. Also adding an additional potential point of failure.