I've been running my old 7 system using a standard self-built rack machine with a 4 disk zraid, but I'm starting to think of expanding and would like to do it properly, so I'm thinking of a new server with Freenas 8.
What I'm thinking is:
Basic rack server of some sort with lots of ram (of course) to be the core FreeNAS host.
24 Bay SATA/SAS Rack storage box to connect to it (The NORCO DS-24E on newegg looks interesting to me) for the current disks and for adding new sets of disks.
A Controller card in the FreeNAS system to connect the storage box to (I saw the LSI LSI00192 and LSI00188 and on newegg and they looks interesting, as well as the LSI00276).
I'm looking for recommendations as I haven't dealt with external SAS/Sata boxes before, just an older 4 bay eSATA/USB box that I used in a previous fileserver build.
As I understand it, FreeNAS primarily needs RAM rather than CPU power.
So I guess I'm basically wondering what the recommendations would be for a basic rack server and controller card that could be used together successfully with FreeNAS 8 to hook up to such a box.
I like that Norco since it uses a single connection from it to the host server, but am open to suggestions.
At this point I don't really have any kind of solid budget decided, but I'm kind of thinking $2500 would be a reasonable target for a basic server + storage box + controller.
My plan would be to get it up and running then move my current drives into it to import the ZFS pool (iirc I setup each drive with a single gpt partition and then used those to build the ZFS array).
Along with that, as I understand it a pool can be expanded by adding in similar zraid sets or adding more drives to the existing zraid? I.e. I have a 4 disk zraid, so I could add 4 more disks and expand the zraid, or build a new zraid off them and add them to the existing pool?
Thanks for any input/ideas/clarifications.
Mark II
What I'm thinking is:
Basic rack server of some sort with lots of ram (of course) to be the core FreeNAS host.
24 Bay SATA/SAS Rack storage box to connect to it (The NORCO DS-24E on newegg looks interesting to me) for the current disks and for adding new sets of disks.
A Controller card in the FreeNAS system to connect the storage box to (I saw the LSI LSI00192 and LSI00188 and on newegg and they looks interesting, as well as the LSI00276).
I'm looking for recommendations as I haven't dealt with external SAS/Sata boxes before, just an older 4 bay eSATA/USB box that I used in a previous fileserver build.
As I understand it, FreeNAS primarily needs RAM rather than CPU power.
So I guess I'm basically wondering what the recommendations would be for a basic rack server and controller card that could be used together successfully with FreeNAS 8 to hook up to such a box.
I like that Norco since it uses a single connection from it to the host server, but am open to suggestions.
At this point I don't really have any kind of solid budget decided, but I'm kind of thinking $2500 would be a reasonable target for a basic server + storage box + controller.
My plan would be to get it up and running then move my current drives into it to import the ZFS pool (iirc I setup each drive with a single gpt partition and then used those to build the ZFS array).
Along with that, as I understand it a pool can be expanded by adding in similar zraid sets or adding more drives to the existing zraid? I.e. I have a 4 disk zraid, so I could add 4 more disks and expand the zraid, or build a new zraid off them and add them to the existing pool?
Thanks for any input/ideas/clarifications.
Mark II