Should i buy IBM x3650 sever?

[Nojuan]

hello all so ive been playing around with freenas on an old computer (actually works pretty good) but thinking of buying or building a sever now i can get the ibm x3650 4 core with 10gb of ram for 250$ which im thinking is a pretty good deal will freenas work on this machine??? i only really plan on useing it for plex and maybe own cloud etc thanks for the help

i did search the forum but most of what i found was people trying to fix problems and what not thanks for any help

 

[Mirfster]

Is this the system you are speaking of: https://lenovopress.com/tips0850-sy...820414634062336&cm_mc_sid_50200000=1463406233

 

[Nojuan]

Yes it is that is the one

 

[danb35]

From the datasheet, my only question/concern would be the disk controller, as it sounds like there were lots of options. You do not want a hardware RAID controller for FreeNAS, just a simple HBA. Some RAID controllers can be lobotomized to function as an HBA; others can't.

 

[Nojuan]

thank you for the help I figured it probably wonldent work out of box the way i hoped but asking never huts thanks for the help

 

[SmoothRunnings]

Sorry, any why would someone not want to have a RAID controller?

Thanks,
SR

From the datasheet, my only question/concern would be the disk controller, as it sounds like there were lots of options. You do not want a hardware RAID controller for FreeNAS, just a simple HBA. Some RAID controllers can be lobotomized to function as an HBA; others can't.

 

[depasseg]

Sorry, any why would someone not want to have a RAID controller?

Thanks,
SR

Because someone hasn't read about how ZFS works and what it needs to keep data safe. HW RAID is bad with ZFS. ZFS expects to have direct access to the disks.

 

[SmoothRunnings]

So the trade off I guess is performance and redundancy if I have to use a non-RAID controller?

Thanks,
SR

Because someone hasn't read about how ZFS works and what it needs to keep data safe. :) HW RAID is bad with ZFS. ZFS expects to have direct access to the disks.

 

[depasseg]

So the trade off I guess is performance and redundancy if I have to use a non-RAID controller?

Thanks,
SR

I don't understand what you are asking.

In a properly configured FreeNAS (or ZFS) system, you gain both performance and data security by using an HBA (Non-RAID) controller.

 

[sremick]

So the trade off I guess is performance and redundancy if I have to use a non-RAID controller?

Incorrect. You're still getting RAID in FreeNAS/ZFS (assuming you don't screw up the configuration)... the difference is whether you're locked into a hardware RAID with the brains segregated onto a separate card you can't control, or if you're doing software RAID where you're letting FreeNAS do its job and have full control over the entire process. You're getting "RAID" either way, which means redundancy. One could argue you get more security with software RAID as it's easier to quickly move to entirely different backup hardware in the event of a hardware failure.

Performance is a factor of what hardware you choose, regardless. You can have performance above or below that of a hardware RAID controller depending on the decisions you make in configuration/building.

 

[SmoothRunnings]

So there is HBA battery backup?

Incorrect. You're still getting RAID in FreeNAS/ZFS (assuming you don't screw up the configuration)... the difference is whether you're locked into a hardware RAID with the brains segregated onto a separate card you can't control, or if you're doing software RAID where you're letting FreeNAS do its job and have full control over the entire process. You're getting "RAID" either way, which means redundancy. One could argue you get more security with software RAID as it's easier to quickly move to entirely different backup hardware in the event of a hardware failure.

Performance is a factor of what hardware you choose, regardless. You can have performance above or below that of a hardware RAID controller depending on the decisions you make in configuration/building.

 

[Mirfster]

So there is HBA battery backup?

No, there is a UPS as well as a good SLOG that has "Power Loss Protection". Take some time to read up on FreeNAS as well as searching the Forums. For 99.99% of the questions you are going to ask have been asked and explained over and over.

Feel free to look at the "Recommended Reading" links in my sig for a decent start.

 

[sremick]

So there is HBA battery backup?

My entire FreeNAS server is on battery backup. If the power goes out, it does a clean shutdown after 5 minutes. So, if the "RAID controller", by virtue of software RAID, is the whole computer... and said computer is on battery backup... then fundamentally, yes: my RAID controller has a battery backup.

The end result is the same, just things are moved to different "rings" and the means to get there is a bit different, rocking older traditions from decades past. It requires thinking about things in a different manner and understanding the reasoning. While traditionally, computers were underpowered and hardware RAID was all the rage, times have changed. Main CPU processing capability has outgrown the fundamental needs of processing RAID negating the huge necessity and benefits of moving it off-CPU (once upon a time you needed to move floating-point math off-CPU too, but that eventually become no longer the case). Meanwhile, moving the raw management of RAID closer to the CPU allows far more-flexibility in the software app itself, which is something FreeNAS then depends on. Think of hardware RAID as being an automatic transmission, while FreeNAS is a professional driver who does better with a manual transmission and not so much automatic abstraction between him and what the gearbox is doing.

 

[depasseg]

then fundamentally, yes: my RAID controller has a battery backup.

Wrong. UPS won't protect against pushing the power button or a server crash.
In case my first post wasn't clear - Please do some reading. There are some great guides written around here.

 

[Evi Vanoost]

With ZFS you don't need battery backup. Unless you have a really bad, really cheap SSD as ZIL (but then that goes for RAID controllers as well and power supplies etc) you can unplug your system and all your committed writes (fsync returned) will be there. With battery backup you have to worry about the quality and state of your battery and if your system is offline for more than 12-24 hours (major power outages due to storms or whatever), you still lose/corrupt your data.

As far as HBA - most controllers can be converted to JBOD. I have an inherited Areca 24 port RAID controller configured as JBOD.