Supermicro X11SSM-F-O build advice

[Beemer533]

Folks, I’m in the process of planning my migration away from an aging MS server 2012 build and I have decided I don’t want to go with another MS product for my new setup.

So with that in mind I am planning a FreeNAS build… Planned uses are primarily data storage server, Owncloud, media server (probably no transcoding, just streaming mkv primarily) and possibly running an occasional VM.

There is only my wife and I, so at best 2 concurrent streams, but that wouldn’t be typical. The Xeon is probably overkill, but I am not sure really.

I’ve read many of the guides (Uncle Fester, Cyberjock, etc) and gone through the recommended hardware PDF, so I feel I’m going in the right direction, but any comments or advice would be really appreciated.

Update 10/6

So far this is the hardware I've purchased:

I'm going with 32GB Ram and 6 4TB WD reds in a single Vdev.

Supermicro Micro ATX DDR4 LGA 1151 Motherboards X11SSM-F-O - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018AX44Q4/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?smid=A29P93PKVXFSE3&psc=1

Kingston Technology ValueRAM 16GB 2400MHz DDR4 ECC CL17 DIMM 2Rx8 Desktop Memory (KVR24E17D8/16) - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FM3GBC0/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=A1FF9ODJZIUKGX&psc=1

Pentium G4600
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01NADEVZI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Seasonic Focus Plus 550 Gold SSR-550FX 550W 80+ Gold ATX12V & EPS12V Full Modular 120mm FDB Fan 10 Year Warranty Compact 140 mm Size Power Supply - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073GY89G5/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

WD Red 4TB NAS Hard Drive - 5400 RPM Class, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64 MB Cache, 3.5" - WD40EFRX
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EHBERSE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Kingston A400 SSD 120GB SATA 3 2.5” Solid State Drive SA400S37/120G - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N6JQS8C/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_3?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1



Original post:


Intel Xeon E3-1220 V6 Processors BX80677E31220V6 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XX2KWCX/ref=psdc_229189_rv_t1_B0793BQS3R Or Intel Core i3-7100 7th Gen Core Desktop Processor 3M Cache,3.90 GHz (BX80677I37100) - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01NCESRJX/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_2?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1 If I go with the Xeon, I believe I will need to pick up a cooler as well… I was also contemplating this SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SDV-4C-TLN2F Mini-ITX board with integrated Xeon-D, but I don’t think it really buys me anything over the above options… https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182973&cm_re=xeon_d-_-13-182-973-_-Product 16GB of either: Kingston Technology ValueRAM 16GB 2400MHz DDR4 ECC CL17 DIMM 2Rx8 Desktop Memory (KVR24E17D8/16) - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FM3GBC0/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=A1FF9ODJZIUKGX&psc=1 Or 1CA79AA-MB 8GB DDR4 2400MHz ECC UDIMM Memory - https://www.ebay.com/itm/1CA79AA-MB...=ox_sc_saved_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

For a boot device I had thought about doing mirrored USB, but for the price of small SSD I’m not sure if it’s worth the potential trouble.. I’d prefer not to lose an SATA port, but I can deal with 7 ports. I can always add more with an HBA card anyway.

I’m thinking either going new:

Kingston A400 SSD 120GB SATA 3 2.5” Solid State Drive SA400S37/120G - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N6JQS8C/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_3?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

Or used:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-SSD-...6Gb-s-SATA-SSD-Solid-state-drive/273102509397

As far as mirroring the OS drive, as I think I understand it, that doesn’t give me any kind of failover without setting them up with a hardware RAID as a mirror? So as long as I backup the OS drive regularly, I can just reinstall from that and I don't need to worry about a mirrored OS drive?

For storage, this is my plan:
I based my capacities using this calculator - https://wintelguy.com/zfs-calc.pl


1st pool (1 VDev) - 4 WD Red 4TB in Z2 - This will be strictly my “important” stuff (photos, files, documents, etc) – Usable space ~5.5TB

2nd pool (1VDev) – 3 WD Red 6TB in Z1 – This will be only for my streaming media and I have everything mirrored on a Synology NAS, which is why I am going with Z1 for the media…. Useable space ~8TB

Finally, I am planning on reusing my existing server case (can’t remember the model right now) that has 2 of these SATA docks -https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00856XFVC/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1


And one of these for my OS drives - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00475DQ6Y/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I’ve been using them since early 2013 with no issues, so I don’t see any reason to not keep using them…


Thanks!
And again, I appreciate any input.

 

[anmnz]

Looks to me like the sort of build the forums approve of in general, as long as the case isn't weird or too small or something.

I'm not sure if the i3-7100 really has ECC support -- there was noise at the time about Kaby Lake i3's having dropped ECC support, but I was never sure if it was real or just chatter based on mistakes in Intel's docs.

The thing that doesn't make sense is the pool layout. Just putting everything into one single RAIDZ-2 pool would be cheaper (one less disk lost to parity), safer (all RAIDZ-2, no RAIDZ-1) and more flexible.

Just have one RAIDZ-2 pool, with however many disks you choose, then within that pool segregate your data into datasets, and handle the datasets differently (backup policies, etc.) according to how you want to handle each one's data.

 

[Beemer533]

Thanks for the response! i did verify that the i3-7100 supports ECC - https://ark.intel.com/products/97455/Intel-Core-i3-7100-Processor-3M-Cache-3-90-GHz- So as far as that goes I think I'd be ok..

I guess I didn't fully go through my thought process regarding the drive pools.. part of what I was thinking was that I didn't want to spend the money immediately to populate all 7 drives initially. But obviously I need to do more reading. I guess expanding the pool or vdev isn't that difficult?

 

[TK-24601]

Beemer, I was looking at most of the same hardware as you. Good to know that it should be viable. Like you, I am unsure of the use of used versus new memory. If I can save a few dollars on DDR4 I am all for it, but still not 100% confident on the used market.

 

[Beemer533]

Yeah, if it was a substantial difference I think I'd go for it, but I don't want to have to worry about it. I travel for work, and I'm not home much, so I want this to be as reliable as possible.

I think I'm now leaning towards getting 32GB of the Kingston memory instead of 16 and saving some cash by getting a Pentium G4560 instead of the Xeon.

I think for my current usage that will probably suffice.

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[iKersh]

Hi Beemer,

i was drawing up a build specification list very similar to what you have listed - initially I was thinking of running a Xeon with the view to do virtualization but after running a HP microserver for a couple of years, I think a build like this with either a Pentium or i3 CPU would be a more realistic build; if ever the need arises to do more virtualization then i have the option to swap in a Xeon.

 

[Beemer533]

Thanks for the reply. That is basically what I started thinking last night. If I did want or need to update with a Xeon down the road it shouldn't be a big deal.

It seems from what you're saying and what I'm reading, the pentium should be fine for file serving and some streaming (no transcoding)..

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[iKersh]

Also, after 2 years of streaming (no transcoding) with a HP Microserver running a 2 core 2.2 GHz CPU via Plex, a dual core Pentium a few CPU generations newer will fit your usuage case perfectly I think.


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[Beemer533]

I ended up picking up a Pentium G4600 for a decent price...
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01NADEVZI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I also got the MB, power supply and 16GB of memory from my original post. I will be going with 6 4TB WD reds and most likely the Kingston SSD for the OS drive.

I'll probably grab the all the drives and some more memory this week as well... Looking forward to a pile of parts to put together!

Thanks for the input.

 

[iKersh]

Hi Beemer, I am interested to know how you go with this build as I am seriously contemplating a very similar build, most likely with less drives (4 to start as I don’t have that much data to store).

 

[pschatz100]

For a boot device I had thought about doing mirrored USB, but for the price of small SSD I’m not sure if it’s worth the potential trouble.. I’d prefer not to lose an SATA port, but I can deal with 7 ports. I can always add more with an HBA card anyway.

I would stay with the SSD. USB flash drives are not reliable for an OS drive (even the best ones). Newer versions of FreeNAS do a lot of reading and writing to the boot device so the SSD is your best bet. No need for a mirrored boot configuration, but keep backups of your FreeNAS configuration and you will always be able to restore your system. FreeNAS makes this easy to do.

For storage, this is my plan:
I based my capacities using this calculator - https://wintelguy.com/zfs-calc.pl

1st pool (1 VDev) - 4 WD Red 4TB in Z2 - This will be strictly my “important” stuff (photos, files, documents, etc) – Usable space ~5.5TB

2nd pool (1VDev) – 3 WD Red 6TB in Z1 – This will be only for my streaming media and I have everything mirrored on a Synology NAS, which is why I am going with Z1 for the media…. Useable space ~8TB

Nothing technically wrong with this strategy, but be aware that larger disks require longer resilvering times which makes RaidZ1 more risky on large drives. The risk of a second disk failure during resilvering is higher than when the pool is just running. Do some searches on this topic and you will find quite a bit of discussion.

Don't forget to check and burn in the drives before you commit data to the system.

Finally, I am planning on reusing my existing server case (can’t remember the model right now) that has 2 of these SATA docks -https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00856XFVC/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Make certain you cool the drives adequately. Monitor their temps and keep an eye on them.

 

[Beemer533]

I would stay with the SSD. USB flash drives are not reliable for an OS drive (even the best ones). Newer versions of FreeNAS do a lot of reading and writing to the boot device so the SSD is your best bet. No need for a mirrored boot configuration, but keep backups of your FreeNAS configuration and you will always be able to restore your system. FreeNAS makes this easy to do.

After going through some more information, this is exactly the conclusion I reached.

Nothing technically wrong with this strategy, but be aware that larger disks require longer resilvering times which makes RaidZ1 more risky on large drives. The risk of a second disk failure during resilvering is higher than when the pool is just running. Do some searches on this topic and you will find quite a bit of discussion.

After doing some more reading and playing around with the https://wintelguy.com/zfs-calc.pl calculator, I decided that I was just going to go with 6 4TB drives in a single Vdev mostly for the reasons you pointed out.. In addition, when I was working through my build initially, I was being cheap and didn't want to buy all the drives at once. I decided to suck it up and get it over with now.

Don't forget to check and burn in the drives before you commit data to the system.

Make certain you cool the drives adequately. Monitor their temps and keep an eye on them.

I've seen the various articles and documents on burning in the drives, but I haven't had a chance to get into it... This will be my next thing to tackle..

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Beemer533]

Hi Beemer, I am interested to know how you go with this build as I am seriously contemplating a very similar build, most likely with less drives (4 to start as I don’t have that much data to store).

I will be definitely updating this thread once I have all of my hardware purchased. I'll probably just update the first post.

 

[soonergeek]

Hey Beemer, I, too am looking at the SuperMicro X11SSM-F-O with a Pentium G4600. I've read on other forums that the Kaby Lake CPUs may have issues with the BIOS on that board. Did you run into anything like that? I don't want to have to buy multiple CPUs if I can help it.

 

[Skro]

I have basically the same usage needs and a similar build that has been running without a problem for a little over a year.

I run a Plex server (in a jail) for live TV and our personal media (mkv's) that serves 3 people and does some transcoding for one user that is not in our home. In addition, I run several jails for development and 2-3 VMs, one of which is a local game server and the others are for anything else Linux/Windows that I may be trying to learn at any given moment. I do have FreeNas running off mirrored USB drives instead of an SSD. I would recommend it as I haven't had any issues. My specs are in my signature.

**I'm in no way saying the USB's are better than an SSD for the boot drive, but I didn't want to lose the SATA port and I thought the mirrored setup would give some insurance against issues with the drives themselves.

 

[Beemer533]

Hey Beemer, I, too am looking at the SuperMicro X11SSM-F-O with a Pentium G4600. I've read on other forums that the Kaby Lake CPUs may have issues with the BIOS on that board. Did you run into anything like that? I don't want to have to buy multiple CPUs if I can help it.

Interesting, I did not come across that issue in my research.. Do you recall what the specific issues were? Either way, I'll find out this coming weekend hopefully. I should have the last couple bits of hardware I need this week.

I'l definitely post an update once I get it running.

 

[Beemer533]

I have basically the same usage needs and a similar build that has been running without a problem for a little over a year.

I run a Plex server (in a jail) for live TV and our personal media (mkv's) that serves 3 people and does some transcoding for one user that is not in our home. In addition, I run several jails for development and 2-3 VMs, one of which is a local game server and the others are for anything else Linux/Windows that I may be trying to learn at any given moment. I do have FreeNas running off mirrored USB drives instead of an SSD. I would recommend it as I haven't had any issues. My specs are in my signature.

**I'm in no way saying the USB's are better than an SSD for the boot drive, but I didn't want to lose the SATA port and I thought the mirrored setup would give some insurance against issues with the drives themselves.

I went back and forth, but ultimately I didn't need all 8 SATA ports for storage (at least for now) and the 120GB Kingston SSD was barely any more expensive than a good USB drive.

With the Samsung and Sandisk USB drives I was looking at I saw just enough reviews of overheating that I decided to stick with the SSD... Probably paranoia, but can't hurt.

 

[pschatz100]

**I'm in no way saying the USB's are better than an SSD for the boot drive, but I didn't want to lose the SATA port and I thought the mirrored setup would give some insurance against issues with the drives themselves.

If you search the forums for discussions about Flash drives, you will find that most of the experienced users have migrated to SSD's. It's not that USB Flash drives don't work, but over time they give more trouble than SSD's.

I booted from USB flash drives for three years. Early this year, I migrated to SSD when I decided to do a fresh install.

 

[soonergeek]

Interesting, I did not come across that issue in my research.. Do you recall what the specific issues were? Either way, I'll find out this coming weekend hopefully. I should have the last couple bits of hardware I need this week.

I'l definitely post an update once I get it running.

The board wouldn't even post and so you couldn't update the BIOS unless you installed a compatible CPU first. Unfortunately, my dumb ass can't seem to find the site I found that on at the moment. So maybe it's nothing to worry about. Definitely keep us updated on your progress!

 

[Beemer533]

The board wouldn't even post and so you couldn't update the BIOS unless you installed a compatible CPU first. Unfortunately, my dumb ass can't seem to find the site I found that on at the moment. So maybe it's nothing to worry about. Definitely keep us updated on your progress!

Well that would certainly be a big pain.. Hopefully not something I'll need to deal with!

I'll find out this weekend though, I ordered the last few items yesterday so I should have everything I need in the next couple of days.

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