I'm the process of adding some new HDD's to my existing FreeNAS System,
and now I'm ready to pull trigger on a rack chassis with backplane etc.
Initally, I planned to buy a bigger ATX PSU and cram the new HDD's in the current chassis.
Since I've seen the error of my way, and now I'm strongly leaning towards a proper chassis.
My current system:
MB: Supermicro X10SL7-F
CPU: Intel® Xeon® Processor E3-1246 v3
CPU cooler: ARCTIC Alpine 12 CO
RAM: Micron 32GB KIT 4X8GB PC3L-12800E DDR3-1600Mhz
HDD: 9 * 10TB Western Digital white labeled RED-drive (shucked from WD My Book) + 1TB NVME via PCI-E adapted
ZFS-Pool: 8 * 10TB in RAID-Z2 (remaining 10TB is a spare, acting as a temp storagate) - Connected to the onboard HBA
PSU: Seasonic Focus GX 650W
Fans: number of ARCTIC P14 PWM PST and ARCTIC P12 PWM PST
Planned extension (existing drives will remain in the system):
HDD: 8 * 14TB Western Digital White label RED-drive (Shucked from WD elements) - Already bought
ZFS-Pool: 8 * 14TB in RAID-Z2
HBA: LSI 6Gbps SAS HBA LSI 9211-8 - Already bought from eBay
Chassis: SuperChassis 846E16-R1200B in eBay
Expander backplane: SAS2 Expander Backplane BPN-SAS2-846EL1
PSU: Noise will be an issue so the included PSU's will be swapped to Supermicro 920W 1U Redundant Power Supply (PWS-920P-SQ)
I guess it's a good idea to go for redundant PSU's?
FANS: Existing fans will be replaced by a necessary number of static pressure optimized fans, ARCTIC P14 PWM PST, ARCTIC P12 PWM PST and Artic P8 PWM PST
The server will be located in my workroom/study, so noice is somewhat of an issue.
So far, I've been using the excellent Script: Hybrid CPU & HD Fan Zone Controller to keep HDD's cool at all loads (below 35C).
The excelent SAS primer gave some confidence, that I should be on the correct path.
Though I'm still a bit unsure, if I can utilize dual-links for the backplane. A single link should suffice for my use-cases (Plex Media Server).
How does my plan seems?
At least cooling might be an issue in a rack chassis. If this is the case, I will prioritize cooling over the noice, I don't want to bake my expensive hardware.
The burn-in process for the new HDD's and HBA will be done before taking the chassis/backplane in use.
I was planning to use solnet-array-test to burn-in the backplane, and only using new HDD's. Should I disconnect the exising pool for this phase?
and now I'm ready to pull trigger on a rack chassis with backplane etc.
Initally, I planned to buy a bigger ATX PSU and cram the new HDD's in the current chassis.
Since I've seen the error of my way, and now I'm strongly leaning towards a proper chassis.
My current system:
MB: Supermicro X10SL7-F
CPU: Intel® Xeon® Processor E3-1246 v3
CPU cooler: ARCTIC Alpine 12 CO
RAM: Micron 32GB KIT 4X8GB PC3L-12800E DDR3-1600Mhz
HDD: 9 * 10TB Western Digital white labeled RED-drive (shucked from WD My Book) + 1TB NVME via PCI-E adapted
ZFS-Pool: 8 * 10TB in RAID-Z2 (remaining 10TB is a spare, acting as a temp storagate) - Connected to the onboard HBA
PSU: Seasonic Focus GX 650W
Fans: number of ARCTIC P14 PWM PST and ARCTIC P12 PWM PST
Planned extension (existing drives will remain in the system):
HDD: 8 * 14TB Western Digital White label RED-drive (Shucked from WD elements) - Already bought
ZFS-Pool: 8 * 14TB in RAID-Z2
HBA: LSI 6Gbps SAS HBA LSI 9211-8 - Already bought from eBay
Chassis: SuperChassis 846E16-R1200B in eBay
Expander backplane: SAS2 Expander Backplane BPN-SAS2-846EL1
PSU: Noise will be an issue so the included PSU's will be swapped to Supermicro 920W 1U Redundant Power Supply (PWS-920P-SQ)
I guess it's a good idea to go for redundant PSU's?
FANS: Existing fans will be replaced by a necessary number of static pressure optimized fans, ARCTIC P14 PWM PST, ARCTIC P12 PWM PST and Artic P8 PWM PST
The server will be located in my workroom/study, so noice is somewhat of an issue.
So far, I've been using the excellent Script: Hybrid CPU & HD Fan Zone Controller to keep HDD's cool at all loads (below 35C).
The excelent SAS primer gave some confidence, that I should be on the correct path.
Though I'm still a bit unsure, if I can utilize dual-links for the backplane. A single link should suffice for my use-cases (Plex Media Server).
How does my plan seems?
At least cooling might be an issue in a rack chassis. If this is the case, I will prioritize cooling over the noice, I don't want to bake my expensive hardware.
The burn-in process for the new HDD's and HBA will be done before taking the chassis/backplane in use.
I was planning to use solnet-array-test to burn-in the backplane, and only using new HDD's. Should I disconnect the exising pool for this phase?
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