Serverbaboon
Dabbler
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2013
- Messages
- 45
Sorry a bit of a preamble before my advice request about which hardware I should carry on with as I am not wanting to buy anymore hardware at the moment.
I have been using Freenas for some time since 8.3, originally on a NL36 with ok results for my needs, bit slow on NFS for my vmware host but I understand this (I think). Data security was more important when I started so I setup my four hard disks as a RaidZ2 pool which I know will also add to the less than stellar performance with vmware.
I have lurked around the forums for some time trying to take in all the information, it all gets a bit confusing to my Windows indoctrinated mind, so hopefully not made too many other mistakes other than the puniness of the NL36L CPU (but it was soooo cheap).
I understand the RAM first (ECC of course ) + cpu clock speed for Samba hence I pushed the buttton a few months ago when the NL54 became available at £100 and filled it with 16GB of Kingston ECC and migrated my disks and things have been zippier especially with 9.2.1 CIFS
My Future Plans (well experimentation)
To try and do something with my NFS I have got hold of a Toshiba SSD, I know its not Intel but it was at a very good price and it has some form of power protection. I have not put this in my pool yet as I am still trying to understand the TXG size discussion but I know I should partition this down to 4G-8G before I add it to make sure there is plenty of under provisioning.
I don't think I need a L2ARC so I have not looked at this.
I would like to do more vmware work(study) using ISCSI but I understand this could cause issues with my pool with fragmentation and slow performance being a Raid Z2 pool. I have noted that that one of the recommendations for vm hosting is to use a mirrored zvol and since they will be non critical I have come up with a cunning plan (alright maybe brain dead). I have a couple of 2.5 hard disks and a spare sata controller so I could create a mirrored zvol and share this out via ISCSI?
The final requirement is to run a small Debian Jail so I can run may favoured UPnP music server rather than MiniDNLA
I realise I should really be considering buying a new MB/CPU/CASE but that is not an option at the moment and I am also still feeling my way around what want or need.
My question is now that I have decommissioned my old VMware server which is ML110 G5 with 8GB ram should I switch to this with its more powerful cpu or stay with the NL54 with its slower CPU but double the ram at 16GB.
Does anyone know if 16GB ram can be shoehorned into an ML110 G5?
Regards
Current NAS
Freenas 9.2.1
NL54 + Modified Bios
16GB ECC Ram
4 x Hitachi HDS5C3020ALA632 ML6OA580 2TB HDD (They were the only affordable drives rated at 24/7 light duty)
1 TOSHIBA THNSNH060GCST 60 GB (For SLOG testing not the best but does have power protection)
Dual Intel Gigbit network Controller.
1 RaidZ2 pool formatted at 4K for future proofing.
4 x 2.5 HDD 5.25 capable Drive Bay.
I have been using Freenas for some time since 8.3, originally on a NL36 with ok results for my needs, bit slow on NFS for my vmware host but I understand this (I think). Data security was more important when I started so I setup my four hard disks as a RaidZ2 pool which I know will also add to the less than stellar performance with vmware.
I have lurked around the forums for some time trying to take in all the information, it all gets a bit confusing to my Windows indoctrinated mind, so hopefully not made too many other mistakes other than the puniness of the NL36L CPU (but it was soooo cheap).
I understand the RAM first (ECC of course ) + cpu clock speed for Samba hence I pushed the buttton a few months ago when the NL54 became available at £100 and filled it with 16GB of Kingston ECC and migrated my disks and things have been zippier especially with 9.2.1 CIFS
My Future Plans (well experimentation)
To try and do something with my NFS I have got hold of a Toshiba SSD, I know its not Intel but it was at a very good price and it has some form of power protection. I have not put this in my pool yet as I am still trying to understand the TXG size discussion but I know I should partition this down to 4G-8G before I add it to make sure there is plenty of under provisioning.
I don't think I need a L2ARC so I have not looked at this.
I would like to do more vmware work(study) using ISCSI but I understand this could cause issues with my pool with fragmentation and slow performance being a Raid Z2 pool. I have noted that that one of the recommendations for vm hosting is to use a mirrored zvol and since they will be non critical I have come up with a cunning plan (alright maybe brain dead). I have a couple of 2.5 hard disks and a spare sata controller so I could create a mirrored zvol and share this out via ISCSI?
The final requirement is to run a small Debian Jail so I can run may favoured UPnP music server rather than MiniDNLA
I realise I should really be considering buying a new MB/CPU/CASE but that is not an option at the moment and I am also still feeling my way around what want or need.
My question is now that I have decommissioned my old VMware server which is ML110 G5 with 8GB ram should I switch to this with its more powerful cpu or stay with the NL54 with its slower CPU but double the ram at 16GB.
Does anyone know if 16GB ram can be shoehorned into an ML110 G5?
Regards
Current NAS
Freenas 9.2.1
NL54 + Modified Bios
16GB ECC Ram
4 x Hitachi HDS5C3020ALA632 ML6OA580 2TB HDD (They were the only affordable drives rated at 24/7 light duty)
1 TOSHIBA THNSNH060GCST 60 GB (For SLOG testing not the best but does have power protection)
Dual Intel Gigbit network Controller.
1 RaidZ2 pool formatted at 4K for future proofing.
4 x 2.5 HDD 5.25 capable Drive Bay.
