MrMadMan
Dabbler
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2013
- Messages
- 15
Hi!
My first post on this forum. There seems to be some seriously knowledgable people around, so my expectations are high for this one :)
I'm planning on building an ESXi server running FreeNAS + a handful of other servers and I'd like to hear your comments on hardware setup and configuration, as well as ask a few more specific questions.
Before you mention it, I'd like to point out that I HAVE read the guide in Please do not run FreeNAS in production as a Virtual Machine! - a couple of times - and I've still (like many others?) pretty much decided to do it anyway... So here we go!
Vision
A fairly powerful virtualising server with tons of disk space for personal (family and friends) use.
Aim
A quiet ATX case, with room for at least 6 storage drives (+ 2 for VM storage), server grade motherboard, Xeon quad core and 32GB ECC RAM.
Hardware
After recommendations in "Absolutely must virtualize FreeNAS!" ... a guide to not completely losing your data. I came up with the following plan.
What do you think about the hardware I've considered? Does it seem like a good fit? Should I go for the safer route with Socket 1155?
What about the migration and configuration? Does it seem like a safe way of migrating from my current setup (Debian box running zfs-on-linux)?
Also note that there are specific questions for each hardware item as well.
Thank you for your help :)
My first post on this forum. There seems to be some seriously knowledgable people around, so my expectations are high for this one :)
I'm planning on building an ESXi server running FreeNAS + a handful of other servers and I'd like to hear your comments on hardware setup and configuration, as well as ask a few more specific questions.
Before you mention it, I'd like to point out that I HAVE read the guide in Please do not run FreeNAS in production as a Virtual Machine! - a couple of times - and I've still (like many others?) pretty much decided to do it anyway... So here we go!
Vision
A fairly powerful virtualising server with tons of disk space for personal (family and friends) use.
Aim
A quiet ATX case, with room for at least 6 storage drives (+ 2 for VM storage), server grade motherboard, Xeon quad core and 32GB ECC RAM.
Hardware
- Motherboard: Intel S1200V3RPS / Intel S1200V3RPL / Supermicro X10SLH-F
- I'm thinking server grade Haswell here. These 3 boards are all based on the C22X and sport dual Intel I210-AT NICs that should be compatible with ESXi with additional drivers provided. The S1200V3RPS is by far the cheapest at around $230, followed by the S1200V3RPL at $290 and the X10SLH-F at $350. Feature wise they all seem very similar to me. Is there any reason I shouldn't go for the cheapest one here?
- CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230v3
- No competition price/performance wise.
- Storage Controller: IBM ServeRAID M1015
- This seems to be THE controller to get. And I don't think any integrated controller could really match it.
- RAM: Kingston ValueRAM DDR3 PC10600/1333MHz ECC Reg CL9 Intel 2x16GB
- Can the above mentioned motherboards handle 16GB sticks or do I have to go 4x8GB? What about chip compatibility? I'm kind of struggling with finding what RAM are compatible...
- Storage (HyperV): Kingston DataTraveler 100 G3 8GB
- ESXi goes here.
- Storage (HyperV backup before upgrade): Kingston DataTraveler 100 G3 8GB
- Clone ESXi to this one before attempting an upgrade.
- Storage (Fallback FreeNAS): Kingston DataTraveler 100 G3 8GB
- A fallback FreeNAS that's installed first and thoroughly tested. Can later be used if for some reason the ESXi installation goes nuts.
- Storage (VM:s and snaps): 2x 500GB SATA HDD
- Use on-chip RAID-1 for these and store VM:s and possibly snapshots on them. Are the on-chip controllers okay for ESXi datastores?
- Storage (Pool): 5x WD Green 2TB
- I have these in a RAID-Z configuration on my current server. Will in time upgrade to a larger RAID-Z2 or something
- Case: Fractal Design Define R4
- Reasonably priced and fairly quiet. Takes 8 drives which allows room for an upgrade to 6 disk RAID-Z2
- PSU: Fractal Design Integra 400W
- I have one of these laying around. Is it sufficient or should I aim for something more reliable and efficient?
After recommendations in "Absolutely must virtualize FreeNAS!" ... a guide to not completely losing your data. I came up with the following plan.
- Export the zpool on old server and remove the disks
- Flash the M1015 with IT firmware
- Configure the two 500GB drives as RAID-1 (onboard controller)
- Install FreeNAS 9.1.1 on USB key.
- Import the zpool
- Leave it running for a week while doing some benchmarking/stress testing to see if it seems stable.
- Export the zpool from the USB key FreeNAS
- Install ESXi 5.5 on the second USB key
- Install FreeNAS 9.1.1 as a VM on the RAID-1 setup.
- Enable passthrough on the M1015 and import the zpool in the FreeNAS VM.
- Share the zfs datasets with other VM:s and physical computers
What do you think about the hardware I've considered? Does it seem like a good fit? Should I go for the safer route with Socket 1155?
What about the migration and configuration? Does it seem like a safe way of migrating from my current setup (Debian box running zfs-on-linux)?
Also note that there are specific questions for each hardware item as well.
Thank you for your help :)