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Building my NAS

S

SadTelevision8558

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 4, 2008
Messages
133
I already have a few things lying around.

- 6x 2TB Samsung F4s
- Core i5-2400
- 16GB G.Skill Ripjaws

So in order to complete this system, I figure I'll get some Z68 board. I'm eyeing the Asus V-Pro or the ASRock Extreme4. It seems ASRock offers VT-d, but this could be like the whole P67 fiasco where they offer an option in BIOS and claim VT-d in the manual but its a borked feature. Still doesn't hurt to try right?

So I'm thinking I want to expand my NAS to 10 drives, meaning I'll purchase an additional 4 drives. 6 drives seems to few for me using raidz2, but 10 looks good.

Considering the Define XL case right now.

As for plugging in 10 damn drives + 1 boot drive, I'm probably gonna need an add-on card. How's that IBM M1015 looking? I'm no expert with Solaris, but it seems easy enough to install this thing on Solaris or OpenIndiana?

Problem is I'm budget limited, and would it be ok to just buy M1015 card and put 2 other drives on the Intel SATA controller?
 
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I've had good luck with the M1015 card. As is you'll need to grab the drivers from LSI for it to work on Solaris or OpenIndiana. They don't include them out of the box.
 
apnar said:
I've had good luck with the M1015 card. As is you'll need to grab the drivers from LSI for it to work on Solaris or OpenIndiana. They don't include them out of the box.
Click to expand...

Gotcha. Any problems with putting 8 drives on the LSI card, and the other 2 on my Z68 Intel controller? I know it's not ideal, but shelling out another $150 for a second card to put my last 2 drives on is a little annoying too. After all this is just a home server.


My other option is to skip the LSI card entirely, wait for the ASRock Z68 Extreme7 which has 10 SATA ports. I plug all 10 data drives in there. I also have a 2 port Rosewill PCI-e x1 card with 2 SATA ports. I can plug my OS drive in there. Not sure which is the better solution....
 
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dmo580 said:
Gotcha. Any problems with putting 8 drives on the LSI card, and the other 2 on my Z68 Intel controller? I know it's not ideal, but shelling out another $150 for a second card to put my last 2 drives on is a little annoying too. After all this is just a home server.


My other option is to skip the LSI card entirely, wait for the ASRock Z68 Extreme7 which has 10 SATA ports. I plug all 10 data drives in there. I also have a 2 port Rosewill PCI-e x1 card with 2 SATA ports. I can plug my OS drive in there. Not sure which is the better solution....
Click to expand...

It depends on the setup you're going for. If you want to run a ESXi all-in-one type thing you likely won't be able to pass through your on-board controllers to a storage VM. If you're running your OS straight on the hardware it will likely be fine.

Also, you're paying too much for your cards. You should easily be able to grab 2 M1015 cards on ebay for that $150.
 
apnar said:
It depends on the setup you're going for. If you want to run a ESXi all-in-one type thing you likely won't be able to pass through your on-board controllers to a storage VM.
Click to expand...

Not trying to be bitchy, but is this based on any personal experience? Things you've read? My cougar point sata controller passed thru just fine, as have the onboard sata controllers of a number of people I've talked to.
 
danswartz said:
Not trying to be bitchy, but is this based on any personal experience? Things you've read? My cougar point sata controller passed thru just fine, as have the onboard sata controllers of a number of people I've talked to.
Click to expand...

I did say "likely" :D In this case though I was saying that cause he mentioned that he wanted to also have a boot drive, so figured he couldn't pass it through as well as use it for the boot drive.
 
Most people take 'likely' as meaning 'a high probability of'. I've never heard anyone complain about the sat a controller on a motherboard that supports vt-d not being able to be passed thru. Just came across a bit FUD... That said, yeah, sure you need a separate controller for the boot disk of the virtual SAN appliance. This has been discussed in a couple dozen threads so far :)
 
I just bought 3 IBM M1015 to replace Dell 6i and H200
and I have gigabyte z68,asus z68 mb
I also use Solaris

you may boot, but could hang after LSI bios show
so I plug it on asus p6t deluxe,it's X58,
replace the firmware to it mode
then everything goes fine

so you have to make sure you have other mb to replace the firmware, if it hangs

Dell h200 have to shield pin 5&6, or it will not boot,screen goes black

that's all
 
dmo580 said:
I
Considering the Define XL case right now.
?
Click to expand...

Great case. I purchased one, then ended up purchasing a Norco for future expandability (the price was right too). It may be best to get some extensions for your motherboard power cable from the PS, especially if the connection is located towards the top of the mortherboard (near the I/O shield).
 
geez, i've been looking for an in-expensive 8 port card, and here it is, mentioned all over this thread... I am running WHS v1 and i've used my 6 ports on my motherboard in needs of expanding... i think the M1015 will be great for my needs.

my only complaint is that its pretty long, i was going to get a RocketRaid for 200+
 
Thanks guys....

The ASRock Z68 Extreme4 claims to offer VT-d support. Would it be usable in an ESXi setup? There's so much conflicting information regarding VT-d support in the P67/Z68 chipsets. If I have a CPU that supports it (i5-2400), then the board is the last factor. The BIOS has a button for it, but there's Intel documentation saying only Q67 supports VT-d... so confusing.
 
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