FreeNAS Build (8x2 TB)

A

Axsuul

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 15, 2003
Messages
235
Any suggestions on comments on this FreeNAS build? Will be running FreeNAS 7. I want >12 TB usable space with 2 drive parity (8x2TB hdd in RAID-Z2).
I will be using some old parts that I already have:

$0 - Antec 430W PSU
$0 - Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 LGA 775
$10 - Cooler Master X Dream 4 Aluminum Extrusion Fins CPU Cooler - (RR-LEE-L911-GP)
$51 - MSI G41M-P26 LGA 775 Intel G41 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
$24 - Kingston 4GB DDR3 1333
$539 - 7x SAMSUNG EcoGreen F4 HD204UI 2TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
$0 - 2 TB Western Digital Green Caviar
$0 - 1 TB Western Digital Green Caviar (for Storage/Volatile/Temporary data)
$10 - Transcend 2GB CompactFlash (FreeNAS will be installed on here)
$7 - SYBA IDE to CF Adapter
$77 - NORCO RPC-470 Black 4U Rackmount Server Case 3 External 5.25" Drive Bays - OEM
$140 - Cyberpower CP1500AVRLCD UPS - LCD Display 1500VA/900W AVR 8-Outlet RJ11/RJ45/Coax Tower USB
Total: $908.94 (w/ Tax + Shipping)

Should I get 8 GB for ZFS (since it heavily uses memory)? Should I get an extra CF card to install apps/packages on? As you have probably noticed, I'm missing a Gigabit NIC and SATA expansion card to accommodate the extra hdds--any recommendations? Any recommendations and suggestions in general? Thanks for your time!
 
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You don't need lots of RAM unless you want it. e.g. it is for the read cache which you can disable. I would really not recommend zfs on freenas at this point (certainly not with the amount of money you are proposing...) Zfsguru's dev is back (for now at least), and that distro is much nicer than freenas. Or get openindiana+napp-it.
 
Spend the extra $4 (once you factor in shipping) for this Gigabyte motherboard since it has two PCI-E x1 slots which allows you to install a PCI-E x1 Gigabit NIC card:
$60 - GIGABYTE GA-G41MT-S2P LGA 775 Intel G41 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

NIC wise, I recommend this:
$36 - Intel EXPI9301CTBLK 10/100/1000Mbps PRO/1000 GT PCI-E x1 NIC OEM w/ 1 x RJ45

Controller wise, I think these work well with any OS that uses ZFS at this point in time:
$62 - IBM System X ServeRAID BR10I SAS/SATA Controller w/ Full Height PCI bracket option selected
$120 - Supermicro AOC-USAS-L8i PCI-Ex8 8 Port SATA Controller Card (Will need some slight modification to work in normal ATX cases)
$160 - Intel SASUC8I PCI-Ex8 SATA/SAS Controller Card

And you'll need two of these cables:
$15 - 3ware SFF-8087 to Multi-lane SATA Forward Break-out Cable

Considering the cheap price for RAM as well as ZFS's heavy RAM usage, definitely get 8GB of RAM.
 
4-8 gis won't hurt it.

Here is my box i3 8 gigs ram 6 x 500 gig drives.

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Screen%252520Shot%2525202011-08-07%252520at%2525206.35.12%252520PM.png

Screen%252520Shot%2525202011-08-07%252520at%2525206.35.03%252520PM.png

Screen%252520Shot%2525202011-08-07%252520at%2525206.35.41%252520PM.png

Screen%252520Shot%2525202011-08-07%252520at%2525206.35.27%252520PM.png
 
dashpuppy,
Thanks for the graphs. Were those produced by ZFSguru?

Danny Bui,
Happy that you found my thread and thanks for your suggestions. I've revised my build, but first of all, are there differences between the SATA controllers you recommended?

danswartz,
I'll definitely look into ZFSguru... I'll run a VM of it and try it out. Are you using the latest version?
 
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Axsuul said:
dashpuppy,
Thanks for the graphs. Were those produced by ZFSguru?

Danny Bui,
Happy that you found my thread and thanks for your suggestions. I've revised my build, but first of all, are there differences between the SATA controllers you recommended?

danswartz,
I'll definitely look into ZFSguru... I'll run a VM of it and try it out. Are you using the latest version?
Click to expand...

i have played with it and freenas (old vs new) sometime back, and thought zfsguru was better. i am using openindiana+napp-it myself.
 
The motherboard is cheap (MSI) but that about it really...
The Atheros NIC should work in FreeBSD (NAS) but users have reported instability in the past.
It's not 100% sure that a RAID/HBA will work in the PCIe 16x port (which is Gen1 by the way), you should look it up before purchasing it. You also most likely want 4 DIMMs in the end, ZFS likes memory and if you have too little you'll get a kernel panic. FWIW 3 gigs of RAM didn't work that well on the early FreeBSD 8.X-series so I would recommend 8Gb.

I do realize that you're trying to save some cash but I think you wont be very satisfied in the end. While I have a simiar setup getting a HBA/RAID card working using an Intel DG45ID motherboard wasn't the most easiest thing to do and I would probably not recommend it unless you have time and patience. There have been several reports the Gigabyte cards are no go at all using HBAs/RAID cards but I don't know 'bout MSI but my gut feeling says its a 50/50 change at best.

If I were you I'd spend a bit more getting a more recent platform (better performing) and possible remote access (Intel vPro) which is very nice to have when needed. If you get a Q-chipset motherboard, you per definition get Intel NIC and also if you get with a few exceptions an Intel branded motherboard. You're still though going for an "unsupported" configuration as long as you aren't going for a server or at least a workstation board.

Speaking of controllers, I would not recommend you getting any of the controllers mentioned above mainly because they're really old (LSI SAS1068E) by now and doesn't support drives larger than 2TBs. Grab a new fresh SAS2008-based controller instead which is faster and supports larger drives than 2TB. IBM M1015 controller is a great bang for the buck but it needs a little bit of care before being truly useful. What you might need to do depending on your motherboard is to downgrade it (flash) to a simple HBA by flashing it, after that you have native support in FreeBSD 8-STABLE and as far as I can tell also in FreeNAS. Flashing the M1015 can be a PITA though since its very picky...

http://support.freenas.org/changeset/5687/freenas
http://support.freenas.org/changeset/5820/freenas
http://www.glcomp.com/ibm-system-x-serveraid-m1015-sas-sata-controller
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1612482

Since your going to use a non UDMA capable CF-card you most likey are better off using a decent USB-stick instead.

You also probably want to go for more suitable HDDs such as http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145475 - There's a very long thread about these drive with good feedback in general on this forum.

//Danne - FreeBSD 9-CURRENT user
 
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So far with FreeNAS i've had pretty mediocre performance [open solaris with napp-it was faster for CIFS], but it seem my power saving features on two different H55 motherboards do not work at all.

Idling near 100w with an i3-530, 4x4gb memory, and 5 hitachi 2TB drives in RaidZ. All bios power saving is on, not sure if I missed something in freeNAS.

Overall, freenas seemed to work a bit better than napp-it on top of OI, but the performance isn't as good.
Might try and put a HBA card in there see if the performance gets any better.

In any case, the intel NIC's are a good idea, i've had nothing but trouble with realtek nic's and BSD or solaris distros.
 
you probably got slower performance because of the nature of FreeBSD and there for FreeNAS. FreeBSD sacrifices bleeding edge tach and performance for rock solid stability meaning it would use an older version of Samba, older drivers, but ones the will work with the OS and not have problems (except with brand new Hardware), and because FreeNAS has to wait till after the FreeBSD updates to test its own countability it can get stuck for a bit. this being said the latest release of FreeNAS is a rebuild and may have far better performance then before (not sure havnt tested it).
 
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