FreeNas ZFS Build

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cnick79

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Oct 5, 2004
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The time has come to replace my old Promise SmartStor NAS. This will store mostly DVD and Blu-ray rips. I plan on purchasing 4 2TB drives to hold me over for now. I want something that is relatively small, quiet, and will be able to support at least 8 hot-swap hard drives.

I never used FreeNAS or ZFS before so hopefully this build will be hassle free.

ORIGINAL
CASE: AeroCool Vs-9
MOBO: Asus M4A88T-V EVO
CPU: AMD Sempron 145 Sargas
NIC: Intel EXPI9301CTBLK
HD CAGE: SNT 4x3.5" Hard Drive 5.25" 3 Bay Converter
PSU: Corsair HX 650W Modular
MEMORY: Mushkin 4GB DDR3 1333
BOOT DRIVE: Transcend 1GB IDE Flash Drive

OPTION #2
CASE:
MOBO: GIGABYTE GA-880GA-UD3H
CPU: Athlon X2 245 Regor
NIC: Intel EXPI9301CTBLK
MEMORY: G.SKill Value 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1333
PSU: Corsair HX 650W Modular
BOOT DRIVE: 4GB USB Flash Drive

Any thoughts, suggestions, concerns?
 
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I couldn't find an AMD board with an onboard Intel NIC, which is why I went with a PCI Intel card. I also want this build to be cheap, ~$500.
 
Go on the FreeNAS forums and search for the 'Silver Bullet' 18TB build... setup with nine 2TB drives for 18TB raw, then he uses FreeNAS and ZFS from there. Good info, and current enough the guy still answers questions on it.
 
One problem with the WD20EARS is I believe the WDidile tool no longer works on newer units.

Modifying the TLER option is not required with zfs, in fact mesa advises against it, however with the WD green drives you run into the intellipark crap, where after a short period of time (think 4-8sec) of no activity the drive will spin down and the heads will park. This cycle of spin up/spin down, constantly cycling could degrade the life span of the drive along with poor performance.
 
wdidle.exe can be used i believe, as well as SmartMonTools, to change that behavior and set the head park time to 120 seconds or 240 seconds or something. I wouldn't completely disable it, but the current 10 second is way to short! You will see high numbers of Load Cycle Count in the SMART output.

But if you tune it, it should be okay. I would still prefer the Samsung F4, though. Also, consider putting in 8GiB if you want great performance, though 4GiB works too you would see a difference in performance between the two. 8GiB DDR3 costs about 65 euro on german price index sites; it has fallen considerably. So now is the time to buy lots of DDR3 before prices may rise again in the late second/third quarter.
 
sub.mesa said:
wdidle.exe can be used i believe, as well as SmartMonTools, to change that behavior and set the head park time to 120 seconds or 240 seconds or something. I wouldn't completely disable it, but the current 10 second is way to short! You will see high numbers of Load Cycle Count in the SMART output.

But if you tune it, it should be okay. I would still prefer the Samsung F4, though. Also, consider putting in 8GiB if you want great performance, though 4GiB works too you would see a difference in performance between the two. 8GiB DDR3 costs about 65 euro on german price index sites; it has fallen considerably. So now is the time to buy lots of DDR3 before prices may rise again in the late second/third quarter.
Click to expand...

I actually changed my memory to the 2x4gb sticks and I am going to go with the Samsung F4's. The only thing holding me back right now with this build is deciding on a mobo. I eventually would like my NAS to support 8 hot swap drives, so I would like a mobo that can support 8 SATA drives or 4 drives and a SATA card when the time comes.
 
I think I found the mobo to get! The only problem is, it does not have onboard video. Is there a way around setting this thing up without the need to install a graphics card?
 
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How would performance from an Atom based CPU/mobo be using ZFS? There appears to be a few that support remote management, 4-6 sata ports, dual Intel LAN. The only downside is most only support up to 4gb of memory.
 
cnick79 said:
I think I found the mobo to get! The only problem is, it does not have onboard video. Is there a way around setting this thing up without the need to install a graphics card?
Click to expand...
Not really. I wouldn't get that mobo since it costs $154 but only has a one year warranty. That's a bit of a rip-off IMO considering that you can get the Gigabyte GA-880GA-UD3H motherboard for $110 but it comes with the same number of SATA ports and actually has an onboard video. So get the Gigabyte mobo instead unless that AsRock mobo has certain features that you absolutely need and are willing to accept the one year warranty.
cnick79 said:
How would performance from an Atom based CPU/mobo be using ZFS? There appears to be a few that support remote management, 4-6 sata ports, dual Intel LAN. The only downside is most only support up to 4gb of memory.
Click to expand...

Probably ok for a simple ZFS server. Like really really basic. But you're gonna be better off with a a desktop class CPU.

As for your planned setup, the case is not that good for the money considering that it comes out about $68 shipped. That's way too much for a case that's cramped and has little cable managemetn features. In fact, the total cost of getting two of those hot-swap bays + the case itself comes out to about $236. That's really really overpriced considering the Norco 4220 case is available with 20 drive bays for about $100 more:
$350 - NORCO RPC-4220 4U Rackmount Server Case

CPU wise, aim for a dual-core at least. That Sempron is a little too slow for a ZFS setup from what I can tell.

RAM wise, I recommend this RAM set for better ZFS performance:
$78 - G.Skill Value Series F3-10600CL9D-8GBNT 2 x 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM
 
You definitely bring up a good point about the case. I want something small, quiet, performs fast, low power usage and is cheap. However, I'm starting to realize that is not possible. If I had to rank them in order of importance then it would be:

1) Cheap
2) Performance
3) Quiet
4) Small
5) Low power usage

I do like the G.Skill RAM you linked to and that is a nice looking motherboard. I went with the Sempron 140 because it's 45w and I was hoping to unlock the second core. I may get the Athlon X2 245 instead.

First post has been updated.
 
cnick79 said:
You definitely bring up a good point about the case. I want something small, quiet, performs fast, low power usage and is cheap. However, I'm starting to realize that is not possible. If I had to rank them in order of importance then it would be:

1) Cheap
2) Performance
3) Quiet
4) Small
5) Low power usage
Click to expand...

Well the problem is that you want hot-swap capability. That is not cheap by any means. In addition. while you can definitely aim for cheap, it won't be a good value for the money. Or in other words: a hot-swappable server can be cheap but it won't have a good best bang for your buck value. Get what I'm saying? Just because it's cheap doesn't mean that it'll be a good buy.

So what is more important to you? Cheap but still a bit of a waste of money or best bang for the buck possible?
 
I was just going to post that hotswap is not that important to me, but a nice to have. As far as hardware goes, it's probably best bang for the buck that is most important.

I'm so contradicting and indecisive.
 
cnick79 said:
I was just going to post that hotswap is not that important to me, but a nice to have. As far as hardware goes, it's probably best bang for the buck that is most important..
Click to expand...

Then I recommend this case then:
$90 - NZXT Tempest Evo TEVO-001BK ATX Case

Supports 8 drives right off the bat and still have three spare 5.25" drive bays which will allow you to use this 4in3 module later on for a total of 12 drives:
$25 - Cooler Master STB-3T4-E3-GP 4 in 3 Device Module w/ 120mm Fan

EDIT: And because I'm a bit bored:
$120 - Intel Core i3-540 CPU
$130 - ZOTAC H55ITX-C-E Intel H55 mITX Motherboard
$78 - G.Skill Value Series F3-10600CL9D-8GBNT 2 x 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$30 - Intel EXPI9301CTBLK 10/100/1000Mbps PRO/1000 GT PCI-E x1 NIC OEM w/ 1 x RJ45
$104 - XFX P1-650X-CAH9 650W Modular PSU
$110 - Lian Li PC-Q8B mITX Case
------
Total: $572 plus tax and shipping.

Pretty much in reverse of your order of importance: Very low power, relatively small, and fairly quiet. The max limit is only 6 drives but the small size, low power, and noise level might offset that.
 
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Danny Bui said:
Then I recommend this case then:
$90 - NZXT Tempest Evo TEVO-001BK ATX Case

Supports 8 drives right off the bat and still have three spare 5.25" drive bays which will allow you to use this 4in3 module later on for a total of 12 drives:
$25 - Cooler Master STB-3T4-E3-GP 4 in 3 Device Module w/ 120mm Fan

EDIT: And because I'm a bit bored:
$120 - Intel Core i3-540 CPU
$130 - ZOTAC H55ITX-C-E Intel H55 mITX Motherboard
$78 - G.Skill Value Series F3-10600CL9D-8GBNT 2 x 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$30 - Intel EXPI9301CTBLK 10/100/1000Mbps PRO/1000 GT PCI-E x1 NIC OEM w/ 1 x RJ45
$104 - XFX P1-650X-CAH9 650W Modular PSU
$110 - Lian Li PC-Q8B mITX Case
------
Total: $572 plus tax and shipping.

Pretty much in reverse of your order of importance: Very low power, relatively small, and fairly quiet. The max limit is only 6 drives but the small size, low power, and noise level might offset that.
Click to expand...

The problem with that motherboard is there's only room for 1 PCI card which will be used by the Intel NIC, so I don't see any room for adding more SATA ports. Plus, I think I am going to stick with the AMD chip because it is cheaper.

***EDIT: I just noticed the Lian-li case to be used instead.***

As of now, Option #2 in my first post is what I am leaning towards.
 
I went with the parts in Option #2 in my first post and I'm using 4 Hitatchi 5k3000 2tb sata III drives. I installed FreeNAS 0.7.2.5543 on a USB flash drive and when I try to add a new disk using the GUI, none of my 4 hard drives show up. They appear in the BIOS, just not in FreeNAS. Any suggestions?
 
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