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Mini-ITX + C20x + VT-D? (virtualized NAS)

R

Rivera

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 17, 2011
Messages
154
Hi all.
After i saw that case every other storage idea (DAS, rackmount, etc) faded away. This is just what i need.
ATM this will be my primary storage node, while 3U (current in sig) will get upgraded a bit and moved to DC.
So here is my (i hope) final plan, but still needing some help:

1. Case already mentioned - 100$
2. Some Xeon E3, ie - around 200$ - i love those xeons.
3. 16 GB ECC RAM - around 100$.
4. 2xSATA DOM for bypassing them to nexenta and holding zmirror syspool. Not sure if it good idea, but 16GB should be enough - around 80$
5. 8-port internal HBA, around 150-200$ (with sata 6Gbps). Will be bypassed to nexenta VM running on ESXi.
6. 6x3TB HDD (raw storage around 18TB, nexenta limit). Shitload of money. Maxing out at start.
7. 2x 64 or 32 GB SSD - one for ZIL and one for L2ARC. Yes, I know i should make mirrored ZIL, but there is just no space/ports left. After all this is home system.

This will be used, well, for everything. ESXi labs (iSCSI), media (NFS/SMB), time machines (iSCSI), some backups (SMB)...

You may noticed lack of mobo in list. Yup - i don't know which one. Should be, as stated in subj, Mini-ITX (or DTX), C206 (preferably) based and supports VT-D.
I found Intel S1200KP but i bit of googling revealed that it does not have vt-d needed to bypass PCI-E card to ESXi. WTF, it was almost perfect.
Found another (asus) mobo with VT-D, but with realtek NIC (if i can remember correctly, 8111E) - uncool, uncool...
Best mobo can also include dual gigabit LAN supported ESXi for aggr :)
Well, I'm out of luck (and google) and asking for help. Thanks.
 
I went through the same thing. I finally gave up on Mini-ITX and went with a rack mount (polar opposite I guess!). I've not had a huge amount of luck with the various NAS software. They all had some issue that irritated me. FreeNAS seemed the closest, but I keep running into a problem/bug where I can no longer apply permissions.

I didn't look *real* hard, but a quick glance didn't give me the impression that there were a lot of buying options for that board. Have you had any luck finding a place to order them?
 
You won't get a perfect niche board. Prioritize and prepare to compromise
 
The Asrock Z77 supports Xeons, only issue with it is it's single nic if you were looking to do teaming or something.
 
I might try this with my Asrock/Q25 NAS, although I'll need some sort of mPCIe extension cable since it's a full height card and the slot is only half height. If you need multiple nics, looks like it would do the trick since it has dual Intel 82574L nics.

http://www.globalamericaninc.com/commell-mpx-574d2.html

Other option would be to get a mini pcie to PCIe slot and stick a quad port intel card in it, that may be even easier, since the 2nd slot is open in the Q25.
 
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