Q87 chipset + omniOS? and judge my build.

[nfst]

I'm building a low-power home NAS / virtualization box. I thought that this build would go in this forum because of compatibility questions with NAS OS, mod feel free to move if it belongs in the hardware pc build section. I plan to use it to serve NFS shares to 2 computers for music, pictures, videos directories. I also plan to host virtual machines on it for both lab/training use and for real app use. I do not have a RAID controller and plan to use onboard SATA, so I am fine with using virtualbox and/or KVM. I have been reading up a lot on what OS might fit the best and I have narrowed it down to omniOS. The build I came up includes an inexpensive server board with the Q87 chipset. I wasn't sure if this was a smart choice but it fit my budget very well. I didn't buy anything but want some advice before I do. Especially on the motherboard compatibility, i saw that the i210 gigabit LAN is supported just recently but I wasnt sure on chipset. My proposed build:

I've marked in cyan cyan cyan what I already have and would like to re-use.

16GB mirrored set using SD cards for OS install
2TB usable space with mirrored striped vdevs for storage

Motherboard: ASRock Q87WS-DL
link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157415
Processor: i3-4130T Haswell 2.9GHz LGA 1150 35W
link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116947
RAM: Kingston 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Unbuffered DDR3 1600
link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820239370
HDD: 4x Western Digital Green 1TB (plans to off or higher parking time with wdidle)
link: http://www.amazon.com/Green-Desktop-3-5-Inch-Internal-Retail/dp/B00471G8CC
PSU: 380W Antec Earthwatts 80 PLUS Bronze Certified
link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371033
SD Card: 2x Transcend Class 10 16GB SD card
link: http://www.amazon.com/Transcend-Cla...&qid=1389456012&sr=8-2&keywords=16gb+class+10
SD-SATA adapter: 2x SD-SATA adapter
link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/SD-SDHC-Sec...622&&clkid=4044394221315214262&_qi=RTM1562569
HDD Cage: IcyDock MB454SPF-B 4 drive cage
link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2E112T7981
Case: Thermaltake Soprano case
link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133146

 

[_Gea]

some comments:

- about mainboard and cpu
While your mainboard is quite ok for a desktop it lacks some server features. Intel is very clever in this aspect as they offer one or the other feature in their desktop series but when you want them all, you need server parts.

ex. ECC
A good server should support ECC ram. This feature needs support from mainboard chipset and CPU.While i3 supports ECC you need a server class board for ECC. i5 dose not support ECC, Xeon does.

ex pass-through
You can virtualize with KVM or Virtualbox within or on top of your OS. If you want to offer special hardware to a VM, use all systems (Apple OSX, BSD, Linux, Solaris or Windows) or learn the de facto standard, you should use a hypervisor setup on top of ESXi. For ESXi you must carefully select hardware. If you want to virtualize a NAS or SAN on top of ESXi you should pass-through the storage controller and disks to ESXi. This requires an i5 or an Xeon. Intel i3 is not capable.

ex mainboard
For a storage server, you should have enough fast pci-e slots, ECC and vt-d support. KVM remote control is quite nice.

- about storage
I would not use these SD cards as they are quite slow (10 MB/s) and not very reliable - even in a mirror. If you have any old sata disk around, use this and skip the mirror. If you want to add some tools, 16 GB is quite small/ too small.

I would think about a true server board like a Supermicro from these: http://www.supermicro.nl/products/motherboard/Xeon3000/#1150

Look at the http://www.supermicro.nl/products/motherboard/Xeon/C220/X10SL7-F.cfm for a perfect all-in-one/ napp-in one config as it includes a high-end SAS controller that is perfect for an ESXi based config.

Optional: a similar board without the LSI 2308 controller (This controller is as expensive as the x10SL7 if you buy separate)

-RAM and CPU: think about some more RAM (16 GB min for virtualisation)
use i3 for ECC
ise i5 for pass-thropugh
use a Xeon for both (cheapest is ok. 1150 is always low power, up from 17W TDP)


about disks:
- use a mirror of two 3 or 4 TB disks instead the old 1TB ones, I would use 24/7 disks and avoid WD greens


You can read my howto for the OmniOS based napp-in-one
http://www.napp-it.org/doc/downloads/napp-in-one.pdf

If you want to use Virtualbox/ KVM now, use the Intel i3 and think about ECC RAM. If you have a server board, you have all options. If you want to use the Asrock, skip the SD cards and buy some more RAM with two 3 or 4 TB disks.

 

[nfst]

some comments:

- about mainboard and cpu
While your mainboard is quite ok for a desktop it lacks some server features. Intel is very clever in this aspect as they offer one or the other feature in their desktop series but when you want them all, you need server parts.

ex. ECC
A good server should support ECC ram. This feature needs support from mainboard chipset and CPU.While i3 supports ECC you need a server class board for ECC. i5 dose not support ECC, Xeon does.

ex pass-through
You can virtualize with KVM or Virtualbox within or on top of your OS. If you want to offer special hardware to a VM, use all systems (Apple OSX, BSD, Linux, Solaris or Windows) or learn the de facto standard, you should use a hypervisor setup on top of ESXi. For ESXi you must carefully select hardware. If you want to virtualize a NAS or SAN on top of ESXi you should pass-through the storage controller and disks to ESXi. This requires an i5 or an Xeon. Intel i3 is not capable.

ex mainboard
For a storage server, you should have enough fast pci-e slots, ECC and vt-d support. KVM remote control is quite nice.

- about storage
I would not use these SD cards as they are quite slow (10 MB/s) and not very reliable - even in a mirror. If you have any old sata disk around, use this and skip the mirror. If you want to add some tools, 16 GB is quite small/ too small.

I would think about a true server board like a Supermicro from these: http://www.supermicro.nl/products/motherboard/Xeon3000/#1150

Look at the http://www.supermicro.nl/products/motherboard/Xeon/C220/X10SL7-F.cfm for a perfect all-in-one/ napp-in one config as it includes a high-end SAS controller that is perfect for an ESXi based config.

Optional: a similar board without the LSI 2308 controller (This controller is as expensive as the x10SL7 if you buy separate)

-RAM and CPU: think about some more RAM (16 GB min for virtualisation)
use i3 for ECC
ise i5 for pass-thropugh
use a Xeon for both (cheapest is ok. 1150 is always low power, up from 17W TDP)


about disks:
- use a mirror of two 3 or 4 TB disks instead the old 1TB ones, I would use 24/7 disks and avoid WD greens


You can read my howto for the OmniOS based napp-in-one
http://www.napp-it.org/doc/downloads/napp-in-one.pdf

If you want to use Virtualbox/ KVM now, use the Intel i3 and think about ECC RAM. If you have a server board, you have all options. If you want to use the Asrock, skip the SD cards and buy some more RAM with two 3 or 4 TB disks.

You left me with lots of helpful information.

The ASRock board I mentioned though does have ECC support. If I do go the route of using KVM/Virtualbox with the ASRock board, should I go with a board with the C222 chipset instead of the Q87? I was going to order 8gb ($100) with intention to eventually hit 32gb ($400) but I might start with 16gb with your advice.

Using pass-through and having the NAS OS virtualized, would that hurt my NFS I/O?

You said get 2 3TB disks in a mirror instead. I planned for mirrored striped vdevs, so maybe four 1.5TB drives for better performance?

The SD cards I can ditch and use a disk, that is ok.

That board with the built in SAS is very nice.

EDIT: The X10SL7-F + Xeon would exceed my budget by quite a bit. I think I am going to go the i3 haswell route. I will run linux and bsd based virtual machines so I think virtualbox/kvm will suffice.

 

[_Gea]

The ASRock board I mentioned though does have ECC support. If I do go the route of using KVM/Virtualbox with the ASRock board, should I go with a board with the C222 chipset instead of the Q87? I was going to order 8gb ($100) with intention to eventually hit 32gb ($400) but I might start with 16gb with your advice.

Unless you can ugrade without problem you can start small

Using pass-through and having the NAS OS virtualized, would that hurt my NFS I/O?

With pass-through, you do not virtualize storage so no

You said get 2 3TB disks in a mirror instead. I planned for mirrored striped vdevs, so maybe four 1.5TB drives for better performance?

Raid 10 is faster than mirror but these large disks are quite slow.
I would use a mirror for general storage/backup and a second mirror of smaller SSDs for VMs

The SD cards I can ditch and use a disk, that is ok.

That board with the built in SAS is very nice.

EDIT: The X10SL7-F + Xeon would exceed my budget by quite a bit. I think I am going to go the i3 haswell route. I will run linux and bsd based virtual machines so I think virtualbox/kvm will suffice.

The i3 is ok even with ESXi as you can use RDM and you can upgrade when needed without buying a new board.

 

[PointandClick]

I didn't think Q87 supported ECC, but AsRock's website shows it as well.
I ended up with the SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SLL-F-O a few weeks ago when it was on sale for $136. I had been looking to upgrade my server to something that supports passthrough, but finding an AMD board that is confirmed to work with both ECC and passthrough was a bit of a gamble. I thought I would luck out and be able to pair the Supermicro with an i3 and have a nice reasonably priced setup.

Intel won't let you get away that easy though. As Gea said, if you want both ECC and passthrough you have to step up to an E3.

 

[rsq]

I in no way want to tell you what to do, but please consider the following:

You mention you want to store pictures. Ask yourself, would your girlfriend/wife murder you if you lose the baby pictures?

What I did not see mentioned is how you will backup your data. I would strongly recommend to invest FIRST in your backup, then in the storage server. There is no point in mirroring all your disks if you don't have a backup. After all, mirroring only serves to reduce downtime, but I think downtime is more acceptable to you than data loss.

If cost is a factor, skip 50% of the drives, don't mirror anything, and invest in a solid backup. You can always add mirror disks to your server later. HDD failures are rare anyway. The primary cause for failures in a domestic setting are peaks or noise on the power line anyway. If that happens, your mirror drive is toast too and won't help you.

 

[nfst]

I in no way want to tell you what to do, but please consider the following:

You mention you want to store pictures. Ask yourself, would your girlfriend/wife murder you if you lose the baby pictures?

What I did not see mentioned is how you will backup your data. I would strongly recommend to invest FIRST in your backup, then in the storage server. There is no point in mirroring all your disks if you don't have a backup. After all, mirroring only serves to reduce downtime, but I think downtime is more acceptable to you than data loss.

If cost is a factor, skip 50% of the drives, don't mirror anything, and invest in a solid backup. You can always add mirror disks to your server later. HDD failures are rare anyway. The primary cause for failures in a domestic setting are peaks or noise on the power line anyway. If that happens, your mirror drive is toast too and won't help you.

I have the important family pictures/videos backed up onto DVDs and mirrored onto 2 separate drives in cold storage. But the answer is yes, I would be murdered. Not a very convenient backup method, as I have to plug them into my PC to backup with rsync and i definitely agree that I should invest in something better.

I should probably build this for just my virtual machines and our NFS shares and also back up to an inexpensive store-bought 2 drive NAS for only those critical pictures/videos (less than 100GB at the moment) configured as a mirror.

As for the server though, I would like to have something that is redundant and faster than a regular mirrored setup.

I am very new to this as I am only used to working with enterprise SAN hardware/software and never had to part out something so simple and inexpensive with power savings, etc. in mind.

You guys have been a great help though and I am taking all said things into consideration.