X9SCM-F-O Good for 24 drive NAS?

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gmui

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I've been planning to build a NAS housed in a Norco 4224 and eventually want to expand it to 24 drives. Newegg has a deal on the Supermicro MBD-X9SCM-F-O ($170 after coupon code expires 7/5) and I was thinking of picking this up. However, my concern is that it only has 2 PCI x8 slots and so using 3 IBM M1015 as HBAs is not ideal. I could go with a SAS expander, but I assume that 3 HBAs is going to be an easier path.

Any suggestions on using a x4 slot for an eventual 3rd HBA or are there any better motherboard suggestions for 3 HBAs? I'm probably going to be using FreeNas since I've been using their older version and am comfortable with it.

Here's the board: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182253&Tpk=x9scm-f-o

and the 15% promo code is EMCNDHA25 (good til 7/5)

Thanks!
Gary
 
I'm going to assume that you are going to be using this for home. If that's the case, this server board should be more than enough for your needs.
 
the pcie x4 slot will still provide 200MB/sec read and write speed to 8 disks. So your defently not losing anything.

That would be enough bandwidth for a 3g sas expander without an issue :)
 
patrickdk said:
the pcie x4 slot will still provide 200MB/sec read and write speed to 8 disks. So your defently not losing anything.
Click to expand...

The board has both PCIe 2.0 and 3.0 slots, so the bandwidth would be 2GB/s (500MB/s per lane) and 4GB/s (1GB/s per lane) respectively.
 
Thanks for the quick responses. I guess I'll go order this today for the $30 discount.
 
I'm running the same setup working great here!
X9SCM-F-B (2.0A) with 3x M1015 (+1 Intel Dual Gbit NIC) and 18x Hitachi 2TB's in a Norco 4224. Easily enough bandwidth to saturate Gbit.

As suggested if you want to use less PCI-E slots, maybe consider getting an Expander?
I only went M1015 due to simplicity/cost, but at the price M1015's are going for at the moment, I might even be able to sell 2 of them to pay for an expander..
 
Same motherboard, 3xM1015s, 16 GB ECC RAM, Dell XR997 10 gbe NIC. VMWare ESXi 5. 10x2 Samsung F4 2TB hdds + 10 various 1 TB hdds in Norco 4224. Works perfect here.
 
Rectal Prolapse said:
Same motherboard, 3xM1015s, 16 GB ECC RAM, Dell XR997 10 gbe NIC. VMWare ESXi 5. 10x2 Samsung F4 2TB hdds + 10 various 1 TB hdds in Norco 4224. Works perfect here.
Click to expand...

not to hijack, but curious what RAM brand/model are you using for this mobo Rectal_Prolapse?
 
That supermicro board looks like a very good contender and I've been considering getting myself the mATX version. However, take a look at the TYAN equivalent

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813151243

The reason to maybe go for that one is that all the NIC's are Intel 82574L and not 82574LM which the Supermicro has one of. The "LM" nic has issues with installs because it's so much newer and there isn't official support from a lot of the os's (openindiana, esxi, etc). You can get around it and install drivers yourself, I'm just giving a headsup as to what to expect.
 
Rectal Prolapse said:
Same motherboard, 3xM1015s, 16 GB ECC RAM, Dell XR997 10 gbe NIC. VMWare ESXi 5. 10x2 Samsung F4 2TB hdds + 10 various 1 TB hdds in Norco 4224. Works perfect here.
Click to expand...

Hey rectal, where did you get your 10gbe switch from? I don't know of any budget switches and cards, but if there are I'll be ecstatic.
 
ian_stagib said:
That supermicro board looks like a very good contender and I've been considering getting myself the mATX version. However, take a look at the TYAN equivalent

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813151243

The reason to maybe go for that one is that all the NIC's are Intel 82574L and not 82574LM which the Supermicro has one of. The "LM" nic has issues with installs because it's so much newer and there isn't official support from a lot of the os's (openindiana, esxi, etc). You can get around it and install drivers yourself, I'm just giving a headsup as to what to expect.
Click to expand...

Having 3 ESXi compatible NICs would be pretty nice, but the other reviews about memory and PSUs are enough for me to go with the SM board. That and I already ordered... Hopefully the LM board will be supported soon or at least without too much hassle.
 
kai-zen said:
I'm running the same setup working great here!
X9SCM-F-B (2.0A) with 3x M1015 (+1 Intel Dual Gbit NIC) and 18x Hitachi 2TB's in a Norco 4224. Easily enough bandwidth to saturate Gbit.

As suggested if you want to use less PCI-E slots, maybe consider getting an Expander?
I only went M1015 due to simplicity/cost, but at the price M1015's are going for at the moment, I might even be able to sell 2 of them to pay for an expander..
Click to expand...

Yeah, my reasons to plan for 3 M1015s are for simplicity / cost as well. There was also a thread about issues with expanders and ZFS so for now I'll plan for separate HBAs. Any issue though in passing through 3 HBAs to FreeNas in ESXi? What kind of setup are you running?
 
32GB ECC + ESXi with 16GB allocated to Ubuntu Linux + ZFSOnLinux. 3x 6 disk raidz2's.
All 3 M1015's passthroughed with esxi no problem.

Yeh I think they resolved the expander issue... I think...
 
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