Zocate Solaris ZFS Build

[s0rce]

Hey Everyone,

I've been planning to build a small home server for backup (rsync, nfs, afp, timemachine), usenet downloading (sabnzbd/sickbeard), AV streaming, print server (CUPS, single laser printer) and maybe some simple VOIP (asterisk). I was hoping for any comments/suggestions on this build (I know zocate is new but the price/performance is great). I'm not a packrat so I'm going to keep this small and relatively cheap.

I plan on using Solaris 11 Express + Napp-it (but I might go with Nexenta since I'm familiar with Debian/Ubuntu, haven't completely decided yet).

Here is the part list, please take a look:

Mobo/CPU: ASRock E350M1 AMD Zacate E350
RAM: Mushkin Enhanced Silverline 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3
OS Drive: Kingston SSDNow S100 SS100S2/8G
RAID Z1 Drives: 3x 2TB HITACHI Deskstar 5K3000 HDS5C3020ALA632
Case: APEX MI-100 Black (cheap w/PS)

I plan on going with a new zocate board (the ASRock) and I hope the network card (Realtek 8111E) will play well with solaris but if not the mobo has a PCIe slot so I figure I can put in a intel gigabit nic (Intel EXPI9301CTBLK). I know there is some interest in the zocate setup so I will make sure to document the build and run benchmarks people are interested in.

I think I might want to mirror the OS drive but I'll need to use the eSATA port and I'm not sure exactly how to set that up in Solaris 11 Express (seemed easier in Nexenta - maybe Napp-it can integrate a OS ZPool mirror function!)

Any help/suggestions on the build would be great!

Thanks very much,
s0rce

 

[hotzen]

It is called zAcate and already discussed here: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1585934
I would use the Intel X25-V G2 with 40GB but I dont know your prices in USA...

 

[Jesse B]

You probably won't see any real performance gain from having an SSD as the OS drive, but it's up to you. It'd be much more beneficial to run the SSD as an L2ARC cache or something; again, up to you. I also wouldn't worry about mirroring the OS drive. You can always just set it up to take periodic images of the OS drive and store them on the data pool. The Realtek 8111x series is pretty well supported as well, so that shouldn't be an issue.