Recommend New HW For OpenFiler

I currently have an openfiler server for home use. It supports ESXi VM's (File Server, DC, Media, etc) via ISCSI. I'm looking to build a new openfiler server with somewhat better HW, but nothing to break the bank. I like the new Intel boards that support 6 SATA III ports, but I'm not sure what my complete setup will be.

The hardware specs for my current openfiler server are:

Abit AV8
AMD Opteron 165
2 x 1GB Crucial DDR Memory
2 x WD2000JB IDE HD (Software RAID 1 - OS)
4 x WD20EARS SATA WD20EARS (Software RAID 5 - Storage)
1 x Promise SATA Controller (SATA300 TX4 - For Storage HD's)
1 x WD15EADS & 1 x WDC WD5002ABYS (Software RAID 0 - Backup Storage - MB SATA Ports)
On-Board NIC 10/100/1000
Crucial TX650w
Random Case

I'm looking to get new hardware that will allow for faster reads and writes. I have machines connected via 1 GB and wireless machine connected over wireless N. I have been looking at the ST2000DM001 hard drives for the new system and am hoping to accomplish a similar setup not including the backup RAID. The backup RAID will be the current openfiler server when it gets demoted. Any HW recommendations are welcome, just keeping price to a minimum when possible.

Thanks

I'm not sure how processor or memory intensive OpenFiler is, but as long as you don't need server-grade hardware, you could go with low-end Intel/AMD stuff for cheap. Another option would be to pick up used hardware.

If you need to attach more disks, look at the m1015 and flash it to the IT firmware. This will do passthrough of the disks to let the operating system handle your array (assuming that is what you want, right?). This will handle 8 disks by itself and you can attach SAS expanders for cheap to add many more disks (HP SAS expander for $200, which would handle 28 disks, plus 4 on the m1015).

For drives, I'd spend a little bit more and go with WD Reds. I just put eight 3 TB ones in my server to help fix a failing array. If you do get disks, don't order them from NewEgg. They are well known to have terrible packaging for drives, which has a much higher DOA chance.

I have used OpenFiler for the last year on minimal hardware (AMD E350, 2GB) with a RAID-5 mdadm. Been running fine, actually upgraded from 2GB to 4GB and it seemed to help.

I would get an Intel NIC instead of the onboard (usually Realtek). Also it would help to separate the networks between accessing your shares and iSCSI. iSCSI should be on it's own network so it does not interfere with the rest of your network.

Anyone have any hardware recommendations? I think I will be going with the WD Reds, but I'm not sure about a MB\CPU combo and a SATA controller. With my current setup, I have SATA I drives connected to a Promise SATA controller card in a PCI slot. I'm not sure this is ideal and would like to at least connected them to a SATA II controller if not a SATA III. I know I would not saturate the SATA III, but would like to get the most speed possible.

twodaend said:

Anyone have any hardware recommendations? I think I will be going with the WD Reds, but I'm not sure about a MB\CPU combo and a SATA controller. With my current setup, I have SATA I drives connected to a Promise SATA controller card in a PCI slot. I'm not sure this is ideal and would like to at least connected them to a SATA II controller if not a SATA III. I know I would not saturate the SATA III, but would like to get the most speed possible.

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Can you provide more info regarding what you want? How much space, how many drives, how many concurrent connections, duties, etc.. To an extent, look at what Thideras posted for HW.

Look at Amazon for WD Reds, they are typically cheaper with free shipping (if you have Prime) and they haven't had the "issues" that seemingly plague Newegg's Rugby err "shipping" Dept.

Are you planning to run it in a VM or in a normal installation? You don't need anything too serious to run it. I actually run it off a thumbstick. WD Reds are a solid choice, but with that said don't discard the Seagate NAS drives. I bought 4 of them when they were on sale and they are fast and quiet.

There's always hard drives that arrive DOA, just seems to be the luck of the draw. I bought 4 1TB WD Blues last year from the egg and 1 was DOA. The 4 3TB Seagate NAS drives I bought had none DOA. Distributor roulette is just something you have to deal with these days.

Also is there any particular reason you want to use Openfiler? I only use it because it's what we were using at work so I wanted to get familiar with it. However it's not really being updated anymore since last year.

Thanks for the responses. I'm currently using openfiler on my homenetwork with a ESXi host attached using it for a datastore. I like openfiler for the many options it provides and it is what I'm most familiar with. Currently, I'm redirecting My Documents for the 3 family memebers workstations and have a shared Music and Photos location for all to access. I also have a few test VMs running for learning Active Directy, a little Linux (Ubuntu) and a test Media Server.

I currently have 4 x 2 TB WD EARS running in RAID 5 with 1 acting as a hot spare. I also have a RAID 0 setup for backup using some old WD a 1TB and a 500 GB. My current space is good so I will just be redoing the RAID 5 with better hardware and some possible a storage controller while keeping the current machine for backup. Besids the test VMs, of the 3 family members, generally there are only 2 connected at a time. Weather that is 2 people on 2 different workstation or 1 person on a workstation and another person on the PS3 streaming.

My biggest problem is that I'm wondering if I getting the max of my drives on the RAID 5 considering they are all connected to a Promise SATA 300 TX4 in a standard PCI slot.

Any suggestions?

For? I already mentioned that the Seagate NAS drives (or WD Reds) will suit you fine. Considering the speed that these newer drives maintain, you would saturate a PCI bus and would need to move on to a PCI-E x4 card. I use a IBM M1015 card flashed with IT firmware for passthrough with 4x3TB Seagate NAS drives (for storage, RAID 5) and 4x1 TB WD Blues for VM hosts (RAID 10) and I have no issues with reaching the max of any of my drive arrays.

With that said, with only 2 people accessing the shares you shouldn't be having any issues streaming what you need from your setup.

As far as new hardware upgrades, I went with a dual 1366 setup and it does everything I need to do and is pretty cheap these days. cw823 on this forums sells a bunch when he's around but ebay always has killer deals on Supermicro dual socket 1366 boards (I have an X8DT3-F) and E/L55xx Nehalem Xeon processors.

Thanks cullam2n. That's what I was looking for. I was not sure about PCI vs PCI-E for my controller card. I'm wondering though would it be better to just get a board with enough on-board SATA III (or SATA II) ports for the drives or is that overkill. I want to make sure that when I'm copying vmdk's, the transfer is farily quick and at the same time does not bring everything to a crawl.

Right now, if I have to cloan a vmdk, it takes an extreamly long time (hours). I'm wondering if getting an 1150 board with 6-8 SATA III ports and a dual-core pentium would be a better choice.

twodaend said:

Thanks cullam2n. That's what I was looking for. I was not sure about PCI vs PCI-E for my controller card. I'm wondering though would it be better to just get a board with enough on-board SATA III (or SATA II) ports for the drives or is that overkill. I want to make sure that when I'm copying vmdk's, the transfer is farily quick and at the same time does not bring everything to a crawl.

Right now, if I have to cloan a vmdk, it takes an extreamly long time (hours). I'm wondering if getting an 1150 board with 6-8 SATA III ports and a dual-core pentium would be a better choice.

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PCI-E.

For what it's worth, my 5.25 bay hard drive enclosures and motherboard only support SATA II, which is more than fine for me. I saturate gigabit when I transfer files to and from the file server.

1150 is fairly new and expensive. For a file server you can find 1155/1156 boards for cheaper and have similar performance. Even if you don't have the ports onboard, you can get an expansion card. I did a quick look on ebay and the M1015 like I have goes for ~$100. Flash the passthru firmware and let mdadm do all the work.

twodaend said:

Thanks cullam2n. That's what I was looking for. I was not sure about PCI vs PCI-E for my controller card. I'm wondering though would it be better to just get a board with enough on-board SATA III (or SATA II) ports for the drives or is that overkill. I want to make sure that when I'm copying vmdk's, the transfer is farily quick and at the same time does not bring everything to a crawl.

Right now, if I have to cloan a vmdk, it takes an extreamly long time (hours). I'm wondering if getting an 1150 board with 6-8 SATA III ports and a dual-core pentium would be a better choice.

Click to expand...

Get PCI-E and dont even THINK about PCI/PCI-X... IBM M1015 (with IT firmware) is the goto controller STILL and it can be moved to brand new systems with no issue. If you go with PCI/PCI-X you will run into issues finding boards with those slots and/or you WILL saturate the PCI bus LONG before you hit SATA I speeds... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conventional_PCI
PCI has a max theoretical transfer rate of 133mb/s

You will start running into issues using PCI cards with drives over 2tb, ASSUMING that the card will even recognize the drive correctly. Spend a bit more now and get a card that wont have to be replaced for a LONG while instead of spending a little, spending some more, spending some more, etc.

I own 2 PCI-X Supermicro cards (8 port SATA), 2 PCI-E Supermicro cards (8 port SATA via breakout cables) and 2 PCI-E Intel SASUC8i (8 port SATA via Breakout cables). Even with all that, if I want to use larger than 2TB drives, I have to buy new cards though.

I plan to eventually upgrade to 2x M1015 (separate systems) and a SAS Expander to handle storage upgrades but that is not in the near future.