Build’s Name: Epyc NVME
Operating System/ Storage Platform: RHEL 8.4
CPU: EPYC 7443P
Motherboard: H12SSL-NT
Chassis: Fractal Design Meshify 2 XL
Drives: 2x 980 Pro 1TB (OS), 4x PM1735 3.2 TB (RAID5 RAIDIX Guest VM FS, Fast Storage, Cache), 8 (16)x WD Ultrastar 14 TB SATA
RAM: 256 GB
Add-in Cards: 1x CX455A 100Gb IB EDR, 4x PM1735 (see storage)
Power Supply: Fractal Design ION+ 860P
Other Bits:
Usage Profile: This machine is destined to be a KVM-server to fulfill various tasks as well as being an iSER server.
My little project is nearing it's first goal: most parts are delivered except for the PM1735 drives. I hope to have them by the end of the month latest. So today is build day, which I plan to do with my 4-year-old son, just to make him the youngest child ever to build a Milan server at this performance level (ok, I admit he wants to see Spiderman on youtube - meaning he is HIGHLY motivated).
FAQ
Operating System/ Storage Platform: RHEL 8.4
CPU: EPYC 7443P
Motherboard: H12SSL-NT
Chassis: Fractal Design Meshify 2 XL
Drives: 2x 980 Pro 1TB (OS), 4x PM1735 3.2 TB (RAID5 RAIDIX Guest VM FS, Fast Storage, Cache), 8 (16)x WD Ultrastar 14 TB SATA
RAM: 256 GB
Add-in Cards: 1x CX455A 100Gb IB EDR, 4x PM1735 (see storage)
Power Supply: Fractal Design ION+ 860P
Other Bits:
Usage Profile: This machine is destined to be a KVM-server to fulfill various tasks as well as being an iSER server.
- Backup: Customer/Internet server backup: I have various servers over the Internet as well as servers I manage onsite. For that I need a Borg target with decent storage.
- Server Virtualization: infrastructure servers (AD, Web,...), a lot of testing with VMs and containers as well as the ability to "bare metal restore" customer servers in VMs.
- SAN: I/O - local environment: I am doing alot of work with files of sizes 20MB - 1GB+ and sometimes videos. I hate wait times and target 10GB/s + transfer.
- Client Virtualization: local and remote workstations for production (Office), graphics (Adobe) VMs for browsing, VMs for testing,.. also bootable via iSER (IB)
- Security: basically I separate private and business workstations and also separate browsing and productive work on one client by being able to either boot them or (regular case) starting them as VMs under Gnome.
- High-I/O project: I plan to saturate 100G to my workstation in iSER and make my current and additional future workstations diskless.
- Crypto: Obligatory Chia
My little project is nearing it's first goal: most parts are delivered except for the PM1735 drives. I hope to have them by the end of the month latest. So today is build day, which I plan to do with my 4-year-old son, just to make him the youngest child ever to build a Milan server at this performance level (ok, I admit he wants to see Spiderman on youtube - meaning he is HIGHLY motivated).
FAQ
- Why a tower case?
With today's solutions I don't see a need for a full blown 19" rack. In fact should I need more storage or server capacity, I can still upgrade storage and/or get another server or switch to a dual CPU platform. - Why this power supply?
To be frank, I never saw a high end power supply fail during operations. While redundancy may be cool there, I am still quite confident in my backups for the worst case possible. Additionally the whole server also has an online backup. - Why a USV?
Ups and downs in power supply by power providers are quite common (2+ times a year on average). For the most part the USV is to even out those spikes or lo's. Still I will configure it also for power down of the server. Just because I have it. - Why the Dark Rock and liquid metal?
I have no safe reports on temperatures for Milan during heavy operations. And low temperatures preserve hardware for prolonged times. So at similar prices, this was a no-brainer. - Samsung 980 PRO SSD for a server?
Hell sure, they fit exactly to the usage profile of the OS. Performance-wise SN850 would have been a better choice, but they lack in encryption... - 256 GB is over the top....!?!
Not really. Make that 3 servers running minimum, some test servers, a web LANMP stack and several workstations simultanously. Together thats almost 90 - 128GB RAM already. Add test machines and caching and suddenly nothing is left over. Apart from that in cost:GB that was my sweet spot - most ram per buck. - Why a 7443P?
Because it is my dream CPU. Clock rates in the high end area aka high single core performance, least cost:core, low TDP. It's imho the coolest processor in Epyc Milan land. - Why a Meshify?
It will probably be in my office, so I wanted it to look good. Also the storage config is awesome with 18-24x 3.5" (however you count/see it) and 4+ 2.5" slots. - Thats a Wicked Bunny gaming keyboard and mouse? ?
Yes. I love instant feedback of this mechanical keyboard and the backlights. It's what I enjoy most, when typing.
(PS - Edit: and it's waterproof - I can't count how many great keyboards entered the trash because of spilled coffee, even after cleaning. Having a keyboard I can use even underwater is imho cool - no worries on spilled coffee ever again.)
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