Advice on the perfect Freenas ZFS build @home - Mini-itx

Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.
Jul 2, 2016
62
13
8
39
Iceland
Hello

I was wondering if you could assist me in picking the right parts for a good Freenas ZFS build @home.
I would like the build to be as silent as possible (Want to place it in my media center space and i think mini-itx form factor would be a good choice). 6-8 Tb of space storing video files,pictures and documents.

IPMI preferred

Run 3-4 1080p Plex Video Streams simultaneously.

I would like to run a Virtualbox Jail on the freenas server and be able to run Windows 7/Windows 10 machine (if i decide switch from Windows to Linux as my main OS on my laptop/desktop computers) and run the windows virtual machine in VNC on Linux (Not a dealbreaker if not adviced to run this virtualbox jail on the same server).


Thanks in advance
 
Last edited:

Keljian

Active Member
Sep 9, 2015
428
71
28
Melbourne Australia
Make it simpler. Run esxi or xen , passthrough the storage for freenas.

Much lower overhead.

3-4 plex streams of what resolution? 4K streams are drastically different in terms of needs than 1080p or less.
 
Jul 2, 2016
62
13
8
39
Iceland
So basicly use the storage from the Freenas as a ISCSI target for another ESXI server ?

I´ll update my post about the Plex streams, to 3-4 x 1080p plex Streams

Edit: Or store the VHD files on the Freenas and connect to the file from Virtualbox client software on the linux clients ?
 
Last edited:

Keljian

Active Member
Sep 9, 2015
428
71
28
Melbourne Australia
Get an Lsi 9211-8i or equivalent and pass that and attached disks through to a freenas VM using esxi.

Then use VMs for other things (eg plex server, windows, etc)

For Linux you can use xrdp for Remote Desktop compatibility. I do.

Re VM storage, depends on how big the storage that you're looking for is. 256gig is a lot for me, so I just have them on a Samsung 850pro

Basically any i5 equivalent (4 real cores) Xeon would be my go to for this

In terms of disks, there are some 2.5inch 4TB seagates going cheap at the moment, 6 of these in raidz2 would give you 12tb, or 5 for 8tb.

What's your budget?
 
Last edited:
Jul 2, 2016
62
13
8
39
Iceland
Get an Lsi 9211-8i or equivalent and pass that and attached disks through to a freenas VM using esxi.

Then use VMs for other things (eg plex server, windows, etc)

For Linux you can use xrdp for Remote Desktop compatibility. I do.

Re VM storage, depends on how big the storage that you're looking for is. 256gig is a lot for me, so I just have them on a Samsung 850pro

Basically any i5 equivalent (4 real cores) Xeon would be my go to for this

In terms of disks, there are some 2.5inch 4TB seagates going cheap at the moment, 6 of these in raidz2 would give you 12tb, or 5 for 8tb.
I think i´ll still go for the Freenas build , I only need to run 1-2 virtual machine at the moment, i would go for the Intel Nuc (extra hardware) if i need to run a virtual box/Esxi home lab. I´m looking for a futureproof Fileserver solution at the moment (ZFS on a Freenas) and being able to hotswap disks easily.
Maybe i'm missing something from what you are pointing out with the build you're recommending.
 

ttabbal

Active Member
Mar 10, 2016
743
207
43
47
Also, I found the Virtualbox jail to be finicky at best. Often it didn't start on boot or the VMs in it failed to start. This was a bigger issue for me than it sounds like it would be for you as I was trying to use it to host Crashplan and I want the backup system available all the time.

There are a lot more options available in uATX than ITX, if you have the space for a larger case. That generally buys you more expansion slots and such. Might not seem like a big issue now, but it's nice to have a spot for a future 10g card or similar. Also try to get a board with ECC memory support, preferably registered. Registered just because RDIMMS are cheaper. :)

FreeNAS works well in a VM, but it's considered an advanced setup and the FreeNAS guys might be grumpy with you for doing it. They have good reasons, and it's not a beginner level setup. You need to be somewhat familiar with hypervisors and such. If you're good with that, have at it. Do NOT pass the disks to freeNAS though, pass the CONTROLLER using PCI passthrough. So if you go this way, make certain your setup also supports VT-D. Most reasonably recent Xeon setups do, but I figure I should mention it just in case.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Hjalti Atlason
Jul 2, 2016
62
13
8
39
Iceland
Thanks for the advice, i will do a little more research on passing the controller using PCI passthrough.
I have been thinking of taking this online Open-ZFS system design class: Open-ZFS System Design – Kateley Company
Good timing since i'm also learning alot of new skills @Linux academy at the moment, Open-ZFS is also available on Ubuntu 16.04 from what i've heard. I might delay this build until next month. Now i have good questions to ask if i decide to take this Open-Zfs class.

Cheers
Hjalti
 
Jul 2, 2016
62
13
8
39
Iceland
Bumping this old thread of mine.

I´m setting up my Vmware ESXI whitebox build at the moment using this hardware (going to passthrough storage for freenas virtual machine using LSI SAS 9210-8i PCIe adapter)

Mobo: Asrock Extreme z97
CPU: Intel i7 4790k
Datastore for vmware esxi: 1 X Intel DC S3710 Enterprise 400GB 2.5" SSD
HDD: 4 X 1 tb 7200 rpm seagate drives ( used for PCI passthrough storage for a Freenas virtual machine)
1 X LSI SAS 9210-8i 8-port 6Gb/s PCIe HBA RAID SATA Controller card (used to pass through 4 X 1 tb 7200 rpm seagate drives to a Freenas virtual machine, ZFS Raid-z)
1 X 85cm Mini SAS SFF-8087 36-PIN to 4 SATA 7-PIN Vertical 90 Degrees Breakout Cable
PSU: Thermaltake Berlin 630W
RAM: ADATA 32GB DDR3 1600MHz (4x8GB)
CPU cooler: Noctua NH-L9x65 Cpu Cooler


ONE question though, do i need to use the LSI SAS 9210-8i adapter and passthrough the Freenas os from a physical disk for ZFS Raid-z to work on a virtual machine running on this ESXI build ? Or do i only need to pass through the disks i´m using for ZFS storage on a Freenas virtual machine ?

Thinking about this since ZFS is a combined file system and logical volume manager.
 

Rand__

Well-Known Member
Mar 6, 2014
6,626
1,767
113
ONE question though, do i need to use the LSI SAS 9210-8i adapter and passthrough the Freenas os from a physical disk for ZFS Raid-z to work on a virtual machine running on this ESXI build ? Or do i only need to pass through the disks i´m using for ZFS storage on a Freenas virtual machine ?
You can have the Freenas OS drive as vmware disk/file on your vm datastore and only pass the SAS controller through to the vm to use as ZFS volume.
Unless you want to use ZFS on the boot/system drive as well then you might want to pass that too.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Hjalti Atlason
Jul 2, 2016
62
13
8
39
Iceland
You can have the Freenas OS drive as vmware disk/file on your vm datastore and only pass the SAS controller through to the vm to use as ZFS volume.
Unless you want to use ZFS on the boot/system drive as well then you might want to pass that too.
Thank you , just wanted to clear this up. Good to know ZFS is a standalone feature (doesn´t rely on the OS it´s running on).
 

Rand__

Well-Known Member
Mar 6, 2014
6,626
1,767
113
Well it relies on the OS (BSD or Linux) but it is managed per disk in the end :)
 
Jul 2, 2016
62
13
8
39
Iceland
Well , you got me there :)

Perfect , i could take these drives to another build if i need to and import the pool onto another hardware (with Freenas,Freebsd,Linux running).
 

nk215

Active Member
Oct 6, 2015
412
143
43
49
Let me take a step back.

Do you really want FreeNAS as part of a AIO setup with your Flex (which can only grow in both users/video resolution)?

FreeNAS is great in general, but to take advantage of its unique feature (dedup for example), you need to toss lots of hardware at it. The same hardware is taken away from your VMs including Flex.

In home setup where users want to add disks to the pool one or 2 at a time, FreeNAS is the wrong choice because it just can't do that. It forces you to at another RAID pool (vdev) to the existing pool which basically results in extra parity drives. For example if you have a RAID6 with 6 drives, you just can't add a single drive to make it a RAID6 7 drives setup.
 
Jul 2, 2016
62
13
8
39
Iceland
@nk215 This thread of mine might answer your question.

"I´m also setting up a small physical server (Freenas backup server) with 4x 1 tb 7200 RPM sata disks to try out ZFS replication from the Freenas virtual machine to the physical Freenas server. Do vmware snapshots and test Crashplan backup for on site backup.
Also want to try out going from 4 x 1 TB drives to 4 x 2 TB drives on a diffrent hardware (import the ZFS pool on diffrent hardware and expand the ZFS pool with 4 X 2 tb drives)

This is just for learning purposes at the moment , but will hopefully be able to use what i learn from this setup in production environment.
I´m kind of a hands learning person ( i´ve read stuff and watched Freenas and ESXI videos but i think i will need hands on experience on hardware to get a better context of what i´ve learned)."


I just want to use plex since i got the hardware for it. And i know ZFS is considered a Enterprise solution not a simple Fileserver solution.

But now i also have 4 x 2tb 7200 RPM sata drives , and want to learn how to replace 4 x 1 tb drives with 4 x 2 tb drives (without losing data).
At first i´ll try out couple of things , after that this will become my Home server ESXI/freenas box.