1gbps router/storage/torrent box on the HP Gen8

[gogusrl]

I got a Gen8 at a sale for ~300$ (G1610T) and decided to make it my new router/storage/torrent box.

Bought 8gb for it, installed ESXi 5.5 and I've been running RouterOS for my 1gbps connection. At max speed (~950 mbps) it's using 80% cpu.

The plan is to swap in an e3-1230v2, add another 8gb ram, a ssd and 4x3tb hdds.

Under ESXi there will be

VM1 : RouterOS / pfSense (still have to play with them a bit before I make my pick)
VM2 : Freenas / napp-it with ZFS
VM3 : torrent client and Plex or similar
VM4 : other stuff if there are resources left

My questions are :

1. Will it be able to handle this ?

2. What should I use in the pci-e slot ?
Options are :
* raid controller and pass through it to the storage VM (is it worth it?)
* dual port ethernet card for failover to secondary isp / dmz
* 10gbps ethernet (because it's 10 gbps!)

3. Is Samsung 840 pro the best choice for zil / l2arc ?

 

[Lost-Benji]

1: Yes
2: Quad-port NIC (you are about to add a firewall/router VM)
3: Dunno, don't use ZFS.

 

[Mike]

What sort of virtual adapters are those? Awful high load to pass 1gbit.

 

[gogusrl]

HP 332i aka Broadcom NetExtreme BCM5720 (as reported by exsi) running as e1000 under routeros.

VMXNET2/3 are not recognized by routeros.

I have an intel pro/1000 pt dual port laying around so I'll do a test with that.

 

[StephD]

My understanding is 2 needs to be a RAID controller

 

[Mike]

Definitely try the PT adapter. Also, BSD does support the vmxnet but it can be a drag, still worth a try.

 

[gogusrl]

Did some quick tests with the Intel NIC.

Intel NIC :

HP NIC :

All tests were repeated at least 3 times.

 

[Mike]

Cool. But are those stats really trustworthy? I think only esxtop will give you a clear picture on the load.

 

[Patrick]

Seems like very high CPU usage.

Any thoughts of using a ERL? Amazon.com: EdgeRouter Lite ERLite-3 512MB 3 Ethernet Ports Router: Camera & Photo

I have two now and am considering a third. Right now testing if I should use these over the two pfsense nodes in the colocation. Low power and inexpensive.

If you are already at 80% once you start doing more than just passing traffic you are likely to start maxing the processors out.

 

[alex1002]

This seem like a sweet little server. I think you should upgrade the CPU and had more ram, get a nice quad pciexpress card... this is what I got and works magic...Network Adapter Card HP Quad PRO 1000 | eBay

 

[Diavuno]

does the gen 8 micro server only have 1 pcie?

or is it like mine? 1 slot 2x io slots.

while bandwith is kind of an issue you can split a single pcie slot.... need a couple ribbon type risers.... they even make ones with long cables!

 

[Aluminum]

This seem like a sweet little server. I think you should upgrade the CPU and had more ram, get a nice quad pciexpress card... this is what I got and works magic...Network Adapter Card HP Quad PRO 1000 | eBay

Search them as NC364T and as a bonus its an hp card for an hp server. I see them pretty cheap all the time, slowly creeping closer to $50 mark.

Its getting to the point where any card with the well proven 82571 intel ethernet is $10~15 per port, whether you want 1, 2, 4 or 6