IBM m1015 card or onboard??

[Ricoks]

Great site to find .............
I posted this in another thread a week or so ago, but didn't hear anything so I thought I would start a new thread (keep the hijacking to a minimum).
I am looking at 2 options to build an all in one home server running ESXI 5.0. I've installed Hyper-V once, but I didn't really understand what I had when I was at the console. so I decided against it at the time. I may need to research a bit more. I have been running ESXI 4.0 for the last 2 years without any hiccups. It has been very easy for me to learn and administer.
I will be virtualizing my firewall/router (untangle), a copy of SBS2011 and WHS2011. I will also have 1 or 2 Win7 professional clients on it as well. I currently have most of this set up now on my ESXI 4 server. I will be selling the PE6950 it's running on now and move to a more suitable setup for my needs. I have it set up using 2 NICs, with VLan's separating the internal from my cable connection through Untangle.
My primary purpose is Home NAS and file serving, remote access and home web page hosting. I've thought about dabbling in a more robust version of RDP than as it is now (rdp into the virtual clients), but not sure I have the knowledge or ability to run RemoteFX or desktop over IP. It's all for personal use. (call it a small hobby interest)
I am looking at either the Tyan S5512WGM2NR or the Supermicro MBD-X9SCM-F-O. The Tyan has onboard RAID adaptor with 8 SATA ports. It's nice to know it's all there.
I hear a LOT about the m1015's. which would be a good fit to match with the MBD-X9SCM-F-O. Which is better to have? If the m1015 is better, I'd save about $50 and get the Supermicro without the built-in RAID. Or is it still better to get the S5512WGM2NR?
Thanks for the help.
Thanks
Ricoks

 

[PigLover]

The Tyan board has a very unique PCIe configuration. The manual is here: http://www.tyan.com/manuals/S5512_UG_v1.0.pdf and the block diagram is on page 22. It appears that the SAS-2008 chip is linked with a maximum x4 link and it is somehow shared with the PCIe x4 in x8 slot (slot 4). They don't show a PCIe switch chip in the diagram, but it is not clear from their documents how they do this sharing.

I'm assuming you'll want to do PCI-passthrough to give the SAS controller directly to whatever you run for the NAS. ESXi PCI-passthrough does not work on PCIe slots with any kind of switch in the path. I have don't know whether Tyan's particular PCIe configuration here will allow the SAS-2008 controller to work with passthrough. If you are going to consider this board for this application you need to find someone who can confirm whether or not ESXi PCI passthrough will work with this board.

Also, if you go with the SuperMicro option, note that one of the two NICs is not directly supported by ESXi. The two NICs use different chips - one is an Intel 82574L which ESXi supports just fine, but the other is an Intel 82579LM which is not supported out of the box. There are some people discussing an add-in driver to support this chip over at [H], but the procedure is a PITA. If you can live with one less PCIe slot and all six on-board SATA ports being SAT2 (instead of having two of them SAT3) then you might consider the X9SCL+-F-O instead (make sure its the "+-" and not just "-". This boards NICs are both fully supported by ESXi.

 

[Ricoks]

I do want to utilize PCI-passthrough. I appreciate the heads up on how the onboard is routed internally. Perhaps the 4-lan port Tyan with a M1015 added to it would be a better fit then?! I have read that people like the Tyan IPKVM better than the Supermicro.
I don't know that SATA3 is 'needed', (no SSD's yet) however it will allow for a more 'future-proof' setup for me.
In fact, I may utilize an Intel i5 2400 processor to begin with, and then as needs grow, upgrade to an E3-2130 for the hyper-threading (who knows, i may never out-grow the i5).
Anyone else have any thoughts on what I'm looking at putting together? I thank PigLover for the help so far.
Ricoks

 

[Patrick]

I have read that people like the Tyan IPKVM better than the Supermicro.

I deal a bit with these. They both use similar base functionality, but Supermicro does customize it a bit (with things like the ability to attach an image on a network share) and has tools like IPMIview. The latest Xeon E5 Tyan boards do have a significantly better interface than their old ones though, but what I have of their E5 generation uses completely unbranded American Megatrends MEGARAC.

 

[Ricoks]

So Patrick, are you indicating that the Supermicro is a better option/remote use, or overall would they Tyan be better?
any thoughts on what i'm looking to accomplish would be great.
BTW, I've read that the M1015 is not very fast on ESXi because there isn't a battery for write-back...... any thoughts?

 

[mobilenvidia]

M1015 = very fast in passthrough, JBOD, RAID0, 1 and 10
Stay away from RAID5 (you would need a key anyway) as this is as you said not very fast at all due to lack of memory for the ROC to do it's calculations.

 

[Ricoks]

So, I'm thinking of either the supermicro board (not sure about the 2nd lan port not being in ESXI out of the box yet) or the NON integrated Tyan board (may go for the 4 port board). Add 1 M1015 to begin with, and I can use the on board SATA ports as well.
I can then have 12 SATA2 ports in total to use. (SATA3 will be for future SSDs).
My thoughts are to use a M1015 for a RAID 10 array of 4x1.5Gb drives that I already own.
Can I use the other SAS port on the M1015 for pass-thru of 3x3TB drives that I have?? I guess what i'm asking is if I can have pass-thru to a VM (like for home server 2011 or SBS2011) AND raid for ESXI (for storing everything else) on the same M1015 card (i.e. 2 separate sets)?
I was thinking that I can just use the board's SATA ports as needed (I have some left over 2x750gb, 500gb, etc SATA drives)
I realize this may be confusing (i'm still confused myself on how I want to set this up), just trying to get a handle on what options I have. My current ESXI 4 (Dell PE6950 with perc 5/i) build doesn't work with my new 3TB drives so I'm limited in my space upgrade options!!!! Not really interested in adding ANOTHER watt sucking computer just for NAS/SAN when i can replace AND lower my bill!! (dell has 4 processors and a 1570watt p/s!!!)

On a completely separate note, is ZFS an underlying file system ppl here seem to prefer for their systems to run on top of, or is it the file system of a specific NAS operating system???
With my media file serving, backup of important docs/files (family photos/videos) and other uses, just trying to learn what will be the best set up for my use.
Thanks for the help and thoughts. it's refreshing to learn new technology by implementing it with community help........

Ricoks

 

[mobilenvidia]

So, I'm thinking of either the supermicro board (not sure about the 2nd lan port not being in ESXI out of the box yet) or the NON integrated Tyan board (may go for the 4 port board). Add 1 M1015 to begin with, and I can use the on board SATA ports as well.
I can then have 12 SATA2 ports in total to use. (SATA3 will be for future SSDs).
My thoughts are to use a M1015 for a RAID 10 array of 4x1.5Gb drives that I already own.
Can I use the other SAS port on the M1015 for pass-thru of 3x3TB drives that I have?? I guess what i'm asking is if I can have pass-thru to a VM (like for home server 2011 or SBS2011) AND raid for ESXI (for storing everything else) on the same M1015 card (i.e. 2 separate sets)?
You can have passthrough and RAID with the M1015 set to LSI9211-IR mode, and have both on the same card

I was thinking that I can just use the board's SATA ports as needed (I have some left over 2x750gb, 500gb, etc SATA drives)
I realize this may be confusing (i'm still confused myself on how I want to set this up), just trying to get a handle on what options I have. My current ESXI 4 (Dell PE6950 with perc 5/i) build doesn't work with my new 3TB drives so I'm limited in my space upgrade options!!!! Not really interested in adding ANOTHER watt sucking computer just for NAS/SAN when i can replace AND lower my bill!! (dell has 4 processors and a 1570watt p/s!!!)
You can either chuck the other drives on the Mobo SATA ports or use the M1015 which will just pass them through

On a completely separate note, is ZFS an underlying file system ppl here seem to prefer for their systems to run on top of, or is it the file system of a specific NAS operating system???
With my media file serving, backup of important docs/files (family photos/videos) and other uses, just trying to learn what will be the best set up for my use.
Thanks for the help and thoughts. it's refreshing to learn new technology by implementing it with community help........

Ricoks

ZFS is really best in plain old LSI9211-IT mode, ZFS is not ideal when it comes accross Hardware (or Software ie Intel) RAID