Nemesis Upgrade - Plex/PMS and VM Host

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System48

New Member
Nov 29, 2017
21
7
3
Cincinnati, OH
Build’s Name: Nemesis
Operating System: Windows Server 2016
CPU: Xeon E-2176G
Motherboard: Supermicro X11SCZ-F
Chassis: Supermicro 836BA
Drives: 8 x 4TB HGST RAID 10 or 6 for NVR VHD
Drives: 2 x Samsung 883 DCT 480GB 2.5" RAID 1 for OS
Drives: 1 x Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB NVMe for PMS metadata
Drives: 2 x Micron 5200 Max 480GB RAID 1 for VM OS VHDs
Drives: 1 x HGST 4TB for Linux ISOs while downloading
RAM: 32GB DDR4 2666
AOC: Intel X710-DA2 Dual Port 10Gbe SFP+ NIC
AOC: Adaptec RAID 71605
Power Supply: Supermicro Redundant 920W
Other Bits:

Usage Profile: I'm doing this upgrade primarily to move my Plex server off an Nvidia Shield and to finalize my overall server upgrades. The current hardware is a i7 2700k on an ITX board with just a LSI HBA card for 8 drives. It was a salvage of my original primary server.

On this one Plex will run on the bare-metal server, accessing a video library over LAN. It will at most host an additional two VMs, one for downloading Linux ISOs and another to run the Unifi Controller and Unifi Protect (don't ask, just see reddit thread.).

I went down a rabbit hole the other day looking into a solution to use the PCIe bifurcation support on the CPU attached x16 slot to split it out to two x8 slots. Best I could come up with was these guys

PCI Express x16 Bifurcation Riser Card | QIP4X-PCIE16XB01

and

Mini SAS HD (SFF-8643) to PCIe x16 (x8 mode) Slot Board | IPCIED4XD02

but Google turns up no where to purchase them from and who knows much they are.

In any event the Adaptec will likely get the x16 slot with the NIC going in one of the x4 slots and being slightly peak bandwidth limited but I'd be very unlikely to run into that issue with this build.
 
Last edited:

IamSpartacus

Well-Known Member
Mar 14, 2016
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What x8 devices are you trying to attach to the x16 slot?

Also, I was under the impression UniFi Protect could only be run via their own NVR appliance. Are you saying you've found a way to roll your own?
 

BoredSysadmin

Not affiliated with Maxell
Mar 2, 2019
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What x8 devices are you trying to attach to the x16 slot?

Also, I was under the impression UniFi Protect could only be run via their own NVR appliance. Are you saying you've found a way to roll your own?
they also provide a software-only option for Protect. Before you jump the gun, they only support their own cameras :(
 

IamSpartacus

Well-Known Member
Mar 14, 2016
2,515
650
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they also provide a software-only option for Protect. Before you jump the gun, they only support their own cameras :(
I have all Ubiquiti cameras. However, this must be a new development because since the beginning they only supported Protect on their NVR device unlike UniFi video or UniFi network controller.
 

System48

New Member
Nov 29, 2017
21
7
3
Cincinnati, OH
What x8 devices are you trying to attach to the x16 slot?

Also, I was under the impression UniFi Protect could only be run via their own NVR appliance. Are you saying you've found a way to roll your own?
The Adaptec HBA and dual SFP+ NIC are both x8 PCIe devices. The bandwidth on a x4 slot is fine for dual 10Gbe but the x4 slots are off the PCH and will be sharing bandwidth to the CPU with a few SSDs.

There's a Reddit thread for Protect on x86, it was/is a build for the UAS-XG but the repository was pulled so it's version locked for now to 1.10 beta 7.
 

kapone

Well-Known Member
May 23, 2015
1,095
642
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Your motherboard (supposedly, I'd check) has BIOS support for PCI-e bifurcation on the x16 slot. Which means, in theory, you should be able to use a passive x16 to dual x8 riser, since the clock is still controlled by the motherboard (vs a PLX chip).

Even if you found a suitable riser, how were you planning to use it with an 836 chassis, which is not riser compatible?
 

System48

New Member
Nov 29, 2017
21
7
3
Cincinnati, OH
Your motherboard (supposedly, I'd check) has BIOS support for PCI-e bifurcation on the x16 slot. Which means, in theory, you should be able to use a passive x16 to dual x8 riser, since the clock is still controlled by the motherboard (vs a PLX chip).

Even if you found a suitable riser, how were you planning to use it with an 836 chassis, which is not riser compatible?
This board actually uses a jumper for the bifurcation setting, just a choice of either x16 or x8x8.

I had looked at regular risers at first with the idea of using a x16 extension cable, I've seen that sort of setup used in custom cases. The thought was to possibly make it work in the last PCI slots but the riser cards are too large (would have enough space with an ITX board). So that's when I went looking for some kind of cable adapter and ended finding the two I posted.

In any event I gave up on the idea.
 

System48

New Member
Nov 29, 2017
21
7
3
Cincinnati, OH
Since I bought an open box CPU/Mobo combo on ebay I needed to make sure they checked out so I've partially completed the upgrade.

Before


After


I ended up having issues with the Noctua CPU fan on the motherboard. The idle rate must have been so low that it was stopping and the system would keep ramping all the fans over and over again. I switched it to a direct plugin so it's on full all the time now. I wish Supermicro made a 2U heatsink/fan for this socket.
 

System48

New Member
Nov 29, 2017
21
7
3
Cincinnati, OH
Completed most of the upgrade, put in an Intel x710 NIC, Adaptec 71605 RAID card, Samsung EVO 500GB M.2 and replaced the old OS drives with Samsung 883 DCT 480GB drives. Now I'm just waiting on moving the 4TB drives out of their current systems.