new server suggestions.

[jbates58]

hi all.

i am looking for a new motherboard to replace me Gigabyte x79-UP5 board.

i think that this board is causing me some problems with my storage controllers. and it would be no surprise to me after my last gigabyte board and the pathetic service they offered with replacing it.

i used to have a GB x58-ud5, and it was rock solid til it had an issue with the temp and voltage sensing circuits and started to play up, then after a long and drawn out, 4+ months of sending me a new board, then it not working with my original storage controllers, and then me having to send it back to them with one of my controllers, and them guaranteeing me that it worked and sending me the board that they tested it with, to me changing to the x79 platform and having similar issues, i decided to upgrade my controllers.

so, now i use 3 IBM M1015 cards, and the x79 board. but i think that it may be causing me the drive disconnect issues that i am facing in my windows event viewer so am looking to replace i with a better quality product.

i have and want to utilize

• Intel 2011 I7-4820K
• 3 X Ibm M1015 Cards (In IT Mode)
• GTX 680
• Thermaltake 875W PSU
• Flexraid for drive pooling and parity

and it is used as my home server, and gaming system.

on the pc, i run the following

• Windows 7
• Plex Home Server
• Flexraid
• Used as a Backup server for phones tablets other computers etc...
• Various Games

there is also some stuff im probably forgetting, but it wont be important. and its probaly nothing that i cant use on the gaming system when i build it.

i am open to the option of buying a new mobo and cpu aswell, as i have had an offer from someone to purchase mine. but would need parts that i can get fairly quickly to get mine running.

in the near future, this system will end up in a rack and used purely as a server, and i will get another 1366 board and then use that with the original I7-920 that i have and the GTX 680 and build my gaming pc from that. but for now i just want a solid board or server system that works properly with no issues.

i am having trouble finding a board to suit my needs. i went looking at the intel and supermicro server boards, because from what i have read

• Gigabyte boards are utter crap and are know to have issues with the M1015 cards
• Asus boards are known to have issues with the M1015 cards
• Intel dont make a single socket 2011 board with the 3 8X PCIE lanes i need
• Supermicro done even make a single socket 2011 board
• would also like it to be as lower power consumption as it can be aswell as it will be on 24/7

but the only board i have found that isnt gigabyte, and has the PCIE slots i need, is the P9X79-E WS. but after doing some more reading, i am able to use and Socket R motherboard. but like i said, if im better off going the xeon route and a server type mobo, then im happy to look into it.

or i am open to any other suggestions aswell.

Cheers & sorry for the long story.

Jason

 

[Patrick]

Jason,

Some consumer motherboards do have issues with RAID cards/ HBAs.

Moving to a dedicated server for you storage needs is probably a wise choice.

If you are overclocking, that has been known to cause controller issues.

Supermicro does make single socket 2011 motherboards. I reviewed a few of the Haswell-E single socket boards last quarter. One with an onboard HBA.

Apologies for the brief response. Christmas and this flight is taking off soon.

 

[Lost-Benji]

hi all.

i am looking for a new motherboard to replace me Gigabyte x79-UP5 board.

i think that this board is causing me some problems with my storage controllers. and it would be no surprise to me after my last gigabyte board and the pathetic service they offered with replacing it.

i used to have a GB x58-ud5, and it was rock solid til it had an issue with the temp and voltage sensing circuits and started to play up, then after a long and drawn out, 4+ months of sending me a new board, then it not working with my original storage controllers, and then me having to send it back to them with one of my controllers, and them guaranteeing me that it worked and sending me the board that they tested it with, to me changing to the x79 platform and having similar issues, i decided to upgrade my controllers.

so, now i use 3 IBM M1015 cards, and the x79 board. but i think that it may be causing me the drive disconnect issues that i am facing in my windows event viewer so am looking to replace i with a better quality product.

i have and want to utilize

• Intel 2011 I7-4820K
• 3 X Ibm M1015 Cards (In IT Mode)
• GTX 680
• Thermaltake 875W PSU
• Flexraid for drive pooling and parity

and it is used as my home server, and gaming system.

on the pc, i run the following

• Windows 7
• Plex Home Server
• Flexraid
• Used as a Backup server for phones tablets other computers etc...
• Various Games

there is also some stuff im probably forgetting, but it wont be important. and its probaly nothing that i cant use on the gaming system when i build it.

i am open to the option of buying a new mobo and cpu aswell, as i have had an offer from someone to purchase mine. but would need parts that i can get fairly quickly to get mine running.

in the near future, this system will end up in a rack and used purely as a server, and i will get another 1366 board and then use that with the original I7-920 that i have and the GTX 680 and build my gaming pc from that. but for now i just want a solid board or server system that works properly with no issues.

i am having trouble finding a board to suit my needs. i went looking at the intel and supermicro server boards, because from what i have read

• Gigabyte boards are utter crap and are know to have issues with the M1015 cards
  
• Asus boards are known to have issues with the M1015 cards
  
• Intel dont make a single socket 2011 board with the 3 8X PCIE lanes i need
  
• Supermicro done even make a single socket 2011 board
• would also like it to be as lower power consumption as it can be aswell as it will be on 24/7

but the only board i have found that isnt gigabyte, and has the PCIE slots i need, is the P9X79-E WS. but after doing some more reading, i am able to use and Socket R motherboard. but like i said, if im better off going the xeon route and a server type mobo, then im happy to look into it.

or i am open to any other suggestions aswell.

Cheers & sorry for the long story.

Jason

Jason,
Some consumer motherboards do have issues with RAID cards/ HBAs.

Sorry but I am going to pull you both up, neither of you realise the system in question here.
GIGABYTE - Motherboard - Socket 2011 - GA-X79S-UP5-WIFI (rev. 1.0)
For the beginners, the board is NOT an x79 (desktop/consumer) chipset. It is a server grade C606 and delivers both SATA-III as well as SAS.

How do I know this? Well, I have had several of the boards and they are arguably one of the best single socket 2011 boards on the planet. I have used them for both my local Workstations as well in my servers and yes, with IBM1015's and the likes.

Stop reading stupid forums and basing opinions of people who 95% of the time don't know anything about what they are shitting on about. The UP5 is a monster if setup and used properly. They will run Xeons and ECC RAM as well.

So now, lets look at WTF you are doing that is the issue, I can only guess as you haven't supplied close to the full system specs.

You have indicated that you are on Windows 7 but have chosen to use FlexRAID (Yuk).

The board has the 6 Intel RAID ports along with the 8 SAS/SATA-II ports that can pass volumes through to Host OS just fine. This eliminates a M1015 straight up.

You haven't mentioned the BIOS setup which I have serious doubts of it being configured correctly considering the references and comparisons to a desktop x79 board.

The BIOS needs to be correct or issues can happen.
make sure you have enough room for the old video card to keep cool and not cook the HBA's.

You haven't mentioned the case you have this sitting in but I sensing it will be a Rack case, something like a Norco 4224, if so then you have a huge FAIL right there, these chassis just don't move enough air to cool the system. please provide total system specs.

Have you considered moving the Windows 8.1 Pro and use Storage-Spaces? Both Win8.1 and SS have matured and perform very well now. An even better option, Server 2012R2 as it packs ReFS.

You also need to make up your mind if the system is a Server or Desktop/Workstation. You don't need that video card in a Server and the use of Win7 not great for serving either, S2012R2 is best option in this case.

 

[jbates58]

full specs are

• backblaze pod upgraded to the direct wire system to remove the crappy sata multipler system they used to have.
• big noctua cooler on cpu
• GA-X79S-UP5-WIFI
  
• I7-4820K
• bios is stock
• clocks are stock
• 3 M1015 hba's in IT on p17 (i think) firmware have made a shroud and installed a fan directly on them to force cool air over the sinks. they are now not even warm to the touch
• Nvidia GTX 580
• 6GB kingston ram (unsure of spec or speed at the moment)
• mixture of drives currently in it, 2TB,3TB,4TB,6TB (17 all up) mostly greens and 2 red's am slowly adding and expanding as i go, but will only use reds from now on.
• 1TB wd black OS

and i think that is it.

the case seems to move a bit of air as it is, but i am looking to add extra fans.

i currently use this as my gaming system and home server for multimedia and plex. i also use it to back up my nas to, kinda a double backup thing with parity) i went away from the onboard sata, as i beleived sas to be better, and more expandable, plus the connectors that rin from the drive breakouts are sff connectors.

what should the bois look like and how should it be configured?

Jason

 

[jbates58]

hmmm looking into esxi, i cant tell if its free or not. looking around, i have seen people with a licence for it, but on the site it costs a fortune. i cant see many people in a home enviroment paying that sort of coin for it.

and could i set up

• linux based os (ubuntu or so) for learning, and playing around
• Windows 7 enviroment for plex and ease of use
• pfsense for a home firewall
• and some older o/s's like 98 to play some older games on?

and if i can use pf sense, with a dual nic mobo, can i use one of the nics as an imput and then direct pf sense to that as the input, and then use the other as the filtered outgoing to the lan?

cheers

Jason

 

[Lost-Benji]

full specs are

• backblaze pod upgraded to the direct wire system to remove the crappy sata multipler system they used to have.
• big noctua cooler on cpu
• GA-X79S-UP5-WIFI
  
• I7-4820K
• bios is stock
• clocks are stock
• 3 M1015 hba's in IT on p17 (i think) firmware have made a shroud and installed a fan directly on them to force cool air over the sinks. they are now not even warm to the touch
• Nvidia GTX 580
• 6GB kingston ram (unsure of spec or speed at the moment)
• mixture of drives currently in it, 2TB,3TB,4TB,6TB (17 all up) mostly greens and 2 red's am slowly adding and expanding as i go, but will only use reds from now on.
• 1TB wd black OS

and i think that is it.

the case seems to move a bit of air as it is, but i am looking to add extra fans.

i currently use this as my gaming system and home server for multimedia and plex. i also use it to back up my nas to, kinda a double backup thing with parity) i went away from the onboard sata, as i beleived sas to be better, and more expandable, plus the connectors that rin from the drive breakouts are sff connectors.

what should the bois look like and how should it be configured?

Jason

These boards and CPU's are quad-channel memory, 6GB is an odd amount. Run four or eight matched DIMM's.
Green drives and HBA's are known to "Drop" as that is why they are green, they spool down when they want, not when told. A little fact, the M1015's do NOT pass through spin-down commands to drives, they normally would stay spooled 24/7 unless you use something to modify the drives to spin down after a set time.
The BIOS should be the latest stable release and take the time to take note of the OC mode switch and the dual BIOS switch in the rear, these are common areas to mess these boards up.

hmmm looking into esxi, i cant tell if its free or not. looking around, i have seen people with a licence for it, but on the site it costs a fortune. i cant see many people in a home enviroment paying that sort of coin for it.

and could i set up

• linux based os (ubuntu or so) for learning, and playing around
• Windows 7 enviroment for plex and ease of use
• pfsense for a home firewall
• and some older o/s's like 98 to play some older games on?

and if i can use pf sense, with a dual nic mobo, can i use one of the nics as an imput and then direct pf sense to that as the input, and then use the other as the filtered outgoing to the lan?

cheers

Jason

If you want VM's then you have just sealed the recommendation I made earlier, Server 2012R2.
Install it, use it to control your drives and their pools. Install Hyper-V and run VM's inside it after you sort out the RAM.

As for the chassis, if you want to control the "Pod" and drives, loose two of the M1015's and use a SAS36 based expander. It will hang off the single M1015 meaning you can use a single slot server board.
A variance would be to use a PCI plate in rear with short cable to mod the M1015 to rear external SAS and feed cable to the "Pod" making for DAS.

 

[jbates58]

These boards and CPU's are quad-channel memory, 6GB is an odd amount. Run four or eight matched DIMM's.
Green drives and HBA's are known to "Drop" as that is why they are green, they spool down when they want, not when told. A little fact, the M1015's do NOT pass through spin-down commands to drives, they normally would stay spooled 24/7 unless you use something to modify the drives to spin down after a set time.
The BIOS should be the latest stable release and take the time to take note of the OC mode switch and the dual BIOS switch in the rear, these are common areas to mess these boards up.


If you want VM's then you have just sealed the recommendation I made earlier, Server 2012R2.
Install it, use it to control your drives and their pools. Install Hyper-V and run VM's inside it after you sort out the RAM.

As for the chassis, if you want to control the "Pod" and drives, loose two of the M1015's and use a SAS36 based expander. It will hang off the single M1015 meaning you can use a single slot server board.
A variance would be to use a PCI plate in rear with short cable to mod the M1015 to rear external SAS and feed cable to the "Pod" making for DAS.

It was 6 gb as i carried it over from my 1366 system. I have wanted to upgrade it but ram is to expensive for what it is atm. But i am happy to add more. I will check the rear switch, im not sure what it us set to. Hdd access times and read/write speeds are fine i getting around 80-100mb/s.

I went with the m1015s as everyone said they were the best and cheapest solution. And the expander route at the time was more expensive than a few m1015s. Will server20012r2 support pooling drives with data already on them and a few parity drives aswell?

For esxi, Is server 2012r2 the base os? And then i run my vm's from inside it? Isnt that then emulating linux from the windows enviromment? I didnt think that worked overly well.

Also, should i just upgrade to newer, faster ecc ram? As i could still use the 6gb i have in my gaming system. Will ecc be of any benifet to me if i go the esxi route or is it same same?

Jason.

 

[Lost-Benji]

Creating pools on any system work on same rules, backup the data, pool/wipe the drives and put data back.
Storage Spaces in Parity (the slowest form) will still do those speeds on the writes but the reads are a lot faster.
The M1015's work just fine on Server 2012R2, just use the proper Falcon drivers. I use three in my 50TB server with S2012R2.
As for VM Host, Server 2012R2 bare-metal to provide Hyper-V and control of all storage. You can then install any VM on it providing you have enough RAM.
For ECC RAM, you will need a Xeon or CPU that supports ECC. Your current CPU does not support it.
ARK | Intel Core™ i7-4820K Processor (10M Cache, up to 3.90 GHz)
If you want to use a system for serving and want best reliability and protection against data corruption, Xeon+ECC is best.

A new s1150 board with a quad-core xeon, ECC RAM, a M1015 and a 36-port HBA will do very nice allowing you to keep your UP5 monster for gaming and other stuff without risk to your data.

 

[jbates58]

Cool. Any recomendations on a suitable board? And idea on what a suitable 1150 system would set me back? If i wanted to do the things i listed above?

Alsi been able to retain the 3m1015s would be great. And if i can get a board with onboard sas, and say 10 sata ports, then that would put me almost at my case drive limit aswell. That would be grouse.

Cheers

 

[Lost-Benji]

I did a little eBaying for ya, these are both LSI based and work.
36-port SAS-III expander:
Intel 36PORT 12GB S SAS Sata Raid Expander LOW Profile Controller Card RES3FV288 | eBay
Intel® RAID Expander RES3FV288

Chenbro 36-port Expander:
Chenbro CK23601 6GB S 36 Port SAS Expander Controller Card 9CBA | eBay

Boards:
ARK | Intel Server Board S1200V3RPL
These have been around a long time and work very well for a server. It will hold a M1015 that can connect to a pair of expanders to hold a total of 60 HDD's (I think it's 60 when LSI flashed) then you still have slots to hold NIC's and other things. these boards do normally go for the 200-300ish but do give an idea of what would be stable and well suited.

There are plenty of other vendors that make boards but the trick is use one that is well vetted (Used by a lot of others) and has support. Here in the land down-under, Gigabyte server gear, SM and Tyan are not distributed in the country and thus hard to get support/warranty on.

 

[jbates58]

well its a few days on now, and the system has been solid. possibly an issue with the m1015 cards, a driver or a drive incomparability.

what is the best firmware to use for the actual m1015 cards and what is the best recommended driver to run them under?

what would the performance (processing and power consumption wise) between my x79s and the intel s12000v3RPL? assuming that the x79s is using my 4820k, and the intel i can put what ever recommended cpu on that. also assume the same quantity and speed ram.

is there any negative for me say going for this board, and getting an appropriate cpu and ram sets for it? as this has an on board sas2008 chip? http://www.servethehome.com/supermi...ew-including-onboard-lsi-sas-2008-controller/

from that, i can then offload the m1015 cards, and then just get some expanders.

also, with the on board sata slots, can i utilise them for a hardware raid of ssd's in say raid 1+0? for speed and redundancy of the base os, and the VM's. the article mentions that some os's have issues with using the ICH to make the raid. is that still the case? also, can i flash the lsi2008 on that board to IT? or is it proprietary?



OR

should i just get a xeon cpu and some new ram for my system, remove the gtx, keep the 3m1015's and then plug the remaining drives into the onboard sata/sas ports of the mobo?

if the x79s supports xeon cpu's and ecc ram would that not be a better way to go about it?

doing that will take me up to around 36 of the 45 drives i can support, and i dont think i will reach that point for a while yet.

Jason

 

[jbates58]

wow, they certainly know how to charge for a xeon processor.

 

[PigLover]

possibly an issue with the m1015 cards, a driver or a drive incomparability.

what is the best firmware to use for the actual m1015 cards and what is the best recommended driver to run them under?

What version of firmware are you running on the M1015?

 

[jbates58]

i think its either P17 or P19. i did try P20, but i had some issue that i cant remember, so i down-flashed it back to an earlier F/W.

Jason

 

[PigLover]

P19 should be good. Don't run P20 if you plan to use any SSD. Make sure you are running the IT mode and not IR mode firmware. Stock drivers should be OK for almost any current OS.

 

[jbates58]

i was poking around on gumtree, and there is a person nearby to me, selling 3 IBM x3650 servers. one of them has 24GB ram. would it be worth buying it and then pulling the cpu and the ram and putting it in my system to upgrade it to a xeon with (im assuming) ECC ram? he is only wanting 450 for them, but i dont know if thats for one or the 3. the cpu's in them, from what i can gather are xeon E5-2600 chips, and he stated them at 2.2GHZ, so there are a few different options there.

would it be worthwhile to grab one and then pull the parts out and upgrade mine?

Jason

 

[jbates58]

Anyone? Would my idea be a good way to move forward with my server?

Jason.