New Storage Server Build - Advice Needed

[andybucks]

Build’s Name: Andy
Operating System/ Storage Platform: Win7 or Win Server
CPU: Xeon E3-1230 or E3-1235
Motherboard: Unknown yet
Chassis: Old Full Tower case
Drives: 6 x 3TB Sata III would love SAS but too pricey for this build.
RAM: 8GB
Add-in Cards: Raid?
Power Supply: 350w
Other Bits:

Usage Profile: Storage / Streaming of movies

Other information… I'm starting to look at building my first storage server and have a few questions:

1) Motherboard - Is there a particular chipset I want to look out for? Any suggestions?

2) HDD - I want 6 x 3TB drives Sata III. I will prob buy 4 to start and add 2 more later, can I add drives to an existing raid setup or would it need rebuild?

3) I looked at the IBM M1015 Raid card, I see it only has 2 ports, but supports upto 16 drives. How are the drives connected to card? Would this decrease performance? If I'm getting SATA III don't want to lose performance.

4) Ram, I see Xeon processor supports ECC ram, is it worth the extra?

Any other tips / suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

Andy

 

[sotech]

Build’s Name: Andy
Operating System/ Storage Platform: Win7 or Win Server
CPU: Xeon E3-1230 or E3-1235
Motherboard: Unknown yet
Chassis: Old Full Tower case
Drives: 6 x 3TB Sata III would love SAS but too pricey for this build.
RAM: 8GB
Add-in Cards: Raid?
Power Supply: 350w
Other Bits:

Usage Profile: Storage / Streaming of movies

Other information… I'm starting to look at building my first storage server and have a few questions:

1) Motherboard - Is there a particular chipset I want to look out for? Any suggestions?

2) HDD - I want 6 x 3TB drives Sata III. I will prob buy 4 to start and add 2 more later, can I add drives to an existing raid setup or would it need rebuild?

3) I looked at the IBM M1015 Raid card, I see it only has 2 ports, but supports upto 16 drives. How are the drives connected to card? Would this decrease performance? If I'm getting SATA III don't want to lose performance.

4) Ram, I see Xeon processor supports ECC ram, is it worth the extra?

Any other tips / suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

Andy

If you don't need the integrated graphics of the E3-1235 I'd suggest sticking with the 1230 - less power consumption for something you won't use.

Go for a C202 or C204 chipset server board - the C204 has 2 6gb/s ports and four 3gb/s ports, the C202 has six 3gb/s. The C206 is the one to get if you want to use the integrated graphics of the 1235 - the other board have a very basic integrated graphics chip on the motherboard which suffices for server use and consumes a minimal amount of power.

The M1015 uses SFF-8087 cables which break out into four separate cables with normal SATA ends. Be careful which ones you buy as the cables are directional and you can get reverse ones which you don't want.

ECC ram is worth it if you care about your data, imho. I don't build any servers without them. Even if it only saves a handful of files over the lifetime of the computer why give away the peace of mind that you're as protected as you can be?

Also consider looking into running ZFS or something similar (one way is with openIndiana+napp-it) - it's very, very simple to set up and is managed from a web browser for the most part - the ZFS file system is one of the best out there in terms of data integrity.

 

[andybucks]

Hi thanks for your reply.

I've looked at the C204 motherboards, they look fine, but I was really hoping for 4 x 6.0 Gbps Sata III ports. As I'd prob get a SSD for the OS and then start with 2 x 3tb 6.0 Gbps for storage.

So perhaps a normal desktop motherboard be best option? Whats the advantage of a server board?

When I need to add more drives I'll swap over to the M1015 controller. Does this support Sata III as I read its just Sata II?

 

[Patrick]

Andy, check out:
Tyan IPMI WebGUI
Supermicro IPMIView

Basically, having a server board gives you a few things:
1. Dual Intel NICs
2. IPMI 2.0
3. ECC Support

#2 with KVM-over-IP allows you to stick the server in a closet or something and access it remotely as if you were sitting at a (slightly laggy) local keyboard, video display and mouse.

If you go C202 or C204 go Xeon E3-1230 and a board with IPMI 2.0 and KVM over IP.

If you co C206, get the E3-1235 and use Intel vPro for KVM. It is nowhere as robust (although higher performance video and resolution), and you need VNCViewer Plus ($80 or so) but it will work. See my article on Intel vPro on Tom's (you will note from that link that I only looked at the desktop parts in that piece but it is the same idea.)

 

[sotech]

Hi thanks for your reply.

I've looked at the C204 motherboards, they look fine, but I was really hoping for 4 x 6.0 Gbps Sata III ports. As I'd prob get a SSD for the OS and then start with 2 x 3tb 6.0 Gbps for storage.

So perhaps a normal desktop motherboard be best option? Whats the advantage of a server board?

When I need to add more drives I'll swap over to the M1015 controller. Does this support Sata III as I read its just Sata II?

If you're using spinning disks then there's not a significant advantage to using the 6gb/s ports over the 3gb/s ports - no mechanical hard drive that I'm aware of can saturate a 3gb/s link, though it does mean that your cache will be accessible more quickly.

The M1015 is capable of 6gb/s.

Server boards tend to have better quality parts like Intel NICs rather than Realtek NICs - the performance and compatability is usually much better and for the rest +1 to all that Patrick has said above.

 

[andybucks]

Great thanks for your replies.

This motherboard seems to fit the bill. It has the onboard graphics so would go with the E3-1230.

Whats the advantage of dual / quad NIC's? Does that mean I can use one of the additional NICs for the KVM management? I was thinking using desktop remote management from my HTPC to connect to the server?

 

[Patrick]

If you get an ASUS board (or any server board) and want KVM, you need to make sure you purchase one with the feature. You should see iKVM on the ASUS boards, "-F" appended to Supermicro part numbers and etc. if you want the feature.