ServeTheHome 2013 Architecture Build - What's getting installed

[Patrick]

Keeping a quick list of the hardware used for the build. Stuff is still not finalized but here is the update:

Firewall/ VPN
Fortinet 60C (will be adding a second for HA if this works well.)

Switches
2x HP V1910-24G 24/28 port switches.

Servers
Dell C6100 4 Node
3x dual Intel Xeon L5520, 24GB nodes
1x dual Intel Xeon L5638, 24GB node
(still awaiting arrival of 8GB sticks)

One option, depending on power constraints, is to use the L5638's in single socket configurations in two nodes to lower power consumption. Will likely test this out soon.

Storage thus far:
4x Intel 320 160GB SSD
2x WD Red 3TB (local backup media)
*Currently installed* 2x 256GB SSDs for scratch

Odds and ends
18x 7' Cat6 cables
6x 2.5" to 3.5" converter brackets
4x Additional 3.5" sleds

Diagram (needs to get updated)

 

[Lost-Benji]

Hello, long time lurker, liked new site and better hardware/review updates. So I joined, happy so far.

Now for the topic:
Hot spares on drives?
Any reason for the slower Intel SSD's other than SATA-II?
What is you predicted I/O of the storage interface considering the likelihood of four systems wanting their share?

 

[Patrick]

Hello, long time lurker, liked new site and better hardware/review updates. So I joined, happy so far.

Welcome to the forums!!!

Now for the topic:
Hot spares on drives?
Any reason for the slower Intel SSD's other than SATA-II?
What is you predicted I/O of the storage interface considering the likelihood of four systems wanting their share?

Great question. No on the hot spares (I know it sounds crazy)! Actually, I'm going to have cold spares + other online spare capacity to cover. The big issue is that we are going to be VERY tight on power.

One other thing is that if it looks like we will need to source a 5A chunk of power to augment, then there is a good chance we will have at minimum another chassis with all nodes not powered on as "spare" nodes.

On the Intel SSDs, yes. The Intel 320 SSDs were well under $1/GB and have super capacitors. They are known for being stable.. They also respond very well to over-provisioning. Likely will OP to have 120GB available capacity. Was very close to getting Intel 710 100GB drives and may still do so.

 

[Lost-Benji]

Cheers.

Never knew about the super-caps, not sure of the point of it other then cache clearing. The 700 series being SLC = big coins.....

Are you locked into that hardware?
Like can you look at say a s2011, DP board to run whole shebang or even delve to the dark side with Opteron option to keep power budget?

 

[Patrick]

Cheers.

Never knew about the super-caps, not sure of the point of it other then cache clearing. The 700 series being SLC = big coins.....

Are you locked into that hardware?
Like can you look at say a s2011, DP board to run whole shebang or even delve to the dark side with Opteron option to keep power budget?

Yes, the point is basically to protect data if the power goes out. The 710 is eMLC based but not bad price wise.

Hardware wise, pretty much locked in. I have very nice S2011 and AMD G34 hardware around, but went this path to get multiple nodes and redundancy in a 5A profile. Ok well I loaned dba a dual G34 motherboard and eight 12/16 core 6200 series Opterons so not a ton of G34 stuff at the moment

 

[Patrick]

So, a bit of error on my part. I took 17w/ 24w for each HP V1910-24G. Right now, not under a heavy load, the Extech has both switches at 28w idle (combined). The reason for this is that the idle numbers were taken with a single switch and doubled. However, with the second switch added, and two Gigabit links between the switches, there were still fewer ports active on average per unit, bringing down total power consumption. Should have thought of this given the HP V1910-24G thread! Looks like that will bring load power to under 500w when all is said and done.

 

[Lost-Benji]

Time to under-clock the CPU's.....

 

[nitrobass24]

Well i dont know about an under-clock, but might want to disable some CPU features like Turbo Boost, so under heavy load you arent thrown over your power threshold....if you server is that busy then you probably need to expand anyway.

Also might want to consider fine tuning your C & P states in the bios....theres an article idea! In depth explanation of P-States vs C-States.

 

[Patrick]

In theory I have 5A @ 120v or 500w usable so I'm right there. Tested using Folding@Home on all of the nodes using Turbo Boost so thinking I won't ever see that kind of load. Plus, if I ever started to, would just spend the money and get more power allocated. The BIOS of the C6100 actually has a few low power settings that control how aggressive Turbo Boost is and stuff.

 

[Lost-Benji]

I am not going to go deep on the whole power thing but what are you actually measuring the power draw with and is it compensating for power factor (Lead/Lag)?
I fee sorry for you yanks (no offense intended, lol) for being stuck on rather low voltage supplies.

Can you expand more on the requirements and why you have such a tight-ass power budget.



P.S I just found the other parallel thread down further. Not sure what thread to live in....

 

[RimBlock]

Just in case you had not seen it Patrick, Anandtech did an article on consumer Intel SSDs in their web server environments and the results are quite interesting.

The article is here.

I am using Intel 520s at the moment.

RB

 

[Patrick]

I saw that one. The good news: AT writes much more data than STH