Suggestions for home network/storage build out

[Geran]

Hi all,

First, I want to thank you for stopping by and I appreciate any advice you provide during your stay.

I've lurked for a while and finally signed up in Oct 2016, after signing up I thought it would be a great idea to get y'alls guidance with what I'm trying to achieve for my home network/storage build out for 2017.

Below is my current setup and phase one of the build out.

Current Setup
1. Router: 3yo ASUS (includes wireless)
2. Storage: AMD Sempron 145 in an old chassis with a single 2TB WD Green

Objective

1. All systems must be low-power & high-performance.
2. Have everything rack-mounted and in a place that the wife is happy with and you can't hear it (current plan is to build a dedicated room in the garage with it's own air circulation).
3. Build a pfSense router to replace current router/wireless (will be using Ubiquiti APs)
4. Build a new storage unit to handle upcoming improvements (will be used for Plex, file server and surveillance).

Budget
No budget but if needed, then no more than $2500 for the first two systems listed below

Build’s Name: Minion
CPU/Motherboard: SuperMicro A1SRI-2558F-B
Chassis: SuperMicro CSE-505-203B
Drives: OCZ Storage Solutions TL100-25SAT3-120G
RAM: Kingston Technology Corp. KVR16LSE11/8 (x1)
Usage Profile: pfSense only

Build’s Name: Kevin
Operating System/ Storage Platform: Windows Server 2016 Essentials w/ SnapRAID & Drivepool w/ three different pools
CPU/Motherboard: SuperMicro X10SDV-2C-TP4F-O
Chassis: Chenbro Cleversafe Slicestor 1440 (already purchased)
OS SSD: Toshiba THNSN5256GPU7 256GB M.2 NVME
DrivePool cache SSD: Intel SSD DC S3710 Enterprise 400GB (x2)
RAM: Kingston Technology Corp. KVR21R15D4/16 (x2)
Add-in Cards: IBM M1215 (also if the motherboard is changed, I would like to have a dual port SFP+ as well)
Power Supply: Included in Chassis
Other Bits: Will be connected to a Dell R210ii (w/ 1240v2) that serves as the Plex PMS client
Usage Profile: Media Storage, Daily file storage & Surveillance storage

Any comments, questions or concerns...please feel free to ask and I will answer them as soon as possible.

 

[Rand__]

Which drives are you planning on?
What is your constant incoming traffic from the surveillance?
Why an NVMe drive for OS? Just b/c you have the M.2 Slot?
Why SFP+? Are you looking for 10Gbe?

 

[Geran]

Which drives are you planning on?

Current plan is a mixture of WD Reds and WD Purples

What is your constant incoming traffic from the surveillance?

Well it will be around 8-10 cameras some will be continuously recording and other will only record on motion.

Why an NVMe drive for OS? Just b/c you have the M.2 Slot?

I have one laying around so I figured I would use it.

Why SFP+? Are you looking for 10Gbe?

Yes, I would like to have a 10Gbe connection to my storage server only since the wife would be pulling files such as her pictures for her business from there on a daily basis. As for why SFP+, it is cheaper than 10Gbe RJ45 right now.

 

[Geran]

Any other suggestions or comments? I'm thinking of switching out the Xeon board from the storage server and getting another Atom board (probably C3000 series when released) to save a little more on power consumption.

The Xeon board will then be used for the surveillance system in the future.

 

[Rand__]

Well I don't know SnapRaid so can't comment on a bunch of issues regarding disk speed and cpu requirements for it.

Basically you have 3 different usage scenarios which potentially have different hw requirements (depending on the way your wife working with her pictures). Paired with quite low power systems (single thread) this makes it unlikely that you will make much use of 10Gbe.

But given your current setup you will most likely see an improvement - whether it is what you are expecting I dont know

 

[vl1969]

Well I don't know SnapRaid so can't comment on a bunch of issues regarding disk speed and cpu requirements for it.

Basically you have 3 different usage scenarios which potentially have different hw requirements (depending on the way your wife working with her pictures). Paired with quite low power systems (single thread) this makes it unlikely that you will make much use of 10Gbe.

But given your current setup you will most likely see an improvement - whether it is what you are expecting I dont know

SnapRaid , should not slow you down as it is not a real-time protection use.
you might get slow at the time the sync job is run, but this can be scheduled in off hours or slow use time.
should not affect cameras performance much, if at all.

 

[markarr]

For the cameras not sure if I would use snapraid as if you were to lose a drive you would lose any recording you had between that point and your last sync. If you are okay with that then you are limited by only the disk you are writing to for snapraid

 

[Geran]

For the cameras not sure if I would use snapraid as if you were to lose a drive you would lose any recording you had between that point and your last sync. If you are okay with that then you are limited by only the disk you are writing to for snapraid

What would you recommend then? I don't have to use snapraid on that pool just thought it would be useful to have some redundancy.

 

[vl1969]

What would you recommend then? I don't have to use snapraid on that pool just thought it would be useful to have some redundancy.

I think that as long as you have a proper and timely backups for the pool, you can use SnapRaid.
this way you would have some redundancy for uptime and not loose anything if worst come to worst..

otherwise, if you can beef-up the RAM and use ZFS raid for the pool.

 

[markarr]

What would you recommend then? I don't have to use snapraid on that pool just thought it would be useful to have some redundancy.

If you don't mind about the potiental loss between syncs then SnapRAID will work great for what you want. The other option for the camera pool is some sort of realtime parity, on windows storage spaces, the performance isnt great but if it is just for cameras you shouldn't have any issues.

 

[Geran]

I think that as long as you have a proper and timely backups for the pool, you can use SnapRaid.
this way you would have some redundancy for uptime and not loose anything if worst come to worst..

otherwise, if you can beef-up the RAM and use ZFS raid for the pool.

If you don't mind about the potiental loss between syncs then SnapRAID will work great for what you want. The other option for the camera pool is some sort of realtime parity, on windows storage spaces, the performance isnt great but if it is just for cameras you shouldn't have any issues.

These are both good recommendation...once it is set up, I'll repost here with what was decided on