So i am upgrading my storage solution from a 4bay Synology to something a lot bigger based on hardware i have laying around. The storage box will be used for mostly file storage and backing up virtual machines in my environment.
OS: Unraid, my controllers dont work well with BSD so FreeBSD is not an option.
Chassis: Supermicro Super Chasis 36 LFF Bays
M/B: Supermicro X8DTH
CPU: Intel Xeon CPU X5550 @ 2.67GHz (might add another one)
RAM: 48GB ECC DDR3
NIC: Intel 10Gbit SFP+
Cache: Corsair 1TB MP600 NVMe / Kingston 256GB SSD (might stick with just the NVMe and use the SSD for other projects).
Hard drives are a mix of older disks that i have laying around but its enough to get me started. The plan is to purchase new disks (replacing these older ones) over time, considering Seagate Ironwolf drives. As there are plenty of bays i might not go for the larger disks considering their price. Any vendor or model suggestions and why that particular model/vendor is best.
Some of my older drives have a sector size of 512 and some 4K. I have heard that mixing these might not be the best idea at least from a RAID point of view (yes i know Unraid is not the same as RAID). Would there be any down side to mixing sector sizes in unraid?
As far as i know Unraid writes files to a single disk, what happens if a file is larger than the targeted drive? Probably wont happen but interesting from a theoretical point.
I will probably be going for a two parity disk setup with a 1TB NVMe cache unless people here convince me otherwise
Would love to get some feedback on my plan/setup. Anything else i should consider?
OS: Unraid, my controllers dont work well with BSD so FreeBSD is not an option.
Chassis: Supermicro Super Chasis 36 LFF Bays
M/B: Supermicro X8DTH
CPU: Intel Xeon CPU X5550 @ 2.67GHz (might add another one)
RAM: 48GB ECC DDR3
NIC: Intel 10Gbit SFP+
Cache: Corsair 1TB MP600 NVMe / Kingston 256GB SSD (might stick with just the NVMe and use the SSD for other projects).
Hard drives are a mix of older disks that i have laying around but its enough to get me started. The plan is to purchase new disks (replacing these older ones) over time, considering Seagate Ironwolf drives. As there are plenty of bays i might not go for the larger disks considering their price. Any vendor or model suggestions and why that particular model/vendor is best.
Some of my older drives have a sector size of 512 and some 4K. I have heard that mixing these might not be the best idea at least from a RAID point of view (yes i know Unraid is not the same as RAID). Would there be any down side to mixing sector sizes in unraid?
As far as i know Unraid writes files to a single disk, what happens if a file is larger than the targeted drive? Probably wont happen but interesting from a theoretical point.
I will probably be going for a two parity disk setup with a 1TB NVMe cache unless people here convince me otherwise
Would love to get some feedback on my plan/setup. Anything else i should consider?
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