[OmniOS-discuss] HP Z230 as a home server

[Dominik Hassler]

hi,

it's about a year since i got in touch with illumos/solaris and zfs for
the first time. i absolutely don't want to miss it anymore, especially
zfs. omniti/dan and the whole illumos community are doing a great job.
thank you!


of course i'd like to have an omnios server at home, too. nothing fancy,
basically just for data storage (nfs and smb sharing) and 1-2 linux kvms
for multimedia services and auxiliary stuff. since i don't have a
dedicated room where noise does not matter i have to consider quiet
"workstation hardware" instead of noisy "server hardware".

here is the hardware setup i am planning to go with:
- HP Z230 (WM583EA#UUZ) which is basically
-> Intel PCH C226 chipset
-> E3-1225v3 quad core XEON
-> Intel I217LM PCIe Gigabit-Controller

- 4x 8 GB ECC RAM (HP A2Z50AA)
- 1x 1 TB WD Re, S-ATA III (512n) as rpool
- 2x 4 TB WD Re, S-ATA III (512n) as a data mirror


what do you think about this hardware setup? any no-gos?

thanks
dominik

[Dan McDonald]

<SNIP!>

Post by Dominik Hassler
of course i'd like to have an omnios server at home, too. nothing fancy,
basically just for data storage (nfs and smb sharing) and 1-2 linux kvms
for multimedia services and auxiliary stuff. since i don't have a
dedicated room where noise does not matter i have to consider quiet
"workstation hardware" instead of noisy "server hardware".
- HP Z230 (WM583EA#UUZ) which is basically

http://www8.hp.com/us/en/campaigns/workstations/z230.html

Interesting. It's a socket 1150 workstation. Good for illumos.

Post by Dominik Hassler
-> Intel PCH C226 chipset
-> E3-1225v3 quad core XEON

Gotta get that ECC support. Also, while not HT, it does have good clock speed (> 3GHz).

Post by Dominik Hassler
-> Intel I217LM PCIe Gigabit-Controller

Supported, and relatively new. Should show up as e1000g. I notice you can get a 2nd ethernet with an I210. This would show up as igb.

Post by Dominik Hassler
- 4x 8 GB ECC RAM (HP A2Z50AA)

Gotta do ECC!

Post by Dominik Hassler
- 1x 1 TB WD Re, S-ATA III (512n) as rpool
- 2x 4 TB WD Re, S-ATA III (512n) as a data mirror

I might swap in an SSD for rpool, but that's just me. (NOTE: If you do use an SSD, don't use it for swap, though with 32GB, you won't need swap at all). And for your data, it doesn't matter (I don't think) if it's 512 or 4k sectors, just so long as you know what it is up front, they MATCH, and set things appropriately when creating the pool.

If others here have opinions, you ought to share 'em. I'm running a Supermicro not unlike what the HP offers:

http://kebesays.blogspot.com/2014/06/home-data-center-20-dogfooding-again.html

I got more NICs though. :)

Thanks, and hope this helps,
Dan

[Dominik Hassler]

dan,

i will definitely go for the 2 nic option; did overlook that somehow...
and take an intel S3500 SSD as rpool (non mirrored).


thanks again
dominik

Post by Dan McDonald
<SNIP!>

Post by Dominik Hassler
of course i'd like to have an omnios server at home, too. nothing fancy,
basically just for data storage (nfs and smb sharing) and 1-2 linux kvms
for multimedia services and auxiliary stuff. since i don't have a
dedicated room where noise does not matter i have to consider quiet
"workstation hardware" instead of noisy "server hardware".
- HP Z230 (WM583EA#UUZ) which is basically

http://www8.hp.com/us/en/campaigns/workstations/z230.html
Interesting. It's a socket 1150 workstation. Good for illumos.

Post by Dominik Hassler
-> Intel PCH C226 chipset
-> E3-1225v3 quad core XEON

Gotta get that ECC support. Also, while not HT, it does have good clock speed (> 3GHz).

Post by Dominik Hassler
-> Intel I217LM PCIe Gigabit-Controller

Supported, and relatively new. Should show up as e1000g. I notice you can get a 2nd ethernet with an I210. This would show up as igb.

Post by Dominik Hassler
- 4x 8 GB ECC RAM (HP A2Z50AA)

Gotta do ECC!

Post by Dominik Hassler
- 1x 1 TB WD Re, S-ATA III (512n) as rpool
- 2x 4 TB WD Re, S-ATA III (512n) as a data mirror

I might swap in an SSD for rpool, but that's just me. (NOTE: If you do use an SSD, don't use it for swap, though with 32GB, you won't need swap at all). And for your data, it doesn't matter (I don't think) if it's 512 or 4k sectors, just so long as you know what it is up front, they MATCH, and set things appropriately when creating the pool.
http://kebesays.blogspot.com/2014/06/home-data-center-20-dogfooding-again.html
I got more NICs though. :)
Thanks, and hope this helps,
Dan

[R. Matthew Emerson]

Post by Dan McDonald
<SNIP!>

Post by Dominik Hassler
of course i'd like to have an omnios server at home, too. nothing fancy,
basically just for data storage (nfs and smb sharing) and 1-2 linux kvms
for multimedia services and auxiliary stuff. since i don't have a
dedicated room where noise does not matter i have to consider quiet
"workstation hardware" instead of noisy "server hardware".
- HP Z230 (WM583EA#UUZ) which is basically

http://www8.hp.com/us/en/campaigns/workstations/z230.html
Interesting. It's a socket 1150 workstation. Good for illumos.

Post by Dominik Hassler
-> Intel PCH C226 chipset
-> E3-1225v3 quad core XEON

Gotta get that ECC support. Also, while not HT, it does have good clock speed (> 3GHz).

Post by Dominik Hassler
-> Intel I217LM PCIe Gigabit-Controller

Supported, and relatively new. Should show up as e1000g. I notice you can get a 2nd ethernet with an I210. This would show up as igb.

Post by Dominik Hassler
- 4x 8 GB ECC RAM (HP A2Z50AA)

Gotta do ECC!

Post by Dominik Hassler
- 1x 1 TB WD Re, S-ATA III (512n) as rpool
- 2x 4 TB WD Re, S-ATA III (512n) as a data mirror

I might swap in an SSD for rpool, but that's just me. (NOTE: If you do use an SSD, don't use it for swap, though with 32GB, you won't need swap at all). And for your data, it doesn't matter (I don't think) if it's 512 or 4k sectors, just so long as you know what it is up front, they MATCH, and set things appropriately when creating the pool.
http://kebesays.blogspot.com/2014/06/home-data-center-20-dogfooding-again.html
I got more NICs though. :)

My small home server is a Supermicro X10SLM-F-O with a Xeon 1230v3 in a Supermicro CSE-731i-300B case. The board is nice because it has two NICs (one e1000g, one igb), and also a dedicated one for IPMI. I used memory from Crucial (CT2KIT102472BD160B) and a pair of Toshiba 2 TB disks (PH3200U-1I72) as my data pool (on sale at the local Micro Center). I'm using a 500GB Hitachi disk that I happened to have around for my rpool.

This ended up being around $900, which I thought was way cheap.

If I did it again, I might consider the larger 732 series case, which is supposed to be a little bit quieter. My desktop box is a pretty quiet 27" iMac, and I can hear the Supermicro box's fans from about 5 feet away. The noise not really objectionable, but it's not silent either.

The only problem I had with this hardware was that fastboot would hang, but the suggestion in http://article.gmane.org/gmane.os.omnios.general/1043 solved that.

I would have gone with a factory-built box, but Dell wasn't selling Haswell Xeon E3 systems at the time, and HP was trying hard to discourage customers from using non-HP disks.

[Dominik Hassler]

your inputs made me rethink my "strategy". especially IPMI capability of
the X10SLM-F. and all that for a decent price...

so instead of going for a dealer pre-configured HP solution which offers
me very little flexibility, i'll make my own based on your suggestions
whilst saving some money on top:

- MBD-X10SLM-F-O mainboard
- Xeon E3-1231v3 (this time w/ HT)
- 4x 8 GB KTH-PL316EK4/32G
- 2x SSD DC S3500 (rpool mirror)
- 2x WD RE 4T (data mirror)
- Lian Li PC-V358 case

@dan: can you give some details about your SSD wear-leveling setup? is
it basically just a slice of 20GB (why 20?) of unallocated disk space or
is there more magic behind it?

does anyone have (good or bad) experience with the kingston RAM
mentioned above?

thanks
dominik

Post by R. Matthew Emerson

Post by Dan McDonald
<SNIP!>

Post by Dominik Hassler
of course i'd like to have an omnios server at home, too. nothing fancy,
basically just for data storage (nfs and smb sharing) and 1-2 linux kvms
for multimedia services and auxiliary stuff. since i don't have a
dedicated room where noise does not matter i have to consider quiet
"workstation hardware" instead of noisy "server hardware".
- HP Z230 (WM583EA#UUZ) which is basically

http://www8.hp.com/us/en/campaigns/workstations/z230.html
Interesting. It's a socket 1150 workstation. Good for illumos.

Post by Dominik Hassler
-> Intel PCH C226 chipset
-> E3-1225v3 quad core XEON

Gotta get that ECC support. Also, while not HT, it does have good clock speed (> 3GHz).

Post by Dominik Hassler
-> Intel I217LM PCIe Gigabit-Controller

Supported, and relatively new. Should show up as e1000g. I notice you can get a 2nd ethernet with an I210. This would show up as igb.

Post by Dominik Hassler
- 4x 8 GB ECC RAM (HP A2Z50AA)

Gotta do ECC!

Post by Dominik Hassler
- 1x 1 TB WD Re, S-ATA III (512n) as rpool
- 2x 4 TB WD Re, S-ATA III (512n) as a data mirror

I might swap in an SSD for rpool, but that's just me. (NOTE: If you do use an SSD, don't use it for swap, though with 32GB, you won't need swap at all). And for your data, it doesn't matter (I don't think) if it's 512 or 4k sectors, just so long as you know what it is up front, they MATCH, and set things appropriately when creating the pool.
http://kebesays.blogspot.com/2014/06/home-data-center-20-dogfooding-again.html
I got more NICs though. :)

My small home server is a Supermicro X10SLM-F-O with a Xeon 1230v3 in a Supermicro CSE-731i-300B case. The board is nice because it has two NICs (one e1000g, one igb), and also a dedicated one for IPMI. I used memory from Crucial (CT2KIT102472BD160B) and a pair of Toshiba 2 TB disks (PH3200U-1I72) as my data pool (on sale at the local Micro Center). I'm using a 500GB Hitachi disk that I happened to have around for my rpool.
This ended up being around $900, which I thought was way cheap.
If I did it again, I might consider the larger 732 series case, which is supposed to be a little bit quieter. My desktop box is a pretty quiet 27" iMac, and I can hear the Supermicro box's fans from about 5 feet away. The noise not really objectionable, but it's not silent either.
The only problem I had with this hardware was that fastboot would hang, but the suggestion in http://article.gmane.org/gmane.os.omnios.general/1043 solved that.
I would have gone with a factory-built box, but Dell wasn't selling Haswell Xeon E3 systems at the time, and HP was trying hard to discourage customers from using non-HP disks.

[Tim Rice]

On Wed, 22 Oct 2014, Dominik Hassler wrote:

[snip]

Post by Dominik Hassler
- MBD-X10SLM-F-O mainboard
- Xeon E3-1231v3 (this time w/ HT)
- 4x 8 GB KTH-PL316EK4/32G
- 2x SSD DC S3500 (rpool mirror)
- 2x WD RE 4T (data mirror)
- Lian Li PC-V358 case

[snip]

Post by Dominik Hassler
does anyone have (good or bad) experience with the kingston RAM
mentioned above?

Kingston RAM didn't work on a MBD-X9SCM-F-0 board here. Had to buy new ram.
I recommend you stick with whatever RAM supermicro says is tested
on your board.

[Dominik Hassler]

got all the hardware and set up the system. it works great.

wanted to share the final HW setup in case someone plans to build a
similar system:

- MBD-X10SL7-F (LSI 2308 SAS flashed to IT firmware)
- Xeon E3-1231v3
- 2x WD Xe (SAS) 300G (rpool mirror)
- 2x WD Re (SAS) 4T (data mirror)
- 32G samsung ECC ram according to supermicro compatibility list
- Lian Li PC-V358 case

thank you all for your help!

Post by Tim Rice
[snip]

Post by Dominik Hassler
- MBD-X10SLM-F-O mainboard
- Xeon E3-1231v3 (this time w/ HT)
- 4x 8 GB KTH-PL316EK4/32G
- 2x SSD DC S3500 (rpool mirror)
- 2x WD RE 4T (data mirror)
- Lian Li PC-V358 case

[snip]

Post by Dominik Hassler
does anyone have (good or bad) experience with the kingston RAM
mentioned above?

Kingston RAM didn't work on a MBD-X9SCM-F-0 board here. Had to buy new ram.
I recommend you stick with whatever RAM supermicro says is tested
on your board.

[Dan McDonald]

On Fri, 21 Nov 2014 17:03:18 +0100

Post by Dominik Hassler
- 2x WD Re (SAS) 4T (data mirror)

Are you sure its SAS and not SATA? I have not seen 2/4T SAS disks before.

They exist:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236353

Dan

[Dominik Hassler]

On Fri, 21 Nov 2014 17:03:18 +0100

Post by Dominik Hassler
- 2x WD Re (SAS) 4T (data mirror)

Are you sure its SAS and not SATA? I have not seen 2/4T SAS disks before.

yeah, am sure:
- WD4001FYYG (
http://www.wdc.com/global/products/specs/?driveID=1184&language=1 )

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[Michael Rasmussen]

On Fri, 21 Nov 2014 17:31:14 +0100

Post by Dominik Hassler
- WD4001FYYG (
http://www.wdc.com/global/products/specs/?driveID=1184&language=1 )

Nice. Hopefully our SAN guys droppes SATA for the slow-tier in our EMC SAN then;-)
--
Hilsen/Regards
Michael Rasmussen

Get my public GnuPG keys:
michael <at> rasmussen <dot> cc
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[Brogyányi József]

Hi

- I definitely choose E3-1230v3 CPU. - Not need any VGA and better CPU.
- 2x WD7500BFCX mirror rpool - I'm sure if I were you I sliced the HDD.
100GB is enough for rpool. Some guys use only 32GB for rpool. The rest
part of HDD is for your data.
Brogyi

Post by Dominik Hassler
hi,
it's about a year since i got in touch with illumos/solaris and zfs for
the first time. i absolutely don't want to miss it anymore, especially
zfs. omniti/dan and the whole illumos community are doing a great job.
thank you!
of course i'd like to have an omnios server at home, too. nothing fancy,
basically just for data storage (nfs and smb sharing) and 1-2 linux kvms
for multimedia services and auxiliary stuff. since i don't have a
dedicated room where noise does not matter i have to consider quiet
"workstation hardware" instead of noisy "server hardware".
- HP Z230 (WM583EA#UUZ) which is basically
-> Intel PCH C226 chipset
-> E3-1225v3 quad core XEON
-> Intel I217LM PCIe Gigabit-Controller
- 4x 8 GB ECC RAM (HP A2Z50AA)
- 1x 1 TB WD Re, S-ATA III (512n) as rpool
- 2x 4 TB WD Re, S-ATA III (512n) as a data mirror
what do you think about this hardware setup? any no-gos?
thanks
dominik
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