Home SAN fibre system

GodAtum · 8 Oct 2012 at 16:21

I've decided to build my own SAN fibre solution in my home. Probably over-engineering but that's part of the fun! Basically it will be a SAN server connected via fibre to my main PC provided extremely high throughput speeds of hopefully around 800MB/s, well over the my current 1GB ethernet speed of 65MB/s. To give a comparison, USB 3 runs at 5 Gb/s (640MB/s).

My reasons for doing this are for super-fast backups of TBs of data plus fast Blue-Ray quality media streaming to my TV.

I will keep a diary on my blog and update the links on this post:

GodAtum · 8 Oct 2012 at 19:46

I am ordering all the equipment atm so will post some photos of the server build

I am really looking forward to it but a feel a bit daunted! I'll probably come to you guys for advice

GodAtum · 9 Oct 2012 at 21:34

Some pics of the server case

Can anyone help with unscrewing the top lid. I've spent a few hours trying but I dont have enough strength!

http://godatum.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/ill-just-be-uploading-pics-and-vids-of.html

GodAtum · 10 Oct 2012 at 20:37

tried again today but all my screwdriver heads slip!! Looks like the metal in the screws have worn out?!

GodAtum · 10 Oct 2012 at 21:34

iB CoMpL3XiTy said:
If the screw head is rounded off then you might have to break out the drill...

Yeah it seems that way :mad:

Dont really want to have to drill into an expensive case though!

GodAtum · 10 Oct 2012 at 21:48

PistolPete said:
For what it''s worth, I have the same case and I had the same issue with the screws.
The case is cheap, it's a little flimsy but it does the job. Mines holding a 8x2TB NAS.

How did you get the screws out? Is there a knack to it or just brute force?

GodAtum · 11 Oct 2012 at 13:18

Might have to resort to calling out the Geek Squad, another £30 down the drain!

GodAtum · 11 Oct 2012 at 22:03

Tattysnuc said:
Explain......

Hopefully they will have the correct equipment to remove the screws.

GodAtum · 13 Oct 2012 at 22:52

Bought a power drill and bit set today from B&Q. Drilled a hole into the screw and tried to reverse the screw out but did not work. I will try drilling the hole deeper to get more grip into the screw.

GodAtum · 15 Oct 2012 at 09:00

Got the screw out

I've had doubts about going for an AMD system as they are not looked fabourably upon compared to an i5. However I'm not looking to run games or overclockers. But I have seen some comparisons of hdd speed and the i5 still trumps the Amd 6100.

Amy advice? The i5 3750k is almost twice as much as the fx 6100.

GodAtum · 7 Nov 2012 at 13:13

OK have ordered a motherboard bundle and other components so it'll take a few days to build and ship. My final parts list:

Intel Xeon E3-1230 V2
Noctua NH-U12P-SE2
Gigabyte G1 Sniper 3
16GB (2x8GB) Corsair XMS3
Corsair Professional Series HX1050
240GB OCZ Agility 3 SSD
WD 2TB Red WD20EFRX x 4
Samsung SSUNG/SH-222BB/BEBE
be quiet! Shadow Wings 80mm Mid Speed x2
be quiet! Shadow Wings 120mm PLM BL024 x2

Already have:

X-Case RM 400/10
Mellanox MHEA28-XT x 2
Dell PERC 6i + battery
Zarlink ZLynx 30M CX4-CX4
SAS - 4 x SATA (SFF-8484 to 4 x 7 Pin S-ATA)

GodAtum · 8 Nov 2012 at 11:15

Some pics for your pleasure

Untitled by GodAtum, on Flickr

GodAtum · 12 Nov 2012 at 17:28

I've made a network diagram to outline my network-to-be. Not sure if it'll work or be best practice so any comments will be greatly appreciated. Everything in the green box is a VM on a single physical server (which has 3 NICs)

http://www.gliffy.com/pubdoc/4037104/L.png

Pic too big

GodAtum · 12 Nov 2012 at 22:37

Lol those 10.0.0.0 IPs just came up automatically fro my Asus router! The vswitch IPs where also assigned automatically in Workstation when I was playing about. I did get the Asus N66 but I could not get it to work without the BT Home Hub, does the Draytek have something extra like a modem?

GodAtum · 13 Nov 2012 at 15:10

Just received all the parts and now finished building

A few issues, the onboard NICs are not detected by ESXI (http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=23158692#post23158692)

GodAtum · 13 Nov 2012 at 17:47

Another issue arises: the PERC 6 is causing the server to not boot properly and turn off. I've read I need to cover the 5 and 6 PCIe pins is that correct?

GodAtum · 14 Nov 2012 at 18:41

How did you cover the pins? ive borrowed some nail polish but it looks conductive as it has a metallic shine to it. Is that both sides as well?

GodAtum · 14 Nov 2012 at 20:41

deleted

GodAtum · 17 Nov 2012 at 18:20

Here is my video of the server running. It's very quiet!

http://youtu.be/gKtuAmMZUnU?hd=1

GodAtum · 25 Nov 2012 at 21:37

Hi all a quick update.

Had a very productive weekend. Went to my local PC repair shop where they discovered what was wrong with the motherboard: apparently my GPU was not supported as it was an 8 bus so I bought a fanless Nvidia 210.

Now I have EXRi 5.0 set up with PCI passthough of my RAID controller and Mellanox card

My VMs atm are:
Windows Server Essentials 2012 as my DC
FreeNAS running my ISCSI share

The next plan is to figure out how to make use of my infiniband card as FreeNAS does not support this method. Also I need to get a dual Intel NIC so I can setup PFSense and Untangle.