New ESXi unRAID build - Norco 4224

[Johnm]

My M1015s arrived today. The 0.5 metre SAS cables definitely do not fit  . Another 20mm and they'd be just long enough. I'll order some replacement cables before Monday.

 

Another (minor) issue is that heatsink/fan JUST touches the LSI card if I place one in the PCIe slot closest to the CPU.

 

I was afraid of that.

 

You probably could get one plug to almost fit.....

 

as far as the heatsink.. ugh you want to use that PCI slot for sure. that's an 8X slot. what heat sink was that?

[gtaylor]

as far as the heatsink.. ugh you want to use that PCI slot for sure. that's an 8X slot. what heat sink was that?

 

The heatsink/fan is Coolermaster Vortex Plus. The card clears the heatsink but there are two small metal clips that hold the fan on to the heatsink that is very, very close. You can see the clips in the closeup pictures here:

 

http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id=6648

http://www.hitechlegion.com/reviews/cooling/heatsinksfans/3188-cooler-master-vortex-plus-cpu-cooler-review

 

The dimensions given on the website don't seem to take into account the additional width taken by these clips. The card fits into the slot okay, however the solder joints on the back of the card are either extremely close to or just touching the clips. I might have another look at them over the weekend. In the meantime I've put the two cards I have into slots 4 & 6 on the board.

 

[Johnm]

maybe some needle nose pliers can fix that up.. or at least some electrical tape.

[tinglis1]

I should be getting the last of my components this week.

Got everything except the MB, memory, M1015's and CPU Cooler.

 

I was thinking of the Coolermaster Vortex Plus myself but i might go to a different cooler as it seems a bit early to be taking to this machine with electrical tape and pliers.

 

I'm looking at the CoolMaster Hyper TX3 Evo. At 136mm high I estimate it should fit. I am away this week so will measure it on Friday.

 

Edit:

I am looking at the Noctua NH-U9B SE2, it is definitely not the cheapest but I do have a Noctua theme going...

[gtaylor]

I'm looking at the CoolMaster Hyper TX3 Evo. At 136mm high I estimate it should fit. I am away this week so will measure it on Friday.

 

The EVO seems to have a push-pin mount which may not be compatible if your board comes with a backplate. Note that the Vortex Plus specifications mention a Universal mount while the EVO does not. The instructions for installing the EVO also show push-pin mount for Intel boards.

 

Edit:

I am looking at the Noctua NH-U9B SE2, it is definitely not the cheapest but I do have a Noctua theme going...

 

I looked at the Noctua heatsinks as well, but they use a custom backplate which may not be compatible with boards that come with a pre-installed backplate. If you do buy one and it works let me know.

 

If you haven't received your board yet maybe you should wait before ordering a heatsink/fan. While the board I ordered came with a preinstalled backplate yours may not. I would wait and see. If the board doesn't come with the backplate then you can use any LGA1155 cooler.

[tinglis1]

No backplate on my board. I may just go with the stock cooler.

Got everything except the m1015s now.

Will start putting it together this weekend hopefully.

[gtaylor]

No backplate on my board. I may just go with the stock cooler.

 

Hurrah. I must have been unlucky then.

[tinglis1]

System has been built. I have tested every drive bay for drive detection without fault and everything seems to be running smoothly so far.

 

I have ESXi installed and running a few VM's and have got the three M1015's passed though.

I haven't got to unRAID yet and still to work out the best way to transfer from my old to my new unRAID setup.

 

I am running 4.7 on my old system and will need to make a change to 5.0 beta for the new hardware support.

My old unraid has many additional packages installed. The new system will be running stock as I can get things running under other VM's better.

 

Any suggestions on the best way to transfer to the new system, and what beta to use would be helpful.

 

I was thinking upgrade the old system to 5.0 beta 14 then transfer the drives and unRAID usb to the new server.

I can handle the risks of running a beta as long as its not likely to eat my entire array.

 

My experience of moving drives around and reassigning them is limited/non existent. I have done plenty of reading though.

Any hints specific to this type of setup would be useful.

 

If i dont get this done tomorrow then it will be next weekend before i get to this again.

[Johnm]

You can just move the drives and the Flashdrive to ESXi, create the VM and boot.

 

I think the m1050's boot in 4.7 you just loose the spindown and temp support.

(can someone confirm this please?)

 

if this works, then updated it. stay away from betas 13 and 14.

 

you could also update it before the move.

[tinglis1]

Its been a while, so I though I would update where I got too.

 

Over the last month in between "festive activities" I have managed to get the following done:

 

• Server built and memory stress tested
  
• ESXi installed and running with multiple VM(some windows, some Linux, going to try OSX at some stage)
  
• Successfully passed through the 3 x M1015's
  
• Setup unRAID 5.0 12a beta using plop boot manager and USB pasthough
  
• Created a second Unraid 5.0 12a beta with 1 of the 3 M1015's for testing and preclearing drives
  
• Precleared 3 x drives at once on the test Unraid setup with no obvious speed limitations
  (1 x 2TB WD Green, 1 x 1.5TB WD Green, 1 x 1TB Seagate 7200rpm)
  
• Transferred my existing unraid 4.7 derives to the new 5.0 12a beta VM
  
• Ran parity check
  
• Added 2x new WD Green Drives (Total now 11 x WD Greens, mixture of 1.5 & 2.0 TB's and 1 x 1TB WD Black Cache)
  
• Got lots of applications/services such as Squeezebox media server, SABnzbd, SickBeard and couch potato all running under VM's
  

 

I will add more detail if requested but I have following other guides on this forum mainly with no real issues so far.

So not much to add.

 

One of my next challenges is to see if I can put my Ati 6570 from my HTPC into this build using hardware passthrough and run XBMC under a Windows VM. My AV receiver is just through the wall and that would mean one less real computer.

 

I am also looking at better cooling for the M1015's (and potentially ati 6570). I have made a simple duct to push the air from one of the back plate 120mm fans to the cards already but I am thinking of doing something more substantial.

 

I have also started with how my Eaton UPS will powerdown my ESXi system but havent done any testing yet.

 

I am a new fan of the ESXi setup as it gives me so much flexibility with VM's at decent speeds.