New Build:

 

Any advice, ideas or configurations which anyone sees as an improvement is welcomed.

 

Primary Purpose:

 

** Windows 2012 Hyper-V (lab of 10-20 VD's)

** unRAID

** Transcoding (Proof Of Concept)

 

Solution Name: DENDRITE

 

Goal: Build our first box with (a) ability to improve the build by adding an additional Processor / Memory when capacity is required (b) re-purpose (core internals) if build is scrapped

 

Motherboard: SUPERMICRO MBD-X9DA7-O Dual LGA 2011

Processor: 1x Intel Xeon E5-2620 Sandy Bridge-EP 2.0GHz LGA 2011 95W Six-Core Server Processor

Memory: 4x Kingston 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 ECC Registered Server Memory DR x4 Hynix C

RAID Cards: areca ARC-1882IX-24 PCI-Express 2.0 x8 SATA / SAS 28 Ports 6Gb/s SAS/SATA RAID Adapter <-- Choose this considering the DR (Disaster Recovery in mind and re-build times)

Case: 1 x NORCO RPC-4220 (Powder-coated White)

PSU: 1 x SeaSonic X750 Gold 750W ATX12V V2.3/EPS 12V V2.91 SLI Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply

USB: Lic#1 - Patriot AUTOBAHN 8gb "Low Profile"

USB: Lic#2 - Maxell Maxdata "ONYX" 8gb

 

Other Features to mitigate problems:

 

a) USB on Hyper-V for Guest OS - Digi AW-USB-2 2-port USB Hub (proof of concept)

b) Battery Backup for the controller areca - areca ARC-6120-3 Controller Card Backup Battery - OEM

 

 

Cables & Other Items - Already In Office:

 

3 x NORCO C-SFF8087-4S Discrete to SFF-8087 (Reverse breakout) Cable - OEM

2 x SUPERMICRO AOC-SASLP-MV8 PCI-Express x4 Low Profile SAS RAID Controller

2 x ARCTIC F8 PRO PWM Case Fan

3 x Nexus PWM Series D12SL-12PWM 120mm Case cooler

4 x NORCO C-SFF8087-D SFF-8087 to SFF-8087 Internal Multilane SAS Cable - OEM

1 x 120mm fan wall bracket for RPC-4224, RPC-4220, RPC-4216, RPC-4116, RPC-4020, RPC-4164

1 x 4 pin female Molex to 15 pin male SATA adapter C-SATA-FM

4 x Discrete SATA to SFF-8087 Mini SAS Reverse breakout cable

2 x SFF-8087 to SFF-8087 Internal Multilane SAS Cable

 

Setup and Configuration Plans:

 

We plan on following advice of the team here as to the best overall Setup and Config of Drive Types for Cache/Parity etc..

 

Open Technical Questions (which we are solving/need advice)

 

1) RAID Card(s) for this board - would like to not spend more than $500 but can increase if performance is amazing?

2) Cooling for this processor - any tips?

3) PSU - Is this OK or should we have gone larger? like the 1000W Seasonic?

 

** BTW - This is one of the best overall forums we have seen in Tech over the past 15 years.. Hats Off

 

 

Last I heard hyper-v doesnt do usb passthrough or has this been resolved?

 

I'm interested in seeing how this works out for you as I would like to try hyper-v in the future.

 

Good Luck!

Re: USB and Hyper-V

http://www.altaro.com/hyper-v/usb-devices-in-hyper-v-guests/

 

We use some of these on Medical Devices which require connectivity pass though and it has been Hit-and-Miss. Meaning, some of the legacy controllers worked without issue, but we have not tried USB Boot and it will be walking in the wild for us...

 

However, We are in contact with MSFT to see what advances have been made

 

Obviously, We will update this thread as we progress/fail and or re-attempt

Re: USB on Hosts - Maybe this may work:

 

http://blogs.technet.com/b/hollis/archive/2012/02/21/accessing-usb-drives-in-a-hyper-v-vm.aspx <------ TESTING this on 12/23 (Results posted here)

 

http://www.incentivespro.com/hyper-v-usb.html <-------- NOT AN OPTION (only post boot USB shares like HD)

interesting! Keep us updated on the build.

well no luck with the USB pass through.

 

We have moved to a concept where we image the unRAID USB, and create this as a Boot Partition on a VM.. Now if unRAID explicitly looks for USB identification we would not be able to spoof that.