Recommended use for old Supermicro servers


sigurdur

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Hi,

 

I recently came into possession of a couple of old Supermicro servers that I would like to use as a basis for an unRAID/Plex combo. What I need is some input on how to put together the best possible system/systems from what I've got.

 

The first one is a SuperServer 6016T-MTLF, a 1U chassis with 4 hot-swap bays:

MB = X8DTL-iF

CPU = Dual Xeon E5506

Memory = 4x Kingston KVR 1333D3D4R9S/4G (total 8GB) registered ECC 1333

PSU = Supermicro 350W 80Plus Gold (29A on the 12V rail)

 

The chassis is a 1U rackmount with 4 drive enclosures.

 

The second one is a 2U case with 8 hot-swap bays and what looks like space for 3 drives on top:

MB = X8SIL

CPU = Single Xeon X3430

Memory = 2x Kingston KVR 1333D3E9SK2/8G (total 8GB) unbuffered ECC 1333

PSU = Surestar 700W (56A on the 12V rail)

Controller = LSI SAS3081E-R

 

What I would like to do is use the 2U case for an unRAID system, but I'd like to run Plex Media Server and some addons as well. As I'm not familiar with the Xeon family and the processing power needed for transcoding, I'm not sure how best to utilize the two machines.

 

One setup could be to use both machines as is with the X3430 running unRAID and the dual E5506 running Plex.

Another could be to swap the dual MB into the 8 drive chassis and run both on the same machine, either with unRAID plugins or as esxi VMs and try to find other uses for the single MB and the 4 drive chassis.

 

Any thoughts?

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The 2U with the X8SIL is an excellent solution....if you find an X8SIL-F inside, you'll have IPMI as well.

 

Both XEONs are almost equal with the X3430 having a small advantage in terms of clock speed, L3 cache and TDP....see: http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Xeon-X3430-vs-Intel-Xeon-E5506

 

The 1U, being DUAL Processor will, of course, have that advantage.

If the X8SIL will be OK for your needs will depend on what transcoding needs you have.

The DUAL CPU system will be much better for live transcoding but will consume a lot more power.

 

You'll need to flash the LSI Controller into IT mode for using it with unRAID....don't know if that is possible.

 

Edit: both boxes will most likely sound like a jet-airplane  ;D

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  • 4 weeks later...

Thanks for your reply. The MB in the 2U is basic X8SIL without IPMI.

 

I've flashed the LSI into IT mode, using the info from this forum and it's working nicely.

 

What I'm thinking now is to set up the 2U X8SIL with the X3430 as a dedicated UnRAID box. In addition I'm going to setup the 1U dual E5506 with ESXi, running PMS, Logitech media server (for my Squeezebox) and other services in VMs. I might also setup a VM for another UnRAID installation to use up the drive bays in the 1U box. This box has IPMI so administration should be easy.

 

Would this be a logical allocation of the hardware?

 

The boxes certainly sound like commercial jets, let alone when they are humming together, but I've got a concrete bunker under the stairs that should keep the noise out of my apartment :)

 

 

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...looks like a good decision for mobo and case allocation...since you only have 8GB in the DUAL for ESXi, I'd run plex and media stuff as add-ons to unRAID, where you have 8GB native as well.

 

IPMI is nice, but for ESXi it does not offer much...you'll need a windoze box to run the vspeher client to administer it.

Maybe try XEN or Proxmox-VE on that...for Proxmox, you only need a webbrowser..for XEN you could use IPMI to log-in to your dom0.

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what I was trying to say is that if you run extra services in a VM...you'll loose the headroom, since you only have 8GB total on the VM-host.

Then I'd rather run the media related apps, like Plex, directly on the unRAID box as Memory also matters for that task.

Which in your suggested case would be the 2U with the X8SIL - I'd try unless it proves to be too slow for transcoding - it'll depend on your UseCase but

according to the plex FAQ, the X340 may be good for transcoding of approx. two fullHD streams concurrently.

 

...this would leave the 1U for virtualization, which I assumed would be something you were looking into anyways.

...and since you mentioned IPMI in conjunction with ESXi as an advantage, my opinion is simply that it is not...IMPI will give you sensors and KVM-over-IP

but the base ESXi screen is "static"...not much to see and to do there....other Hypervisors are better/leaner towards remote administration.

 

Also, in order to virtualize another unRAID box, you'll need another controller for passthrough.

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So you would suggest skipping the ESXi complication and just run both as basic UnRAID boxes, the 2U box with just UnRAID and the 1U dual processor one with UnRAID and plugins for the mediaservers?

 

...if this does mean, you'll want the beefiest unRAID box out of what you have, I'd swap mobos and run the 2U with the DUAL board. The X8SIL is good as a VM host for quite some tasks as well.

I've been using an X8SIL-F with a L3426 and 32GB as an ESXi host for a long time and couldn't be happier with it.

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Yes, I might be trying to juggle too many ideas in my head at the same time :)

 

What I'm basically trying to achieve is, yes, the beefiest UnRAID box, with music and video servers, possible with what I have. The thought was that if the X8SIL with the single XEON was not up to the task of transcoding, I could use it as data storage and let the dual handle all the other stuff.

 

Virtualization was partly just for the fun of it, but also to be able to keep a clean VM for each task and have the option of setting up additional VMs to play around with if the mood strikes me.

 

Quite possibly I'm just overcomplicating things. Perhaps I should just swap the MBs and build the beefiest box I can and possibly just sell off the 1U box if I don't find any use for it (and buy more RAM for the money). It's just that used Supermicro servers are not regularly available here (Iceland) and buying new is just not in my budget (a new X9SCA-F-O and a Xeon E3-1220 with 16GB registered ECC would set me back around USD 1000!) so it would be nice to be able to put both of them to work.

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