vSphere/unRaid Server

[reefcrazed]

I am about to the end point of replacing my vSphere and unRaid server by combining the two together. It has definitely been a learning experience, VT-D did not agree with me in the beginning.

 

Pitfalls

 

I felt it necessary to go back and edit my original post with some hurdles I ran across during this endeavor. The first thing was the ASRock board refused to boot to any form of ESXi install, hard drive or flash drive. Detailed in this website I found a helpful option, although I think it will e deprecated in a future release. http://vmtoday.com/2012/09/esxi-5-wont-boot-from-usb/

 

runweasel formatwithmbr

 

Once I got booted into vSphere 5.1, it was definitely very sweet but the problems were just beginning. I got VT-D passthru going but then I started getting Purple Screen of Death (PSOD) after I did finally get my unRaid vm to start, and the Super Micro cards passed through. The PSOD were deciphered as some type of time drift. If you look at the ATLAS build post on these forums you will read how to edit your .vmx file with one line added for each Super Micro card, this will fix the PSOD errors.

 

Both of the prior fixes were still not enough, ever so often during booting the VM my drives would disappear and the array would not start. One drive even failed on me, but that was unrelated. The drives dropping out, oddly enough, was caused by INT13h being enabled on one card. I had originally had it disabled but remembered I had RMA'd one card and it must had come back enabled.

 

Then yes, one of the Western Digital 1.5gb green drives (EADS series) failed. That does not surprise me, those are the most garbage drives I have ever purchased. Out of about 10 I think I have 5 left and that is probably optimistic.

 

Specifications

 

Lian Li d8000

SeaSonic M12II 850 Power Supply

ASRock EP2C602-4L/D16

G.SKILL Sniper Gaming Series 8gb x 4

2x Intel Xeon 6C E5 2620 2.0 GHz

2x AOC-SASLP-MV8 (replaced with IBM m1015)

Perc 6i w/battery backup

8x (Raid 10) 2TB Samsung Spinpoint F4

 

Unraid Array (30tb)

Seagate 4tb (ST4000DM000) x 4

Seagate 3tb (ST3000DM001) x 3

Samsung 2tb (HD204UI)

Western Digital 2tb (WD20EADS) x 2

Western Digital 1.5tb (WD15EADS) x4

Samsung 1tb (HE103UJ)

 

 

 

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http://dragonsofmist.com/images/server4.jpg[/img]

 

http://dragonsofmist.com/images/server5.jpg[/img]

 

http://dragonsofmist.com/images/server6.jpg[/img]

[Dephcon]

That's some serious gear, I love it.  I use the E5 26xx at work in blade servers, they're beasts.  What else are you planning to run on esx?

[reefcrazed]

I am going to finish it up in the next few hours, and try to get some shots of the inside before I close it up.

 

I am probably going to be running a lot of SQL servers, mainly I program for a living. Probably my Minecraft server I run a lot of Linux VM's, OpenSuse, Debian, I run a VM that controls my house automation and alarm system. It is just a huge playground really.

[Dephcon]

How tall is that thing with the casters on?  The spec sheet doesn't specify if it's 24.75" with or without the casters.

[marcusone]

I LOVE Lian li cases. Wish my wallet did too ;-)

What did you pay for the bad boy? (Too lazy to look it up ;-)

 

Sent from my SGH-I727R using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[reefcrazed]

I LOVE Lian li cases. Wish my wallet did too ;-)

What did you pay for the bad boy? (Too lazy to look it up ;-)

 

Sent from my SGH-I727R using Tapatalk 2

 

I paid $280 after promo code.

[Dephcon]

Any chance you can measure the height for me with the wheels on?  I just ordered one and just realized after the fact that the spec might refer to the wheel-less height.  I'm concerned it won;t slide under my desk.

[reefcrazed]

Any chance you can measure the height for me with the wheels on?  I just ordered one and just realized after the fact that the spec might refer to the wheel-less height.  I'm concerned it won;t slide under my desk.

 

I sure can, but it will be tomorrow night before I can measure it, I am out of state on a trip right now.

 

EDIT - It is 24 5/8" with casters

[Dephcon]

newegg just shipped so I'll find out the old fashioned way lol.  They're so much faster than NCIX!

[reefcrazed]

newegg just shipped so I'll find out the old fashioned way lol.  They're so much faster than NCIX!

 

Be extremely careful unboxing it. I lifted mine incorrectly, it slipped out of my hands and landed on the front cover. The clips are rather weak and I broke 3 out of 4 of them. I managed to glue them back and they held fine, I also ordered replacements just in case the glue did not hold.

[Dephcon]

Thanks for the tip!  I was planning on opening the bottom of the box and just lifting to box up and over.  It's going to look so good beside my A05.

[gwl]

@Dephcon, @reefcrazed:

 

With respect to your D8000 case, I have a couple of questions for you (or others with this case).

1) Did you need to use any cable extensions (3/4 pin, sata, molex etc) to connect to the fans or HDDs? Or perhaps just for cable tidyness?

2) Did you use any of the Lian Li backplanes to connect to the HDDs? Do you know whether there are any other suitable backplanes for this case. Others have rightly raised concerns to the extra heat the backplanes may cause due to the blocking of airflow they will cause. Thoughts?

3) With the number of HDDs you have, how are you keeping your temps down? That is, although this case can take more than 10 fans, how many fans are you utilising?

 

cheers,

gwl

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[reefcrazed]

@Dephcon, @reefcrazed:

 

With respect to your D8000 case, I have a couple of questions for you (or others with this case).

1) Did you need to use any cable extensions (3/4 pin, sata, molex etc) to connect to the fans or HDDs? Or perhaps just for cable tidyness?

2) Did you use any of the Lian Li backplanes to connect to the HDDs? Do you know whether there are any other suitable backplanes for this case. Others have rightly raised concerns to the extra heat the backplanes may cause due to the blocking of airflow they will cause. Thoughts?

3) With the number of HDDs you have, how are you keeping your temps down? That is, although this case can take more than 10 fans, how many fans are you utilising?

 

cheers,

gwl

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Somehow I did not get the email alert you replied to this, even though it has been a long time I will answer anyway.

 

1) Did you need to use any cable extensions (3/4 pin, sata, molex etc) to connect to the fans or HDDs? Or perhaps just for cable tidyness?

 

I used 5 way SATA splitters, with this many drives you just have to, plus the ones I used had very short splits and it just looked so nice.

2) Did you use any of the Lian Li backplanes to connect to the HDDs? Do you know whether there are any other suitable backplanes for this case. Others have rightly raised concerns to the extra heat the backplanes may cause due to the blocking of airflow they will cause. Thoughts?

 

I am not familiar with the backplane you speak of. I can tell you now, the case has zero heat issues. It is nice and cool in there, it could go up 10 degrees and it still would not be hot. Over half the drives are spun down most of the day because of UNRaid not needed them.

 

3) With the number of HDDs you have, how are you keeping your temps down? That is, although this case can take more than 10 fans, how many fans are you utilising?

 

There is no issues with heat. I am using 3 fans on the rear, and three on one side of the hard drive cages, but not both sides. Heat is not an issue. Since there are three computers in this room I was more concerned with noise so I did not go crazy on the hard drives.

[reefcrazed]

I also want to mention the AOC cards were a major PITA where vSphere was concerned.  I ordered these cards and flashed them to IT mode and have not looked back.

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0034DMSO6/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

I followed so many different guides, settings, etc on the Super Micro AOC cards and they just did too much crazy stuff to keep them, I ebayed them off this week. They work beautifully in different settings, but for VT-D they are not suitable. The M1015 card in IT mode works great, zero issues so far. I think I paid a little over $100 for each on Amazon.

[gwl]

Thanks for that.

I'm definitely going to need a card for more drives eventually. I've got the supermicro x10sl7-f motherboard. The intel m1015 is on the short list.

I've got some extension cables on order so even if I don't use them I will be able to use them in another case needing some tidying up.

Similarly I think the fans will have to be added one at a time to see what can be tolerated. It is good to know your setup for some basic comparisons to see where my arrangement might need some tweaking to get similar results as yours.

 

Thanks again, very much appreciated.

 

gwl

 

 

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