Help designing/picking a setup for unraid, need to upgrade in a bad way :)

[live4soccer7]

I do have an old dell desktop with a pentium 3. No idea on the other specs. It was my old unraid machine. I think it just has one lan port, but could likely add another card. Maybe I'll setup vpn on the particular device I need most through openvpn and then play around with pfsense on the desktop. This would be a cheap solution to see what I can manage to get going and if it'll fit my needs.

 

Any recommendation on a NIC? I might need to get one with two lab ports depending on how many slots I have MB.

[TUMS]

I do have an old dell desktop with a pentium 3. No idea on the other specs. It was my old unraid machine. I think it just has one lan port, but could likely add another card. Maybe I'll setup vpn on the particular device I need most through openvpn and then play around with pfsense on the desktop. This would be a cheap solution to see what I can manage to get going and if it'll fit my needs.

 

Any recommendation on a NIC? I might need to get one with two lab ports depending on how many slots I have MB.

 

Sounds good.  I'd look at getting a intel nic if you can.

[mr-hexen]

The PIA app for windows has a Kill Switch option so that if the VPN goes down internet access is stopped. Just adding that in case you did not know.

 

I simply use PIA on binhex's deluge-vpn, works great and doesn't slow my system down at all.

 

If your hardware is vt-d capable, you could buy a 4 port intel NIC card and install pfsense as a VM I bet.

[TUMS]

Yeah binhex's deluge-vpn is great.  So is the filezilla docker.  I run them both all the time.

[live4soccer7]

Yeah. I'll likely install delugevpn. I've been reading that vm pfsense isn't optimal. I'll also have a SAS card and video card installed, so I won't have an extra spot for a NIC card, unfortunately.

[live4soccer7]

So I have an onboard Ethernet port on the dell dimension desktop I have. I have a couple open pci slots. Should I look for a couple NICs that have a single port each, just go with one that has multiple ports or what?? Any suggestions here? I'd like to get one that I can hopefully reuse in a build if I end up building a dedicated machine for it.

 

It has a pentium 4 and I believe 4gigs of ram. That's about all I know without powering it on, which I can do because there is massive power outage where I'm at.

 

Looking at the desktop, it looks like I have two traditional PCI slots and one PCI express x1

[live4soccer7]

Stumbled across his little guy: https://store.pfsense.org/SG-2220/

 

Kind of a nice little package that would be right up my alley of I find this is the solution for me.

 

It seems like Netgate sells the exact same boxes, but cheaper: http://store.netgate.com/ADI/RCC-VE-2440.aspx

 

Any thoughts on something like that? Seems like it might be a decent deal, but Im not entirely familiar w this line of hardware w the router based usage. Would this thing kick some a** or would I be wanting more power once I got it going and possibly added a couple packages?? I'd want to be running vpn through it as well

[live4soccer7]

The more I look in to this the more that I keep thinking that running a pfsense vm makes sense given that I have the Xeon e31231v3 processor that has aes-ni, enough processing power, ram, etc.... Shoot, there's more than enough computer to run this thing. I'd have to forget about the graphics card and use a dual port Intel NIC, but I think that would be a better use.

 

Any reason why I SHOULDN'T run pfsense virtually? Will I get inferior functionality? Less reliable? Less secure? I have also made a thread on this in the pfsense forums as well. I'll let you guys know if I get any hits over there.

[TUMS]

The more I look in to this the more that I keep thinking that running a pfsense vm makes sense given that I have the Xeon e31231v3 processor that has aes-ni, enough processing power, ram, etc.... Shoot, there's more than enough computer to run this thing. I'd have to forget about the graphics card and use a dual port Intel NIC, but I think that would be a better use.

 

Any reason why I SHOULDN'T run pfsense virtually? Will I get inferior functionality? Less reliable? Less secure? I have also made a thread on this in the pfsense forums as well. I'll let you guys know if I get any hits over there.

 

Running it from a vm just adds another layer of complexity to the configuration.  Also, when you stop your unraid array your whole internet will drop out.

[TUMS]

So I have an onboard Ethernet port on the dell dimension desktop I have. I have a couple open pci slots. Should I look for a couple NICs that have a single port each, just go with one that has multiple ports or what?? Any suggestions here? I'd like to get one that I can hopefully reuse in a build if I end up building a dedicated machine for it.

 

It has a pentium 4 and I believe 4gigs of ram. That's about all I know without powering it on, which I can do because there is massive power outage where I'm at.

 

Looking at the desktop, it looks like I have two traditional PCI slots and one PCI express x1

 

Either should work. But you will want to post on the pfsense forum to make sure.

Just a disclaimer:  I don't run pfsense.  I really have no need for it.  I use an Asus rt-n16 flashed with shibby tomato with a couple extra wired access points around my property.  Just to let you know, because when it comes to actually helping you set up and configure pfsense I will be pretty much useless

[live4soccer7]

Thanks for the input. I feel like I should be able to figure it out. Might be a large learning curve, but that's part of the experience. Lol.

 

I haven't heard anything yet on the pfsense forum. We are still out of power here, so can't do much other than post on this forum and read through my phone. It's been two days now. Kind of lame.

[live4soccer7]

Nothing from the pfsense forum yet. Kind of a bummer, seems like it would be a trivial question for those that use it often.

[mr-hexen]

We are still out of power here, so can't do much other than post on this forum and read through my phone. It's been two days now. Kind of lame.

 

Jesus man, where do you live?

[live4soccer7]

Over in WA state on the east side of the state. Still out of power. Going on three days now. Luckily I've been able to keep my phone charged through various ways. I've pretty much made a build for a kicka** pfsense setup.

 

I've been reading about SAS controllers and expanders. Are they essentially the same thing?

 

I see the m1015 on a PCI-e x8 has two SAS ports that you can use breakout cables for to get 8 sata drives going. What if one wanted more drives? Does this work in conjunction w something like the m1015 or is it completely its own thing and way to generate a way to get 24 drives out of a PCI-e x4 slot? Intel RES2SV240

 

Found the answer here: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=21769.0

The expander does not have to take up a PCI-e slot. It can be solely powered by a molecular connector and connected to the m1015 through one or two cables.

 

 

 

[live4soccer7]

Anyone know if this an Intel card or a counterfeit/fake?

 

http://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/171981338021

 

They are fakes. Just found it. Jeez, have to really watch the electronics that one buys on eBay. Outrageous.

 

I'm going to pick up a dual Intel pro 1000 pt server NIC.

[live4soccer7]

Changing gears for a second. I believe I can pass through GPU on the X10SL7 board to a VM. If I do this, I'll just lose local console access correct? I really only ask because the one downfall to this board is that it has just TWO pic-e slots, so I need to carefully pick and choose what I use those for.

 

I should still be able to connect via telnet and through the WEBGUI, right? With the telnet access, I've never had to use the local console. Is this just a terrible idea to take away that access?

[BobPhoenix]

Changing gears for a second. I believe I can pass through GPU on the X10SL7 board to a VM. If I do this, I'll just lose local console access correct? I really only ask because the one downfall to this board is that it has just TWO pic-e slots, so I need to carefully pick and choose what I use those for.

 

I should still be able to connect via telnet and through the WEBGUI, right? With the telnet access, I've never had to use the local console. Is this just a terrible idea to take away that access?

The built in ASPEED video is not going to accelerate any video access and it may not be able to display video smoothly at all.  But I could be wrong about that.  If you want GPU help for video playback the ASPEED will not do it for you.  Might not work with some games either.  It just provides basic VESA video capabilities.  It was really only designed for casual use on a headless server and IPMI access.

[live4soccer7]

Bob, thanks for the info. Guess I'm back to the drawing board to see what I REALY want to use those two pci slots for.

[live4soccer7]

Does anyone know if this video card has sound over hdmi? I would assume it does, but I'm sure you all know where assuming can get you. Does it need anything else to acquire the sound for the HDMI or is it all built in? I didn't see a mention in the description/specs.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102933&cm_re=SAPPHIRE_Radeon_HD_6450-_-14-102-933-_-Product

[HellDiverUK]

Yes, the 6450 has HDMI sound.  Really, you're back to the dark ages to find a GPU that doesn't.

 

As for 3 days with no power, that's pretty similar to where my parents live.  They bought a cheap chinese put-put diesel generator - 6kVA thing with a knock-off Yanmar single cylinder diesel.  Runs about 36 hours on 20 litres of diesel.  Keeps their freezers and heating going, and even boils the kettle if they're careful.  Only time it freaked was when they were trying to boil the kettle and run the microwave at the same time.  It's not the best genset, but it does the job.

[live4soccer7]

LOL. Yeah, I was getting ready to pickup a generator from someone else that had received power back. We went from Tuesday afternoon to saturday morning without power. I was right in the middle of working on the server, so I was kind of bummed that my project got cut short.

 

Are there video cards that allow for two outputs for two different screens? I have seen some that have multiple outputs, but they are to run together multiple monitors/screens for one continuous screen. I'm just thinking that it may be nice to get a 2 for 1 since I don't have many pci slots.

[live4soccer7]

Another, hopefully, quick question. I have a windows 7 VM, however I ran out of space on the VM. How can I expand the VM for a larger image/space? I have plenty of space on the cache, where it is stored. I ended up having a need for something that I didn't forsee and it took quite a bit of space on the VM.

[Squid]

 

 

LOL. Yeah, I was getting ready to pickup a generator from someone else that had received power back. We went from Tuesday afternoon to saturday morning without power. I was right in the middle of working on the server, so I was kind of bummed that my project got cut short.

 

Are there video cards that allow for two outputs for two different screens? I have seen some that have multiple outputs, but they are to run together multiple monitors/screens for one continuous screen. I'm just thinking that it may be nice to get a 2 for 1 since I don't have many pci slots.

 

If using something like within windows extending the desktop doesn't work for you, then you need to investigate the offerings that matrox graphics has.  In a nutshell, their external boxes can split a single signal (say 2160 x 1080 or any insane resolution) to multiple monitors.  At work i routinely set up monitor banks of 3x2 running off of a single video card.  They're not the cheapest in the world because now you're getting to the world of professional video solutions

[live4soccer7]

Thanks! I'll add that to the research list. It keeps getting longer.

 

Anyone know about this:

 

Another, hopefully, quick question. I have a windows 7 VM, however I ran out of space on the VM. How can I expand the VM for a larger image/space? I have plenty of space on the cache, where it is stored. I ended up having a need for something that I didn't forsee and it took quite a bit of space on the VM.

 

edit: btw, I upgraded the cache drive to an ssd. Holy smokes that makes a HUGE difference in the VMs.

[live4soccer7]

I have an old Dell Dimension 4700 that I wanted to install PFSense on and run for a while before deciding to build a machine. I got the usb boot drive all setup, the new dell pro 1000 dual NIC installed, installed pfsense etc... The problem is that it seems that the PCI Express (x16) may only support video cards because it is so old. I get the following message on boot: "Error Initializing PCI Express PEG Slot"

 

This is kind of a bummer because now I can't really try it out without buying a bunch of hardware.

 

http://downloads.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_desktop/esuprt_dimension_desktops/dimension-4700_service%20manual_en-us.pdf

 

Edit: I think this leaves me with one option if I want to play around with PFsense. Virtualizing it within unraid. If you happen to know of a great guide or any guide that is unraid specific, then PLEASE do post it up. I will be scouring the web this week for some more specific information as well.