New Backup Server Build


Kevek79

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Hi Folks,

 

I am planning an Unraid Build that should mainly be focused around OffSite Backup for two other UnRaid Servers as well as local NAS storage for the site it will be operated in.

Besides the server beeing a backup target for 2 other sites, the server will only need to run some small dockers (duckDNS, Krusader, VPN, etc) but will not be used for big VM's with passthrough or transcoding.

The server will not be at my location, but I will be administrating it for the time beeing.

Server will start with 4 Drives but might be expanded over time to 8. We will use WD Red Plus drives for now.

Cache will be a single Samsung Evo 2.5'' drive for now, but cache pool might get expanded to up to 4 drives (2.5'' SSD Samsung EVOs)

 

Is there anyone that has experience with the board listed below and how it performs with UnRaid?

Regarding ECC RAM, I would like to know if there is any advantage in using RDIMM over UDIMM with ECC if I am planning to use 16-32 GB RAM.

 

Here is the part list that I was thinking about.

Board - Supermicro A2SDi-8C+-HLN4F

Case - Silverstone DS380

PSU - Corsair SF750

RAM - Kingston DDR4 2400Mhz UDIMM 8GB ECC

 

Casefans will be replaced with Noctua fans.

What UPS would you guys suggest for that system ?

 

I am open for comments and suggestions ;)

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The Silverstone DS380 has very poor thermal design and requires some modding to cool the drives properly. You can google for more info.

The smallest readily-available NAS-friendly ITX case I would trust is the Node 304. Any smaller and it would be hard to keep drives cool.

 

No benefit of RDIMM over UDIMM. It's mostly motherboard requirements that would dictate what kind e.g. typically RDIMM allows more RAM.

 

 

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11 minutes ago, testdasi said:

The Silverstone DS380 has very poor thermal design and requires some modding to cool the drives properly. You can google for more info.

The smallest readily-available NAS-friendly ITX case I would trust is the Node 304. Any smaller and it would be hard to keep drives cool.

 

No benefit of RDIMM over UDIMM. It's mostly motherboard requirements that would dictate what kind e.g. typically RDIMM allows more RAM.

 

 

I am using a Node 804 for my main server, so the 304 was allready on my short list. The point for the ds380 was the hot swap bays it offers.

As the server will not be under my physical control all the time I would really like to have array drives in hotswap cages so I can leave a prepared replacement drive on site that can be easily replaced by someone one site without having to open up the case and fiddle with the cabeling.

Might need to look for another case though.

 

Thanks for the input mate.

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2 minutes ago, Kevek79 said:

would really like to have array drives in hotswap cages so I can leave a prepared replacement drive on site that can be easily replaced by someone one site without having to open up the case

I have my backup server in the Node 304 and yes, this is a big pain.  Opening the case and swapping drives or modifying cabling in this case is a huge pain.  Nice, compact case, but difficult to work with when you need to make changes.  It also accommodates a maximum of 6 HDDs and you said you wanted capacity for up to 8.

 

The DS380 does have cooling issues; however, there are some well documented and easy to make fixes that will improve drive cooling.  I have the big brother of the DS380, the CS380, and the hotwap bays are very nice.  Even the CS380 needs drive cooling mods.

 

There may not be a perfect case for a small build, at least not since the Lian-Li PC-Q25 disappeared from production; so, pick the one that best meets your needs and work around the limitations.

 

As mentioned, motherboard and CPU requirements will dictate which type of ECC RAM is supported; registered or unbuffered.  Both of my servers require the UDIMM (unbuffered) ECC RAM.  RDIMMs would not work even if I wanted to use this type.

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Thanks for your input @Hoopster!

 

There are not a lot of options for small cases with 6-8 HotSwap bays available. 
And the more i think about it, a case without is not really an option. 

 

I was reading up a little bit on the ds380 modifications and the cs380 and cs381.

For most of the time, the system will be idle, and the disks spun down. 
needs a little bit more research, but maybe the ds380 could still  be made fit for our purposes.


I will also need to check if a bigger case would be a problem at the location. If not this would open at least a bit more options. 


 

Edited by Kevek79
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5 minutes ago, Hoopster said:

Perhaps the U-NAS 810A could be an option?  It has 8 hot-swap bays plus an internal 2.5 SSD bay.

That one looks promising.

need to dig around a bit to see if this one is available somewhere in europe.

Cooling solution looks better for the drive cage section and the atom based board should mot produce much heat on its own, so the cooling solution for the top section could be ok for the setup planned.

 

Thanks for the hint ;)

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