128TB unRAID Array

Hardware Enterprise Gear
1

Hi Guys I am planning to build an unRAID Array consisting of the following specs

Intel Xeon e5-2680 V2 10 core 20 thread
Asus Z9PA-U8 LGA2011 Workstation Motherboard
16GB DDR3 1333MHz ECC
16 x HGST 8TB 3.5" SAS 12GB/s 16 Drives for storage & 2x Drives for Parity in RAID 1
8x 2.5"SAS 6GB/s 15k Drives in RAID 1 for cache Drives

I have all the above parts, and the parts below I need to acquire

3 x 8 port RAID controller cards, I am wondering if I can use 6GB/s RAID Controllers with my 16x 3.5" HDDS I don’t mind the speed drop if any of using the SAS 6GB/s controllers.

Are SAS12GB/s HDDs backwards compatible with SAS 6 Controllers ???

Can I use the 8x SAS 6GB/s drives for the cache in unRAID or do I have to use SSD’s ???

I am on a tight budget for the rest of this build, having to use SAS 12GB/s controllers might pus the project back by 6 months.

I am using the server to stream/Transcode video to I machine in my house and 1 machine over the internet using plex media server and also to have access to all my files in one place.

Will this set-up keep my data safe for the next five years or so until I build my next Array

2

Have you considered ZFS?

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3

Yes but I would have to use 128GB of ram which is very expensive, is there a zfs that does not require so much ram?

4

No you don’t have to have that much RAM. It’s recommended to have that much if you plan on dedup and keeping stuff in the arc, but if its just infrequently accessed mass storage with minimal parity then you don’t need boatloads.

See here:

5

Repeat after me: “storage is slow, and I do not need a fancy CPU”.

If all you’re doing is basically ftp+checksumming over spinning disks, you’ll be fine with a quad core or a 6 core part for 10-20 disks.

Also,

applies.

Now, if you end up doing another repeat after me: “network is slow, even on 10G, even on 40G, network is slow”… You might end up with temptation to run a whole bunch of VMs collocated on these servers that also have storage… There’s nothing wrong with that, but if this is the only server you have you’ll be crying when it breaks… “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” is another good repeat-me… Once you’re at 3-4 servers, to account for redundancy, and experimentation/development stuff and you’re running some kind of clustered setup, then going all in with dual socket CPUs maxed out on cores and with as much ram as you can afford makes sense… go with a pair or triplet of smaller machines before that.

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