NAS or internal storage? Ideas and suggestions welcome..

[katit]

My first post here, hopefully it's on topic

Project details:

Small IT business, maybe 5 users total. Need server to run VMs. There will be server for Jira/SVN (linux), maybe Linux Asterisk server VOIP, 1 or 2 windows servers.

We don't have much space and can't have many pieces. Need to be quiet. On a budget if possible. Need to perform. No load, but response should be good.

What I have:

I'm switching to laptop myself and have my 2yo desktop that I can use for project. This is i7-2700k with 32Gb ram, ASUS P8Z77. There is 2x SSD drives in there (220 and 256G) and one WD black 1Tb

I checked and it seems like VMWare ESXi will run on this hardware. There is plenty RAM and CPU to handle what I need.

What I need:

Storage. Storage. This is where I'm stuck. Can't decide which way to go. It should be fast. It should be recoverable (RAID of some kind). It will be used for VM's mostly, one drive will be shared data - file store. This is NOT much, we are not media producing company.

Let's say we can live with 1TB for everything. 2TB will cover anything we may want in a foreseeble future.

So, my idea of "fast enough" is a average SSD. Looks like 4x WD Red drives in RAID10 will give me similar speed. And will be affordable.

First what I can think of - get $400 inter RAID card and 4x WD Red's and make RAID 10. This way drive access will be fast, all in one box.

But I read scary stories about RAID and I also read about ZFS - hm. Interesting. With ZFS however, I need OS and it seems not practical to put drives in the same box.

External solution like this looks very nice:
http://www.amazon.com/FreeNAS-Mini-...ref=sr_1_5?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1426716230&sr=1-5

But it's kind of expensive.. And from what I understand - I will connect to it via LAN which will limit speed, not sure it's nice for loading and working in VM. Running PCIe card on hardware seems like much bette solution..

So, for our situation. Not heavy load, most important documents backed up to cloud, maybe weekly copy of RAID into external usb...


What would be best value?

 

[Emulex]

4 red's in raid-10 will be miserable speed for VM's.

Perhaps you can get a simple megaraid controller like M5015 or M5014 and run two large SSD in raid-1 . check out servethehome.com for cheap deals on near-enterprise SSD and raid cards!

The difference in running two SSD in RAID-1 and 4xred in raid-10 will be monumental!

Also Asterisk server doesn't like to be run in a VM due to latency, might want to check that out!

I'd get a pair of nearly new nearline enterprise SSD like 400gb Toshiba's or intel and a megaraid controller (if compatible with your motherboard) and rock that with ESXi, boot off a USB Flash!

 

[katit]

Thank you for reply!

can you throw numbers to make comparisons? My understanding that raid10 with wd reds should be around 300mbs. This speed should be OK I think.

Raid1 with ssds sound great but cost prohibitive. I need 1tb to be comfortable
How much something like this with SSD will run?

Another question about separate NAS. Is there some kind of direct connection possible so I'm not limited to gigabit network?

Aaand.. You mentioned booting from USB. Does esxi write anything there? Is it easy to clone this USB so I have spare in case main one fails?

Re: Asterisk. Yeah, I heard about issue with VM. But I also heard lots of reviews where it works just fine. This server will not see much use at all. Pretty much NO use, CPU will be available all the time and I'm willing to try it. If it won't work we can get a box...

 

[Emulex]

960gb SSD crucial m550 is 439$ each

Seperate nas? You could buy a pair of used 10gbe dual port nic's for $100 each and directly wire them together to avoid a switch and get 10gbe*2 speed!

USB Stick for ESXi - I use SLC 2gb HP usb sticks - ESXi doesn't write anything buy configuration for the host on the USB stick so not that often it changes!

The RED's are 5400rpm, and random IOPS are miserable when you match up 5400 * 2 reads and 5400*4 writes, it will be pathetic. One VM would toast all the bandwidth of 4 5400rpm WD RED drives by itself.

Now multiply that slowness * 3 or 4 vm's and you have major stalls!

Also SATA/ICHRaid is not supported by ESXi - you would need a megaraid controller at the least. Used on $100 on ebay.

 

[katit]

960gb SSD crucial m550 is 439$ each

Can't find M550s, but I see M500s even less, around $360 ea. Are they bad?

Seperate nas? You could buy a pair of used 10gbe dual port nic's for $100 each and directly wire them together to avoid a switch and get 10gbe*2 speed!

Thanks for education, didn't know how it's done. Probably even single port will be enough..

USB Stick for ESXi - I use SLC 2gb HP usb sticks - ESXi doesn't write anything buy configuration for the host on the USB stick so not that often it changes!

Great. Will do the same. After configured - will clone USB stick and leave it next to server just in case first one fails...

Also SATA/ICHRaid is not supported by ESXi - you would need a megaraid controller at the least. Used on $100 on ebay.

I already researched those. Do I need one with battery?

And another question. Will it be better speed-wise if I go with 4x 500Gb drives in RAID10 (vs 2x in RAID1). Same capacity but should be faster? Should be about the same price as well..

 

[Emulex]

Raid-1 is what you want to use with ESXi - even if you have two raid-1 volumes! Raid-10 slows down latency due to large stripe sizes and waiting for all 4 drives to return on write.

You do not need a battery since you will be disabling the CACHE for read/write purposes. I'd skip the battery honestly it adds more trouble than it is worth for SSD.

Not sure about the M500's - I know the M550 are solid drives though!

 

[Cerb]

The M500 are not bad at all. They are just older, and have been superceded by the M550 and M600.