Mini-ITX NAS build

[Xytras]

I'm currently looking for some ideas on a fast NAS motherboard at home. Looking into a Mini-ITX because of size and low power. Some requirements are:

1. NIC Teaming
2. On board raid 5. If board doesn't have raid, a slot that will handle a raid controller.

I know ill have to buy a switch that supports "teaming". Is teaming worth it or not?

Onboard Raid Vs Raid controller?

I also plan on using the Chenbro ES34069 as the chassis. And probably going to use FreeNAS as the OS.

Thank you for any Responses.

 

[scotty]

I know ill have to buy a switch that supports "teaming". Is teaming worth it or not?

No, I dont think it'll be worth it. GigE already supports 125MB/s, you would need to be running some really fast drives under a really fast RAID card to be getting over 100MB/s out of your NAS. Read this site's 'Fast NAS' articles - they'll provide some good insight as to the realistic issues facing a home-made NAS.

And FYI, the switch doesn't have to support it as much as the NIC's do. There's virtually no desktop motherboard or ITX solution that I can think of which has NIC's that support teaming. You would need to get a server-grade motherboard or server-grade NIC's that specifically support teaming. You 'could' buy a switch that support spanning tree protocol (STP) and use separate NIC's, but you're getting awefully advanced for nothing. I've done a fair bit with NIC teaming on the server-side of things, and rarely does it seem to make any difference, especially if you're already running GigE. You'd have to be regularly pushing over 100MB/s to the server/computer to even begin justifying teaming. I'll almost always use NIC teaming for failover and redundancy, rather than performance.

The most important thing here, as the NAS articles would conclude, is good fast drives and a good fast PCI-e NIC, and Jumbo-frames enabled all around.

Onboard Raid Vs Raid controller?

Onboard controllers typically dont have much as far as processing power for the algorithims needed for more complex RAID levels, like RAID 5. My experience is that you're not going to see virtually any performance increases with RAID 5 until you get a full, standalone RAID card that has it's own processor, etc. Onboard RAID 5 solutions dont seem to bring much to the table, speed-wise. The NAS articles on the site here seem to support this conclusion.

 

[thiggins]

There's virtually no desktop motherboard or ITX solution that I can think of which has NIC's that support teaming.

Actually, there are a few tips on link-aggregatable (is that a word?) motherboards here, based on Dennis Woods' work with the QNAP TS509 Pro.

I am definitely reaching the conclusion that a hardware based RAID controller is a must-have to go past the 70 MB/s "wall" that I have been seeing in the Fast NAS series. I just tried a Highpoint RocketRAID 2260x1 and it actually had worse performance than the Core2 Duo / Ubuntu Server combo that I tested in Part 4.

 

[Xytras]

OK thanks for the tip about using only 1 NIC and going with a Raid Controller card. So I have been doing a little research on motherboards.

I found the VIA EPIA SN18000G and it has 1 PCI Express X16 slot for a Raid controller. "http://www.logicsupply.com/products/sn18000g".
Is this enough power?

But now I'm unsure of what raid controller would be best for raid 5, with out spending a huge amount of cash.

 

[thiggins]

The hardware raid controller should do the "heavy lifting" for the RAID. So you shouldn't need much for the main CPU. But I haven't tested that combination yet, so can't be sure. The main thing the mobo must have is PCIe-based gigabit Ethernet, which the Via board looks like it has.

Plan on spending between $200 and $300 for a hardware-based RAID controller.

What sort of performance are you looking for, anyway? The Atom-Based NAS I put together running Ubuntu server can deliver ~40MB/s RAID 1 writes and close to 60 MB/s reads and cost less than $200 without drives.

 

[corndog]

Actually, if you want a real Mini-ITX hotrod, you could check out the Winmate A271. Dual Gigabit Nics, and it runs an Athlon64X2 chip.

 

[Xytras]

The hardware raid controller should do the "heavy lifting" for the RAID. So you shouldn't need much for the main CPU. But I haven't tested that combination yet, so can't be sure. The main thing the mobo must have is PCIe-based gigabit Ethernet, which the Via board looks like it has.

Plan on spending between $200 and $300 for a hardware-based RAID controller.

What sort of performance are you looking for, anyway? The Atom-Based NAS I put together running Ubuntu server can deliver ~40MB/s RAID 1 writes and close to 60 MB/s reads and cost less than $200 without drives.

Good idea on the Raid 1. Plus it would save power and money only running 2 drives instead of 4. Now it is back to the drawing boards. Is a 60MB/s Read good?

 

[thiggins]

Is a 60MB/s Read good?

It's actually better than most commercial products. See the RAID 1 NAS Charts.

 

[scotty]

Good idea on the Raid 1. Plus it would save power and money only running 2 drives instead of 4. Now it is back to the drawing boards. Is a 60MB/s Read good?

To put it in perspective, most single hard drives are going to get around 60-75MB/s read/write these days, so to get those kinds of speeds right out fo the gate with RAID 1 on a NAS is pretty good. WD Raptors, the fasted consumer drives, can get around 70-85MB/s sustained write. Using onboard RAID, most benchmarks seem to indicate that you're not going to get much over 60-70MB/s with RAID 5. As mentioned, to really get RAID to perform, you need standalone RAID cards that can do the heavy-lifting. But 60MB read over a NAS is pretty good.

 

[Xytras]

To put it in perspective, most single hard drives are going to get around 60-75MB/s read/write these days, so to get those kinds of speeds right out fo the gate with RAID 1 on a NAS is pretty good. WD Raptors, the fasted consumer drives, can get around 70-85MB/s sustained write. Using onboard RAID, most benchmarks seem to indicate that you're not going to get much over 60-70MB/s with RAID 5. As mentioned, to really get RAID to perform, you need standalone RAID cards that can do the heavy-lifting. But 60MB read over a NAS is pretty good.

What would you say for a $200-$300 Raid controller do?

 

[scotty]

It really would depend on a bazillion factors, but some good drives and a decent RAID 5 card I'm going to guesstimate that you'd be able to get between 90 and 130MB/s sustained write. On an HP E200i controller (in a server) with a couple 750GB sata drives I was getting 125MB/s sustained write.

 

[Xytras]

It really would depend on a bazillion factors, but some good drives and a decent RAID 5 card I'm going to guesstimate that you'd be able to get between 90 and 130MB/s sustained write. On an HP E200i controller (in a server) with a couple 750GB sata drives I was getting 125MB/s sustained write.

What Raid controller would you recommend for a ITX style case and board?

 

[scotty]

What Raid controller would you recommend for a ITX style case and board?

Something small . Generally, the more you spend on RAID cards, the more features, processing power, and RAM you get, amongst other things. I dont usually deal with too many RAID cards outside of standard HP e series and Dell Perc controllers, so I can't recommend too much specifically. Adaptec is one of the biggest names in RAID and adaptor cards, so I usually start there.

 

[Xytras]

All right after hours of research I think i came to a conclusion. Any input is much appreciated.

Motherboard - VIA EPIA SN18000G Mini-ITX $290 http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/mainboards/motherboards.jsp?motherboard_id=550

Jumbo Frame Support? "Yes" http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/networking/velocity/vt6130-6132/

3ware 9650SE Raid Controller $350 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816116042

Case Chenbro - ES34069 $234 NAS Case http://www.logicsupply.com/products/es34069

Currently in search for a PCI-Express Riser card that will fit this Case.

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB X4 $760 Comes close to a VelociRaptor in Speed but is cheaper and more storage, while i was looking at the benchmarks at tomshardware.com
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/Seagate-Barracuda-1-5-TB,2032-5.html

Total of $1634

NETGEAR GS108T ProSafe 8-Port Gigabit Smart Switch $100 which supports jumbo frames.