Best value in used hardware?

[SteveN]

Gents,

I have a dead Synology, and rather than replace it and stay in an endless propriety hardware/software update cycle, am going to bite the bullet and restore from backups onto a FreeNAS box.

I've had good luck with used HP equipment in other applications, and understand from reading here that the HP Proliant Microserver Gen 8 is/was well respected. I've seen them around the $400 mark on eBay. I understand that Gen8 can be upgraded, but Gen10 cannot (?), and it seems the days of $200 Gen8's are over, and the Gen10+ isn't yet out (so won't be used).

Question: for a server with the following requirements:

1. Plex, one stream
2. File serving SMB and NFS to < 5 clients
3. Some Docker containers on occasion (I hope)
4. Perhaps a VM or 2
5. Quiet, in a common area
6. 15TB or so usable space

What commercial server, HP or otherwise, offers the best value for money? I'll need to buy bare and add disks and RAM due to additional tax if I cross the $425 import duty threshold.

 

[diedrichg]

This will help you with determining your storage requirements:

ZFS Drive Size and Cost Comparison Spreadsheet to find best $/TiB

Hi all. I have created a shared Google spreadsheet to supplement @Bidule0hm 's ZFS RAID Size Calculator. The purpose of the spreadsheet is to compare 1:1 the potential size of your pool if you are planning RAIDZ1 or RAIDZ2 (for example). You can...

www.ixsystems.com

 

[danb35]

Some Docker containers on occasion (I hope)

If you do this, it will need to be in a suitably-resourced VM; FreeNAS itself (not being Linux) doesn't do Docker.

As to the hardware itself, in recent years, it hasn't been too unusual to see small servers available new for very low prices--IIRC, the HPE ML10 was sometimes available new for less than US$200, with only the need to add some RAM (it came with 4 GB at that price) and drives; other popular models had been the Dell T20 and the Lenovo TS140. I haven't been following that market much lately, but it might be worth investigating--you may be able to get a new box rather than used. If not, any of those may be available used at decent prices.

In used, this Dell T20 looks like it could do nicely:

Dell PowerEdge T20, Xeon E3-1225 v3 3.2GHz, 20GB DDR3 RAM,1TB 7.2k RPM HDD | eBay

20GB DDR3 RAM (4GB stick when bought, I added 16GB more). For Sale is a Dell PowerEdge T20 Server in Excellent Condition. Was used as a Plex server for two years, no issues. 1TB 7.2K RPM SATA Entry 3.5in Cabled Hard Drive.

www.ebay.com

Just add disks. Shipping kind of sucks,

 

[Alecmascot]

I use Dell T110 II. They are designed for use in an office environment so are reasonable quiet.
By using a 5.25 to 3.5 cage I am running 6 drives in each.
Source it with a E3-1220 and H200 HBA :

Dell PowerEdge T110 II Tower Server Intel Xeon E3-1270 V2 3.5GHz 16GB RAM No HDD | eBay

What's Included: - Tower Server ONLY. - 1x Hard Drive Caddy is included. Testing: - Powers to BIOS fine with no errors or passwords. Fans run fine. Condition: - Okay condition.

www.ebay.co.uk

 

[troybs1d]

I personally have had good luck with used SuperMicro systems & I only recently started to dabble in HP systems. The HP ML350p Gen8 I recently purchased was engineered "too precisely".

A few minutes ago I answer another thread & while searching for the answer for him, I came across this eBay listing. It's $400 + S&H (for my location in the USA it's $68). The only negative is the "1R" type PSU which is loud but you may be able to swap it for the "SQ" series which is much quieter. Plus the seller is UnixSurplus (so basically **chanting** "One Of Us" **chanting**) and they should be able to answer the "SQ" compatibility question.
SuperMicro 4U CSE-846 24 Bay SAS2 BP X9DRi-F/2x W/ 2x E5-2620 32GB IT MODE

If you're just going to put FreeNAS on it directly it should make very solid system & even a bit overkill with the dual E5-2620s but with the dual CPUs you can put more RAM in. Like my signature says I virtualized almost everything with ESXi so that's an alternative to utilize the rest of the system better (and I feel easier than jails/containers). If you want more CPU power I picked up 2x E5-2680s for about $120 a few months ago too & ECC RAM for this platform is very nicely priced as well.

 

[1kokies]

i use FN as storage only and esxi for everything else..........only regret is high electricity bills but plenty to scale

 

[SteveN]

For you folks using ESXi, do you have a source for cheap licenses? I do not know that space, but a quick look over there showed several thousand dollars in software required to make it work. I did see a free version, is that what you use? Anything special to make that kind of free virtualization an option without a lot of knowledge and extra work?

 

[danb35]

I can't speak to ESXi (others know that better than I), but it isn't the only option out there for enterprise-grade virtualization--others include Proxmox and xcp-ng, both of which are full-featured and free.

 

[1kokies]

For you folks using ESXi, do you have a source for cheap licenses? I do not know that space, but a quick look over there showed several thousand dollars in software required to make it work. I did see a free version, is that what you use? Anything special to make that kind of free virtualization an option without a lot of knowledge and extra work?

the ESXI license is free for a stand alone server. Yes i use the free version and i learned it just like anyone would, not too difficult. ESXI will boot VM's from Freenas as a database for the VM OS.

 

[troybs1d]

Yes, the free license is good for home users & small businesses especially if you just have one ESXi server. You can get a fully featured ESXi install but it only lasts 60 days. For backing up and/or transferring VMs between different servers I use the "VMware vCenter Converter Standalone Client" to do this instead of vMotion. One of the features that used to be only for paid licenses was the WebUI & free licenses was relagated to the Windows client but with 6.5/6.7 they only support the WebUI. It's pretty responsive though not as responsive as the Windows client & with a WebUI it's now cross-platform compatible.

 

[SteveN]

So I guess this comes down to what pass-through devices you want (at least in my case). Would it be fair to say that Bhyve will pass through ZFS as block storage (?) and otherwise play well with FreeBSD, and ESXi is generally more robust and will pass through GPUs.

 

[JaimieV]

Take a look at my specs (SisyphusBackup is probably the closest match for you). Used Dells are dirt cheap and can be tuned to pretty quiet easily enough just by setting "max efficiency" in the BIOS.

 

[troybs1d]

Take a look at my specs (SisyphusBackup is probably the closest match for you). Used Dells are dirt cheap and can be tuned to pretty quiet easily enough just by setting "max efficiency" in the BIOS.

Yes, the Dell R510 is a nice platform that will be on my radar from now on. Ironically the cheapest LSI 92xx HBA cards I tend to find are the Dell H200 & H200E (two external SAS SFF-8088 connections for additional expansion units) - both can easily be crossflashed to the latest P20 firmware for excellent compatibility.

 

[tfran1990]

HP prolient ML10 gen9 sometimes you can get them for 160$on tigerdirect. comes with an i3 6100(great for a small ECC ram setup) only down side is it uses U-dimm ecc ram and maxes out at 64g.

I like mine, works great uses very little power and runs cool.

 

[Bozon]

>Not Found at ServerSupply.com

>LSI LSI00344 9300-8I 8-Port 12Gb/s PCIe 3.0 SAS Host Bust Adapter RefAds Search Page at ServerSupply.com

Buy Lsi Logic 9300-8i 12gb/s Pcie 3.0, 8 Ports Internal Sata/sas Host Bus Adapter. Refurbished. (dell Oem)..Great customer service. Search Page

www.serversupply.com

Does anyone see the difference, other than the price?

 

[JaimieV]

>Not Found at ServerSupply.com

>LSI LSI00344 9300-8I 8-Port 12Gb/s PCIe 3.0 SAS Host Bust Adapter RefAds Search Page at ServerSupply.com

Buy Lsi Logic 9300-8i 12gb/s Pcie 3.0, 8 Ports Internal Sata/sas Host Bus Adapter. Refurbished. (dell Oem)..Great customer service. Search Page

www.serversupply.com

Does anyone see the difference, other than the price?

Nothing other than "factory sealed" rather than "brand new".

Both are way more expensive than I'd put in though, no real need to run SAS at 12gbps unless you're running 5gigE networking or higher, have 4+ VDEVs HDDs (or SSD 2+VDEVs) and have 5gigE or many concurrent busy clients. (All figures pretty rough, so if you've scoped this out for a corporate purpose go for it!).

 

[Bozon]

Nothing other than "factory sealed" rather than "brand new".

Both are way more expensive than I'd put in though, no real need to run SAS at 12gbps unless you're running 5gigE networking or higher, have 4+ VDEVs HDDs (or SSD 2+VDEVs) and have 5gigE or many concurrent busy clients. (All figures pretty rough, so if you've scoped this out for a corporate purpose go for it!).

Thanks, my performance needs are minimal, so I wasn't even considering something so new and shiny. I was just doing some research, and I couldn't see the difference on the very terribly designed web page.

 

[gdog0]

I use Dell T110 II. They are designed for use in an office environment so are reasonable quiet.
By using a 5.25 to 3.5 cage I am running 6 drives in each.
Source it with a E3-1220 and H200 HBA :

Thanks for this. Looking for my first build and this lead to finding this for $250 delivered:
Dell PowerEdge T110 II 4-Bay LFF Tower E3-1220 v2 3.1GHz 32GB PERC H200A

Good price?

 

[MarcAurel]

I can't speak to ESXi (others know that better than I), but it isn't the only option out there for enterprise-grade virtualization--others include Proxmox and xcp-ng, both of which are full-featured and free.

What are the benefits of using a second server with a type 1 hypervisor like Proxmox/ESXi over using the QEMU VMs inside TrueNAS Scale (or virtualizing TrueNAS onto Proxmox)?

I read a lot about iSCSI mounts from a TrueNAS server to another (hypervisor) server, but I don't see the benefits in having separate file servers (TrueNAS) and VM servers (Proxmox/ESXi).

 

[danb35]

What are the benefits of using a second server with a type 1 hypervisor like Proxmox/ESXi over using the QEMU VMs inside TrueNAS Scale?

Well, the thread you're replying to is nearly four years old and deals with FreeNAS, so your question is at best tangential to the thread. But the basic answer would be that Proxmox/xcp-ng/ESXi are vastly more polished in control/configuration of the VMs in question. SCALE and Proxmox both use KVM under the hood, but the interface on Proxmox gives far more capability in configuring and controlling the VMs.