Rackmount Storage Server

[ToxicBunny]

Evening gentlefolks.

Starting to toy with the idea of building a storage server for the house that can be rackmounted.

Currently looking at using a chassis like either of the following 2 :

CHASSIS-K239F

CHASSIS 2U for microATX motherboard (NO PSU)

www.cme.co.za

CHASSIS-K339F

CHASSIS 3U NO PSU

www.cme.co.za

My main question is going to be about what are the most affordable components to slot into something like that?
I was thinking along the lines of a 12th gen i5 like say a 12400, coupled with about 32GB of RAM so that I can also make the server do double duty as a container platform as well.

I'm undecided on whether its going to be all flash or a combination of spinning disk and flash for "cache" of some form at this point, but that is a problem for another month when I may have some more funds to actually buy the components themselves.

Anyone have any comments on the chassis themselves or a different option that can be easily rackmounted? (All my networking kit is already in a 15U wall mounted chassis)

 

[Diesal]

Following this topic, I've long wanted to retire my CM690 III but finding cases with more than 6 x 3.5" drives is boderline impossible.

And these server chassis, are a minefield when determining for ATX compatibility...

 

[ToxicBunny]

Following this topic, I've long wanted to retire my CM690 III but finding cases with more than 6 x 3.5" drives is boderline impossible.

And these server chassis, are a minefield when determining for ATX compatibility...

Yeah that I do see.
I even found a nice little 1U chassis that would do the job, until you see that it supports FlexATX PSUs only and well fsck me dead are those not exactly cheap.

 

[dualmeister]

1U chassis that would do the job

Will need a low profile CPU cooler as well.

 

[ToxicBunny]

Will need a low profile CPU cooler as well.

Absolutely, it has its own minefield of compromises, but just the PSU portion limits options insanely.

The 2U/3U options seem to be an acceptable compromise from a size point of view at least in not forcing me down an all flash storage server purely due to space.

 

[dualmeister]

Absolutely, it has its own minefield of compromises, but just the PSU portion limits options insanely.

I've built many of these. 1U is a pain in the butt.

Also, some 1U cases do not support a standard motherboard rear IO plate.

 

[ToxicBunny]

Aggg well, much back and forth with the voices in my head, I've decided to pull the trigger on a few chassis.

Getting a 3U, 2U, and a 1U from CME.

Also think that it will be a better idea to split the Storage server and the Virtualisation platform purely because everything I'm seeing says TrueNAS is pretty rubbish at running those sorts of things.

The 1U is more cos I could get it for peanuts and its a toy to play around with.
The 3U will be the storage server purely for drive bays, since I don't need the storage to be blazing fast I can use spinning disks coupled with an NVME for cache.
The 2U will end up being the virtualisation platform and probably replace most of the random Raspberry PIs that I have running things like HA, Octoprint etc.

Once the chassis arrive, then I shall figure out the best hardware to slot into them.

 

[ToxicBunny]

Colour me stupidly impressed with CME. Ordered on the weekend, and arrived at my door before 8am this morning.

Have some hardware ordered from wootware which will only arrive next week which is intended to be for the NAS but it might end up as the Vm host and then I'd order one of those Nas boards from aliexpress that I've just come across.

 

[ToxicBunny]

So the hardware arrived as well which is awesome

Ended up going for a ryzen 5 5500gt based setup with 16gb of ram for the moment.

And colour me surprised, I still vaguely know how to build a pc after not having done it for nearly 10 years.

I will need to get some fans for the case that can be managed from the motherboard to control their rpm and noise levels.

But I are a d00s, I installed truenas and then went OK cool let me just start sorting things out and went let me plug in the network only to find I chucked my spare cat5e cable out a year or two ago... Ffs.

 

[Kosmik]

So the hardware arrived as well which is awesome

Ended up going for a ryzen 5 5500gt based setup with 16gb of ram for the moment.

And colour me surprised, I still vaguely know how to build a pc after not having done it for nearly 10 years.

I will need to get some fans for the case that can be managed from the motherboard to control their rpm and noise levels.

But I are a d00s, I installed truenas and then went OK cool let me just start sorting things out and went let me plug in the network only to find I chucked my spare cat5e cable out a year or two ago... Ffs.

You running a server TB or something like proxmox?

Got two old 1U dual xeons thinking of running as a proxmox and making them like dedicated minecraft and maybe the stuff running off my old HP micrometer.

 

[ToxicBunny]

You running a server TB or something like proxmox?

Got two old 1U dual xeons thinking of running as a proxmox and making them like dedicated minecraft and maybe the stuff running off my old HP micrometer.

I'm going to run a few containers on the truenas box for a while until I can buy some more hardware and build a dedicated proxmox box for all the random little things that end up on raspberry pis and the like around the house.

Just be aware those 1u xeons are going to eat electricity at a rate of knots.

 

[Kosmik]

I'm going to run a few containers on the truenas box for a while until I can buy some more hardware and build a dedicated proxmox box for all the random little things that end up on raspberry pis and the like around the house.

Just be aware those 1u xeons are going to eat electricity at a rate of knots.

They a bit noisy too which is why Ibhavent jumped on them yet.

 

[ToxicBunny]

Been buggering around with this over the last day and a bit now..

Granted I don't have the actual storage that will go into the server (that is next months big purchase), but the one thing I have to add to the mix is PWM controlled fans for the server chassis, the case fans that are blasting all the time at full rpm will drive me bonkers.

Also the Apps in TrueNAS scale are quite cool, going to be able to centralise quite a few things in the short term, and have way more toys to play with... Will definitely need more memory for the server than I originally bought but that is an easy fix and there is a good likelihood I can hold off on a VM Host build for quite awhile given the server specs.

Am also going to need to reconfigure my network cabinet at home, its slowly grown into a rats nest that is going to drive me bonkers trying to get everything neatly installed.

 

[ToxicBunny]

Just cos you okes need a running commentary on the stupid from me

Ordered some drives and 2 new fans for the server (PWM ones so that hopefully it can be a bit quieter most of the time).

Fans arrived all hunky dory, but fsck me if I didn't even think to check cable length and they're about 5cm too damned short so now I have to find some extension cables which seem to be like hens teeth in this country.

If I knew where I could get the connectors in DBN I'd even happily make up my own, but that currently also seems to be a challenge.

BTW @Progenix Oj101 , the drives and fans come from you, and colour me very happy with the service and pricing, ordered yesterday and all out for delivery today.

 

[Progenix Oj101]

BTW @Progenix Oj101 , the drives and fans come from you, and colour me very happy with the service and pricing, ordered yesterday and all out for delivery today.

I'll be damned. That's enough info to figure out who you are without being able to figure out who you are. I'm guessing you went for DeepCool fans, but it could be a similar order with Cooler Master 80mm fans

 

[Progenix Oj101]

I'll be damned. That's enough info to figure out who you are without being able to figure out who you are. I'm guessing you went for DeepCool fans, but it could be a similar order with Cooler Master 80mm fans

Wait, I should read the rest of your post. You're the other person PWM fans + Durban.

 

[ToxicBunny]

Wait, I should read the rest of your post. You're the other person PWM fans + Durban.

Figured you'd be able work it out..

 

[Progenix Oj101]

Figured you'd be able work it out..

Without the rest of your post I would not have - there was a similar order, but with DeepCool 80mm fans and a single, larger drive I was leaning towards the other order because that WAS placed yesterday, but yours was so close to COB on Tuesday I guess it can count as yesterday.

It's always kinda stressful hearing someone here ordered I don't know why. Based on total customers since day 1, it's statistically a guarantee that several members here have ordered in the past.

I've told a few guys here who are active with making recommendations such as @Fulcrum29 to give me a try - I don't want to know their name, I don't want to know what they order, and I don't want to know when they order.

Looking for who I PM'd I saw that @Fulcrum29 he gave me his surname, but it's so common it doesn't change anything. There are already several dozen customers with the same surname.

I guess one way to stay on your toes is to approach every order as if it's someone wanting to expose poor service - not that threats change anything, as I want happy customers whether they're going to be public about it or not. 99% of orders that have hiccups will never know how many people I yelled at to ensure that things went smoothly enough that the customer didn't even notice the hiccup.

 

[ToxicBunny]

Without the rest of your post I would not have - there was a similar order, but with DeepCool 80mm fans and a single, larger drive I was leaning towards the other order because that WAS placed yesterday, but yours was so close to COB on Tuesday I guess it can count as yesterday.

It's always kinda stressful hearing someone here ordered I don't know why. Based on total customers since day 1, it's statistically a guarantee that several members here have ordered in the past.

I've told a few guys here who are active with making recommendations such as @Fulcrum29 to give me a try - I don't want to know their name, I don't want to know what they order, and I don't want to know when they order.

Looking for who I PM'd I saw that @Fulcrum29 he gave me his surname, but it's so common it doesn't change anything. There are already several dozen customers with the same surname.

I guess one way to stay on your toes is to approach every order as if it's someone wanting to expose poor service - not that threats change anything, as I want happy customers whether they're going to be public about it or not. 99% of orders that have hiccups will never know how many people I yelled at to ensure that things went smoothly enough that the customer didn't even notice the hiccup.

Well rest assured, I'm too poor to order often even though I lust after having decent PC stuff so you'll probably forget about me in short order

But also, I may be one of those odd "customers" I have relatively reasonable expectations and if I have an issue I'll deal with it in private.