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Getting by with a little help (New Server Questions)


MrTPN

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Hi Folks! :grin:

 

I currently have a few Synology boxes between home and work, and i think we can all agree these are fantastic units. However, after a few years i am starting to outgrow my current enclosure at home. My requirements have also changed and i need something with a little more "oomph" to it in order to run things like docker.

 

Now, unlike my company i don't have a budget of a few thousand dollars to go out and pickup some of Synologys Enterprise grade gear, so wanted to try building something myself as a project and if it works....great! If not, i am sure there will be other solutions i can look at down the line.

 

Thanks to a rather generous client of mine, i am about to come into possession of a HP ProLiant ML350p GEN-8 which has the following spec:

 

- 2x Xeon E5-2609 (Intel® C600 Chipset)

- 32GB RAM

- P420i HD controller

- Integrated Matrox G200 Graphics

 

I didn't plan on posting this and sitting around waiting for you folks to do the hard work for me, i have done some homework and the hardware seems mostly compatible aside from the P420i HD Controller and the Integrated Matrox Graphics card.

 

There isn't much i can do about the graphics and as a headless box, i am not going to loose sleep over it, however the controller is something i know i would need to replace and it seems the following are my best options:

 

- LSi 9201 -16i (Preferred Option)

- LSi 9220 - 8i / IBM M1015

- LSi 9211 - 8i

 

Given the weather of information and knowledge on these forums, i would be most grateful if anyone with experience in the above hardware / components could weigh in with any concerns, ideas or issues i may encounter when undergoing this little project. If people are interested, i plan to give feedback on how things go :smile:

 

Cheers!

 

MrTPN

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I just built my first Xpenology box recently and spent a good month laboring over the small details about RAID cards and such. There are only two concerns that you should be aware of:

 

1) the Synology DSM is a software RAID solution. You could get a really nice RAID card, but will not be using the onboard RAID controller to setup your arrays and such. You'll setup your array as JBOD and then setup the array in the Volume Manager. So you could potentially save yourself some cash and just get a standard SATA adapter, unless there are certain functions you could use in a full hardware RAID card.

 

2) the default CPU governor sets the CPU at max speed at all times, even though the system monitor shows CPU usage at 0%. Once you are up and running, checkout the "Xpenology CPU Throttle Script tutorial" (see google for link).

 

As a reference:

 

I got the Antec ISK300-65 case and jammed 4 laptop drives (4x500GB in RAID5) into the case as well as a 16GB SSD DoM for iSCSI caching purposes. The thing is tiny (had to drill my own mounting holes into the existing chassis to fit the drives), is practically inaudible, even at the dead of night, and runs low power, at only 65 watts or less. Btw, using a Celeron J CPU, it does support Docker, but I'm sure you'll need more "oomph" than what the ASRock mobo can provide. The entire build cost me exactly $400, even.

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