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Dream build - Can XPEnology run on this?


Nightingale

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Hey all,

 

I've just come across XPEnology recently and I have really high hopes for it. I am upgrading my home network and I was thinking about getting the Synology DS2415+ before I came across XPEnology.

 

My media is growing fast and I need bigger storage. I'll post my build below and please tell me what you think. Ideally I'd like to put this together, boot XPEnology and have it recognise everything with no issues. (Doesn't everyone) I do realise it's a tad overkill as well but I will also be using PLEX on here.

 

Thanks very much in advance!

I've left Heatsinks, fans, rails and such off the list as it really won't matter for XPEnology.

 

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/rc6CVY

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I use SM x8 motherboards quite a bit and I think they're supported without issue. How are you going to connect the 24 drives up, I don't see a SAS HBA there? Synology is also expecting 12 drives and not any more; you have to edit the config files to support more drives and on every update there is a chance of it breaking the drive mapping. To support 24 drives you would have to manually download the PAT file, re-edit the config to support more drives & then recompress and use that; I don't think that there are checksums on the PAT files yet.

 

Your other option to ensure complete compatability is to load vSphere Hypervisor 6.5 and create virtual hardware which will work fine as within the latest loaders for DSM 6.1; still have to edit the config for more than 12 drives but you can at least create snapshots and roll back your loader if something messes up.

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Other option IS to run ESXI 6.5, have a really small spare drive isntalled on the standard SATA connector for the esxi vm images for the xpenology and then run two instances of DSM with either PCI passthrough of controllers to each one (e.g. 2+2 SAS HBA etc.) or use RDM mapping to create 'virtual' drives which are just maps to the real drives; this way you can utilise a single controller setup within esxi and then pass individual drives to each instance.

 

Advantage is 2 seperate systems, each with 12 drive capacity, with fast copying to each other without the headaches of a large number of drives...

 

Or get a smaller chassis with less bays; e.g. Dell R510, SM 12 bay 2u chassis etc.

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Hey Benoire, thanks for posting!

 

I was under the impression that this NORCO chassis has 6 separate backplates so I would be able to connect each with a SATA cable to the motherboard.

 

I've build computers before but this is my first "server" NAS and what you are explaining seems like quite the task to get it running, let alone getting updates if another version ever comes out. I'm starting to think if something more...developed is a better option. What are your thoughts?

 

I've looked into UnRaid as well. There are really only three things I want from the "Synology" side. 1: Ability to combine any size disks into the volume and add as needed. 2: "SHR-2" type of "RAID" while still having the 110/MBs or greater speeds. 3: Ability to share folders on the NAS to outside the network (Clients able to upload and download files)

 

I've also looked into just buying this Supermicro chassis "SC846E16-R1200B" I found some on ebay for the same price. As well as installing these PSUs "PWS-920P-1R" because apparently they are MUCH quieter, like a "gaming computer".

 

Lots of variables but I'm hoping you or someone can guide me in the right direction.

 

Thanks again!

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. you need 1 sata/sas port for each drive. you can use 3, 8 drive cards, e.g. M1015 or 1 controller with an expander. avoid expanders for sata drives, good with SAS drives.

your power supply might be a bit small to have it running at the ideal 50% level. I have a 560 watt seasonic and I'm working it hard with 15 sata drives 2 M1015 controllers and a built in LSI SAS controller and 2 opteron cpu's with 32 GB ecc ram. will be swapping the 560 with my seasonic 750 soon. 1U power supplies are not quiet.

I'm playing with my 2nd server and have xpenology 6.1.1 running on it under ESXi 6.0. My other server is ESXi 5.5 and am running 8 VM's, 2 are storage running. via omnios. I would suggest ESXi 6.0 and let the other boys play with the bleeding edge 6.5. Do your homework! xpenology is so easy to set up under VMware and hardware at times, for me, runs better under it than bare metal. With server grade hardware there is no reason not to use ESXi. Once you learn to use it you won't go back. It lets you get to most out of the hardware you have with fine controll over everything.

supermicro over norco any day, homework! I am using istarusa cases and trayless drive docks. Good quality and price, if you shop. I would not go for 24 drives, to much power draw for 24/7 systems, slightly larger drives and less of them. Try to stay below 16. Sweet spot now is 3 TB drives. How much storage do you need online all the time?

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Just piping in to save you some cash. I have that same enclosure, and bought it from Amazon for over $100 less than newegg....

https://www.amazon.com/NORCO-Mount-Hot- ... B00BQY3916

 

Yes, it has 6 SAS backplanes that needs to be attached to some kind of SAS controller that supports port replication. HBA's and RAID controllers both support that depending on the model. I'm currently using a LSI HBA > https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003U ... UTF8&psc=1 with an Intel port expander > https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0042 ... UTF8&psc=1 and it's working perfect with Xpenology except for issues running more than 12 drives and plugging in a USB drive. (The USB thumbdrive shows up as an internal disk, which blocks me from saving encryption keys on it).

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