Jump to content
  • 0

Building new server from scratch!


hansolo77

Question

Hey all!  I've been working on learning how to setup and install WSE 2012 R2 and I think I'm finally there.  However, I'm feeling very limited in my capacities as my case is overflowing with drives.  So I'm going to be building a new server from the ground up and would like some advice and suggestions as to what I should get.  I'm only a part-time worker and don't really make a lot of money.  So the purchasing time line is going to be really long.  So far, I know for certain that I'm going to but the Norco 4224 case.  I've read reviews and it has been recommended time and time again.  The only issue with this case appears to be the fans, and the potential for the backplanes to be DOA.  But at the price, it's a steal compared to other similar cases.  Plus, I'm going to get it through NewEgg, as they're the cheapest place around, and they offer really quick RMA's for exchanges if there's something wrong with.
 
Now I'm at the point of internals.  The first order of business is the motherboard.  Form factor isn't really an issue as the Norco case fully supports a whole range.  Individual features are where I'm struggling.  I know that I want to have room for expansion.  So I'm kinda staying away from those Mini ITX boards, since they, for the most part, all seem to have only 1 expansion slot.  I already have 1 SAS controller, and plan on getting an expander.  So that would be 2 slots.  As for the processor, I'm not sure what I need.  My usage scenario is a simple home file server for client backups and media streaming.  So I suppose I don't need anything major.  The same goes for RAM. 
 
As it is right now, I'm thinking about getting one of these:

SUPERMICRO MBD-X9SCL-F-O LGA 1155 Intel C202 Micro ATX Intel Xeon E3 Server Motherboard
or
SUPERMICRO MBD-A1SAM-2550F-O uATX Server Motherboard FCBGA 1283 DDR3 1600/1333
 
The first board is nice, in that it has plenty of expansion slots, Support for Xeon processors, and is cheap.  However, it only supports ECC memory of max 32gb, SATA 3.0GB/s, and is cheap.  The second board is nice, in that it has just enough expansion slots for my needs (controller and expander), already comes with a processor, supports (but not require) ECC memory of max 64gb, and has 2xSATA 6.0Gb/s, but is a little more expensive.
 
So which board should I get?  Integrated CPU and more RAM, or more slots, less RAM, and mandatory ECC?  Or should I look at something else?  What are your suggestions?

EDIT ->  I just looked at and am now also adding this contender:
SUPERMICRO MBD-A1SAM-2550F-O uATX Server Motherboard FCBGA 1283 DDR3 1600/1333

 

It's got more everything.  More SATA 6.0Gb/s, TONS more RAM, support for faster CPU, and more expensive.  To put it in perspective, this new board would probably take a month to save up for.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

220 answers to this question

Recommended Posts

  • 0

Yeah he replied back to me last night around 11:30pm.  I imagine he was on weekend and didn't get back to my issue until last night (would have been early Monday morning in Asia).  He asked me to take a picture of the BIOS screen (where it should show the BMC version number (though until I fixed it, it was blank)) and of the Serial Number on the board.  He then sent a CC to the original guy and said if it was identified as a BMC issue to please send me a new BMC chipset.  That actually has me a little worried.. if such a problem occurs frequently enough that they have a backup solution to replace the chips.  I replied back to both and said what I did to make it work, and that if I hadn't there wouldn't have been any version number of BMC to show him.  However, I said if they would like to have that information for tracking purposes, I would be more than willing to accommodate.  I laid out all the details and suggested they keep that in mind should a future issue crop up with other users.  I then asked if they felt if the failure might be an early sign of a more serious problem, and if I should be considering replacing it.  I got another reply a few hours later (I was in bed this time) saying that basically the step of removing the power and battery is a basic/generic troubleshooting step they typically have users do.  Funny, he never mentioned it before; just went straight to giving me a tool to reset the password *shrug*.  All I know, is it's working now..

 

On the other hand.. I got that new drive in the mail.  I don't like the way our postman is handling the mail now.  Might be a new guy, I don't know.  We have a screen door with a solid metal plate at the bottom (a lot of screen doors are all glass top to bottom, ours is divided into 3.  Top or Middle can open, and the bottom is sealed.  We went with that option because we have a dog and didn't want her running to the door and breaking through it when we had it open).  Anyway, he used to open it to put packages between the front door and the screen door.  The way they do it now, he just stacks it right in front of the door.  You can't even open up the front door to get your mail because it's blocking.  This wouldn't be a problem if we lived in a house, and the door was kinda hidden.  But we live in a condo community, with a shared apartment building facing the parking lot, where the front of the building is wide open and easily viewable.  There's nothing to stop somebody from coming up and swiping that stuff.  The old way at least gave a bit of security so people don't see packages waiting.  It's even been on the news around here lately that people have been caught on camera trailing behind UPS trucks and waiting for a box to be dropped then they go and pick it up for themselves.  What ever happened to scanning the barcode and getting a signature for delivery?  I wonder if there is a way to tell the post office to require signatures or at least a person hand-to-hand delivering.  ANYWAY (again!).. I got the drive ok.  But I was upset at the mail man for just leaving it out.  That's not cheap hardware!  I brought it in, and it was COLD.  According to the post office tracking, it was delivered at like 9:30am, and it was nearly noon before I checked.  Luckily, the drive seemed to format (long, not quick) ok and passed Scanner's sector checks.  Got it added to the pool now.

 

Something strange.  I didn't put ANYTHING on this new drive.  I plugged it in, switched it to ONLINE in the Disk Manager, created a partition and long formatted it, then scanned it, then enabled it for DrivePool use.  However, it is showing there is 48GB "unduplicated".  I'm not sure what that could be.  How can there be files on the drive that aren't duplicated somewhere else first?  Also, when I have DrivePool do a "remeasure" it doesn't do anything.  Shouldn't that cause it to say "hey, there's 48GB of stuff on this drive that's not duplicated.. so lets duplicate it!" rather than just skip over it and identify it to me as unduplicated?

 

Lastly.. if anybody cares to know who might be following this.  When I started having that BMC/IPMI issue, I thought it might have been related to the new exhaust fan I installed in the Norco case.  Might still have been, who knows?  Well, I had ordered 2 fans, but the delivery was shady (like everything else).  Rather than come in a box, they both arrived in a VERY LARGE bubble envelope.  I mean, this thing was like 30 inches long by 12 inches tall.  Inside was 2 80mm fans and a USB Thumb Drive.  That was the first sign something was amiss.  Opened up the bag, the USB was fine (it was in one of those "killer, hermetically sealed plastic & can't open" kinda packages that hang on hooks in the store).  There was also an undamaged 80mm fan box, and another fan box that looked like it had been ripped open.  All the innards of the box were scattered in the bottom of the bag.  However, THAT fan is what I installed.  The other fan, still in the sealed box, was damaged when I took it out (ironic huh?).  The box was perfect, and everything looked good, but a piece of white plastic fell out of the box.  I then noticed that it was one of the fan blades!  So I RMA'd it with NewEgg.  Still waiting for them to RECEIVE it before they can even send me a new one back.  It really makes me wonder about these guys.  Why on earth would you put 3 tiny little things in such a huge bag, rather than just bubble wrap them and put them safely in a box?  I mean, these are BOXES to begin with.. I wouldn't put a box in a bag.. maybe the other way around.  Ignorants.  But yea, I read a few forum threads about the kind of fans recommended for replacements.  I thought about getting some Noctua fans, but apparently the way the case is drilled prevents 2 of them to be installed.  So I went with 2 Arctic Cooling F8 Pro fans (link).  They can pump out 33 CFM air at only 22dB.  That's a lot better than the Delta's that are factory installed (at least for noise, the air movement might be a little less).  I've heard good things about the Noctua fans though, but with enough people saying the installation side-by-side on the back is 50/50, I chose to go with the Arctic cooling since 100% of users that went with them confirmed they work.  I might replace the fan wall fans with Noctuas, but I'm not sure if they will work with my wall.  The design of my fan wall is different than any other I've seen pictures online of.  Basically, the fans sit in plastic housing where the power cable attaches to the side of the housing.  That housing is then slid into another housing mounted into the fan wall.  The power plug is then connected automatically to existing pins mounted on the fan wall's housing.  Those existing pins are then connected to a square plastic tube, running along the bottom of the fan wall that goes to each fan, and then comes out the far side where the SAS Backplane Rails get their power.  Two tiny little wires (red and black) then connect to a molex plug, which goes to your power supply.  The problem I see with a replacement fan is with the size of the fan (it looks like Noctuas have an extruding bit of rubber or something around the screw mounting holes which would prevent the fan from sliding into the housing) and with the power plug (if it's not a 3-wire and is instead a molex or 4-wire, it won't connect).  So I think what I'll have to do is either buy one and test it before buying 3 more, or hope I can maybe find somebody who HAS one that will let me borrow it for testing.  What would be really helpful would be if I can find somebody online who has already DONE that with those fans and my version of the fan wall that can confirm it for me.  Have to look and wait and see.

 

Alright, I'm exhausted now.  No more typing!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

Ok, I'm definitely going to have to get a replacement back plane.  When I got that new NAS drive the other day, I swapped out "Rail 1 Bay 2" where I had a working 2tb drive.  I didn't want to risk plugging the new drive into a possibly failing bay, so I put it in there.  I moved the old drive out and put it down in that "suspicious" "Rail 3 Bay 4" slot.  Windows didn't detect the drive until after I performed a cold boot of the system.  Once I did that, it was working fine.  Then today I got a replacement drive I had RMA'd with an Amazon retailer (the guys who sold me that HP drive I couldn't directly RMA with Seagate (which by the way the replacement was an OEM drive too lol)).  I plugged it into the "Rail 5 Bay 1" slot that I had previously thought I fried when I installed one of my spare "might work/might not" drives.  Well, nothing happened.  The drive spun up, but Windows never detected it.  I then thought "ok, maybe I don't have the hot-plug setup right in the BIOS" since I had made all those changes trying to fix the BMC/IPMI issues.  Rather than fix it, for now I just wanted to get that drive working and verify it was a good drive.  So I just powered down and did another cold boot.  Well, once Windows came back up, DrivePool was then saying a drive was missing, and it was that fricken "Rail 3 Bay 4" drive again.  Windows still didn't detect the new drive down in "Rail 5 Bay 1" either, so I shut down, and swapped the drives (put the new one in "Rail 3 Bay 4" and the old one in "Rail 5 Bay 1".  Powered up, then DrivePool was saying a BUNCH of drives were missing.  Pulled up the Device Manager, and it looked like the entire array of drives connected to the Expander card had vanished.  F^CK.  Spent a good couple of hours taking everything apart, checking cables, checking power, etc.  In the end, I discovered that if I didn't have a drive connected in "Rail 3 Bay 4", everything works (all drives detected).  But if I had a drive in there, the Expander locked up and couldn't find ANY drive.  I now have the old drive and the new drive on "Rail 5" and the system seems happy.  So I'm definitely thinking that "Rail 3 Bay 4" slot is hosed, and I'm going to need to replace that back plane eventually.  They're not expensive, but they're not really cheap either, about $50 or so.  But before I worry about replacing them, I'm going to continue building up more drives in the remaining bays first.  If the rest of bays are fine, I'll just replace the one rail.  But I want to make sure it's just the one.  I guess I could swap out drives and put them in the remaining bays, but I'm more of a "it works, don't go screwing with it and make it stop working" kinda guy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

Lots of stuff... :)

 

 

As for the drive, that's ... unusual.  I'm not sure why that would happen. However, if you're running 2.2.0.659 or higher, the "dpcmd" has an auditing feature, so you can check to see what's going on. However, any new files may go on this disk. So double check that "real time duplication" is still enabled (Pool Options -> Performance).

And you could check the PoolPart folder directly. 

 

But as for the delivery... yeah.... :(  The quality has been getting worse and worse. Even stuff that requires a signature... they don't bother with it anymore.  And people know it. :(

 

 

 

And sorry to hear about the shady packing job.  Depending on who your ordered from (and if newegg/amazon, make sure who you're *actually* buying from, because it may not be the company). 

 

 

And i'm sorry to hear that you definitely need to replace one of the backplanes. That may be why the seller was getting rid of it (ebay is always a gamble :( )

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

I just checked and I'm running DrivePool v 2.1.1.561.  I think I was having trouble when I used the newer version, though I don't remember what the problem was.  I did also check and DO have the "real time duplication" enabled.  I also gave the drive a drive letter (temporarily) so I could open it in Explorer.  There aren't any files on the drive, other than what is inside the hidden PoolPart folder.  I don't know how to check if the files IN that folder are duplicated though.  I lastly checked to verify if maybe the drive was setup to use Shadow Copies and maybe THOSE were taking up space (it was disabled).  Also, just to update, it's now at 81.2gb Unduplicated. It's a small chunk on a 4tb drive, but still it's the size of 2 BluRay disks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

I think I figured out what happened with the drive having a lot of unduplicated data.  Turns out it was a hidden system folder $RecycleBin.  DrivePool's balancer settings for some reason showed that the new drive had most (if not all) of that folder rather than have it shared amongst all the drives.  I saw this, and as an experiment I unchecked all the drives but one for that folder, and it moved to that other drive.  So that was definitely the case.  Trouble is, now it's all on that other drive, even though I reset it to use all drives.  The duplicator or whatever isn't transferring that folder.  The other strange thing is that that doesn't exist in the pool to begin with, and I can't seem to figure out how to remove it.  I know it's a system folder and probably can't be removed, but why is it 80gb when there isn't even anything IN my Recycle Bin on the Desktop?

 

Another issue I've now been having is the Server Essentials window keeps coming up saying there is low disk space on the D:\ drive (the DrivePool drive) even though there is 4.23tb available.  Not sure why it's doing that.  It was doing that daily before I added that new NAS drive then it stopped, now it's doing it again.  I've rebooted multiple times and Windows definitely sees there is plenty of space, yet Server Essentials keeps reporting there is less than 10% available on the drive.  Need a little help with that...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

It should appear on the pool, and it should be deletable.  Enable the hidden files *AND* system files view. You should see the "$RECYCLE.BIN" folder.  

 

As for why it's not showing up right, is that it may be "corrupted" and doesn't have the right permissions.  Either way, you should be able to delete it from the pool. If you have issues with that, take ownership of the folder and all child items, and then delete it.

 

 

As for why it's not moving, unless there is a specific reason to move it (such as the Drive Usage Limiter balancer), it won't necessarily balance the files off of the disk. 

 

 

As for low disk space, is it reporting the Pool specifically?

If you're not sure ... configure the health reporting tool and send yourself an email. (seriously, this is one of hte BEST features of Essentials!).  It will list ALL of the drives and how full they are.  This may help identify which is low on space. 

 

Also, even if you have 4.3TBs free, what is the pools size?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

It is specifically showing as a CRITICAL alert, saying "Free space is low on hard drives".  DERP!!! It was reporting it as the D:\ drive.. but on my PRIMARY computer, not the server lol.  I didn't even notice until I was getting it typed out here.  Thanks at least for getting me to look closer at it.  ;)

 

As for the $RecycleBin issue.  I'm pretty sure I have hidden and system files viewable, as Emby creates hidden /metadata folders and I wanted to be able to delete them to force Emby to recreate them.  I'll double check though, maybe the system files are still hidden.  Ok that fixed it!  I had "Hide protected operating system files" checked.  Unchecked that, and it appeared on the pool.  I was then able to "delete" it.  It still shows up, but it's empty now, and my DrivePool now shows only 129 bytes unduplicated.  :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

Ah, well that would do it.  And yeah, always look close at the errors ... they're not exactly formatted the best to catch your attention.

 

And the computer getting low can cause issues. If the drive doesn't have enough space (snapshots will fail, which will cause the backups to fail).

 

 

 

And yeah, the "hide protected...." setting is annoying. ;)

And glad to hear that it fixed it.

 

 

As for the remaining unduplicated, if you have the 2.2.0.659 build installed, the "dpcmd" has an auditing tool.  It's not exactly easy to use, but it's very functional.
Otherwise, try the "Folder Duplication" option, as that will scan the pool and display the contents in real time (where you set the duplication level per folder).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

See my previous post about the version of DrivePool I'm using.

http://community.covecube.com/index.php?/topic/1383-building-new-server-from-scratch/page-4&do=findComment&comment=11451

 

As for the low drive on the client.. I don't even back up that drive in my nightly routines.  I only backup the system drive.   D:\ is a temporary drive that has a lot of data on it one day, then none the next.  I've just been working on the server so much lately, I hadn't realized I still had a bunch of stuff on the other drive I needed to work through.  :)  I'm off work tomorrow, and that should be gone by then. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

Do you remember what the issue was exactly?  
And do you know if it was possibly an issue with the hardware (since you've been having hardware issues)?

 

 

And if that's the case, then you can definitely ignore the warning then. ;)

But I figured you'd appreciate knowing why it pops up. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

I honestly don't remember, but I was sure I had discussed it either in the forum or with you in PM's, but I can't seem to find it.  Is it possible to upgrade, and if I find it's not working (for whatever reason it was) downgrade back to an earlier version without screwing up the pool?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

I had an emergency and needed to buy a switch ASAP, and couldn't wait to get one of the Netgear ones I was trying to save up for.  It was nothing serious, but I needed a few extra ports ASAP and decided to just get something else.  So I now have one of these:

 

http://www.microcenter.com/product/370025/TEG-S16G_16-Port_10-100-1000_Gigabit_Ethernet_Switch

 

Anyway, I need some networking help from the more technically advanced guys here.  Since my motherboard has 4 LAN ports (plus a 5th dedicated IPMI port) I connected them all up to the switch, and created a TEAM.  I did this using the control panel, rather than whatever Windows Server provides.  Was this the right way, or wrong way to go?  I noticed after I did this that the Windows Server Manager program has a section for creating TEAMS, but it shows no teams created, even though I did through the control panel.  So I'm kinda wierded by that.  I set the TEAM type as "Adaptive Load Balancing", which now has all 4 NIC's running at full duplex each, giving me "essentially" a 4gbps connection.  I realize in reality now that I'll only be able to get the throughput of whatever connection I have that is receiving from it (ie; 10/100 speeds on my Raspberry Pi, or a single gigabit on my other PCs (though I think the media center one I had built might have 2 NICs, not sure)). 

 

So anyway (again).. I'm having trouble getting it to lock down to a static IP address.  There's utility construction going on about a block from here.  It's been going on for about 8 months now.  Needless to say, our lines are being directly affected, and we've lost power briefly multiple times in the last couple of days.  Each fresh boot up gave me a completely new IP address.  This is what led me to realize I had a problem.  When I had only 1 NIC connected to the LAN, it worked fine on a static IP address.  However once I created the TEAM with multiple NICs, it fell back to use an "Automatically Assigned" type of setup.  I don't like having Auto for my wired connections, so I'm trying to set it statically.  I can set the IP, Subnet, Domain, and DNS like it should be (ie; 192.168.1.5, 255.255.255.0, 192.168.1.1, 192.168.1.1) but when I save it, it shows only the LAN bit is connected without any internet access.  The details shows that DHCP has not been enabled.  If I go through the troubleshooter to re-enable it, it fixes it - but by setting everything back to automatic.  I seem to recall Chris mentioning (it might have been in PM's) that I don't want to set the router's IP as the DNS, since the server can do that, so I tried setting those to 127.0.0.1, but that didn't work either.

 

I'm not hung out to try so to speak at the moment, as the automatic settings DO work.  I'm just trying to figure out what settings I need to change so I can have a static IP address.  Any ideas?  Oh, and I'm making these changes on the TEAM network connection, not each individual NIC.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

Well, the switch looks to be a decent one, so yo ushoudl be fine with it.

 

 

As for the NICs... .bridging (which is what you did, it sounds like) is very different from teaming.  

I don't remember the exact details, but it's handled in a fundamentally different way, and you probably want teaming instead of the bridge. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

I didn't bridge them.  There is a bridging option (right click the connection and select "Bridge Connections".  I didn't do that.  These are INTEL NICs, so what I did was go into the actual NIC properties, then the Teaming tab, created a new TEAM, then selected all the NICs I wanted in the Team.  Now there is a new network connection in my list Called TEAM #0.  It is that connection I was trying to reconfigure.

 

Is there a difference between using the driver's built in teaming, and the teaming function of the server?  I would think a hardware (driver) configured team would be more ideal over a software (OS) configured one.  Maybe I'm wrong?

 

I tried messing with this again and I think I got it working.  For some reason it wasn't saving the address I was entering for the Default Gateway.  It was leaving it blank even after I typed it in and saved it.  Very strange.  Anyway, I think it fixed itself (as far as the driver is concerned) after I rebooted.  I was then able to enter that address again and it saved this time.  So I guess it was just a fluke.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

I'm trying to rebalance now, but my DrivePool is way out of whack for some reason.  I'm not sure why.

 

post-2076-0-03132900-1452302102_thumb.gif

 

Why do I have 11gb of "Other" and nearly 44gb "Unusable?"  That's a lot of data DrivePool isn't able to work with.  Something somewhere is either not being calculated correctly, or there's a large chunk of data somewhere that DP can't access.  Any ideas on what it could be?  I checked my duplication settings, and I have it set to 2x on the whole DrivePool drive, except it's disabled for the $RecycleBin.  I also did the trick we spoke of before where I enabled the "View hidden system files" along with the hidden regular files.  There's nothing out of place, and the Recycle Bin is empty.  When I scroll through the drives, they all have various levels of "Other" ranging in the low 100mb's.  One drive though has a large 2.6gb of "Other".  However, nothing is labeled as "Unusable" so I'm at a loss.  I'd love to get that free space back, since I'm down to my last TB.  How can I look and see what this stuff is, and correct it?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

"Unusable for Duplication" is a rather complicated value, and it's based on the pool's exact configuration.

 

This is normal, and given time, the balancing system should attempt to resolve this. 

 

 

As for the other, this may be normal, depending on the system configuration. But something to check is the "$RECYCLE.BIN" folder on each disk, and the "System Volume Information" folder. 

YOu may want to make sure that you turn off "System Protection" for the pooled drives, as this will use disk space (in the "System Volume Information" folder, actually).

 

Additionally, the "other" space may be caused by "slack space":

http://community.covecube.com/index.php?/topic/37-faq-unduplicated-vs-duplicated-vs-other-vs-unusable/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

Thanks Chris.  I will check each drive's $RecycleBin and make sure they're empty/gone.  What do I do about the "System Volume Information" folder?  I tried to delete it, but it gave me some error.  Also, how do I turn of "System Protection"?  I've never heard of that before.

 

The "Unusuable" magically disappeared overnight last night, so I'm happy about that.  Now I just have to figure out what the nearly 8gb of "Other" is.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

It's the "System Restore" feature. 

 

Run "control system", to bring up the System control panel.  Click on "System Protection" in the left sidebar. Configure and disable for the pooled disks. 

 

If it lets you delete the restore points, do so. This will clear out the System Volume Information folders.

otherwise, you need to take ownership of these files, and change the permissions before you can delete them.

 

 

And yeah, that's normal for the "unusable". It was balanced away. Which is what is supposed to happen.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

Ah, you're runnign 2012R2, right?

 

Run "fsmgmt.msc", right click on "Shared Folders (local)", select "All Tasks" and "Configure shadow copies". From there you can configure the drives.  (VSS, shadow copies, system protection, system restore, etc.... all part of the same "stuff").

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

Yeah 2012R2...

 

Looking at that, all the Shadow Copies are set to disabled for each drive except for my C:\ drive.  Strangely though, one of my drives does have 32mb listed under "used", though that hardly accounts for the GB's of "other".  Not sure what else to try.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Answer this question...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...