My Rackmount Server

[Christopher (Drashna)]

To get this started apparently:

 

My server was kind of piecemeal constructed.

 

 

I recently purchased a 42U HP Rack from a local company (via Craigslist), for super cheap ($50, so literally couldn't pass it up)

 

Sophos UTM (Home): 

Case: Antec ISK 110 VESA case,

Mobo (SoC): ASRock RACK J1900D2Y

RAM: 4GB of non-ECC RAM

OS Drive: Samsung 850 Pro 120GB SSD 

 

 

Storage Server:

Case: SuperMicro 847E26-R1K28LPB

OS: Windows Server 2012R2 Essentials

CPU: AMD FX-8120  Intel Xeon E3 1245v3 (link)

MoBo: ASRock 990FX Extreme3  Supermicro MBD-X10SAT-O (link)

RAM: 2x8GB Crucial ECC

GFX: nVidia geForce 9400  Intel HD 4600 (on processor GFX)

PSU: Built in, 2x redundant power supplies (1280W 80+ Gold) 

OS Drive: Crucial MX200 256GB SSD

Storage Pool: 146TB:  4x 4TB (Seagate NAS ST4000VN000) + 8x 4TB (WD40EFRX) + 12x 8TB Seagate Archive (ST8000AS0002), 2x 8TB Seagate  Barracudas (ST8000DM004), 2x 128GB OCZ Vertex 4s

Misc Storage: 500GB, used for temp files (downloads)

HDD Controller card: IBM ServeRAID M1015, cross flashed to "IR Mode" (RAID options, used to pass through disks only), plus an Intel SAS Expander card 

USB: 2TB Seagate Backup Plus for Server Backup (system drive, and system files) using a WD Green EARS 

 

 

NVR (Network Video Record, aka IP camera box) via BlueIris:

Case: Norco ITX-S4 

OS: Windows 10

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130T

MoBo: ASRock Rack E3C226D2I 

RAM: 2x8GB G.Skill 

GFX: ASPEED 2300

PSU: 450W 1U 

OS Drive: 128GB SSD, Crucial M550

Storage Pool: 2x4TB Toshiba HDD

 

HyperV VM Lab:

Case: Supermicro SYS-6016T-NTF (1U case) 

OS: HyperV Server 2012R2

CPU: Intel Xeon 5560  (x2, hyperthreading disabled)

MoBo: Supermicro X8DTU 

RAM: 64GBs (8x8GB) Hynix Registered ECC (DDR3-1333)

GFX: ASPEED 2300

PSU: 560W 1U 

OS Drive: 160GB HDD 

Storage: 500GB Crucial MX200 SSD, using Data Deduplication for VMs

 

 

Emby Server: 

Case: Unknown (1U case) 

OS: Windows 10 Pro x64

CPU: Dual Intel Xeon x5660's (hardware fairy swung by)

MoBo: Supermicro X8DTi 

RAM: 20GB (5x4GB) Samsung Registered ECC

GFX: Matrox (Onboard)

PSU: 560W 1U 

OS Drive: 64GB SSD,

Storage: 128GB  (cache, metadata, transcoding temp) 

 

 

Netgear GS724T Smart Switch

24 port, Gigabit, Managed Switch (one port is burned out already, but it was used). 

 

 

Dell 17" keyboard and monitor tray (used, damaged, propped up). 

 

Images here: http://imgur.com/a/WRhZf

 

 

Here is my network hardware.  Not a great image, but that's the 24 port, managed switch, a punchout block, waaay too long cables, cable modem and Sophos UTM box.

 

Misc drawers and unused spares. 

 

 

And my servers. HyperV system in the 1U, and my storage server in the 4U. And the Cyberpower UPS at the bottom. 

 

What you don't see is the NVR box, as it's been having issues, and I've been troubleshooting those issues. 

[Doug]

I have a Norco 4224v1 4U case.

 

CPU: Intel i3-530

MoBo: HP ProLiant ML110 G6

RAM: 4x2GB CORSAIR Vengeance

GFX: Onboard

OS Drive: 180GB SSD, Intel 335 Series (WHS 2011)

Storage Pool: 13x2TB (Seagate ST2000DM001)

HDD Controller card: HighPoint RocketRAID 2760 (All drives connected to controller)

3TB Seagate ST3000DM001 for Server Backup (system drive, and system files) / Client Backups

Drivepool / Scanner

 

[weezywee]

Case: Norco RPC-4224
Motherboard: Supermicro X9SAE-V
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1245V2
RAM: 32GB Kingston
OS Drive: 60GB Intel 330 Series SSD
VM Drive: 240GB Intel 330 Series SSD
OS Backup Drive: 250GB WD
HBA & SAS Expander: M1015(flashed to LSI 9211-8i) & HP SAS Expander
Storage Pool: 7 3TB WD, 6 Green & 1 Red

I have my entire pool duplicated and I'm currently using about 13.5TB, I just add drives as I need more storage. I've started buying WD Reds instead of greens and I used WDIdle on the green drives to change the head parking from 8 seconds to 5 minutes.

 

[Alex]

Can we see some pictures

[Codegear]

Physical ESXi 5.1u1 host

- Gigabyte 990FXA-UD5 motherboard

- AMD Phenon II X6 1090T @ 3.2GHz

- 16GB RAM

- 1 Hitachi 7K3000 2TB HDD

- 7 Hitachi 5K3000 2TB HDDs (accessed by WSE 2012 as RDM disks and totally allocated to DrivePool)

 

Windows Server 2012 Essentials (WSE 2012) Virtual Machine

- Allocated 4 vCPU and 8GB RAM

- WSE 2012 (latest Windows Updates)

- DrivePool 2.0.0.260 (beta)

- All 7x 5K3000 disks are dedicated to WSE 2012 for DrivePool thru RDM disks

 

NOTE: Virtualization does not put a significant overhead in performance but allows smooth upgrades between platforms - Migrated from WHS 2011 to WSE 2012 and only had to reassign disks from one virtual machine to another.  Voilà!

 

For full story based on WHS 2011, see http://forum.covecube.com/discussion/comment/809#Comment_809

[Alex]

@weezywee

 

Very cool.

 

That APC box looks familiar (I think).

 

I have a APC UPS that I've hacked to use 4x deep cycle marine batteries to provide 3 to 4 hours backup for my entire office (instead of the built in Li-Ion which would only last 15 min.).

[Pål Andreassen]

 

Physical ESXi 5.1u1 host

- Gigabyte 990FXA-UD5 motherboard

- AMD Phenon II X6 1090T @ 3.2GHz

- 16GB RAM

- 1 Hitachi 7K3000 2TB HDD

- 7 Hitachi 5K3000 2TB HDDs (accessed by WSE 2012 as RDM disks and totally allocated to DrivePool)

 

Windows Server 2012 Essentials (WSE 2012) Virtual Machine

- Allocated 4 vCPU and 8GB RAM

- WSE 2012 (latest Windows Updates)

- DrivePool 2.0.0.260 (beta)

- All 7x 5K3000 disks are dedicated to WSE 2012 for DrivePool thru RDM disks

 

NOTE: Virtualization does not put a significant overhead in performance but allows smooth upgrades between platforms - Migrated from WHS 2011 to WSE 2012 and only had to reassign disks from one virtual machine to another.  Voilà!

 

For full story based on WHS 2011, see http://forum.covecube.com/discussion/comment/809#Comment_809

 

 

I'm running ESXi 5.1 u1 on a GA-990FXA-UD3 motherboard with a AMD FX-8150 processor. I'm unable to enable IO passthough in ESXi. All it says is that the host does not support passthough configuration. According to other posts I've seen the GA-990FXA-UD3 does support IOMMU (what ever that is) that is required for pass though. Any thoughts?

[Christopher (Drashna)]

I think that line of AMD processors is missing a feature to enable the IO passthrough. Because I have a 8120 and I'm unable to enable RemoteFX for HyperV, which is related to that IO passthrough, I believe. (GPU passthrough for RemoteFX, as well as other IO stuff).

[Pål Andreassen]

According to this spec-sheet: http://www.comx-computers.co.za/AD8150X8-FX-specifications-57358.htm

the CPU has IOMMU support. And so does the mother board according to misc web sites.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

I think it's missing some other feature in the CPUs architecture. Other than that, I can't really find any information about that it either. It is frustrating. 

[Codegear]

@Pâl Andreassen and drashna

 

It turned out I had the same problem with my 990FXA-UD5 board - this is what I first thought...

 

The "old" videocard (add-on) I have installed was preventing the I/O passthru.  I discovered this fact after forgetting to put back the videocard

 

Just as a safety, even if I only access the ESXi remotely using ESXi vSphere Client, I installed a "GIGABYTE Radeon HD 6450 Silent 1GB DDR3" and the I/O Passthru function as expected.

 

My two ESXi systems support I/O Passthru while powered with different processor generations: AMD 1090T and AMD FX8350.

 

Your FX8150/990FXA-UD3 should act the same.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

If that's the case, then it would definitely be a gfx card issue (at least for my issue). Thanks.

[Philmatic]

Norco 4224/X9SCM/i3 2100t/WHS 2011

Build’s Name: WHS 2011
Operating System/Storage Platform: Windows Home Server 2011/StableBit DrivePool v2.0.0.260 BETA

CPU: Intel Core i3-2100T Sandy Bridge 2.5GHz LGA 1155 35W Dual-Core Desktop Processor
Motherboard: Supermicro X9SCM-F
Chassis: Norco RPC-4224
Drives: 4x WDC WD5000AAKS 500GB, 4x WDC WD10EACS 1TB, 4x WDC WD20EADS 2TB, 2x WDC WD20EARS 2TB, 2x WDC WD20EARX 2TB, 4x HGST DT01ACA300 3TB

RAM: 2x Kingston ValueRAM 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Unbuffered Server Memory
Add-in Cards: 3x IBM M1015 running in IT mode (P11)
Power Supply: SeaSonic X750 750W 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
Other Bits: 6x Monoprice 1m 30AWG Internal Mini-SAS 36pin cables (SFF-8087), 3x Scythe SY1225SL12M 120mm "Slipstream" (Firewall), 2x MASSCOOL FD08025S1M4 80mm Case Fan (Exhaust)

Usage Profile: Backing up my two desktops, two HTPCs and three laptops, serving media (Movies, TV Shows, Music, Photos and home videos) to my three XBMC instances and serving as my Usenet and Torrent (SABnzbd and uTorrent) downloading station.

Other information: Running DrivePool v2.0.0.260 BETA to provide folder pooling and duplication for a neutered WHS 2011.

 

Pics to follow, I can't seem to find them at this time.

 

[Dane]

Updated to current specs, wife thinks it is a small upgrade...nope, huge one, to me anyways  lol   April 24 2014

 

(2012 R2 Hyper-V)

Case: Chenbro RM31408 Modified to use standard atx power supply (tripple redundancy was nice but used 50 watts more power just for it)

Motherboard: ASUS P8B-E/4L Z9PE-D16 (upgrade)

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1245v2 E5-2630v2 x 2 (upgrade)
RAM: 32 64GB Kingston ECC Unbuffered (upgrade)
OS Drive: 500GB WD Black
VM Drives: 4 x 1TB WD RE4 in Raid 10

iCydock MB994SB-4SB-1 4 bay 2.5" raid cage (new)

Drive Pool feeder drives: Kingston 120GB SSD x 2 (new)

HBA: Onboard raid (2 Dell H310's on the way) (new)

HBA & SAS Expander: LSI 9240-4i & Intel RES2SV240 SAS Expander (Link to Drive case)

 

Case: Norco RPC-4220 (Drive case)

DrivePool Drives: 6 x 2TB WD Green, 5 x WD 3TB Red

Security Cam Drive: 1x 2TB WD Green

 

(PVR Computer)

Case: Rosewill RSV-R4000

Motherboard: ASUS P8H67M-LE
CPU: Intel I7-3770K
RAM: 8GB Kingston
OS Drive: 500GB WD
OS: Win7

 

Network Switches: HP Procurve 1800-24g (J9028B) x 2, 4 ports on each switch dedicated for a 4Gbit trunk between them (upgraded from single HP Procurve 1400-24g non-managed)

[DrParis]

Hi there,

 

For me it is that:

• Cooler Master Stryker
• Seasonic G-650
• ASRock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional
• Intel Core i7 3770S
• DDR3 Crucial Ballistix Tactical LP 2x8GB PC3-12800 CAS8
• Ventirad Thermalright True Spirit 140
• INTEL Cherryville 520 Series 240GB (for the OS and VMs)
• Western Digital Black 750GB (feeder in DP)
• WD Red 3TB x 2 , Green 3TB x 1 (archives in DP)

[Christopher (Drashna)]

@Dane: I'm jealous! I really do need to get a rack for my hardware. And that looks very nice. 

Though, considering I don't really have a huge budget at the moment, I may end up getting some "ikea racks".

 

Though, alex still needs to post his UPS battery hack.

 

@DrParis:  That's a very nice case for airflow, and a lot of HDD space. I have a couple of friends with the older versions of that case. 

Oh, and I'd recommend getting some backplanes later no for that case. So you can cram more drives in. Such as these:

http://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=48

[lee1978]

This is my setup:

 

Rackmount KVM:

• ServView 17 Enterprise 16 port KVM

Switch:

• Netgear ProSafe 24Port G/bit switch JGS524

UPS:

• ​APC Smart UPS 3000

Main Computer:

• ​RM206 Pro 2U
• Asus Crosshair VI Hero

• Amd Ryzen 1700x

• 16Gb DDR4 2666Mhz HyperX

• Noctua NH-L9a Low Profile Cooler​  Corsair H5 SFF

• AMD R9 Nano

• Samsung 960 EVO M.2 250GB

• Samsung Evo 250GB Sata3 SSD

• 3TB Toshiba Storage Drive

• 1000 2U Psu 80+ Gold
• 1x Dell Touchscreen 19" 1080p ​ 1X LG 34" 21.9 UltraWide
• 2x Acer 19" 1080p
• Windows 10 PRO

Server:

• RM208 Pro 2U
• Asus F2A85-V Pro
• Amd A10 5800k APU
• 16GB DDR3 1600Mhz GSkill
• Lsi Logic 9207-4i4e
• Hp Nc360T PCI Express Dual Port
• Samsung 840 EVO 250GB sata3
• 1x 500GB WD Green (Server Backup Drive)
• 700w Corsair PSU 80+ Gold
• Windows Server 2012 R2
• StableBit Drivepool/Scanner
• Crashplan
• Itunes
• IhomeServer
• LightsOut
• Bittorrent

Server CCTV/Virtual​:

 

• RM208 Pro 2U
• No idea yet working on it

 

Server Array:

• RM424-EX Pro 24 Bay With Expander Backplane
• 850W Corsair PSU 80+ gold
• 10x 2TB Wd Greens
• 10x 3TB Wd Greens
• 2 x 3TB Wd Red's
• 1 x 4TB Wd Red

 

Media Streamers:

• 7X ACryan Mini2 (The WDTV's are also really good if anything have a better menu system and better community support)

 

Ethernet/Wireless/Broadband:

• Whole house has CAT 6 Running to each room
• Virgin Media 200MB Gamer Broadband
• Virgin Media Super HUB 3
• Apple AirPlay

So that's it for now always tweaking it lol

[Christopher (Drashna)]

@Lee1978: Very nice setup.  That Chenbro expander looks very nice.

 

As for attaching images, use the "More Reply Options". It gives a much more "full" editor, and is easier to attach images.

[Dane]

@drashna: Thanks, and the rack I actually got off kijiji (classifieds site) for 100.00 from someone that just needed it gone for renovations.

[DrParis]

@DrParis:  That's a very nice case for airflow, and a lot of HDD space. I have a couple of friends with the older versions of that case. 

Oh, and I'd recommend getting some backplanes later no for that case. So you can cram more drives in. Such as these:

http://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=48

 

Totally Drashna, forgot to mention it but already have a 5in3 icydock

Had to saw the box to fit it in, but that's really a great thing those boxes.

Will certainly have another one soon...

[Christopher (Drashna)]

@drashna: Thanks, and the rack I actually got off kijiji (classifieds site) for 100.00 from someone that just needed it gone for renovations.

Very nice catch then. Because those can be very expensive!

 

Totally Drashna, forgot to mention it but already have a 5in3 icydock

Had to saw the box to fit it in, but that's really a great thing those boxes.

Will certainly have another one soon...

Okay, good. Just wanted to make sure.

Sorry to hear that you had to take a saw to it to get it to fit. But yeah, those backplanes can be a very tight fit some times!

[otispresley]

I have had my setup for a while, but it works really well:

 

Chassis: Norco 4220

Power Supply: Corsair 750W

Motherboard: Asus KCMA-D8

Processor: AMD Opteron 4180 x2

Memory: Kingston DDR3 1333 8GB Kit x4

Add-On: PIKE 2008

Add-On: iKVM

Add-On: LSI 4 port mini-SAS

Operating System: ESXi 5.1

OS Drive: 60GB OCZ Agility 2

VM Drives: 240GB OCZ Agility 3 x3 (RAID 0)

VM Backup Drive: Samsung 1TB in a dual USB dock

DrivePool VM: WHS2011

DrivePool Drives: Seagate 3TB x14 (RDM to WHS2011 VM)

DrivePool Drives: Hitachi 2TB x6 (RDM to WHS2011 VM)

 

Other Services on VMs: Web, TeamSpeak server and music, MySQL (For XBMC and Web), DNS, DHCP, TACACS+/RADIUS, Fault Management, MRTG, Unified Communications

[Christopher (Drashna)]

@otispresley: nice setup, looks similar to mine (at least in services).  For the "fault management, MRTG, and Unified Communications", what software are you using?

[otispresley]

@drashna, for right now, I am using an evaluation copy of Cisco Prime Infrastructure for fault management of my Cisco router, switches, and AP, as well as a friends' gear across a VPN tunnel.  I have used Nagios for this in the past though, since you can monitor just about anything with it.  I just have MRTG installed so I can see the utilization of my router interfaces in a web page; it uses SNMP to gather the data.  For Unified Communications, I am using Elastix because it is pretty easy as far as an all-in-one solution goes.  It has a pretty nice admin interface, uses Asterisk for phone, OpenFire for IM and presence, uses Postfix for POP/IMAP email and Roundcube for webmail.  There are also some add-ins that can be installed to extend functionality.  I have one installed that provides web conferencing services.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Awesome, thanks for taking the time to reply with all the information!

And looks like an awesome setup.

[ctopherc]

Here is my configuration along with a custom built rack.

 

Server

iStarUSA D-412S3-MATX 4U Rackmount microATX Server Chassis

Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core

Intel Media DQ77MK Desktop MB, Intel Q77 Express Chipset, w/TPM

Corsair Vengeance LP 32GB (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)

Intel 80GB 330 Series Maple Crest SSD

Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D, 380W

Noctua Ultra Silent CPU Cooler Cooling NH-U9B SE2

3x Noctua NF-R8 PWM 80mm Case Fan

LSI 9200-8e SASController Card, 2 x SFF-8088 mini-SAS External Connectors, JBOD only

Windows Server Essentials 2012 R2

Stablebit DrivePool v2.1.1.561

Stablebit Scanner v2.5.1.3062

IHomeServer v3.1.76.0 (iTunes 12.1.2.27) feeding 2x AppleTV 3

Crashplan

 

 

Array

NORCO DS-24E 24-3.5" JBOD Enclosure

 

Pooled Drives - 59.2TB

2x 8TB Seagate Archive HDD

1x 6.0TB WD Red

1x 4.0TB WD Red

7x 3.0TB WD Red

5x 2.0TB WD Green

1x 2.5TB WD Green

3x 1.5TB Seagate

1x 1TB WD Green

Non-Pooled drive

1x 1TB WD Green - OS Backup drive

 

UTM

ARK IPC-1.5U1525 Black 1U Rackmount Server Case

Intel S1200KP Mini ITX Server Motherboard LGA 1155 Intel C206 BIOS

Intel Core i3-2120T Sandy Bridge 2.6GHz, 35W Dual-Core

Stock Intel cooler

Noctua 60x25mm A-Series Blades with AAO Frame, SSO2 Bearing Premium Fan

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)

Intel 60GB 330 Series Maple Crest SSD

100gb 2.5 HD

Intel Dual Port Pro 1000 PCIe NIC

picoPSU-160-XT, 160w output, 12v input DC-DC Power Supply

Ubiquiti Networks Unifi UAP-Pro Enterprise Dual Band AP

Untangle v11.2

 

Dell PowerConnect 2824 24port GB managed switch

Dell PowerConnect 2724 24port GB managed switch

 

VMware ESXi 5.5 Home Lab server

ARK 1U125 Black 1U Rackmount server case

Supermicro A1SAi-2750 mini ITX MB

Supermicro PWS-203-1h 200W 80 Plus Gold

Intel Atom C2750 2.4GHz Avoton 8 core CPU

32gb Kingston DDR3 1600 ECC memory

LeefSupra 16gb USB 3.0 flash drive

1x 480gb Intel S3500 SSD

2x 240gb Seagate 600 Pro SSD (200gb)

1x 128gb Samsung 810 SSD (cache)

1x 64gb Intel 330 SSD (cache)

 

APC Smart UPS SMT1500RM2U 1000W 2U rackmount

 

 

Ctopher