Best - 10GB Ethenet for - FreeNAS

[Miklasz]

Hi guys, I am building FreeNAS, where I need fast transfers for big files. I would like to use 10GBE, I read at FreeNAS forum that Chelsio is the choice over Intel, however I would like to know your opinion on the subject. I think to go for Chelsio s320e-sr or Chelsio s310e-cr. I live in UK, and Chelsio is something you can not get in here. So in this case I would have to get it from US. 
Did any one of you experience some problems with Intel ?. Do you use 10GBE Intel with FreeNAS ? let me know.

 

many thanks

 

Bartosz

[desertcomputer]

You should disable onboard ports because sometimes it won't use addon nic. You need a drive array which as 10gb read speed which means alot of drives or ssd as cache/drives. This is going be trust hard maxing out 10gbs. 

[KirbyTech]

Define large files, I have a feeling that you might not need 10 GBE. As for the nic choice I can say Intel make good nics and I have yet to have an issue with them that I have not had with someone else's nics

[tt2468]

Also, you can get cheap 10gb adapters off of ebay.

[beavo451]

Just going to ask to make sure you thought this through. You have a *need* for fast file transfers where dropping a couple thousand USD on networking and PC hardware can easily be justified? 

[wpirobotbuilder]

iXsystems (the makers of FreeNAS) recommends Chelsio as the most compatible 10GBE. You'll find little knowledge of these adapters outside of the FreeNAS forum, since that's where they're primarily used. There are reports of Intel ethernet cards hanging in FreeNAS, however based on this bug report it looks like a fix was checked into the 9.3 release over a year ago -- this comment is a super succinct explanation of the bug.

 

That said, you can get cheap 10Gb Intel cards on ebay, while Chelsios are much more pricey. I don't have a 10Gb card running on my FreeNAS system, so I can't provide any evidence, but you ought to be fine.

[Cheatdeath]

My Freenas uses the dual port Chelsio s320 and my workstation has the s310, they are directly connected with a 10m DAC cable. This works perfectly. I am also working on creating a bridge in Freenas which should let me add in another server with a s310 directly attached to the Freenas dual port card.

 

IMO if you want 10gb cheaply done on Freenas the Chelsio cards are a win.

[Miklasz]

18 hours ago, KirbyTech said:

Define large files, I have a feeling that you might not need 10 GBE. As for the nic choice I can say Intel make good nics and I have yet to have an issue with them that I have not had with someone else's nics

let say daily - about 30 files - 2gb - 5gb each

[Miklasz]

13 hours ago, beavo451 said:

Just going to ask to make sure you thought this through. You have a *need* for fast file transfers where dropping a couple thousand USD on networking and PC hardware can easily be justified? 

well i dont want to spend more than £140 = US $200 = CAN $265

[KirbyTech]

1 minute ago, Miklasz said:

let say daily - about 30 files - 2gb - 5gb each

That is not much unless it is time sensitive then I really think you would be better off just using gigabit

 

Just now, Miklasz said:

well i dont want to spend more than £140 = US $200 = CAN $265

You can't even buy a decent nic for that so looks like you better stick to gigabit or seriously up your budget to at least $1500 USD

[Miklasz]

1 hour ago, Cheatdeath said:

My Freenas uses the dual port Chelsio s320 and my workstation has the s310, they are directly connected with a 10m DAC cable. This works perfectly. I am also working on creating a bridge in Freenas which should let me add in another server with a s310 directly attached to the Freenas dual port card.

 

IMO if you want 10gb cheaply done on Freenas the Chelsio cards are a win.

will this cable work with chelsio?
10m 10GBASE SFP+ Active Optic Cable

[Miklasz]

18 hours ago, Kyle Manning said:

Also, you can get cheap 10gb adapters off of ebay.

thats what am i doing now, trying to find cheap good set, intel, i was always fan of, but i read loads of bad reviews and i dont mind to put couple extra £ to get chelsio, it turns out chelsio is more stable then intel. which is sad

[Miklasz]

5 minutes ago, KirbyTech said:

That is not much unless it is time sensitive then I really think you would be better off just using gigabit

 

You can't even buy a decent nic for that so looks like you better stick to gigabit or seriously up your budget to at least $1500 USD

yes, true... i was thinking about used 10gbe card. in my mind - chelsio s320e - i can get them for $50-$80 each + sfp+ cable. I dont mind to spend 1500 however this is more for home use, not business and cant use new server grade hardware so i have to stick with used. but from my experience, ive been using used enterprise grade servers in past, and i have to say i never had any problem with enterprise grade hardware. so thats why i was going for used chelsio.

[KirbyTech]

Just now, Miklasz said:

yes, true... i was thinking about used 10gbe card. in my mind - chelsio s320e - i can get them for $50-$80 each + sfp+ cable. I dont mind to spend 1500 however this is more for home use, not business and cant use new server grade hardware so i have to stick with used. but from my experience, ive been using used enterprise grade servers in past, and i have to say i never had any problem with enterprise grade hardware. so thats why i was going for used chelsio.

You can use that sure but I still think if you are going to do it, it should be done properly with a switch, good NICs and patch panel if needed. Used hardware is fine but still worth getting good gear. A switch will run you 1000-1200 then add in NICs and you are easily at 1500. SPF+ cables are expensive if you are going more than 3 meters. Cat 6a with RJ-45 connectors is the best way to go. 

[beavo451]

1 hour ago, Miklasz said:

well i dont want to spend more than £140 = US $200 = CAN $265

OK your use case does not justify 10gig. While cool, the cost isn't worth it. 5 gigabytes of data will take less than 5 minutes to transfer on gigabit. If it is a sequential transfer, it'll take 1 minute.

 

Sure you can buy cheap cards and do a direct connection, but then you need to make sure your storage solutions can keep up with the connection. And if you are going to do a direct connection with one computer, you might as well use Thunderbolt.

[Jarsky]

150GB/day isn't much for Gigabit.....thats like 20-25 minutes of the day maxing Gigabit....

Unless its time sensitive there's just no benefit.  Often links are big in the Enterprise because of the time sensitivity of extracts and data files being transferred from one system to another for automated imported processes.

Sounds like you just want 10Gbit....because...its a nice to have?

[Cheatdeath]

On 3/2/2016 at 11:08 AM, Miklasz said:

will this cable work with chelsio?
10m 10GBASE SFP+ Active Optic Cable

Not sure if that would work, it is not a DAC cable.

 

This is what im using -->  10m DAC off Ebay

 

I picked up two s310's for $16 each shipped, and the dual port s320 for like $50. The cable's are less than $20 from that seller on Ebay.

 

Hope this helps.

[Matioupi]

Hello,

 

I have no experience about 10GbE and freenas, but I have a little with 10GbE, synology and Win 7 / Win 10...

 

Do you plan to use a 10GbE switch or only direct libks from computer NIC to NAS NIC ?

 

In the latter case, I did not encountered any issues with all types of cables and Intel 10Gb NICs (I own 2 X520-DA2 and 2 X710-DA4). However I do not have so much experience with optical transceivers.

 

In the first case, it seems that vendors have (put ?) some firmware restrictions and all cables / transceivers combinations that should theoretically work do not in real life.

 

I own 2 10m Cisco active cables (copper, twinax, but with small active parts in the SFP+ plugs). Those have never been recognized by my Arista 7124S or NetGear GS728TXS... I witched to passive 10m SFP+ and that now fine.

They do however work well in no switch links.

 

Regards