What case for 50-100TB ssd server???

[VernoxVernax]

Hello, I am planning to build a new "server".

My old synology is just not fast enough and can barely run plex so I am looking for an alternative.

Unfortunately 45drives is just a little too overkill. I dont have the environment to house machines like that, so I was wondering if one of you knows a brand/company that builds computers cases for systems with many ssds/hdds.

The software I have running does a lot of random reads and writes so hard drives aren't an option.

Budget (including currency): < 2k (for case)

Country: AT

Workload: video encoding, probably vm, lots of random read/write

OS: Arch Linux

 

I am still debating on how many drives I'll actually buy, but it will probably be around 10~15 (2.5 SATA).

[Electronics Wizardy]

How about a used server? Id get something like a dell r730 here. Then you get 24 2.5in bays in 2u, lots of cpu power and expansion, good remote management tools.

 

Do you want this to be a tower or rack mount?

Do you need SATA SSDS I;d look into the 2.5in nvme drives, as there getting simmilar in cost, and are much faster with lower over head, esp with used server drives.

[tkitch]

capacity isn't the concern, the real question is now many drives do you want to put in it?

 

Cuz if you're doing 50TB with 4TB drives, you need a very different case than if you're doing it with 20TB drives.

[mariushm]

If you're gonna do sata SSDs, it doesn't really matter what case you get.  You could just stack them together and wrap some tape around them and be done with it. 

 

 

May want to have a look at refurbished stuff, like for example what Unixsurplus offers. 

 

For example ... see below ... but note this particular configuration uses a 8 port 12gbps SAS controller in IT / HBA mode, and 2 backplanes (one for the 12 drives in the back, one for the 24 in the front), so it's up to you to think how would affect the performance to have 8 12gbps port spread across 36 drives 

You could add a 10/28/40 gbps card in it and be happy ...

 

May also want to email them and ask them what other hardware they don't have listed, they openly have their email on the pages and ask you to contact them for more configurations. 

 

ex. 1409$ + 90$ shipping : ( 2x E5-2630 | 96GB ram)   Supermicro 4U 36 Bay IT Mode X9DRI-LN4F 2PS, Includes CPU/Memory/Caddies : https://unixsurplus.com/supermicro-4u-36-bay-it-mode-x9dri-ln4f-server/

 

Performance Specs:

CPU Family: E5-2000 V1
Memory: DDR3 Up to 1.5TB, 24 DIMM slots
Hard Drives: None
*Integrated Onboard Quad 1GB Ethernet ports (4)
* Integrated IPMI 2.0 Management
Controllers: AOC-S3008L-L8e HBA IT MODE

Secondary Chassis/ Motherboard specs:

4U X9DRI-LN4F+ Rev 1.01 36 bay SAS2 Expander 

Motherboard: X9DRi-LN4F+ (Motherboard Rev 1.01 works with V1 CPU Only, will not work with v2 CPU)

Backplane: SAS2 Expander
*BPN-SAS2-846EL1 24-port 4U SAS2 6Gbps single-expander backplane
*BPN-SAS2-826EL1 12-port 2U SAS2 6Gbps single-expander backplane

Drive Bays: 36
Caddies: 36x 3.5" Supermicro caddy

Rear Bays: 12

PSU Slots: 2

Power: 2x 1400watt PS Gold

Rail Kit: Generic Sliding Rail kit

Warranty: Standard

 

 

 

[LIGISTX]

I think a good thing to ask here is why are you going with an SSD array? That is a huge cost upper over spinning rust, what is your networking setup look like to actually take advantage of that sort of speed?

 

Nothing against SSD’s, I wish my server was fully flash storage. But…. It would be a complete waste if it were, a spinning rust ZFS array can be pretty performant. Run VM’s on a boot ssd, have SMB/NFS shares, they will run over virtual networking and will run at theoretically as fast as your hypervisor can transfer RAM from OS to OS, and…. Plex is a very light application. The only hard part about Plex is transcoding, but that is entirely CPU or GPU bound, but any decent CPU will be able to transcode likely much more then you need. 

[VernoxVernax]

Very helpful replies, thanks guys.

 

@Electronics Wizardy

I thought about going nvme but figured a motherboad that supports more than 10 m.2's would completely blow the budget. Are there even things like that?

Also: I would hardly have space for server racks so I would much rather get something smaller, thus the question if such case even exists.

 

@tkitch

Currently I'd say 10 2.5 SATAs, even though I've found very affordable nvmes (amazon.de), its probably impossible to find equipment to run like 80 m.2 nvme drives. (lol)

 

@mariushm

Great idea (both, tape and refurbished parts),

I honestly didn't think about refurbished cases. The one you've send seems very affordable but DDR3 doesn't sound that good. Will haunt that website for a few hours. There will definitely be something for me

 

@LIGISTX

I run software that does a lot of random reads and writes. On my current setup, copying a 10gb file takes almost an hour. I could split the array and have like only 2TB in ssds, but that's not even close to how much space I need.

Edited March 11, 2022 by VernoxVernax

[Electronics Wizardy]

14 minutes ago, VernoxVernax said:

I thought about going nvme but figured a motherboad that supports more than 10 m.2's would completely blow the budget. Are there even things like that?

You can get servers that support 24 2.5in nvme drives in 2u, so they take the same amount of space as sata drives, and the server boards have the needed pcie lanes

 

14 minutes ago, VernoxVernax said:

Also: I would hardly have space for server racks so I would much rather get something smaller, thus the question if such case even exists.

Id measure out a server, you don't need a rack for a 2u servers, and can set it on its side like a desktop. Id see if that fits where you cna put it.

 

Otherwise, Id just get a case with a few 5.25 in bays, and get 8 2.5in to 5.25 in bay adapters. Then you can easily get like 32 2.5in drives in a normal case with 4 5.25 in bays. Then get a sas expander to run all the drives, and its a easy setup with 32 drives.