Storage Server HBAs and Power Efficiency

[BirdsAreReal]

I am looking for some help from those more knowledgeable when it comes to homelabs and that have experience when it comes to power efficiency and noise conscious builds. 

 

I am looking to build a storage server in a rackmount form factor.  The storage will be network based and I will be the only user that accesses it.  I will be setting up machines other than my daily driver that will also be using this storage space but these machines will be under my control.

 

The server will be placed inside a rack which is in my office.  For this reason, I am interested in optimizing for noise and power efficiency over hardware price and compute power.  For this reason, I was going to use consumer level hardware (PSU, Mobo etc.) over enterprise level hardware.  To replace the IPMI that the consumer level MoBo most likely won't have, I was considering a JetKVM.

 

I plan to use TrueNAS as it appears to best suit my needs.  This sever is strictly handling storage operations and not hosting any VMs or Plex containers etc. I plan on having multiple pools of spinning rust with the majority of these pools will be kept spun down for the majority of the time.

 

Initially I want nine drives of spinning rust but I am hoping to expand to 36+ drives over the lifespan of the device.

I've previously had experience using a NetApp Diskshelf connected to a different server and I found the fans inside were too loud for my liking.  I assume this noise was due to the small fans trying to push through air.

 

I currently have two thoughts but I'm hoping there is a better solution.

 

My first thought was to build the server in one rackmount case and then connect it to a second rack case acting as a JBOD.  The second case having its own PSU and connected via a HBA.

Question 1. If the drives are connected via the HBA, can the computer still spin down the HBA connected drives or is this functionality dependent on the specific backplane or HBA?
Question 2. How would the you connect the PSU in the JBOD.  For example, is there a way to connect the JBOD's PSU to the server so that it powers on when the power button on the server is pressed?

 

My second thought was to buy something like a barebone Storinator that comes with a backplane and PSU but nothing else.  I was hoping to then replace their redundant PSU and if possible, replace it with a quieter ATX PSU.  I like this option the most but Storeinators are also very expensive.

 

Based off this blog post, I was looking at AsMedia 1166 HBA for power efficiency reasons as it apparently draws a lot amount of energy when setup correctly and also allows for higher level C states.

 

Thanks

[leadeater]

You can get Supermicro and ASRock motherboards with IPMI with consumer compatible CPU socket that will accept and run consumer CPUs (non-Xeon).

 

My general advice is get a rack mount chassis that has 24 or more 3.5" bays and keep everything internal to a single chassis. My other advice is use less but larger HDDs since that is going to be vastly more power efficient.

[BirdsAreReal]

16 minutes ago, leadeater said:

You can get Supermicro and ASRock motherboards with IPMI with consumer compatible CPU socket that will accept and run consumer CPUs (non-Xeon).

 

My general advice is get a rack mount chassis that has 24 or more 3.5" bays and keep everything internal to a single chassis. My other advice is use less but larger HDDs since that is going to be vastly more power efficient.

So that was the idea. Having a small pool of high capacity drives that are always running for power efficiency.  Data off loaded to the spun down pools periodically as most of the data is archival.

 

Regarding a case with 24+ bays, would that then lead to higher noise as the fans would have to push air through a ton of HDDs rather than having the front of the case free of blockages?

[leadeater]

19 minutes ago, BirdsAreReal said:

Regarding a case with 24+ bays, would that then lead to higher noise as the fans would have to push air through a ton of HDDs rather than having the front of the case free of blockages?

Not with good quiet fans no. Louder to an extent compared to a less deep chassis but the biggest factor by far is fan choice. Some chassis have front fans and drive bays access from top down, like 45drive options as an example.

[Needfuldoer]

A 4U chassis would let you run 120mm Noctua IndustrialPPC fans, which are about as quiet as you can get without being useless.

 

I wouldn't run a server with an external drive shelf, if only for the power consumption. That's another 50 to 100 watts for the extra platform.

 

For what it's worth, my home servers have all been 2U PowerEdge chassis (briefly an R720, then an R730, now an R540). They're tolerable if you give them a few IPMI pokes to keep the wall of Delta blowymatron fans under control, but I'm currently building a quiet-ish enclosure for the current rack.

[BirdsAreReal]

5 hours ago, leadeater said:

Not with good quiet fans no. Louder to an extent compared to a less deep chassis but the biggest factor by far is fan choice. Some chassis have front fans and drive bays access from top down, like 45drive options as an example.

I did like the layout of the 45drive options.  Having the drives in hotswap caddies is not a major issue for me.  I also don't mind spending extra and getting Noctua or other well respected fans.

 

3 hours ago, Needfuldoer said:

A 4U chassis would let you run 120mm Noctua IndustrialPPC fans, which are about as quiet as you can get without being useless.

 

I wouldn't run a server with an external drive shelf, if only for the power consumption. That's another 50 to 100 watts for the extra platform.

 

For what it's worth, my home servers have all been 2U PowerEdge chassis (briefly an R720, then an R730, now an R540). They're tolerable if you give them a few IPMI pokes to keep the wall of Delta blowymatron fans under control, but I'm currently building a quiet-ish enclosure for the current rack.

I appreciate the feedback.  So to confirm, you recommend having a single larger PSU powering both the computer and all the drives? I've also even see 6U chasis that have both hot swap caddies on both the front and back of the case.

I was thinking of a 4U for the exact reason you mentioned. The only think I can see I would be using in a 1U (for a different component) would be running smaller SBC .

[Needfuldoer]

1 minute ago, BirdsAreReal said:

I appreciate the feedback.  So to confirm, you recommend having a single larger PSU powering both the computer and all the drives? I've also even see 6U chasis that have both hot swap caddies on both the front and back of the case.

Running a separate drive shelf means you have additional overhead, because you have to run the extra chassis. If all your drives are in the server itself, then you just have the power draw of the drives themselves to worry about.

 

My 12-drive R730 cruised at around 200 watts, and that includes a graphics card and dual Broadwell Xeon CPUs.