Thunderbolt NAS Qnap-style

[DevilsInkpot]

Hello Community!

 

I'm Dev and after doing some research for the last two weeks, I decided to come to this place, as the level of knowledge and engagement seems to be to high standards!

 

I run a little design studio with three people (plus freelance) doing lots of video recently. Right now, we have 3 Mac Pro, two iMacs, a Mac Mini (for administration) and several Macbook Pro. All Macs are connected via 2xGb LCAP and a Synology DS1812+ equipped with 6 WD Reds serves also over bonded ports. The Synology did nothing but file sharing so far and it did well. Since upgrading to Gigabit-Network we've been able to edit 1080p on the NAS via NFS-mounts. Because our customers demand it, we did all shooting and editing in 4K recently, ending up with full SSDs and some external Thunderbolt SSDs we shuffle around. In a nutshell – a total disaster.

 

It was easy to stumble across the Qnap TVS-871T (and similiar) which offers a super fast connection that would enable us to edit 4K over the network and get back to our approved structures and routines for handling stuff and backups. But with customers demanding more and more quality while simultaneously increasing the pressure on pricing, we can't put down 3-5 grand for the Qnap solution.

 

But, we have some hardware around. And while I did my own builds in the past, I would appreciate your help here:

 

Is it possible to build a file server with Thunderbolt-Networking?

 

The goal should be a server that can deliver decent speed to at least two machines over Thunderbolt to edit 4K. As we have a lot of space on the Synology, we could use it for backup and the new NAS for actual work only. That takes away the need for a backup on the new NAS itself or even for redundancy. Would JBOD be an option here?

 

Parts we have around:

• Intel Xeon E5-1620 V2
• Intel i5 6600K
• 32GB ECC 1600 MHz DDR3
• empty cases
• PSUs

So, a build based on a server mainboard with the E5 and the ECC RAM suggests itself, but I think there will be almost no mainboards for that with Thunderbolt built in (or are there?). It would be okay to do a build with the i5 if the CPU would suffice for the purpose.

 

Can anyone recommend a build for our needs? Mainboards that have working Thunderbolt networking. And which OS to use (we are all macOS and Linux guys but wouldn't mind using Windows if it meets our needs).

 

Thanks for your help!

Dev

[tt2468]

1 minute ago, DevilsInkpot said:

Hello Community!

 

I'm Dev and after doing some research for the last two weeks, I decided to come to this place, as the level of knowledge and engagement seems to be to high standards!

 

I run a little design studio with three people (plus freelance) doing lots of video recently. Right now, we have 3 Mac Pro, two iMacs, a Mac Mini (for administration) and several Macbook Pro. All Macs are connected via 2xGb LCAP and a Synology DS1812+ equipped with 6 WD Reds serves also over bonded ports. The Synology did nothing but file sharing so far and it did well. Since upgrading to Gigabit-Network we've been able to edit 1080p on the NAS via NFS-mounts. Because our customers demand it, we did all shooting and editing in 4K recently, ending up with full SSDs and some external Thunderbolt SSDs we shuffle around. In a nutshell – a total disaster.

 

It was easy to stumble across the Qnap TVS-871T (and similiar) which offers a super fast connection that would enable us to edit 4K over the network and get back to our approved structures and routines for handling stuff and backups. But with customers demanding more and more quality while simultaneously increasing the pressure on pricing, we can't put down 3-5 grand for the Qnap solution.

 

But, we have some hardware around. And while I did my own builds in the past, I would appreciate your help here:

 

Is it possible to build a file server with Thunderbolt-Networking?

 

The goal should be a server that can deliver decent speed to at least two machines over Thunderbolt to edit 4K. As we have a lot of space on the Synology, we could use it for backup and the new NAS for actual work only. That takes away the need for a backup on the new NAS itself or even for redundancy. Would JBOD be an option here?

 

Parts we have around:

• Intel Xeon E5-1620 V2
• Intel i5 6600K
• 32GB ECC 1600 MHz DDR3
• empty cases
• PSUs

So, a build based on a server mainboard with the E5 and the ECC RAM suggests itself, but I think there will be almost no mainboards for that with Thunderbolt built in (or are there?). It would be okay to do a build with the i5 if the CPU would suffice for the purpose.

 

Can anyone recommend a build for our needs? Mainboards that have working Thunderbolt networking. And which OS to use (we are all macOS and Linux guys but wouldn't mind using Windows if it meets our needs).

 

Thanks for your help!

Dev

You are correct in saying that lga 2011-0 boards have no thunderbolt. To tell the truth though, thunderbolt connections to NASs are not as good as ethernet. I would get a cheap 10Gb switch from ebay and pop in some mellanox connectx-2 cards into the server. You can use https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1132027-REG/promise_technology_sle2002pnaa_sanlink2_ntwrk_adpt_tb2_to.html as a network adapter for macs. Yeah, it's an expensive box, but that's because it's on mac

[DevilsInkpot]

4 minutes ago, tt2468 said:

You are correct in saying that lga 2011-0 boards have no thunderbolt. To tell the truth though, thunderbolt connections to NASs are not as good as ethernet. I would get a cheap 10Gb switch from ebay and pop in some mellanox connectx-2 cards into the server. You can use https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1132027-REG/promise_technology_sle2002pnaa_sanlink2_ntwrk_adpt_tb2_to.html as a network adapter for macs. Yeah, it's an expensive box, but that's because it's on mac

When I only get 2 Sanlink adapters and upgrade the whole network to 10Gb, I think I might as well buy the Qnap. As I said, I'm not keen on using the E5 for the build. If «consumer» hardware would suffice to deliver the speed to at least 2 of our workstations while giving «normal speed access» to the rest that would do it for us.

 

[tt2468]

Just now, DevilsInkpot said:

When I only get 2 Sanlink adapters and upgrade the whole network to 10Gb, I think I might as well buy the Qnap. As I said, I'm not keen on using the E5 for the build. If «consumer» hardware would suffice to deliver the speed to at least 2 of our workstations while giving «normal speed access» to the rest that would do it for us.

 

Then do that, I was suggesting the e5 because you already had the CPU and memory. Plus, it's server grade

[DevilsInkpot]

Just now, tt2468 said:

Then do that, I was suggesting the e5 because you already had the CPU and memory. Plus, it's server grade

Yeah, first thought for me too. But I don't need a rock solid server if it doesn't give me the speed.  It's a shame that thunderbolt didn't have its breakthrough until recently. I think in 5 years from now this won't be a problem any more.

 

Do you have any expirience with networking over thunderbolt?

[tt2468]

24 minutes ago, DevilsInkpot said:

Yeah, first thought for me too. But I don't need a rock solid server if it doesn't give me the speed.  It's a shame that thunderbolt didn't have its breakthrough until recently. I think in 5 years from now this won't be a problem any more.

 

Do you have any expirience with networking over thunderbolt?

No, because thunderbolt for network storage is a crappy standard. I work with 10Gb mostly. You would probably get better speeds with the xeon than with the 6600k.

[DevilsInkpot]

Different approach might be:

 

Add 2x TB-GBe Adapters to each MacPro. We have a TP-Link T2600G-28TS. If I recall it right, it can handle LACP with 4 ports.

 

If so, could a NAS connected with a 4xGBe bond deliver about 500MB/s? I saw a video of Linus doing it with a lot trial-and-error and in the end it depended of a lucky combination of CPU and Mainbord ... anyone has built to recommend?