Question How to configure 2 4 tb SDs on an EPYCD8 motherboard in raid 0.

[Markfw]

I have searched and googled to no avail. I assume that some raid 0 setup is in this server motherboard. The manual shows nothing,. And then I need to set it up as a share in linux.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[Shmee]

Hey Mark, I can't say I have experience with the motherboard, but what does the UEFI setup look like and what options are there?

That said, depending on the use case and the Linux used, you could just go with a software volume, that might be better. I hear a lot of people prefer using software solutions, such as ZFS and the sort.

What SSDs and what Linux version are you using? And when you want to setup a share, is this to share with other Linux computers, or are you hosting an SMB share for Windows computers?

 

[aigomorla]

I dont think you can unless UEFI has a built in software raid controller to make a bootable Raid Array
Intel required you to use a VROC chip to activate it, even on the server boards.
I am guessing possibly the same thing with AMD enterprise.

Otherwise I see no issues if you need to do it via software inside linux, unless you want a bootable Raid Array.

So the proper order would be install linux onto a boot drive -> setup software Raid using Linux -> set sharing once setup.
If your trying to do a bootable 8TB array, again i don't think thats possible without a dedicated raid controller.

 

[Markfw]

I dont think you can unless UEFI has a built in software raid controller to make a bootable Raid Array
Intel required you to use a VROC chip to activate it, even on the server boards.
I am guessing possibly the same thing with AMD enterprise.

Otherwise I see no issues if you need to do it via software inside linux, unless you want a bootable Raid Array.

So the proper order would be install linux onto a boot drive -> setup software Raid using Linux -> set sharing once setup.
If your trying to do a bootable 8TB array, again i don't think thats possible without a dedicated raid controller.

what I am looking to do is setup a 4 tb raid 0 array to replace dropbox. My sons small company uses dropbox, and the other day something happened and they lost all 2 TB of data. I have this extra EPYCD8 and a 7542 32 core EPYC chip with 128 gig ECC RAM. Maybe overkill for a data server, but it has to be enterprise quality. I can setup linux (mint 20.3) easily, but I don't know much about creating a raid0 array or how to create a share that windows boxes can see.

Edit: thanks in advance for anything to help. I am GIVING the server away, just charging them for the 2 SSD's.

 

[Shmee]

Ah, if you are giving away the system and they just want to use it for a file server, you might want to look into Truenas Scale. It might be right for them, especially with all that ECC RAM. That said, you might want to do a mirror instead, since it seems like keeping the data safe is important.

 

[aigomorla]

@Markfw

You want to build him a TrueNAS server with redundancy incase of drive failure.
Raid 0 is the worst possible solution i can think of when doing this job, as it means one drive fails, there goes all your data.

I would personally have them use 4 magnetic spinners like these and put them on a Raid-Z1 config, and if its really sensitive data then a Raid-z2 with 2 drive redundancy.

Drives:

Amazon.com

TrueNAS:

TrueNAS CORE - World's Most Popular Open Storage OS

TrueNAS CORE is the world’s most popular Open Source Storage OS. Store, archive and protect your data, share files, and stream media.

www.truenas.com

How to setup TrueNAS:

You can use the sata ports on the motherboard.
I would advise against nVME's for storage unless they require the speed, however that would mean they would need a greater then 10gbe connection to utilize the thing.

But your existing hardware should work for TrueNAS, or any other Ryzen cpu you have not in service, as long as it has SATA ports.
And yes i push for a minimum 4 drive array with minimum 1 drive redundancy for normal archive stuff, and 2 redundancy for important things like pictures and scanned files.

But even then, Raid is not a backup, so really important files should be backed up on multipul devices and stored in different locations.

 

[In2Photos]

It sounds like this system is just going to be a file server. An Epic system seems a bit overkill for that. For our small company we just use a Windows based desktop to store the files, and use Dropbox for remote access and a third backup. We also backup to a second local drive in the machine and a portable drive that gets swapped out monthly and stored off site.

 

[Markfw]

Ah, if you are giving away the system and they just want to use it for a file server, you might want to look into Truenas Scale. It might be right for them, especially with all that ECC RAM. That said, you might want to do a mirror instead, since it seems like keeping the data safe is important.

stupid me, I MEANT raid 1 ! I think raid 5 and 10 are possible alternatives, but then I need more drives.

now on Truenas, is that software raid ? can it do raid 1 ? I know something about raid, as I worked for 30 years in IT and knew something about our data center. They ran raid 10. The striped and mirrored, right ? so 4 4 tb drives gives 8 tb total ? I think I just want raid 1.

 

[Markfw]

It sounds like this system is just going to be a file server. An Epic system seems a bit overkill for that. For our small company we just use a Windows based desktop to store the files, and use Dropbox for remote access and a third backup. We also backup to a second local drive in the machine and a portable drive that gets swapped out monthly and stored off site.

I don't want the ail, and I have the EPYC sitting around doing nothing, so that why. But yes, about 20 employees, and today they use dropbox (which I know nothing about) but lost a lot of data. My sons 1700x (ancient I know) saved them, as he left his on, and had the mirror. Took them a week to recover.

So, again, truenas, easy for linux setup and then can be read by windows ? Easy to recover a failed SSD ? These are the drives I was going to get 2 of

https://www.newegg.com/crucial-4tb-mx500/p/N82E16820156282?Item=9SIA2W0J3Y2947

 

[aigomorla]

stupid me, I MEANT raid 1 ! I think raid 5 and 10 are possible alternatives, but then I need more drives.

now on Truenas, is that software raid ? can it do raid 1 ? I know something about raid, as I worked for 30 years in IT and knew something about our data center. They ran raid 10. The striped and mirrored, right ? so 4 4 tb drives gives 8 tb total ? I think I just want raid 1.

yup....
But raid works a bit different on on ZFS file structure.

So Raid-Z1 => Single drive redundancy.
Raid-Z2 -> 2 drive redundancy.
Raid-z3 -> 3 drives.... and so on.

If you had 4 x 4tb drives and it was on Raid-Z1 => 12TB. with a single drive failure tollerance before you lost data.
Raid-Z2 would be 8TB with 2 drive tollerance before you lost data.

Truenas is absolutely great, i have had one setup, and rarely needs any maintance on it if you use enterprise class gear.

Eitherway i would still not use SSDs/nVME's and go straight up SATA Spinners.
HGST's ive been using for a very long time, and absolutely love them.
the He's are helium class drives, and are proven to be very reliable even on blackblaze's HDD stats.

So, again, truenas, easy for linux setup and then can be read by windows ? Easy to recover a failed SSD ? These are the drives I was going to get 2 of

TrueNAS is its own file system.
Its based off the FREEBSD file structure.
It has SMB support for windows and Apple Support as well.
It would work like a network drive.
You can also set up jails and other auxilary software to do backups, and other stuff.

If you want a Linux based system, you will need to pay for it, which is called Unraid.

Unleash Your Hardware

Unraid is an operating system that brings enterprise-class features for personal and small business applications. Configure your computer systems to maximize performance and capacity using any combination of OS, storage devices, and hardware.

unraid.net

However i personally prefer TrueNAS, because ive been using it for such a long time, and its free on top.
Just look at the videos on how to setup a TrueNAS box.

And yes, it will send you an email alert when a drive fails.
And you can resilver the Raid array after you replaced the drive.

But again Mark, don't do SSD's or nVME's for NAS boxes.
Just go trusted and reliable magnetic spinners, which again HGST is on the top of most people's list as well as Western Digital Red Pro's and Western Digital Golds.

Avoid Seagate...

 

[In2Photos]

I have an unRAID system at home and have enjoyed it for many years. While you do pay for a license it's a one time charge up front and your done (based on the number of drives you use so you can always upgrade the license in the future if you need to). unRAID uses a parity drive for the redundancy so you need 1 drive for that and then any number of storage drives. You can have multiple parity drives as well for even more redundancy. I barely scratch the surface of everything you can do with unRAID but it works perfectly for my needs.

 

[aigomorla]

Your always gonna get that battle between Unraid vs Open Media Vault vs TrueNAS/FreeNAS vs XimgaNAS.

At the end of it, its whatever you feel is the most comfortable with.

But TrueNAS community is by far the most toxic... so your at the mercy of Youtube to find out what to do.
Lucky for us there are a lot of tutorial videos on TrueNAS/FreeNAS. Way more then the other options combined on youtube.

 

[In2Photos]

The unRAID community was very helpful the few times I've needed help. One time was with a recovery of data when I didn't realize my drives had failed. At that time I didn't know the system could email me about drive status. And there are also tons of YouTube videos on it as well as you'd imagine. But I agree you can't really go wrong with any of the ones mentioned above. They should all do what you need for this.

 

[Markfw]

The problem I have is there is NO ONE at this work that knows anything about computers. They have problems when there are simple windows problems. And the fact that my son has a box I built and have to him was their only saving grace. Thats sad. So looking for something an idiot can support. After rethinking, I may have to pay for a win10 license, install win 10 pro, make it a share but on enterprise hardware with a hardware raid card. This shop has like 20 employees. They do architectural drawings to make blueprints.

 

[aigomorla]

So looking for something an idiot can support.

You need to go Synology or Qnap then.
I would still push going NAS then a full bloated windows system.
A lot more things can go wrong in a windows enviorment then a NAS dedicated one.

But if you want something even dummies4PC can handle, its probably Synology or QNap, as its entirely webgui and has simple wizzards.

If he goes Qnap i do not recommend it ever seeing the internet, as Qnap does not have the best records in not getting hacked.

This shop has like 20 employees. They do architectural drawings to make blueprints.

You should recommend they hire a part time IT then.
One that does on call and on basis.
You just need the IT to setup and configure the NAS and thats it.
Most can do that with all the open NAS software i listed above in a couple of hours and map drives.

The only time you would need the IT to come by is if the Boss gets a email from the NAS saying a drive is down.

But if the Boss is too cheap to do that for that many employees and digtal archiving, tell your son to find a new place fast.
A place like that wont last very long in today's world, especially once they start losing client's data (like they almost did), because there boss has no concept of what a good Archive system is.

 

[Shmee]

yup....
But raid works a bit different on on ZFS file structure.

So Raid-Z1 => Single drive redundancy.
Raid-Z2 -> 2 drive redundancy.
Raid-z3 -> 3 drives.... and so on.

If you had 4 x 4tb drives and it was on Raid-Z1 => 12TB. with a single drive failure tollerance before you lost data.
Raid-Z2 would be 8TB with 2 drive tollerance before you lost data.

Truenas is absolutely great, i have had one setup, and rarely needs any maintance on it if you use enterprise class gear.

Eitherway i would still not use SSDs/nVME's and go straight up SATA Spinners.
HGST's ive been using for a very long time, and absolutely love them.
the He's are helium class drives, and are proven to be very reliable even on blackblaze's HDD stats.



TrueNAS is its own file system.
Its based off the FREEBSD file structure.
It has SMB support for windows and Apple Support as well.
It would work like a network drive.
You can also set up jails and other auxilary software to do backups, and other stuff.

If you want a Linux based system, you will need to pay for it, which is called Unraid.

Unleash Your Hardware

Unraid is an operating system that brings enterprise-class features for personal and small business applications. Configure your computer systems to maximize performance and capacity using any combination of OS, storage devices, and hardware.

unraid.net

However i personally prefer TrueNAS, because ive been using it for such a long time, and its free on top.
Just look at the videos on how to setup a TrueNAS box.

And yes, it will send you an email alert when a drive fails.
And you can resilver the Raid array after you replaced the drive.

But again Mark, don't do SSD's or nVME's for NAS boxes.
Just go trusted and reliable magnetic spinners, which again HGST is on the top of most people's list as well as Western Digital Red Pro's and Western Digital Golds.

Avoid Seagate...

A few corrections to add, IMO. TrueNAS core is FreeBSD based, yes, but TrueNAS scale is Linux based, Debian I believe. It is a new version and should be free as well. https://www.truenas.com/truenas-scale/

Either of these are good options, I am still on TrueNAS core, though there is even an upgrade path to TrueNAS scale.

Another thing I can mention, nothing wrong with using SSDs in ZFS, especially if you want the speed and have the supporting hardware/network for it. But also not necessary, and using good HDDs will allow for more your $$ to stretch out for more TB, and a system with that much RAM should still be plenty fast.

In general, you are correct, that this company should either hire IT for the TrueNAS setup, or go buy a simple NAS solution. In general though, it is important to have some sort of IT if something goes wrong...

 

[gsrcrxsi]

the answer is simple. EPYC does not support any kind of RAID, it does not have the hardware. that's why you can't find anything in the BIOS or manual about it.

you need to add a hardware RAID card or run a software based solution.

 

[gsrcrxsi]

stupid me, I MEANT raid 1 ! I think raid 5 and 10 are possible alternatives, but then I need more drives.

now on Truenas, is that software raid ? can it do raid 1 ? I know something about raid, as I worked for 30 years in IT and knew something about our data center. They ran raid 10. The striped and mirrored, right ? so 4 4 tb drives gives 8 tb total ? I think I just want raid 1.

no this isn't correct. you didnt use raid that much in those 30 years i guess?

raid 0 is striped, you get double the space and no parity
raid 1 is mirror, you get half the space and two copies of the data.
if you want raid10, you'll need 4 disks minimum in pairs. still only get half the space, but you get more speed.

two 4TB drives in RAID1 would still only be 4TB of space.

TrueNas doesn't use "RAID" but it uses ZFS, which has similar/equivalent vdev options for building the pool. stripes, mirrors, raidZ1, raidZ2, etc. but TrueNas also is not for beginners. there are guides, but it's not point and click easy and the learning curve will be steep for someone not familiar with it.

if you're talking about needing to store something on the order of 2TB (which will inevitably grow) you're gonna want more than 4TB of space IMO.

but also, "RAID is not a backup" and if the data is important, you should be implementing a more robust data management scheme. keep multiple copies of the data in multiple locations.

 

[aigomorla]

but also, "RAID is not a backup" and if the data is important, you should be implementing a more robust data management scheme. keep multiple copies of the data in multiple locations.

I can't emphsize how important this is.

And the reason to keep it in different locations is simple.
In the by some off event the building collapses or catches fire, or you can not enter the building due to some unforseen reason, you should be able to retrieve your data at another location.

This is why Raid is never a backup, its a fault tollerance redundancy, which should only be part of your overall backup structure, but never your entire backup.

if you want raid10, you'll need 4 disks minimum in pairs. still only get half the space, but you get more speed.

Actually Raid 10 -> Raid 1 + 0 which combines voltron style to be Raid 10.

 

[Markfw]

Thanks for all the help. Mods you can close this.