Question Let's talk NAS. Specifically, high-end 10-bay Asustor NAS units. Does the AS7010T support ECC RAM? It uses an i3.

[VirtualLarry]

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...=AS7010T&cm_re=AS7010T-_-22-225-016-_-Product

https://www.asustor.com/service/memory?id=memory

ASUSTOR DDR3 SDRAM AS7R-RAM8GEC 8G For AS 7 series DDR3-1600, 1.5V, 240Pin UDIMM ECC

https://shop.asustor.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=25_70&product_id=71

Nope, looks like that is for their larger servers. "7 series" is misleading.
Applied Model: AS7009RDX / AS7012RDX

https://shop.asustor.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=25_69
No Asustor DDR3(L)-1600 SO-DIMM ECC listed.

Maybe it's worth trying to throw a pair of these in. Though, I'm not sure how that you would verify that ECC is working, but if it is working on the "7 series" NAS units that use desktop DIMMs, maybe it works on this compact 10-bay NAS that uses SO-DIMMs?

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...cm_re=KVR16LSE11/8-_-9SIA7S68ER2279-_-Product

 

[mxnerd]

If ASUS does not mention ECC support on it's spec sheet, don't think it's supported.

https://www.asustor.com/datasheet?p_id=24

 

[dave_the_nerd]

The ASUS web site refers to it as a "70 Series" NAS, so that's presumably different than whatever they think the 7 series is?

The Haswell CPU, i5 option, and SO-DIMMs would lead me to believe it's using a desktop chipset and not a server chipset with ECC support. (i3s supported ECC in the right motherboards, i5s didn't, and some LGA1150 server boards wouldn't even boot with an i5 installed.)

 

[mxnerd]

According to Walmart website, the NAS uses i3-4330 , which does support ECC according Intel spec.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Asustor-...rial-Ata-600-Raid-Supported-0-1-5-6-/42537917

https://ark.intel.com/products/77769/Intel-Core-i3-4330-Processor-4M-Cache-3-50-GHz

The question is what chipset ASUS uses for the this NAS motherboard and whether it adds the circuits to support ECC.
Just because CPU supports ECC, vendor does not have to supports it.

 

[VirtualLarry]

The ASUS web site refers to it as a "70 Series" NAS, so that's presumably different than whatever they think the 7 series is?

The Haswell CPU, i5 option, and SO-DIMMs would lead me to believe it's using a desktop chipset and not a server chipset with ECC support. (i3s supported ECC in the right motherboards, i5s didn't, and some LGA1150 server boards wouldn't even boot with an i5 installed.)

Hmm.

One would think that if one were to shell out $1500 for a higher-end NAS unit, with that kind of capacity capability, that they would allow for using ECC RAM.

I want to setup one of these NAS units for both storage, and virtualization.

 

[VirtualLarry]

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Asustor-...rial-Ata-600-Raid-Supported-0-1-5-6-/42537917

Why does it say that "This unit is no longer available"? I noticed that the reviews were from 2016.

Do you think that possibly, Asus will announce some new higher-end (8/10-bay, maybe larger) units, at CES in Jan., with built-in 10GbE-T? (Their 10GbE-T card for the AS7010T is pretty reasonable at $113 from their online store.)

 

[mxnerd]

Why does it say that "This unit is no longer available"? I noticed that the reviews were from 2016.

Do you think that possibly, Asus will announce some new higher-end (8/10-bay, maybe larger) units, at CES in Jan., with built-in 10GbE-T? (Their 10GbE-T card for the AS7010T is pretty reasonable at $113 from their online store.)

1. Maybe too expensive and just not selling well?
2. Possible. But actually I have no idea.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I'm currently suffering from "NAS sprawl" (like Urban Sprawl, I guess), as my NAS demands expand to many little units. It would be nice to get a "super monster NAS unit", that could consolidate nearly all of my other NAS units, and serve as a virtualization host too. (I had always expected to get that working with unRAID, but I never paid for a license, and basically dropped that ball. 8x2TB isn't much of a server these days anymore.)

I've got 4x8TB WD Red drives in a TS-431, but that doesn't support virtualization, because it's got an ARM CPU. I also have a TS-451, which has an Intel CPU and supports virtualization... if I add more RAM.

I really like the idea of the Asustor "MyArchive" drives, basically turning one or several of the hot-swap drive slots, into removable disk cartridges.

 

[mxnerd]

How many VMs do you plan to run? Maybe what you need is a home-built ESXi server and more memory?

 

[VirtualLarry]

How many VMs do you plan to run? Maybe what you need is a home-built ESXi server?

Not a lot. Mostly, just some for experimentation (new Linux distros? Or maybe I should use a real machine for that?), and a Windows 7 or 10 VM, for browsing, mostly. That way, I could centralize my bookmarks and downloads, I think, on one host instead of quite a few.

 

[mxnerd]

If just one Win7 or Win10 and one Linux VM then 16GB should be OK for Windows host box.
Adding 8GB to this ASUS NAS box and becoming 10GB should be OK too.

==
I tried ESXi several times in the past but I prefer easier VMware Workstation.
I also prefer running everything on one machine.

==
If your main PC is fast enough and have enough memory, running everything on one machine should be fine.
Install VirtualBox on your Windows PC then you can run VMs if you don't want to spend money on VMware.

Save everything on your TS-431, either your host machine or your VM.
No need to buy an expensive NAS that costs over $1500 just to run VM.

==

By the way, recommend My Playhouse channel.

https://www.youtube.com/user/SirNetrom1/videos

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Hmm.

One would think that if one were to shell out $1500 for a higher-end NAS unit, with that kind of capacity capability, that they would allow for using ECC RAM.

I want to setup one of these NAS units for both storage, and virtualization.

Goddamit, Larry, stop screwing around with toys and build a server. (See signature.)

Or buy an off-lease rack unit.

 

[mxnerd]

Goddamit, Larry, stop screwing around with toys and build a server. (See signature.)

Or buy an off-lease rack unit.

Agree. That ASUS NAS is just way too expensive. Either buy off duty server or build one.

new i3 8xxx CPU is a good start, powerful enough but not power hungry.

buy two of 5x3.5" in 3x5.25" backplanes below and a server case if 10 drives is really needed.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16817994155

Add a Dell H700 controller with backup battery and cables from eBay.

Can use free ESXi or Proxmox as host virtual environment, or Linux KVM (never tried it)

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well, I've got an 8-bay (with room for a 4-in-3 expansion unit for the 3x 5.25" bays) server, in an NZXT Source 210 case. Small-ish ATX case, with 8 internal 3.5" bays. Filled with 2TB Hitachi drives. (That I paid full price for at Microcenter years ago, didn't get any of those cheap 2TB off-lease corporate server refurb drives, which I've also heard are mostly fine, alibeit with 50,000 POH on them.)

Was planning on running unRAID, but I... gotta downsize the physical space taken up by these boats.

Edit: That box has an FM2 A88X ATX MSI board, with 8x native SATA6G ports, and ample PCI-E slots for disk controller cards, and onboard video thanks to an AMD FM2 APU, and 32GB of RAM installed (DDR3-1866).

 

[mxnerd]

unRAID probably is best choice then. Flexible enough, powerful enough and cheap enough - $129 unlimited drives perpetual license.

Of course you don't have to spend $30,000 to get it work. But try it before buying.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXOaCkbt4lI&list=PLNGhLHCnEAmQxQAr95AH6Y_Aw-xi-RmG7&index=1

Just sell your old stuff and use the proceed to finance the new project.

2TB drives are really small in today's standard.

I hate the heat generated by HDD drives , so I also will consolidate them to bigger drives if I were you.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Larry, stop screwing around with toys and build a server.

I'm going to give the unRAID server another chance. I'm going to wipe my QNAP TS-431 unit, pull the 4x 8TB WD Red 5400RPM HDDs, wipe them again in Windows 10, and re-deploy in unRAID. Unfortunately, I don't know how to remove drives from the list in unRAID. I've tried, and can't seem to figure it out, nor how to wipe the whole drive list and start up with a fresh NAS drive loadout, while keeping the config and license info. Is that possible? Or do you need to buy a new license, if you replace ALL of the drives at once, and start over fresh?

Edit: Oh yeah, and probably shuck the 4x 4TB WD MyBook desktop external HDDs. Of course, I could throw those drives into the TS-431 4-bay NAS, and then buy another batch of 4x 8TB WD Red drives. Or maybe, just stick with four, for now? And expand to more drives later on, as I need space?