Steve_TST
Cadet
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2016
- Messages
- 2
Hello. This is going to seem like a crazy first post, but if you are a FreeNAS virtualization guru, please keep reading.
My name is Steven and I'm an exec at TST Industries. We are a small startup business in the sportbike industry. I'm not an IT expert - I only know enough to dabble and when the time comes, I research/ask for help until I can pull something together. The forums have been a staple resource for our setup. I appreciate the work the members put into the community.
TL;DR PURPOSE OF THIS POST: If possible and (adequately) safe, I want a virtualization expert to virtualize our current FreeNAS deployment in a production environment and to provide 1-on-1 support for future maintenance. If someone wants to do this pro bono, I'm all ears. But I am prepared to compensate accordingly. The virtualization reasoning is to better utilize the hardware capabilities of our server investment. We are on a small business budget - we do not resort for cheap band-aid solutions, but we want to maximize our dollar. I recognize I don't have the skills nor time to pull this off properly, if it's safe to do with our hardware in the first place.
IF YOU'RE INTERESTED IN THIS OPPORTUNITY & THINK WE CAN DO THIS ADEQUATELY, DETAILS:
I have deployed a successful bare metal FreeNAS file server for our business that has operated well for the past 10 months (9.10-Stable). At the current time, we are in need of deploying virtual machines for internal application hosting (Linux VM's for web apps, Windows 10 VM for SQL Server and app hosting, etc.). Rather than purchase an additional host, I'm hoping we can better utilize our FreeNAS server hardware.
The machine setup:
If you're interested, please private message me or provide a contact method and we can take it from there.
P.S. If this is inappropriate for the forums, please feel free to remove the thread immediately. I was simply thinking this could be a great place to find, and recognize, some of the members here that put a lot of work into the forums on their own time/dime.
My name is Steven and I'm an exec at TST Industries. We are a small startup business in the sportbike industry. I'm not an IT expert - I only know enough to dabble and when the time comes, I research/ask for help until I can pull something together. The forums have been a staple resource for our setup. I appreciate the work the members put into the community.
TL;DR PURPOSE OF THIS POST: If possible and (adequately) safe, I want a virtualization expert to virtualize our current FreeNAS deployment in a production environment and to provide 1-on-1 support for future maintenance. If someone wants to do this pro bono, I'm all ears. But I am prepared to compensate accordingly. The virtualization reasoning is to better utilize the hardware capabilities of our server investment. We are on a small business budget - we do not resort for cheap band-aid solutions, but we want to maximize our dollar. I recognize I don't have the skills nor time to pull this off properly, if it's safe to do with our hardware in the first place.
IF YOU'RE INTERESTED IN THIS OPPORTUNITY & THINK WE CAN DO THIS ADEQUATELY, DETAILS:
I have deployed a successful bare metal FreeNAS file server for our business that has operated well for the past 10 months (9.10-Stable). At the current time, we are in need of deploying virtual machines for internal application hosting (Linux VM's for web apps, Windows 10 VM for SQL Server and app hosting, etc.). Rather than purchase an additional host, I'm hoping we can better utilize our FreeNAS server hardware.
The machine setup:
- Supermicro X10DRL-i dual CPU motherboard | MBD-X10DRL-i -O | https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C600/X10DRL-i.cfm
- Intel Xeon E5-2620 v4 | 1 currently installed on mobo but can purchase 2nd when needed | http://ark.intel.com/products/92986/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-2620-v4-20M-Cache-2_10-GHz
- 64GB ECC RAM via (4) 16GB modules on 1st CPU bus | can purchase additional when needed
- (1) Rocket 750 HBA | http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA_new/series_R750-Overview.htm
- (10) WD 6TB Gold Datacenter Class HDD's | WD6002FRYZ | https://www.wdc.com/products/business-internal-storage/wd-gold.html#WD6002FRYZ
- (2) mirrored boot drives on mobo SATA controller
- Intel 10Gb NIC | X540-T2 | https://ark.intel.com/products/58954/Intel-Ethernet-Converged-Network-Adapter-X540-T2
- Redundant power supply on battery backup
- Our ZFS pool configuration has all (10) drives in (1) vdev of RaidZ2. As we need more pool space, we will be purchasing (10) more 6TB drives and adding a second vdev to the pool. Our chassis handles a total of (30) 3.5" drives, so we will have a maximum of (3) vdev's in the pool longterm before a new machine is needed.
- Our data is split into 2 categories - 1) a collection of critical, normal-sized files. 2) a collection of large media files from our video/photo marketing team.
- 5% of the data is under the critical category. This data is backed up constantly to the cloud. There is not a database or other frequent IO data set. Most of the critical files are employee docs, product CAD files, purchase records, etc.
- 95% of the data is media files. 4K high bitrate video footage, RAW camera files, etc. Recent projects are important. Older projects are convenient to have stored should we need to grab a random clip for a current project. Otherwise, it is not mission critical. Currently, this media data is not backed up to the cloud (our internet upload would be tapped out 20 hours a day to handle this...).
- Our pool is currently 44TB and is 19% used at ~10TB (growing rapidly these days).
- ESXi hypervisor
- Pass through R750 HBA to FreeNAS
- Give 48GB+ of RAM and sufficient vCPU to FreeNAS
- Purchase and install reliable SSD's for ESXi and VM's. These would be connected to the SATA ports on the Supermicro mobo. Realistically, we only need ~500GB of storage for ESXi and VM's in a RAID 1 setup + backup.
- If possible, it seems it would be easiest to keep the storage for the hypervisor and VM's completely separate from FreeNAS and it's pool.
- The VM's are linux and windows based. Hosting small databases for internal operations.
- Mobo has 1Gb onboard NIC seperate from the X540-T2 that could be used, if needed.
- Network config: 1Gb to workstations and general office. An 8 port, 10Gb Netgear switch connects to the FreeNAS server. Cat6 cable throughout the office. Some of our media editors may receive 10Gb NIC's in their workstation eventually. Otherwise, most people on 1Gb connections is sufficient.
- I can attempt to answer any other questions about our setup.
If you're interested, please private message me or provide a contact method and we can take it from there.
P.S. If this is inappropriate for the forums, please feel free to remove the thread immediately. I was simply thinking this could be a great place to find, and recognize, some of the members here that put a lot of work into the forums on their own time/dime.