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This howto aims at | This howto aims at describing the choices and the build of a compact homelab with a hyperconverged chassis based on a [https://www.supermicro.com/en/products/motherboard/A2SDi-4C-HLN4F Supermicro A2SDi-4C-HLN4F]. The hypervisor OS will be a ''Slackware64-current'' (with ''Qemu/KVM'' for virtualization), the storage will be provided by a ''Truenas core'' VM (thanks to pci-passthrough) and network orchestrated by an ''OPNSense'' VM. | ||
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* up to 256 GB ECC RDIMM RAM supported | * up to 256 GB ECC RDIMM RAM supported | ||
* the CPU has a very low TDP (~ 17W), so no need for a fancy and potentially noisy cooling solution | * the CPU has a very low TDP (~ 17W), so no need for a fancy and potentially noisy cooling solution | ||
* 4 * 1 Gb/s Ethernet ports (cool for a network appliance such as OPNSense) | * 4 * 1 Gb/s Ethernet ports (cool for a network appliance such as OPNSense and there's no need for 10 Gb/s for this project) | ||
* dedicated IPMI Ethernet port | * dedicated IPMI Ethernet port | ||
* the SATA ports are provided by two distinct PCIe lines (see below, very important for pci-passthrough and no need for an additionnal HBA card) | * the SATA ports are provided by two distinct PCIe lines (see below, very important for pci-passthrough and no need for an additionnal HBA card) | ||
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Well, the system has drawbacks too : | Well, the system has drawbacks too : | ||
* the CPU power will not be extraordinary | * the CPU power will not be extraordinary | ||
* it's not possible to put a fan directly on top the CPU heatsink (more on that later) | * it's not possible to put a fan directly on top of the CPU heatsink (more on that later) | ||
* no external USB 3.0 ports (ony one "internal", on the motherboard itself) ; this is desirable to plug an external HDD for local backups (USB 2.0 is too slow) | |||
== 2.5 or 3.5 inches drives ? == | |||
What is required for this project : | |||
* Hypervisor OS on RAID 1 with two drives | |||
* 4 TB of encrypted data with a minimum of resilience (at least RAID 1 or RAID 5, RAID 10 or RAID 6 desired) | |||
* it is recommended not to exceed 80% of the capacity of a ZFS file system, so for 4 TB of usable data, 5 TB of raw capacity is necessary | |||
* all disks easily accessible from the front of the chassis | |||
Choosing between 2.5 or 3.5 inches is not so easy. Obviously, for raw capacity over a gigabit network, 3.5 inches hard drives are unbeatable in terms of price. In France (as of march 2021), it costs ~ 80 euros for a 2 TB NAS 3.5 inches HDD ... Same price for a 1 TB NAS 2.5 inches HDD. Moreover, 2.5 inches HDD simply doesn't exist for consumer NAS systems (enterprise 2.5 inches HDD over 2 TB exist but are way too expensive). So, 3.5 inches drives ? But wait ... What about chassis size, cooling and noise ? | |||
Version du 30 mars 2021 à 10:55
This howto aims at describing the choices and the build of a compact homelab with a hyperconverged chassis based on a Supermicro A2SDi-4C-HLN4F. The hypervisor OS will be a Slackware64-current (with Qemu/KVM for virtualization), the storage will be provided by a Truenas core VM (thanks to pci-passthrough) and network orchestrated by an OPNSense VM.
Motivations
Why such a tiny motherboard, especially with a modest 4 cores Intel Atom C3558 ? Let's see the advantages :
- obviously, it's very compact (mini-itx form factor)
- up to 256 GB ECC RDIMM RAM supported
- the CPU has a very low TDP (~ 17W), so no need for a fancy and potentially noisy cooling solution
- 4 * 1 Gb/s Ethernet ports (cool for a network appliance such as OPNSense and there's no need for 10 Gb/s for this project)
- dedicated IPMI Ethernet port
- the SATA ports are provided by two distinct PCIe lines (see below, very important for pci-passthrough and no need for an additionnal HBA card)
Well, the system has drawbacks too :
- the CPU power will not be extraordinary
- it's not possible to put a fan directly on top of the CPU heatsink (more on that later)
- no external USB 3.0 ports (ony one "internal", on the motherboard itself) ; this is desirable to plug an external HDD for local backups (USB 2.0 is too slow)
2.5 or 3.5 inches drives ?
What is required for this project :
- Hypervisor OS on RAID 1 with two drives
- 4 TB of encrypted data with a minimum of resilience (at least RAID 1 or RAID 5, RAID 10 or RAID 6 desired)
- it is recommended not to exceed 80% of the capacity of a ZFS file system, so for 4 TB of usable data, 5 TB of raw capacity is necessary
- all disks easily accessible from the front of the chassis
Choosing between 2.5 or 3.5 inches is not so easy. Obviously, for raw capacity over a gigabit network, 3.5 inches hard drives are unbeatable in terms of price. In France (as of march 2021), it costs ~ 80 euros for a 2 TB NAS 3.5 inches HDD ... Same price for a 1 TB NAS 2.5 inches HDD. Moreover, 2.5 inches HDD simply doesn't exist for consumer NAS systems (enterprise 2.5 inches HDD over 2 TB exist but are way too expensive). So, 3.5 inches drives ? But wait ... What about chassis size, cooling and noise ?
