TS-1277 questions - 10GB & QTier & storage types

[worksman0326]

I want to connect my TS-1277 to my supermicro ESXi host directly via 10GB cat6 ethernet.

Buying the QNAP QXG-10G1T network card would allow this to be possible?

My board; https://www.supermicro.com/products/sys ... D-TN4T.cfm
"Dual 10GbE LAN and Intel® i350-AM2 dual port GbE LAN"


Also, when using QTier, any data copied to the NAS will be written to the SSD's first?
I copied some files from my ESXi host via scp and it was writing to the SSD drives instead of the 3.5" spinners.
I'd like to not do that when I make my full copy of data to the NAS. About 15TB in total.

Lastly, any advice on setting up my storage to accommodate simple file sharing for things like Plex, laptop network storage and ESXi datastore usage. I'm a little confused on static/thick/thin types and storage pools vs raid pools.

I've got 8 western digital red 8TB drives, 4 samsung 860 1TB SSD's and 2 Crucial MX500 M.2 SATA SSD's to play with.

What is the typical break out for creating storage types for this kind of setup?

I would think a lot of people use Plex, VMware and simple network folder access, so what's the consensus?

Any help would be appreciated, thanks

[Bob Zelin]

I probably will not be able to answer your questions properly, but I will try. Please forgive any errors here -
As for the TS-1277, and the QXG-10G1T. Will it work - yes, absolutely. Although the QXG-10G1T uses the Aquantia chip instead of the Intel X550 chip, yes, it works, and yes, it will be compatible when talking to another Intel based 10G chip. I am no expert in SuperMicro, but I am pretty sure that this is using an Intel 10G chip. I don't know that motherboard, or that exact product from Super Micro.
I suggest assigning a static IP to your 10G port in your Super Micro, and a static IP in the QNAP on the QXG-10G1T on the same subnet, so you can be assured the two systems will connect.

WD RED's are great - I use them all the time. Samsung 860 EVO SSD's are great as well.
For fast speeds, I always using a static volume. This does not create storage pools. A storage pool is useful if you intend to have more expander chassis, and want to keep all the storage in one large volume (or split up into smaller volumes, and not be dependent on the # of drives. A storage pool combines all the drives). This typically would be used as a "thick volume", which is the QNAP default when you configure the RAID array. I never do this. Because I always want maximum speed with 10G, I always create a static volume, but I certainly see the application for a thick volume. I cannot explain thin volumes to you.

For simple file sharing - a nice boring RAID 5 or RAID 6 as a static volume will give you plenty of speed with eight WD RED Pro's (7200 RPM - the non pros are only 5400 RPM).
What is the typical "break out" for creating storage types? I don't understand your question.

You should explain exactly what your applications are here. Plex ? Are you recording TV shows - do you have a playout server ? What's your application. VMware - for what application - are you installing a GPU and want to create a VM so you can load in windows and do rendering on the QNAP ? I don't know what ESXi datastorage is. If you are trying to hide the physical storage from the Virtual Machine - well, QNAP offers Container Station for this, but I do not know if that will meet your requirement for your application.

Bob Zelin

[worksman0326]

Hey Bob, thanks for the reply.

I guess I should look for an Intel based 10G NIC. Any suggestions?

If I use a static volume, will I still be able to expand that volume with additional disks after it is setup? I have all my media on about 3 drives so I will only have 5 drives for the array at start until I copy everything over. Then I can put the 3 drives into the NAS.

Regarding the break out. I was wondering if I should do 2 volumes of 4-6 drives each; one for ESXi data store and the other for simple network storage, or some other combination of 3.5"/2.5"/SSD/M.2 SSD

I only use Plex to store and organize. Most of it is direct play to my apple tv. No remote use and no recording of TV.

My ESXi host has onboard storage but no redundancy. If I wanted to host my VM datastores from the NAS, which would be the optimal way to present that storage to ESXi for performance?

[Trexx]

Your QXG NIC works fine for 10GbE. You don’t need to switch it out.

Your raid-1 QTier is the issue as you will get around ~500MB/s range and since you are using mirroring, you don't get the "stacking" benefit of multiple drives in terms of throughput.

For short term write burts, QTier is used as a cache but it's main benefit is from small block random i/o usage, not sustained sequential read/write patterns.

[worksman0326]

Your QXG NIC works fine for 10GbE. You don’t need to switch it out.

Your raid-1 QTier is the issue as you will get around ~500MB/s range and since you are using mirroring, you don't get the "stacking" benefit of multiple drives in terms of throughput.

For short term write burts, QTier is used as a cache but it's main benefit is from small block random i/o usage, not sustained sequential read/write patterns.

Thanks Paul.

Here's what I'm thinking so far;
Create a 5 drive RAID-6 static volume. Copy all my data to the volume. Add the remaining 3 8TB 3.5" drives to expand the volume. Then enable Qtier.

After that I'm not real sure what to do next.

I'll have x4 SSD, x2 M.2 SSD and x2 M.2 NVMe (QM2-2P-384) so how should I do QTier?

[Trexx]

Thanks Paul.

Here's what I'm thinking so far;
Create a 5 drive RAID-6 static volume. Copy all my data to the volume. Add the remaining 3 8TB 3.5" drives to expand the volume. Then enable Qtier.

After that I'm not real sure what to do next.

I'll have x4 SSD, x2 M.2 SSD and x2 M.2 NVMe (QM2-2P-384) so how should I do QTier?

Here is what I would do:

1) Use m.2 SSD's (assuming 500gb+) for 1st System drive (i.e. install / CACHEDEV1)
2) Use NVMe drives for your temp workspace video editing storage (assuming big enough).
3) Use 8 HDD's for Static Raid-6 as bob recommended
4) use 4 SSD's in Raid-5 and use for another volume (VM's for example) or caching.. (really depends on your needs).

I wouldn't use QTier as you have enough SSD's to do without it, and your use cases doesn't lend well to it anyway. QTier is best with high IOPS / small block random I/O patterns.

[worksman0326]

Here is what I would do:

1) Use m.2 SSD's (assuming 500gb+) for 1st System drive (i.e. install / CACHEDEV1)
2) Use NVMe drives for your temp workspace video editing storage (assuming big enough).
3) Use 8 HDD's for Static Raid-6 as bob recommended
4) use 4 SSD's in Raid-5 and use for another volume (VM's for example) or caching.. (really depends on your needs).

I wouldn't use QTier as you have enough SSD's to do without it, and your use cases doesn't lend well to it anyway. QTier is best with high IOPS / small block random I/O patterns.

How would I go about using the M.2 SSD drives as the 1st system drive if the NAS has already been setup and used for awhile?

Also, wouldn't the NVME drives be beneficial for the 8 drive RAID6 with QTier since it will be a large vmware datastore destination? Those 3.5" spinners are slow WD red's I shucked from easystore's last black friday.

[pals0007]

Here is what I would do:

1) Use m.2 SSD's (assuming 500gb+) for 1st System drive (i.e. install / CACHEDEV1)
2) Use NVMe drives for your temp workspace video editing storage (assuming big enough).
3) Use 8 HDD's for Static Raid-6 as bob recommended
4) use 4 SSD's in Raid-5 and use for another volume (VM's for example) or caching.. (really depends on your needs).

I wouldn't use QTier as you have enough SSD's to do without it, and your use cases doesn't lend well to it anyway. QTier is best with high IOPS / small block random I/O patterns.

How would I go about using the M.2 SSD drives as the 1st system drive if the NAS has already been setup and used for awhile?

Also, wouldn't the NVME drives be beneficial for the 8 drive RAID6 with QTier since it will be a large vmware datastore destination? Those 3.5" spinners are slow WD red's I shucked from easystore's last black friday.

I am interested in this as well