On 5/23/26 07:52, nwe wrote:
On 5/23/26 12:44 AM, David Christensen wrote:
If you have a USB 3.x A or C port, various manufacturers make 2.5, 5,
and 10 GbE (copper RJ-45) Ethernet adapters. If you have a
Thunderbolt 3, 4, or 5 port, a few make 10 and 25 Gbps SFPx fiber
single and dual Ethernet adapters.
I've looked at those, been thinking of trying it some time. The only
time I really wish for faster than 1g networking straight to my
workstation is when I'm cloning a complete hard drive to a backup image
file in the pool.
+1 for images, especially when they are encrypted and uncompressible. I
image my system drives monthly and keep the newest three. The Linux and
FreeBSD system images are deliberately small enough to fit onto "16 GB"
devices (SD card, USB, SSD, or HDD). This is plenty for the servers and
maintenance/rescue live drives, but I sometimes want more for the
workstation. The worst are Windows machines with one drive and
everything on it.
Another use-case for enterprise-speed Ethernet is ZFS replication.
The only glitch I've run into so far is I've got to match the correct
optics to the cards, speaking of vendor-lock-in. Intel cards want intel
optics. Most other brands seem to accept most other brands optics. No
experience yet with Cisco brand. Dell can come as intel or other.
Thank you for the warning.
Cheap managed network switches from aliexpress two 10g SFP+ ports plus
four 1g RJ45, I guess I got what I paid for. They seem to mostly work, I
had a few random failures along the way. I've read scare stories about
these potentially dialing home etc. I have not confirmed such. I suspect
these can't as I have them configured on an isolated vlan.
One wonderful network switch deal I find common on ebay: OS6450-P48 it
is cheap, 48 poe 1gig ports plus two 10g SFP ports that don't seem real
picky what brand optics I use. It is a bit technical to configure.
I switched to Ubiquitti Networks Unifi products several years ago when I
got tired of logging in to multiple different web control panels and
trying to keep all the network settings in sync. "One web control panel
to rule them all" is a killer feature that is worth paying for. So, I
look at their 2.5/5/10 Gbps switches periodically; but have not made a
purchase (yet).
I have been using Intel SSD 520 Series 2.5" SATA III drives for many
years.
Same here, just discovered them cheap on ebay a few years ago. Some show
up with SMART reports indicating wear that would trigger me replacing a
consumer grade ssd. I've been using those nearly daily over 2 years with
no failures yet.
I bought my first Intel SSD 520 Series 60 GB 2.5" SATA III at Best Buy
on Black Friday the year they came out. I now have eight 60 GB drives
plus eight 180 GB drives. Many were bought used. I agree that some of
their SMART statistics can look scary, but the lowest
Media_Wearout_Indicator VALUE for any of them is 95. Using 180 GB
drives as a ZFS special vdev with special_small_blocks and 24x7 in a
lightly used SOHO server is slowly eating those drives.
How do you back up a 36 TB pool?
(blush)
I know my current backup scheme could someday bite:
1. I have a full rsync backup on a spare R710 server in another
building. That server probably hasn't been powered up in 18 months. All
I need to do is go plug it into an outlet then spend a couple minutes at
a ssh session from the comfort of my office chair.
2. The most critical files get regularly backed up (manually) to a
remote storage vps.
I compress the files into an encrypted archive then upload using scp.
3. Some random memory sticks and hard drives...
So I've got some coverage in case of disaster but it could use improvement.
I know automatic backups could be nice but I just don't trust such.
I also have a clone of the server's boot drive.
nwe
I came to the conclusion that I needed a matching server for backups.
So, I built one and replicate weekly. It sounds like you could dust off
the R710. An enterprise-grade Ethernet connection between the primary
and backup servers would encourage regular backups.
I also replicate to a near-site external disk weekly, and rotate that
with an off-site disk bi-monthly. Seagate says they make a 36 TB HDD,
but I cannot find any for sale or in stock on the WWW. An external RAID
enclosure could reach that capacity with smaller drives, but external
drive enclosures have failed me too many times over the years.
David
