Repurposing an outdated Xeon workstation into a quiet, high efficiency, high speed (10Gbps) TrueNAS server
Part-01: Introduction, background, requirements, test and validation platform, initial SMB access evaluation
Executive Summary
This post introduces the background, motivation, requirements, hardware configuration, and initial SMB performance evaluation of my project to repurpose an outdated Xeon workstation (ASUS P9X79 WS + Xeon E5‑2697 v2 + 64GB RAM) into a quiet, high‑efficiency, high‑speed (10Gbps) TrueNAS server.
The primary objective of this project is to modernize and streamline my long‑standing VHDx‑based backup workflow by building a dedicated 10Gbps data‑transfer LAN and a RAIDZ2‑based NAS capable of hosting multiple generations of large VHDx images and other critical data, of course including whole my digital music/video library.
Despite evaluated intentionally on old client hardware (ASUS B75M‑PLUS + Core i5‑3470, PCIe Gen3), the newly built 10Gbps LAN achieved 6.4 Gbps (800 MBs) sequential read and 5.3 Gbps (665 MB/s) sequential write speeds to the TrueNAS SMB share surpassing typical local SATA 6G SSD performance and fully satisfying all initial project requirements.
This Part‑01 post provides an overview of the project’s motivation, requirement list, system architecture, LAN topology, and early TrueNAS evaluation results. Subsequent posts (Part‑02 and onward) will detail each major component, including the server HBA, 10GbE NICs, SFP‑to‑RJ45 modules, silent switching hubs, cooling design, and further validation steps.
[End of Executive Summary]
Hello, dear ASR friends and colleagues,
I am fully aware that we live in an era where high-capacity cloud storage (on the TB or even 10TB scale) is easily accessible via high-speed fiber-optic connections (offering I/O speeds of 10Gbps or faster), though, of course, it is not free.
When it comes to storing my own precious data, however, I still maintain a rather conservative (perhaps "old-fashioned"?) stance; fundamentally, I do not place absolute trust in the robustness, confidentiality, or high-speed access of cloud storage services.
While I occasionally store small amounts of non-sensitive data in the cloud (like using Dropbox) on a strictly temporary basis, such instances are rare, and I immediately and completely delete the cloud files once the task is finished.
Consequently, I store important digital assets such as audio files, photos, videos, and vast quantities of documents, PowerPoint presentations, VHDx disk copy images (currently totaling approximately 11TB and growing), across multiple physical hard drives within my home and SOHO office. Furthermore, I regularly back up critical data (including my entire digital music library) to hard drives located at remote sites, specifically at the homes of my son’s family (100 km away) and my daughter’s family (300 km away); ref. my post here #4, my post here #60.
Furthermore, until now, I have been performing monthly or bimonthly disk copies into VHDx disk image files to back up the SSD containing the Windows 11 OS.
Above VHDx disk backup procedures should also clearly explain one of my present motivations why I want to build a high-speed 10Gbps NAS server and a dedicated 10Gbps LAN specifically for data transfer.
For the SMB share hosted on the ZFS RAIDZ2 pool (comprising five HDDs) managed by TrueNAS OS, one can reasonably expect sequential I/O speeds of 6 Gbps to 9 Gbps (750 MB/s to 1,125 MB/s) over the 10Gbps LAN from client PCs, speeds that match or exceed those of the typical local SATA 6G SSDs found in each PC.
Therefore, if each client PC is equipped with a separate SSD capable of hosting the Windows OS VHDx file, the VHDx being a single massive file, can be copied and transferred to the NAS SMB network drive at very high speeds. And, of course, the physical insertion-removal of 4TB backup SSD will be completely avoided.
Furthermore, by ultimately configuring a RAIDZ2 setup using five 8TB WD Red HDDs, I can achieve approximately 30TB of SMB shared storage; this allows me to store far more generations of VHDx files than before, alongside other vast amounts of data files.
My plan is to store multiple generations (monthly or bimonthly) of VHDx files, derived from the OS SSDs of all ten Windows 11 Pro client machines, in the NAS's SMB share storage, ensuring I can go back at least one year into the past.
In any way, prior to starting actual implementations of present "Xeon TrueNAS server project" based on "repurposing", I carefully searched several NAS building web sites, and prepared my personal "List of Requirements" for the project which can be summarized as follows;
Requirement list for present Xeon TrueNAS server project:
Based on above “Requirement List”, I slowly and steadily started this “Xeon TrueNAS project” in April 2026. This is my “another” step-by-step mountain climbing journey towards the summit of "Repurposing an outdated Xeon workstation into a quiet, high efficiency, high speed (10Gbps) TrueNAS server" which is the title of this new thread.
At this point, I need to describe my acknowledgement for Microsoft Co-Pilot for its various supports especially for the invaluable suggestions and recommendations regarding the NAS components and their compatibilities with TrueNAS OS, now I use ver.25.04.0.
In this Part-01 post, I dare not go into the details of my various “validation steps” so far have done, but let me share present project status and initial successful(!) sequential access results from a very much outdated, I should say it by “stone-age generation”, client PC to the NAS SMB sharing storage through the newly built 10Gbps data transfer home LAN.
For your kind notice, in the coming-soon Part-02 post and the subsequent my “Part-0x” post series, I will be happy sharing some details of each of the major components in the TrueNAS server, 10GbE home LAN, as well as 10GbE NICs in client PC, quiet cooling fans thereof, etc.
Now, I continue my style of project sharing; one diagram and/or photo would worth more than 1,000 words.
Let me start by sharing photos, Fig.01 below, of present “repurposed/renovated” Xeon TrueNAS server;
The details of key components and their “alignments” can be seen in Fig.02 below. I hope and believe this diagram will be self-explanatory for your easy understanding; no detailed description would be needed in this Part-01 post. As I mentioned before, I will share some details of each of the major components in my coming post series of Part-02 and thereafter.
Even though I already have PCIe-M.2 NVMe SSD adapter on PCIe16_Gen3_2 slot, I have not yet purchased suitable M.2 NVMe SSD (1TB or 2TB) for “I/O caching” in ZFS RAIDZ2 operations. When I would install it, I will achieve much more efficient data transfer through 10Gbps LAN, especially random small file I/O workloads.
I assume it would be better describing at least manufacturer and product name of the major components in text in this post for possible search-and-hit supports, even though I will touch on them in my coming-soon post series on this thread;
- M/B: ASUS P9X79 WS
- CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2
- Server HBA: IBM M1050 (LSI SAS9220-8i OEM); FW & BIOS flashed to SATA 6G IT (Initiator Target) mode
- PCIe-M.2 NVMe SSD Adapter: Kurōtoshikō (Expert Oriented, CFD group) M.2H-PCIE
- 2-port SFP+ Server NIC: Intel X520-DA2
- One-slot PCIe GVA: GeForce GT 710, Kurōtoshikō (Expert Oriented, CFD group); GF-GT710-E1GB-LP
Balancing "quiet operation" with "ensuring adequate cooling" for all components in an office environment is always a challenging trade-off; however, in my current project, as shown in below Fig.03, with using fan rpm speed controllers, I have achieved the best possible balance between the two. While I lack a high-end sound level meter to take precise measurements, as a regular member of ASR, and you may easily guess, I have relied on my own ears to subjectively assess the system and confirm that this Xeon TrueNAS server operates with a noise level of less than 25 dB(A) at a distance of one meter. I will touch on details of several quiet fans thereof in my coming post series.
The “building” of new independent, data transfer dedicating, and silent 10Gbps Home LAN is another main challenge in present project. I believe the below Fig.04 would be easily understandable at your first glance. In the coming post series, I will touch on details of the key components in 10 Gbps LAN, i.e. HBA card, SFP-to-RJ45 adapter, silent 10GbE switching hubs, silent and “cool” 10GbE NICs in client PCs.
As shown in above Fig.04, the ASUS X99-E WS PC-workstation occupies top unique position among the client PCs; I usually use this PC-workstation for my daily business work and hobby, including writing and preparing posts for ASR; I installed the second Intel “X520-DA2+SFP-10GM-T-30 NIC” on the PCIe16_1(top) Gen3 slot for stable and robust 10Gbps communication not only with the Xeon TrueNAS but also with other client PCs. The “X520-DA2+SFP-10GM-T-30 NIC” on X99-E WS also can serve as backup NIC for Xeon TrueNAS server since I use exactly the same NIC in both machines.
After struggling shortly and learning a little bit with TrueNAS OS ver.25.04.0, as shown in Fig.05 below, I could easily build 10.68 TiB common SMB sharing storage space in the ca. 12 TiB storage pool of ZFS RAIDZ2 on 6+6+4+4+4 TB HDDs; please note this is my test/evaluation platform, and all the HDDs will be replaced with 5x 8TB WD RED HDD hopefully within one year.
As shown in below Fig.06, the “X520-DA2+SFP-10GM-T-30 NIC” is properly recognized and utilized by TrueNAS OS as expected. You would please focus your eyes on “Tx Queue count = 24” perfectly matching with CPU Xeon E5-2697 v2 (12-core, 24-trhread), and also please focus on “32.000 Gb/s available PCIe bandwidth” even the NIC is on PCIe16_1 Gen3 slot.
Now, let’s move on to the top highlight of this Part-01 post.
For the I/O, i.e. Read and Write, access speed evaluation and validation between client PC and TrueNAS SMB sharing storage, I intentionally selected a very old (stone-age?) generation motherboard PC as a representative of rather outdated PCs I still use for various purposes including two audio dedicated Windows PCs.
In my computer junk box, I found ASUS M/B B75M-PLUS having Intel Core i5-3470 CPU, memory 16 GB and SATA 6G 128 GB SSD. I could successfully install Windows 11 PRO 25H2 (build 26200-82-524) in the SSD (ref. my post here), and put 10GbE NIC (Buffalo LGY-PCEI-MG3, Realtek RTL8127 NIC chip, PCIe1 socket) on the top PCIe16_1 Gen3 slot.
I downloaded the latest driver for RTL8127 from the Realtek site, and tuned the NIC driver for optimal 10GbE operation including the jumbo frame MTU=9014. For the details of this NIC and the driver tunings thereof, I will touch on later in my coming post series on this thread.
Then I configured the NIC’s TCP/IPv4 address in 192.168.7.x/255.255.255.0 fitting for the newly built dedicated 10Gbps LAN (see above Fig.04), and mounted the TrueNAS SMB sharing storage as network drive Z:
Finally, I utilized CrystalDiskMark 9.0.3 x64 for I/O speed measurements of the mounted SMB shared network drive Z:, and the results can be found in below Fig.07.
As you can see, the results were considerably better than my expectations, especially in sequential Read/Write SEQ1M (Q8T1), despite the client PC and TrueNAS server are working on PCIe Gen3 platform. I was/am also much impressed by the results that these sequential I/O for SMB storage of TrueNAS through 10GbE LAN well surpass the I/O speed of the local outdated SATA 6G SSD.
Similar Read/Write sequential access results to TrueNAS SMB storage were also confirmed in several other client PCs having 10GbE NIC (MTU=9014), of course including the X99-E WS PC-workstation.
Consequently, now I could have fully satisfied all the “Requirement List” I prepared prior to starting this project of "Repurposing an outdated Xeon workstation into a quiet, high efficiency, high speed (10Gbps) TrueNAS server".
You would please stay tuned on this thread; I will soon start new Part-0x post series describing and sharing further details on selections and my-way-of-utilization of major critical components including attaching quiet small cooling fan(s) onto them.
Part-01: Introduction, background, requirements, test and validation platform, initial SMB access evaluation
Executive Summary
This post introduces the background, motivation, requirements, hardware configuration, and initial SMB performance evaluation of my project to repurpose an outdated Xeon workstation (ASUS P9X79 WS + Xeon E5‑2697 v2 + 64GB RAM) into a quiet, high‑efficiency, high‑speed (10Gbps) TrueNAS server.
The primary objective of this project is to modernize and streamline my long‑standing VHDx‑based backup workflow by building a dedicated 10Gbps data‑transfer LAN and a RAIDZ2‑based NAS capable of hosting multiple generations of large VHDx images and other critical data, of course including whole my digital music/video library.
Despite evaluated intentionally on old client hardware (ASUS B75M‑PLUS + Core i5‑3470, PCIe Gen3), the newly built 10Gbps LAN achieved 6.4 Gbps (800 MBs) sequential read and 5.3 Gbps (665 MB/s) sequential write speeds to the TrueNAS SMB share surpassing typical local SATA 6G SSD performance and fully satisfying all initial project requirements.
This Part‑01 post provides an overview of the project’s motivation, requirement list, system architecture, LAN topology, and early TrueNAS evaluation results. Subsequent posts (Part‑02 and onward) will detail each major component, including the server HBA, 10GbE NICs, SFP‑to‑RJ45 modules, silent switching hubs, cooling design, and further validation steps.
[End of Executive Summary]
Hello, dear ASR friends and colleagues,
I am fully aware that we live in an era where high-capacity cloud storage (on the TB or even 10TB scale) is easily accessible via high-speed fiber-optic connections (offering I/O speeds of 10Gbps or faster), though, of course, it is not free.
When it comes to storing my own precious data, however, I still maintain a rather conservative (perhaps "old-fashioned"?) stance; fundamentally, I do not place absolute trust in the robustness, confidentiality, or high-speed access of cloud storage services.
While I occasionally store small amounts of non-sensitive data in the cloud (like using Dropbox) on a strictly temporary basis, such instances are rare, and I immediately and completely delete the cloud files once the task is finished.
Consequently, I store important digital assets such as audio files, photos, videos, and vast quantities of documents, PowerPoint presentations, VHDx disk copy images (currently totaling approximately 11TB and growing), across multiple physical hard drives within my home and SOHO office. Furthermore, I regularly back up critical data (including my entire digital music library) to hard drives located at remote sites, specifically at the homes of my son’s family (100 km away) and my daughter’s family (300 km away); ref. my post here #4, my post here #60.
Furthermore, until now, I have been performing monthly or bimonthly disk copies into VHDx disk image files to back up the SSD containing the Windows 11 OS.
Each of the eight Windows 11 Pro PCs and workstations located throughout the house, including those in the second-floor SOHO office, is equipped with a SATA 6G data cable and a SATA power cable both routed out from the rear panel.
As an example, here is the procedure for creating a "full disk copy", including the MBR area, of the 512GB Windows 11 Pro OS SSD from an ASUS X99E WS M/B-based PC-workstation.
For this purpose, I use a 4TB 2.5” SATA 6G SSD formatted with NTFS. I connect this 4TB SSD to the extended SATA 6G and power cables, allowing Windows 11 to recognize it as drive R:
Using "Computer Management" > "Disk Management" in Windows 11, I create a 512GB VHDx file (a thin-provisioned/dynamic-size virtual hard disk image file) at the root of drive R: The filename includes the date, computer ID and Windows version, for instance like "20260727_ASUS X99E WS_SSD_Win 11 PRO_25H2_26200-8457.vhdx". Although it is a VHDx file recognized by OS as a 512GB disk, its physical size immediately after creation is only about 4MB.
Next, I launch Paragon Partition Manager ver.15 and select the "Copy Hard Disk" function. I designate the Windows 11 OS SSD as the source disk and the newly created 512GB VHDx file as the destination disk.
After carefully double-checking the settings, I instruct Paragon Partition Manager to execute the disk copy. Thanks to the software's excellent safe disk-copying capabilities on the running Windows environment and the high-speed data transfer between SSDs, the process completes within ca. 15 minutes.
Once complete, exit Paragon Partition Manager and use Windows "Disk Management" to "detach" the created VHDx virtual disk from the system. Since it is a VHDx file, the actual storage footprint is a single large file smaller than 512 GB.
I can now physically disconnect this 4TB backup SSD. Then, connect the 4TB SSD to the SATA 6G and SATA power cables routed to the rear of the "next" desktop PC, and follow the same procedure to create a VHDx copy of that PC's Windows OS SSD.
Since one Notebook PC and one small NUC PC cannot provide outer-routed SATA 6G cable, I use USB 3.0 SSD adapter accepting the above 4TB backup SSD for VHDx backup under maximum data transfer speed of USB 3.0.
This completes the 4TB backup SSD containing the ten VHDx disk image files; finally, insert this 4TB SSD into one of the slots in the front-facing 2.5-inch 4-port SSD/HDD hot-swap cage of the P9X79 WS PC-workstation (which is equipped with two 6TB HDDs dedicating as VHDx storage host) and have the workstation's Windows 11 Pro OS recognize it as drive R:
A simple batch command file is used to copy all the VHDx files to the two 6TB HDDs overnight; upon completion, the final step of the batch command completely erases/deletes all VHDx files from the 4TB backup SSD, leaving it "empty" and ready for the next backup operation.
The process of creating VHDx image files on the 4TB backup SSD described above requires physically inserting and removing the 4TB SSD a total of ten times.
As an example, here is the procedure for creating a "full disk copy", including the MBR area, of the 512GB Windows 11 Pro OS SSD from an ASUS X99E WS M/B-based PC-workstation.
For this purpose, I use a 4TB 2.5” SATA 6G SSD formatted with NTFS. I connect this 4TB SSD to the extended SATA 6G and power cables, allowing Windows 11 to recognize it as drive R:
Using "Computer Management" > "Disk Management" in Windows 11, I create a 512GB VHDx file (a thin-provisioned/dynamic-size virtual hard disk image file) at the root of drive R: The filename includes the date, computer ID and Windows version, for instance like "20260727_ASUS X99E WS_SSD_Win 11 PRO_25H2_26200-8457.vhdx". Although it is a VHDx file recognized by OS as a 512GB disk, its physical size immediately after creation is only about 4MB.
Next, I launch Paragon Partition Manager ver.15 and select the "Copy Hard Disk" function. I designate the Windows 11 OS SSD as the source disk and the newly created 512GB VHDx file as the destination disk.
After carefully double-checking the settings, I instruct Paragon Partition Manager to execute the disk copy. Thanks to the software's excellent safe disk-copying capabilities on the running Windows environment and the high-speed data transfer between SSDs, the process completes within ca. 15 minutes.
Once complete, exit Paragon Partition Manager and use Windows "Disk Management" to "detach" the created VHDx virtual disk from the system. Since it is a VHDx file, the actual storage footprint is a single large file smaller than 512 GB.
I can now physically disconnect this 4TB backup SSD. Then, connect the 4TB SSD to the SATA 6G and SATA power cables routed to the rear of the "next" desktop PC, and follow the same procedure to create a VHDx copy of that PC's Windows OS SSD.
Since one Notebook PC and one small NUC PC cannot provide outer-routed SATA 6G cable, I use USB 3.0 SSD adapter accepting the above 4TB backup SSD for VHDx backup under maximum data transfer speed of USB 3.0.
This completes the 4TB backup SSD containing the ten VHDx disk image files; finally, insert this 4TB SSD into one of the slots in the front-facing 2.5-inch 4-port SSD/HDD hot-swap cage of the P9X79 WS PC-workstation (which is equipped with two 6TB HDDs dedicating as VHDx storage host) and have the workstation's Windows 11 Pro OS recognize it as drive R:
A simple batch command file is used to copy all the VHDx files to the two 6TB HDDs overnight; upon completion, the final step of the batch command completely erases/deletes all VHDx files from the 4TB backup SSD, leaving it "empty" and ready for the next backup operation.
The process of creating VHDx image files on the 4TB backup SSD described above requires physically inserting and removing the 4TB SSD a total of ten times.
For the SMB share hosted on the ZFS RAIDZ2 pool (comprising five HDDs) managed by TrueNAS OS, one can reasonably expect sequential I/O speeds of 6 Gbps to 9 Gbps (750 MB/s to 1,125 MB/s) over the 10Gbps LAN from client PCs, speeds that match or exceed those of the typical local SATA 6G SSDs found in each PC.
Therefore, if each client PC is equipped with a separate SSD capable of hosting the Windows OS VHDx file, the VHDx being a single massive file, can be copied and transferred to the NAS SMB network drive at very high speeds. And, of course, the physical insertion-removal of 4TB backup SSD will be completely avoided.
Furthermore, by ultimately configuring a RAIDZ2 setup using five 8TB WD Red HDDs, I can achieve approximately 30TB of SMB shared storage; this allows me to store far more generations of VHDx files than before, alongside other vast amounts of data files.
My plan is to store multiple generations (monthly or bimonthly) of VHDx files, derived from the OS SSDs of all ten Windows 11 Pro client machines, in the NAS's SMB share storage, ensuring I can go back at least one year into the past.
In any way, prior to starting actual implementations of present "Xeon TrueNAS server project" based on "repurposing", I carefully searched several NAS building web sites, and prepared my personal "List of Requirements" for the project which can be summarized as follows;
Requirement list for present Xeon TrueNAS server project:
- Repurposing all of; ASUS P9X79 WS M/B, Xeon E5-2697 v2 CPU, 64GB RAM (now non-ECC, to be replaced with ECC ones), large Lian-Li WS Chassis and quiet fans, quiet 1000W Platimax PSU (too powerful though), 3-set of 4-port (total 12-port) DC fan controllers with numeric LED rpm indicators, 2.5” SSD/HDD 4-port detachable front cage bay, 3.5” HDD 5-port detachable front cage bay,
- Free TrueNAS SCALE OS, now Community Edition, to be installed in old but stable/robust Intel 510 Series 120 GB SSD (found in my junk drawer) to be connected to M/B SATA 6G port,
- Reliable and stable PCIe Server HBA (Host Bus Adapter) Card providing 8-port for SATA 6G HDD connections; not in any RAID configuration, but to work in pure 8-port AHCI HDD controller,
- To use presently available 2x 6TB WD RED EFRX HDDs, 2x 4TB WD RED EFRX HDDs, and one 4TB Hitachi HGST HDD, for test, validation and evaluation of ZFS RAIDZ2 Pool to give ca. 11.0 TiB SMB sharing storage space (all HDDs to be replaced by 8TB WD RED hopefully within coming one year),
- Need for PCIe adapter with heatsink for fast M.2 NVMe SSD to work as efficient cache for ZFS RAIDZ2 storage, since M/B P9X79 WS has no CPU-direct M.2 SSD port,
- Need for reliable and stable 10Gbps 2-SFP-port PCIe server NIC (Network Interface Card) in the NAS server,
- Need for reliable, stable and cool-enough 10Gbps SFP-to-RJ45 adapter which has identical I/O speed to AOC (Active Optical Cable) connection,
- Need for simple one-PCIe-slot VGA card having thin quiet cooling fan for only rare occasion of M/B BIOS tuning, HBA BIOS change, and TrueNAS OS fundamental change without going into its web GUI; since Xeon E5-2697 v2 CPU has no iGPU and M/B P9X79 WS has no graphic port,
- The NAS server needs to be quiet enough for my rather high-hurdle requirement of, say less than 25 dB(A) at 1m, during typical NAS workloads,
- Needs for new stable and physically-cool 10Gbps PCIe NIC in each of the ten Windows 11 client PCs,
- Needs for new all-10GbE 8-port and 5-port RJ45 switching hubs working in silence (no fan rotation during typical 10GbE workloads in ca. 25 degree-C room temperature),
- Of course, needs for “all with Cat6A LAN cables” in newly built 10GbE data-transfer independent home LAN,
- The sequential access speed through the dedicated data transfer 10GbE LAN between the NAS-SMB storage and client PC, as SMB network-drive mounted in client, always needs to exceed ca. 780 MB/sec (6.2 Gbps) in “Read” and needs to exceed ca. 650 MB/Sec (5.2 Gbps) in “Write”, even if “the whole setup” in NAS server and client PC would operate on PCIe Gen3 platform.
Based on above “Requirement List”, I slowly and steadily started this “Xeon TrueNAS project” in April 2026. This is my “another” step-by-step mountain climbing journey towards the summit of "Repurposing an outdated Xeon workstation into a quiet, high efficiency, high speed (10Gbps) TrueNAS server" which is the title of this new thread.
At this point, I need to describe my acknowledgement for Microsoft Co-Pilot for its various supports especially for the invaluable suggestions and recommendations regarding the NAS components and their compatibilities with TrueNAS OS, now I use ver.25.04.0.
In this Part-01 post, I dare not go into the details of my various “validation steps” so far have done, but let me share present project status and initial successful(!) sequential access results from a very much outdated, I should say it by “stone-age generation”, client PC to the NAS SMB sharing storage through the newly built 10Gbps data transfer home LAN.
For your kind notice, in the coming-soon Part-02 post and the subsequent my “Part-0x” post series, I will be happy sharing some details of each of the major components in the TrueNAS server, 10GbE home LAN, as well as 10GbE NICs in client PC, quiet cooling fans thereof, etc.
Now, I continue my style of project sharing; one diagram and/or photo would worth more than 1,000 words.
Let me start by sharing photos, Fig.01 below, of present “repurposed/renovated” Xeon TrueNAS server;
The details of key components and their “alignments” can be seen in Fig.02 below. I hope and believe this diagram will be self-explanatory for your easy understanding; no detailed description would be needed in this Part-01 post. As I mentioned before, I will share some details of each of the major components in my coming post series of Part-02 and thereafter.
Even though I already have PCIe-M.2 NVMe SSD adapter on PCIe16_Gen3_2 slot, I have not yet purchased suitable M.2 NVMe SSD (1TB or 2TB) for “I/O caching” in ZFS RAIDZ2 operations. When I would install it, I will achieve much more efficient data transfer through 10Gbps LAN, especially random small file I/O workloads.
I assume it would be better describing at least manufacturer and product name of the major components in text in this post for possible search-and-hit supports, even though I will touch on them in my coming-soon post series on this thread;
- M/B: ASUS P9X79 WS
- CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2
- Server HBA: IBM M1050 (LSI SAS9220-8i OEM); FW & BIOS flashed to SATA 6G IT (Initiator Target) mode
- PCIe-M.2 NVMe SSD Adapter: Kurōtoshikō (Expert Oriented, CFD group) M.2H-PCIE
- 2-port SFP+ Server NIC: Intel X520-DA2
- One-slot PCIe GVA: GeForce GT 710, Kurōtoshikō (Expert Oriented, CFD group); GF-GT710-E1GB-LP
Balancing "quiet operation" with "ensuring adequate cooling" for all components in an office environment is always a challenging trade-off; however, in my current project, as shown in below Fig.03, with using fan rpm speed controllers, I have achieved the best possible balance between the two. While I lack a high-end sound level meter to take precise measurements, as a regular member of ASR, and you may easily guess, I have relied on my own ears to subjectively assess the system and confirm that this Xeon TrueNAS server operates with a noise level of less than 25 dB(A) at a distance of one meter. I will touch on details of several quiet fans thereof in my coming post series.
The “building” of new independent, data transfer dedicating, and silent 10Gbps Home LAN is another main challenge in present project. I believe the below Fig.04 would be easily understandable at your first glance. In the coming post series, I will touch on details of the key components in 10 Gbps LAN, i.e. HBA card, SFP-to-RJ45 adapter, silent 10GbE switching hubs, silent and “cool” 10GbE NICs in client PCs.
As shown in above Fig.04, the ASUS X99-E WS PC-workstation occupies top unique position among the client PCs; I usually use this PC-workstation for my daily business work and hobby, including writing and preparing posts for ASR; I installed the second Intel “X520-DA2+SFP-10GM-T-30 NIC” on the PCIe16_1(top) Gen3 slot for stable and robust 10Gbps communication not only with the Xeon TrueNAS but also with other client PCs. The “X520-DA2+SFP-10GM-T-30 NIC” on X99-E WS also can serve as backup NIC for Xeon TrueNAS server since I use exactly the same NIC in both machines.
After struggling shortly and learning a little bit with TrueNAS OS ver.25.04.0, as shown in Fig.05 below, I could easily build 10.68 TiB common SMB sharing storage space in the ca. 12 TiB storage pool of ZFS RAIDZ2 on 6+6+4+4+4 TB HDDs; please note this is my test/evaluation platform, and all the HDDs will be replaced with 5x 8TB WD RED HDD hopefully within one year.
As shown in below Fig.06, the “X520-DA2+SFP-10GM-T-30 NIC” is properly recognized and utilized by TrueNAS OS as expected. You would please focus your eyes on “Tx Queue count = 24” perfectly matching with CPU Xeon E5-2697 v2 (12-core, 24-trhread), and also please focus on “32.000 Gb/s available PCIe bandwidth” even the NIC is on PCIe16_1 Gen3 slot.
Now, let’s move on to the top highlight of this Part-01 post.
For the I/O, i.e. Read and Write, access speed evaluation and validation between client PC and TrueNAS SMB sharing storage, I intentionally selected a very old (stone-age?) generation motherboard PC as a representative of rather outdated PCs I still use for various purposes including two audio dedicated Windows PCs.
In my computer junk box, I found ASUS M/B B75M-PLUS having Intel Core i5-3470 CPU, memory 16 GB and SATA 6G 128 GB SSD. I could successfully install Windows 11 PRO 25H2 (build 26200-82-524) in the SSD (ref. my post here), and put 10GbE NIC (Buffalo LGY-PCEI-MG3, Realtek RTL8127 NIC chip, PCIe1 socket) on the top PCIe16_1 Gen3 slot.
I downloaded the latest driver for RTL8127 from the Realtek site, and tuned the NIC driver for optimal 10GbE operation including the jumbo frame MTU=9014. For the details of this NIC and the driver tunings thereof, I will touch on later in my coming post series on this thread.
Then I configured the NIC’s TCP/IPv4 address in 192.168.7.x/255.255.255.0 fitting for the newly built dedicated 10Gbps LAN (see above Fig.04), and mounted the TrueNAS SMB sharing storage as network drive Z:
Finally, I utilized CrystalDiskMark 9.0.3 x64 for I/O speed measurements of the mounted SMB shared network drive Z:, and the results can be found in below Fig.07.
As you can see, the results were considerably better than my expectations, especially in sequential Read/Write SEQ1M (Q8T1), despite the client PC and TrueNAS server are working on PCIe Gen3 platform. I was/am also much impressed by the results that these sequential I/O for SMB storage of TrueNAS through 10GbE LAN well surpass the I/O speed of the local outdated SATA 6G SSD.
Similar Read/Write sequential access results to TrueNAS SMB storage were also confirmed in several other client PCs having 10GbE NIC (MTU=9014), of course including the X99-E WS PC-workstation.
Consequently, now I could have fully satisfied all the “Requirement List” I prepared prior to starting this project of "Repurposing an outdated Xeon workstation into a quiet, high efficiency, high speed (10Gbps) TrueNAS server".
You would please stay tuned on this thread; I will soon start new Part-0x post series describing and sharing further details on selections and my-way-of-utilization of major critical components including attaching quiet small cooling fan(s) onto them.
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