# geli-NAS CPU recommendation



## Pantu (Mar 5, 2012)

I am building a 12 HDD fully encrypted NAS Server with a ZFS mirror-stripe setup.
I am looking for a CPU that is able to handle the AES-256 encryption on every single disk and provide maximum performance to the ZFS-Pool.

Any recommendations/experiences on this?


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## vermaden (Mar 5, 2012)

Pantu said:
			
		

> I am building a 12 HDD fully encrypted NAS Server with a ZFS mirror-stripe setup.
> I am looking for a CPU that is able to handle the AES-256 encryption on every single disk and provide maximum performance to the ZFS-Pool.
> 
> Any recommendations/experiences on this?



Get CPU that can be used by aesni(4), there are currently 141 Intel CPU's that support it 

Here is a lost of them: http://ark.intel.com/search/advanced?AESTech=true


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## lockdoc (Mar 6, 2012)

I have checked aesni(4). Seems like it only supports Intel CPU's. But AMD does also have this instruction set for example in their bulldozer. Will this be supported in the near future by FreeBSD?


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## Pantu (Mar 6, 2012)

> The aesni(4) driver attaches on any CPU that reports AESNI support through
> the CPUID instruction. If amd implemented bit-to-bit compatible AESNI
> instruction set and report the capability in CPUID, driver shall just work.


http://freebsd.1045724.n5.nabble.com/Re-aesni-module-with-AMD-CPUs-td5456112.html

is it bit-by-bit compatible?


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## ahavatar (Mar 6, 2012)

I guess that you need ECC memory because a 12 HDD server is a serious business. But Intel consumer line CPUs have no ECC memory support (or disabled by Intel). You need more expensive Intel Xeon CPUs for both AESNI and ECC. I really hate this, for a cheap $50 AMD CPU has a built-in ECC memory support.


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## Pantu (Mar 6, 2012)

I would probably go with a more low-priced AMD FX-8120 and a stable overclock to 4.0 - 4.5Ghz, but before that I need to double check if its AES-NI is as good as intel's and also if AMD's AES-NI is truely supported by FreeBSD's aesni driver.

ahavatar: Why is it so crucial to have ECC?


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## ahavatar (Mar 6, 2012)

With ECC you can avoid silent data corruption that are caused by memory errors. You want ECC if you run a 12 HDD server that stores important data.


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## Pantu (Mar 7, 2012)

I have looked at the ASUS Crosshair V Formula which seems perfect for overclocking. Both the mainboard and the bulldozer do support ECC RAM, but I do not seem to find any unregistered not fully buffered DDR3 RAM sticks for desktop mainboards.
Do they actually exist?


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## ahavatar (Mar 7, 2012)

Try Newegg.com, search with keywords "DDR3", "ECC" and  "unbuffered". They fit the same slot as non-ECC DDR3 RAM.


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## kpa (Mar 7, 2012)

Kingston's memory search tool might be helpful:

http://www.kingston.com/en/memory/search/Options/


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## Pantu (Mar 7, 2012)

Thanks I found what I was looking for, pretty expensive though
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139979&Tpk=DDR3 ECC unbuffered

The other part of the question *I* would like to know is: does the bulldozer successfully use the aesni driver and performs equally as an Intel version with it?


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## ahavatar (Mar 7, 2012)

I saw a fresh Ivy-Bridge preview on Anandtech, there's a benchmark of TrueCrypt that supports full AESNI. AMD FX-8150 does a little worse than Intel i7-2600K, but much better than AMD Phenom II. 

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5626/ivy-bridge-preview-core-i7-3770k/8 

Of course this does not mean how well FX-8150 performs on FreeBSD. 

And the price of unbuffered ECC DDR3 is at most twice as expensive as non-ECC DDR3. Look for better price.


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## Pantu (Mar 8, 2012)

ahavatar said:
			
		

> I saw a fresh Ivy-Bridge preview on Anandtech, there's a benchmark of TrueCrypt that supports full AESNI. AMD FX-8150 does a little worse than Intel i7-2600K, but much better than AMD Phenom II.



But the golden question is, does the FX-8120 or FX-8150 use the FreeBSD aesni driver?



			
				ahavatar said:
			
		

> Of course this does not mean how well FX-8150 performs on FreeBSD.


By the way there is a lot of info out there how _bad_ the FX-8150 seems to perform, but this is all on Windows-7. Are there any benchmarks out there showing how it does on FreeBSD compared to intel's flagship?




			
				ahavatar said:
			
		

> And the price of unbuffered ECC DDR3 is at most twice as expensive as non-ECC DDR3. Look for better price.


Yeah, I will, thanks.


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## SageRaven (Apr 1, 2012)

Pantu said:
			
		

> But the golden question is, does the FX-8120 or FX-8150 use the FreeBSD aesni driver?



I just installed the FX-8150 into my workstation today (Asus Sabertooth 990FX).  aesni(4) loads just fine, and while my benchmark was pretty informal, I realized roughly 30% performance increase (writes) over the same geli AES-XTS/256 device using software.  Both tests were on the stock 3.6GHz speed -- I've since overclocked a little to 4.1GHZ, but haven't benched geli again.

I was really hoping for a more dramatic improvement, but I'll take what I can get.


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