Network Upgrades
So once I got things up and running, I knew that I would be transferring all of the DATA from two other NAS to the TrueNAS system. Not to mention I have been slowly upgrading our network to 10G and 2.5G where possible. If you have been a reader for a while you will have seen my coverage of the EnGenius ECS2512FP Switch, the ECW230 access point we went with inside, and the ECW260 outside which both APs run 2.5G and the switch handles 2.5G and 10G. The X299 Micro has an Intel i219 NIC which would be fine, but I went ahead and went with an upgrade to a 10G card. After some research, I decided to go with an Intel X520 based card with two SFP+ ports. Our switch has 10G SFP+ ports and it is cheaper to skip the additional cost of a NIC with a 10GBase-T connection as well as a 10GBase-T adapter for the switch. The other reason I went with the Intel X520, beyond the reliability that Intel offers is that it is well supported on TrueNAS and FreeBSD. With that, the installation was plug-and-play in our system.
Like I mentioned, skipping the 10GBase-T connection altogether saves money on the adapter and on the NIC. So the cheapest option was to go with an SFP+ DAC Cable or direct attach copper cable. These have the SFP+ plug on both ends and you don’t have to worry as much about compatibility issues. But you do need to have your device near your switch and to know how long of a cable you will need. I went with a 5 foot or 1.5-meter long cable which I thought would be perfect. But looking back having just a touch more length would have been better and would allow me to run the cable how I would like. This is the cable I went with, they all run in the $20 range.
