FreeNAS -- what do I need to know?

[79wjd]

I have an old computer and a couple (one to start off with) HDDs lying around, so I'm planning on throwing a NAS together and seeing how things go. 

 

I do have a few questions though. 

1. Do I actually need to put the OS on it's own drive, or can I just create a 20gb partition (to be generous) for the OS? (Yes, I understand the potential annoyance down the road should I have an issue with that drive and it need to be replaced). 
2. Is there anything I need to do, other than a somewhat basic setup process, in order to make it compatible with OSX and Windows? 
3. Will it be able to stream to a device off that network? (would I have to set anything up in order to stream to devices on the same network/off the network).
4. Are there any other questions I should be asking? / things I may be overlooking

[wpirobotbuilder]

 

I have an old computer and a couple (one to start off with) HDDs lying around, so I'm planning on throwing a NAS together and seeing how things go. 

 

I do have a few questions though. 

1. Do I actually need to put the OS on it's own drive, or can I just create a 20gb partition (to be generous) for the OS? (Yes, I understand the potential annoyance down the road should I have an issue with that drive and it need to be replaced). 
2. Is there anything I need to do, other than a somewhat basic setup process, in order to make it compatible with OSX and Windows? 
3. Will it be able to stream to a device off that network? (would I have to set anything up in order to stream to devices on the same network/off the network).
4. Are there any other questions I should be asking? / things I may be overlooking

 

1. Yes, you must put it on its own drive. The most popular option is an 8GB flash drive. Mine is on a small SSD, which is faster and will last much longer, but you can really use any drive.

2. The network shares you create are compatible with almost any OS. You can create NFS, AFP, and CIFS shares. You would use AFP and CIFS for OSX and Windows, respectively.

3. Stream what? The system will only be able to talk to devices on your local network and any devices VPN'd into your network.

4. What is the rest of your hardware?

[79wjd]

1. Yes, you must put it on its own drive. The most popular option is an 8GB flash drive. Mine is on a small SSD, which is faster and will last much longer, but you can really use any drive.

2. The network shares you create are compatible with almost any OS. You can create NFS, AFP, and CIFS shares. You would use AFP and CIFS for OSX and Windows, respectively.

3. Stream what? The system will only be able to talk to devices on your local network and any devices VPN'd into your network.

4. What is the rest of your hardware?

My main intention is using it as a media server which would be able to stream to Windows/OSX/possibly Apple TV/iOS/Android.

 

What would be the benefit of using something like FreeNAS rather than just connecting an external HDD to the network (excluding the option for RAID in a NAS). I was never able to get my USB external drive to work over the network and just the MyBook Live I was given -- which was too small for my use -- so I just stopped dealing with it. The router is a DLink AC1750 or a Netgear WNDR4500 (I can use either -- I only ever tried getting the USB external drive to work on the WNDR4500 though).

 

/specs iirc are Q6700 and 4gb of RAM 

[Eniqmatic]

Specs aren't very good for running FreeNAS, especially RAM.

 

Plex is very good and pretty impressive for streaming, you should be able to stream to all of those devices, however I think a different OS should be chosen if you're going for those specs.

 

If you are definitely going to use that hardware, I would install Windows on it then install the Plex server to it instead. 

[79wjd]

Specs aren't very good for running FreeNAS, especially RAM.

 

Plex is very good and pretty impressive for streaming, you should be able to stream to all of those devices, however I think a different OS should be chosen if you're going for those specs.

 

If you are definitely going to use that hardware, I would install Windows on it then install the Plex server to it instead.

From what I've seen, 4gb of ram shouldn't really be an issue as long as I don't use ZFS.

[Eniqmatic]

From what I've seen, 4gb of ram shouldn't really be an issue as long as I don't use ZFS.

What else are you going to use on FreeNAS?

[wpirobotbuilder]

From what I've seen, 4gb of ram shouldn't really be an issue as long as I don't use ZFS.

I would use mdadm on Ubuntu. It'll perform much better than FreeNAS running UFS.

[79wjd]

What else are you going to use on FreeNAS?

I would use mdadm on Ubuntu. It'll perform much better than FreeNAS running UFS.

My intention is to use whatever I do as a media server that I can stream from (i.e. playing movies/shows through VLC on OSX/Windows/possibly iOS/Android). So I really don't know what's best for my needs.....so I'm open to ideas. 

 

/Also, I'm open to ideas for what to do with this old computer (if I don't make a NAS out of it -- it has a Q6700, 4gb RAM and an 8800GTS -- and is loud as fuck presumably from the HDD and northbridge fan. 

[Eniqmatic]

No I mean, you said as long as you don't use ZFS, my question is what else are you going to use other than ZFS?

[Blebekblebek]

he probably don't know

unless you are willing to spend more time with it, then we won't know how far you are going to utilize it

 

I suggest to playing it around a bit, either with single dedicated computer or through VM.

 

the way I look at your requirement, you actually need more "HTPC" function with little bit storage rather than just a file server.

[79wjd]

No I mean, you said as long as you don't use ZFS, my question is what else are you going to use other than ZFS?

I had watched the video made by Eli the pc guy and he had talked about using UFS for <8gb systems.

he probably don't know

unless you are willing to spend more time with it, then we won't know how far you are going to utilize it

 

I suggest to playing it around a bit, either with single dedicated computer or through VM.

 

the way I look at your requirement, you actually need more "HTPC" function with little bit storage rather than just a file server.

You're right, I really don't know what I want to do / what I should do. 

 

But no, I want more of a file server, not an HTPC since I'll always be watching the stuff on my computer (or through an AppleTV/iOS/Android) -- i.e. not an HTPC. 

[Blebekblebek]

FreeNas can be installed into USB Drive (4GB Min) and prefereably that way.

1. if you allocate a HDD for OS, then that HDD cannot be used for storage.

2. You need to setup different network services for every each OS that need to access it.

3. You need plex or similar/your preference and it's available under plugin.

4. next problem maybe after you finish setting that up.

[79wjd]

So I managed to get into the bios and start the installer (which promptly failed). Restarted the system and now it won't post....great (it looks like the second USB drive is causing the failure to post -- the drive where I was going to install FreeNAS on)

 

Things can just never cooperate....I try just connecting my drive to the router only to be told: "Some drives won't work" -- which is already a stupid comment from Optimum -- but I wouldn't expect anything else (and I, for the life of me, can't figure out why it's not working...). And now FreeNAS refuses to install onto another USB drive. 

[alpenwasser]

So I managed to get into the bios and start the installer (which promptly failed). Restarted the system and now it won't post....great (it looks like the second USB drive is causing the failure to post -- the drive where I was going to install FreeNAS on)

 

Things can just never cooperate....I try just connecting my drive to the router only to be told: "Some drives won't work" -- which is already a stupid comment from Optimum -- but I wouldn't expect anything else (and I, for the life of me, can't figure out why it's not working...). And now FreeNAS refuses to install onto another USB drive.

Well, that sucks.

Just throwing this out there: There are other NAS operating systems which you could use

than FreeNAS. Openmediavault, Amahi, NAS4Free come to mind off the top of my head. Not

that you need to switch, but just throwing this out there.

[79wjd]

Well, that sucks.

Just throwing this out there: There are other NAS operating systems which you could use

than FreeNAS. Openmediavault, Amahi, NAS4Free come to mind off the top of my head. Not

that you need to switch, but just throwing this out there.

Any particular reason to choose any of those (off the top of your head)? 

 

What's the default password for FreeNAS? I don't recall setting up a username/password, but the GUI is prompting me for one. 

[alpenwasser]

Any particular reason to choose any of those (off the top of your head)? 

 

What's the default password for FreeNAS? I don't recall setting up a username/password, but the GUI is prompting me for one.

Well, I haven't personally used any of those (nor FreeNAS), but anything based on Linux

(or UFS for the *BSD family) will be much more frugal when it comes to hardware requirements

and resource consumption than a setup using ZFS (not to forget the question of ECC RAM).

Also, I found this snipped on the FreeNAS website:

 

FreeNAS® is now ZFS only. This means that the “UFS Volume Manager” has been removed and disks can no longer be formatted with UFS. However, for backwards compatibility, existing UFS-formatted disks can still be imported using “Import Disk”

so that their contents can be copied to a ZFS pool.

Source: http://doc.freenas.org/9.3/freenas_intro.html

Not sure if you're using 9.3, but I thought I'd point it out.

So yeah, that would be the primary advantage I'd think, if you are using old-ish hardware.

Feature-wise I reckon most NAS operating systems are pretty similar in the broard strokes,

being able to share data via the usual protocols (NFS, CIFS, possibly AFS) and administered

through a web interface. Details will vary of course, and maybe one has a specific feature

which will either make it your choice or render it useless to you, but that's hard for me

to say from here.

If you want to be sure, there's really only the way of testing it all out in the end, playing

around with a few setups until you find something you like.

As for the password, I found one page where 'freenas' is mentioned, but that's from 2011,

so I'm not sure.

[79wjd]

Well, I haven't personally used any of those (nor FreeNAS), but anything based on Linux

(or UFS for the *BSD family) will be much more frugal when it comes to hardware requirements

and resource consumption than a setup using ZFS (not to forget the question of ECC RAM).

Also, I found this snipped on the FreeNAS website:

 

Source: http://doc.freenas.org/9.3/freenas_intro.html

Not sure if you're using 9.3, but I thought I'd point it out.

So yeah, that would be the primary advantage I'd think, if you are using old-ish hardware.

Feature-wise I reckon most NAS operating systems are pretty similar in the broard strokes,

being able to share data via the usual protocols (NFS, CIFS, possibly AFS) and administered

through a web interface. Details will vary of course, and maybe one has a specific feature

which will either make it your choice or render it useless to you, but that's hard for me

to say from here.

If you want to be sure, there's really only the way of testing it all out in the end, playing

around with a few setups until you find something you like.

As for the password, I found one page where 'freenas' is mentioned, but that's from 2011,

so I'm not sure.

Ah, I didn't notice UFS was removed from FreeNAS. alright. 

 

And yeah, I saw the freenas password as well, but I still don't know what the username would be (assuming of course that dated post was still accurate anyway). Anyway, my issue now is the motherboard only kind of supports USB booting....Somestimes the USB device will show up and other times it won't (ever since I installed freeNAS onto the flash drive it no longer shows up -- before the install it occasionally showed up).

 

/I'm using an Nforce 680i SLI board -- one of the better 775 boars iirc

So, the hardware I'm using might be a bit too unreliable to use as a freeNAS server -- which begs the question -- is it worth spending the money for a new LGA775 motherboard with actual support for USB booting (and potentially another 4gb of DDR2) / a new system for a home media server ($100~) ... Are there even LGA775 boards with native support for USB booting?

[79wjd]

And now it won't even boot into the bios if a flash drive is plugged in.... (in boots into bios just fine if it isn't plugged in). 

[Eniqmatic]

I had watched the video made by Eli the pc guy and he had talked about using UFS for <8gb systems.

You're right, I really don't know what I want to do / what I should do. 

 

But no, I want more of a file server, not an HTPC since I'll always be watching the stuff on my computer (or through an AppleTV/iOS/Android) -- i.e. not an HTPC. 

UFS has been removed from FreeNAS from the newer versions, although I don't know which version you have.

[79wjd]

UFS has been removed from FreeNAS from the newer versions, although I don't know which version you have.

I grabbed 9.3, which it has been removed from. I'm not set on any particular OS -- I really couldn't care less what I end up using -- so if there's something I should use instead then I'm all for that. I just want to be able to watch a show/movie and look at pictures that are stored on the server (i.e. opening up vlc on my laptop and streaming to it, or if it's easier -- then just copying the file onto the laptop instead of streaming it). 

 

Also, is there a possibility that an 8 year old motherboard (EVGA nforce 680i SLI) or whatever server software I end up using may not recognize a 4tb drive? I'm trying to figure out what drives to get...probably this-> http://pcpartpicker.com/part/seagate-internal-hard-drive-st4000dm000

[Eniqmatic]

I grabbed 9.3, which it has been removed from. I'm not set on any particular OS -- I really couldn't care less what I end up using -- so if there's something I should use instead then I'm all for that. I just want to be able to watch a show/movie and look at pictures that are stored on the server (i.e. opening up vlc on my laptop and streaming to it, or if it's easier -- then just copying the file onto the laptop instead of streaming it). 

 

Also, is there a possibility that an 8 year old motherboard (EVGA nforce 680i SLI) or whatever server software I end up using may not recognize a 4tb drive? I'm trying to figure out what drives to get...probably this-> http://pcpartpicker.com/part/seagate-internal-hard-drive-st4000dm000

 

I would suggest one of the other OS's from above (I haven't any personal experience on them I'm afraid, I've heard some good things of NAS4Free). You should look into which one is going to have the best streaming ability whilst keeping data safe, that's your main objective by the looks of things.

[alpenwasser]

Also, is there a possibility that an 8 year old motherboard (EVGA nforce 680i SLI) or whatever server software I end up using may not recognize a 4tb drive? I'm trying to figure out what drives to get...probably this-> http://pcpartpicker.com/part/seagate-internal-hard-drive-st4000dm000

 

That's not completely unrealistic, I had the same issue with my LGA1366 server board.

You need to find out what SATA controller you have on that board, and then determine

what size drives that can handle.

[79wjd]

That's not completely unrealistic, I had the same issue with my LGA1366 server board.You need to find out what SATA controller you have on that board, and then determinewhat size drives that can handle.

Would the data controller be listed somewhere in windows? I can't seem to find anything in the manual/bios or on the Internet. It's an EVGA nforce 680i sli (122-CK-NF68).

If it doesn't accept 4tb HDDs (I think I'd rather go with a 4tb drive then multiple 1/2tb drives -- although I guess it doesn't really matter) then would I be better off buying a prebuilt NAS or some celeron+h81 board/a6300+fm2 board +4gb ram? (In terms of cost for my use case)

For now I need about 5tb of total capacity -- but having room to expan certainly wouldn't be bad (which is why I'd lean away from a prebuilt NAS, plus iirc they're pretty much all more expensive).

[alpenwasser]

Would the data controller be listed somewhere in windows? I can't seem to find anything in the manual/bios or on the Internet. It's an EVGA nforce 680i sli (122-CK-NF68).

If it doesn't accept 4tb HDDs (I think I'd rather go with a 4tb drive then multiple 1/2tb drives -- although I guess it doesn't really matter) then would I be better off buying a prebuilt NAS or some celeron+h81 board/a6300+fm2 board +4gb ram? (In terms of cost for my use case)

For now I need about 5tb of total capacity -- but having room to expan certainly wouldn't be bad (which is why I'd lean away from a prebuilt NAS, plus iirc they're pretty much all more expensive).

Going by this page, the 680i MCP is responsible for storage: http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/mainboard/7257-evga-nforce-680i-sli-lga775-motherboard/?page=2

Honestly, considering this tech is from 2006 or so, I think the chances of it supporting

drives larger than 2 TiB (2.19 TB) are rather slim, since the first 3 TB drive came onto

the market in 2010 it seems: http://www.techradar.com/news/computing-components/storage/wd-launches-world-s-first-3tb-hard-drive-901696

As a comparison: The LSI1068E SAS chipset on my LGA1366 server board came onto the market

in 2008, and even that does not yet support drives larger than 2 TiB.

I think maybe looking at new components for this one (or even just more recent used ones

on eBay) might actually be worth a shot.

As for prebuilt NAS boxes: Synology and QNAP (as two examples) have good options. They're

not super cheap, but they are good from what I've heard from those who use them. Having

a look and seeing if there's something suitable on offer might not be the stupidest of

ideas.

[79wjd]

Going by this page, the 680i MCP is responsible for storage: http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/mainboard/7257-evga-nforce-680i-sli-lga775-motherboard/?page=2

Honestly, considering this tech is from 2006 or so, I think the chances of it supporting

drives larger than 2 TiB (2.19 TB) are rather slim, since the first 3 TB drive came onto

the market in 2010 it seems: http://www.techradar.com/news/computing-components/storage/wd-launches-world-s-first-3tb-hard-drive-901696

As a comparison: The LSI1068E SAS chipset on my LGA1366 server board came onto the market

in 2008, and even that does not yet support drives larger than 2 TiB.

I think maybe looking at new components for this one (or even just more recent used ones

on eBay) might actually be worth a shot.

As for prebuilt NAS boxes: Synology and QNAP (as two examples) have good options. They're

not super cheap, but they are good from what I've heard from those who use them. Having

a look and seeing if there's something suitable on offer might not be the stupidest of

ideas.

I honestly thought about just picking up something like an LGA1150/FM2 setup (both end up being the cheapest new alternatives) for $120~ (including 4gb of ram), but the thought of swapping a Q6700 for a Celeron just seems like the wrong move -- albeit one that makes sense seeing as a NAS wouldn't benefit from a Q6700 > celeron....I guess I could try sell it and just put the extra money towards HDDs since I'm going to guess I could get $250~ from the whole setup.

Q6700 

EVGA nforce 680i SLI 

4gb RAM 

some PSU 

A decent (Alienware) Case 

8800GTS 

750gb HDD

dual ODDs including Blu-ray reader/writer

W-XP 

 

Alternatively, would some kind of RAID/Sata-controller card maybe be a good compromise -- since I don't forsee myself needing more than two 4tb drives -- so I can just throw two 4tb drives on there, and either add another card in the future or just throw some 1/2tb drives on the board itself. 

 

In regards to software/OS, any idea if it would be possible to have a dropcam use one particular drive as a dumpfile for all the video/photos that are captured? 

 

I did a quick search on Amazon, and the only option that I see that would make sense price-wise would be something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-Diskless-Network-Storage-70A69003NA/dp/B00DW1UNS8/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1432681667&sr=1-1&keywords=synology, but that also only can accept two drives....so I guess building one myself is probably the best alternative.