Trojanmantony

yeah just assumed you were maybe a member of the band lol

I am sure they thank you for the concealing fate ep too buddy \,./

now that they are going back to gnome i may try it out, stopped using ubuntu after lucid lynx because of my disdain for the higher system requirements and at the time ubuntu was less stable than debian so i switched to debian squeeze. I am sure it is different now haha.

I looked at a lot of these to qualify server operating systems as well! For me, low cost, expandibility, and growth are what I went for. I kinda psyched myself out of unraid for a bit, was looking to do a linux or windows box and self define my drive array redundancy but I enjoy graphical menus for doing things because I don't have as much time as I used to to learn bash. For my job I build systems for customers and often they need dedicated nas so I know a lot about the hardware requirements and what controllers and such are unraid compatible. At least with unraid I can operate it with a pretty easy gui and the redundancy is already there no set up needed, just isn't a free option. FreeNas is cool and all but I enjoy the out of the box usability for unraid also learning about some of what it can do in software is amazing. Had no idea in browser vnc was a thing. Might configure a freenas system for a friend of mine for my offsite back up and his own backup needs/playground. I was going for something not headless but after mucking around the unraid webgui I just run it headless and for stuff I want to run within linux I simply vnc on in within browser so synergy or kvm is not needed. Definitely worth the price.

I noticed Paul's hardware is using btsync to send files to his video editor, and as I am looking to do the same would this solution also add some security to sharing files with somebody off the nas?

I am trying to set up an sftp server so I can send files between me and friends I collaborate with on videos we edit. I specifically want sftp with restrictions on what folders they can access. Does this exist? All I see is normal ftp server clients but I want the ssh connection. Toggling it on and off would be nice as well.

I ended up getting an unraid license and making things easy on myself. Thanks for the replies guys

BTRFS seems cool but I have only seen it implemented with freenas, does the parity writing effect writing performance?

Going to be setting up a low cost nas from spare parts I have collected over the years. Mostly data storage, but I plan on it doing at least one transcode over network to kodi or chromecast devices if I go down the plex route, pull data off it for adobe editing, and dumping obs streams over network to it. I have two ideas to do, the first is a bit strange but could be interesting to see if it works. Idea 1(lazy windows server): -Windows 10 -throw all my random drives into a JBOD style span volume -keep an archival drive that is larger than span that will act as a clone -set automated backup to archival drive -in event of failure in JBOD span, simply replace drive, add additional replacement drive to span, then move lost data back to spanned volume from archival drive(replacement will be same size or larger) Pros: -spanned drives and archival drive are readable by any windows machine and can be migrated to another machine in event of hardware failures without data loss -windows is easy, set up will be done quickly -adding drives to span is easy, and once I outgrow archival drive I can span that as well to increase it's size -these volumes aren't tied to hardware config of the server Cons: -windows and the word uptime in the same sentence has always made me nervous -"rebuilds" from archival drive will take forever -potentially abysmal speeds because spanning drives and window's software raid implementation is a mixed bag I have read. -limited software choices, less open source options for other things this server may end up doing Idea 2: -debian linux -snapraid to span volumes -fwbackup to move data to archival disk -samba for file sharing over network, offsite back up, etc. Pros: -stability and historically good uptime -snapraid seems to have a better implementation to prevent errors and data degredation and has more spanning options -more control over scheduled backups -much more can be done cheaply on linux as far as creating your own "cloud", hosting my own email server, etc. Cons: -unsure of ability to migrate spanned volume to another linux box in the event of hardware failure -much longer set up -steeper learning curve I am morbidly curious as to how the first option could turn out, and I have been putting off the hassle of establishing idea 2 as I am a bit rusty with terminal work, linux has just gotten easier over time for normal things I rarely use the terminal except to install programs. I am familiar with freenas and unraid and have been hesitant to use them for something so small. Freenas I haven't used and it seems to have a steeper learning curve than unraid. I am not going for a headless server, it will be in my rack under my desk so I will have it as the second input on my monitor and I have been a longtime user of synergy because I hate the cable spaghetti of kvm switches. I also plan to eventually have offsite backup via a friends router running wrt with sftp enabled for a usb hard drive. hardware I will be using, boot drive will be a 64gb usb 3 flashdrive: -phenom II x4 3ghz , 12gb ddr3, antec bronze 600 watt, lian li 4u rack case. -3tb hgst ultrastar, 2x 1.5tb barracudas, 1 hgst deskstar, 1tb wd green, will be buying an 8tb archival drive soon I am curious to see if anyone is interested in seeing how idea 1 can fair and I am willing to experiment with it as all the data I will be moving to it is already on drives on 3 machines so I can field test and not lose data short term, wont trust this system till I have had it running a few months.