Building a NAS. How do you start? (Guide)

[Ssoele]

Building a NAS. How do you start? (Guide)

 
In this topic, I will try to guide you in choosing the right hardware for your home NAS system. What is a NAS you ask? Well, just check out Wikipedia. They can explain it far better then I can.
I am not saying that there aren't other ways to make a NAS, but this an easy way that will get you started on the hardware. There will be a FreeNAS tutorial soon by @looney on how to set up the software side.
 
The case
For a NAS system, you want a case that has good hard drive support.
You want a case that supports at least 4 hard drives (and an SSD or 5 hard drives, more on this in ‘The boot drive’). You need easy access to those drives, to upgrade them, replace them or add more drives. 
 
The CPU
You don’t need a high-end CPU for a NAS build. A lower-end APU from AMD or a Celeron CPU from Intel is perfect in this case as you will not need an extra graphics card. Make sure your CPU supports 64-bit architectures.
 
The Motherboard
You want a motherboard that supports the CPU that you chose and has the possibility to use the integrated graphics of the APU/CPU. In this case, any FM1/2 or Intel H61/H71/H81, as long as it has enough SATA ports on it, with normal hard drives, SATA 2 (3Gbps) or SATA 3 (6Gbps) doesn’t really matter. Also look for a board that has Gigabit LAN.
If you are using more than 5 hard drives for storage, an add-on HBA (Host Bus Adapter) is advised.
Also, keep in mind, some 3rd party SATA controllers that motherboard manufacturars add to the board are not supported by FreeNAS and OS's like that.
 
The RAM
For an OS like FreeNAS, 8GB+ is advised if you are going to run ZFS. If you are going to use more than 8TB of storage, the general rule of thumb is 1GB for every 1TB of storage.
The memory speed is not really of any importance here.
If using ZFS, ECC RAM is recommended. Personally, if it fits in your budget and your hardware supports it, I'd say, go for it.

The NIC
If you have a motherboard that does not support gigabit speeds, or if you have a need for over gigabit speed, an add-on NIC is advised. You can pick up used Intel dual/quad Gigabit NIC’s on Ebay quite cheap (30-50USD for dual, 60-120USD for quad). I recommend using Intel NIC’s because they last forever and work on almost all OS’es.
 
The HBA/RAID card
If you need more SATA ports than your motherboard can deliver, you’ll need a HBA or a RIAD card.
You have cards that have direct SATA connectors, those cards usually only go up to 4 drives. On the other hand, you have the cards that use SFF-8087 connectors. You can with a break-out cable connect up to 4 SATA drives on each SFF-8087 connector. These cards vary from 1 port up until 10 ports (40 drives).
 
The Power supply
The power supply is very important here, as most people underestimate how much a bad power supply can influence the life of a hard drive.
I recommend getting a good rated power supply around 300-400W. A single rail power supply is recommended, because multi-rail power supplies often have weaker rails for SATA and Molex connectors.
If your power supply doesn’t have enough SATA connectors, you can always use SATA power splitters or Molex to SATA power adapters.

The boot drive
The boot drive will have your OS on it. In the case of FreeNAS, you can either install it on a Compact Flash card, a USB stick or a small hard drive/SSD. You will need around 2GB of storage. If you use a hard drive/SSD, you will not be able to use it as a storage device. If you go with an hard drive or SSD, I would recommend getting something like a 8GB to 30 GB hard drive or SSD.

The storage drives
Here is where thing start to look like a real storage solution. There are a lot of drives to choose from, it is recommended to not mix and match different drives.
Western Digital Green drives are not recommended for use in NAS systems, as they can drop out of the RAID and lose their RAID status.
The cheapest drives that you should use in a NAS are Seagate Barracudas, they are a bit more expensive that WD Greens, but do work within a NAS.
Alternatively, you could get Western Digital Red drives, these drives are specially engineered for use in a NAS.
 
 
 
4-bay NAS Example build: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/49715-example-nas-builds/?p=662704
6-bay NAS Example build: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/49715-example-nas-builds/?p=662705
8-bay NAS Example build: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/49715-example-nas-builds/?p=662706
16-bay NAS Example build: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/49715-example-nas-builds/?p=662707
24-bay NAS Example build: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/49715-example-nas-builds/?p=663165


 
Special thanks to the following members for reviewing this post
@Whiskers, @Samdb, @Pintend

[JordanMac]

brilliant writeup! just as i was thinking of building a nas.

[Samdb]

This would be very useful if it was pinned.

[Mo5]

Will there be a guide on how to set up FreeNAS?

[Ssoele]

Will there be a guide on how to set up FreeNAS?

 

Yes, @looney will be making one.

[SMURG]

You don't actually need a case which supports your required number of HDDs right out of the gate cos you can buy backplanes for them which fit into 5.25" bays. This is especially true if you use 2.5" drives (I've used Samsung Spinpoint M8s and they work a charm), since you can fit 6 of them into a single 5.25" bay backplane. S'much better if you want something compact but with a large amount of storage capacity

[Ssoele]

You don't actually need a case which supports your required number of HDDs right out of the gate cos you can buy backplanes for them which fit into 5.25" bays. This is especially true if you use 2.5" drives (I've used Samsung Spinpoint M8s and they work a charm), since you can fit 6 of them into a single 5.25" bay backplane. S'much better if you want something compact but with a large amount of storage capacity

 

This isn't really what this topic is aimed at, it is aimed at home NAS servers for an affordable price. 2.5"drives are way more expensive per TB.

[SMURG]

This isn't really what this topic is aimed at, it is aimed at home NAS servers for an affordable price. 2.5"drives are way more expensive per TB.

Ok, just wanted to point it out as an option.

[Ssoele]

Added some extra parts and added a warning about 3rd party SATA controllers on motherboards.

[alpenwasser]

Very nice primer. One thing regarding ZFS: It is recommended (though not required)

to use ECC memory with ZFS. When you scrub your ZFS pool and there is a random bit

flip in your RAM ZFS might end up "correcting" your on-disk data according to the

corrupted version in your RAM.

I have read quite a bit about this on various storage forums and have seen it

stressed quite heavily. However, there seems to be some disagreement about whether

such a bit flip will only corrupt the file being currently checked or if your

entire storage pool could get corrupted (nobody seems to know for certain).

I am personally running a non-ECC ZFS system because I found out about this too

late, and so far it's working nicely, but I thought I'd point this out for anyone

making a system from scratch. Had I known sooner I would definitely have gone

with ECC RAM.

EDIT: It's also mentioned in the official documentation.

[Ssoele]

Very nice primer. One thing regarding ZFS: It is recommended (though not required)

to use ECC memory with ZFS. When you scrub your ZFS pool and there is a random bit

flip in your RAM ZFS might end up "correcting" your on-disk data according to the

corrupted version in your RAM.

I have read quite a bit about this on various storage forums and have seen it

stressed quite heavily. However, there seems to be some disagreement about whether

such a bit flip will only corrupt the file being currently checked or if your

entire storage pool could get corrupted (nobody seems to know for certain).

I am personally running a non-ECC ZFS system because I found out about this too

late, and so far it's working nicely, but I thought I'd point this out for anyone

making a system from scratch. Had I known sooner I would definitely have gone

with ECC RAM.

EDIT: It's also mentioned in the official documentation.

 

I am at the moment running 1 server without ECC RAM because that one is only used for family stuff.

The NAS that I am building now will use ECC RAM.

[perplex]

nice, ive been told before to use a more powerful CPU like a i3, would this make much of a difference?

 

also

 

the new Seagate NAS drives, there just as good as the WD RED yea?

[Ssoele]

nice, ive been told before to use a more powerful CPU like a i3, would this make much of a difference?

 

also

 

the new Seagate NAS drives, there just as good as the WD RED yea?

 

You don't need a powerful CPU, a Celeron or a Pentium will get you there too, for half the price.

 

As for the Seagate NAS drives, I haven't tested them myself, but from what I've read, they are indeed about the same as the WD RED's.

[perplex]

so to max out the ethernet port, a celeron will be the same as a i7 for calculations? or the celeron will be able to max it out where the i7 will just be easy work for it with lots of room to spare?

[Ssoele]

Maxing out a gigabit port has almost nothing to do with the CPU, much more with the speed of the SATA controller and the drives.

[perplex]

hmm, so what your saying is, if i went to write to the NAS with a celeron in it, ill get the same speeds if i a i7 was in it?

 

from my understanding what people have told me, unless i missunderstood, the CPU does the calculations for the RAID, if it a slow CPU then it will take longer to do the calculations and if a fast one then will do it faster.

 

my main questions is if what i said it right, then what processor from intel would be able to do the calculations and i guess not bottle neck the process?

[Ssoele]

hmm, so what your saying is, if i went to write to the NAS with a celeron in it, ill get the same speeds if i a i7 was in it?

 

from my understanding what people have told me, unless i missunderstood, the CPU does the calculations for the RAID, if it a slow CPU then it will take longer to do the calculations and if a fast one then will do it faster.

 

my main questions is if what i said it right, then what processor from intel would be able to do the calculations and i guess not bottle neck the process?

 

I am able to max out my gigabit connection on a AMD E450 with a RAID5, if that one can do it, a Celeron can do it.

[perplex]

ok perfect, thanks

 

with your guide, maybe add example for all the options PSU, RAM

 

may i ask what your NAS contains? hardware and software

[wpirobotbuilder]

This is very useful for newcomers looking at NAS systems.

[Ssoele]

This is very useful for newcomers looking at NAS systems.

 

Thanks

[Ssoele]

ok perfect, thanks

 

with your guide, maybe add example for all the options PSU, RAM

 

may i ask what your NAS contains? hardware and software

 

Adding an example for those those things is a bit hard, because you almost can't go wrong.

 

 

My personal NAS is down for maintenance at the moment, will probably be back online somewhere around December/January once I will have new drives.

 

The family NAS has the following specs:

• AMD E450 APU (dual core 1.6GHz)
• Asus E45M1-I Deluxe
• 8GB Kingston RAM (non-ECC)
• HighPoint RocketRAID 3530
• Corsair CX500
• 4x WD Caviar Green Power 1TB drives
• Fractal Design Node 304

 

The PSU and the RAID card are overkill, but those where the things I had laying around.

[Shaqalac]

Just to be clear.

You want a raid card when the motherboard don't have enough Sata-ports for the amount of drives you have and if the Sata-ports are not using the same controller (this when you need more than one controller can provide).