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"My experience with FreeNAS" or "Should you DYI or buy OTS?"

This is a combination of information from these two threads:

 

1. My original intent to buy a 4 bay NAS only to be scared away by the awful hardware inside the cost effective ones...

 

 

2. My DYI FreeNAS Build which hardware wise worked pretty well (outside of needing a total of 3 USB ports... which I actually didn't have for a while...)

 

 

 

So yea... I can definitely say that once you factor in opportunity cost, DYI NAS is probably not worth it at 4 drives or less (although I don't regret learning about it and eventually this will save me money in the long term). but above 4 bays it quickly becomes the better option.

 

4 Bay Comparison (drive-less cost in parenthesis)

 

DYI-

Ainulindale (480)

  • Pros:
    • By far best hardware (strongest processor, most ram, support for most ram, most drive support, fully user upgradable)
    • Quietest
    • FreeNAS
  • Cons:
    • Requires user configuration
    • Case chosen doesn't support hotswap
    • Case chosen is notably larger than competition
    • No single target link aggregation (aka max 1GbE to any one client regardless of 1GbE ports hooked up to network)

 

OTS-

Synology DS416 (450)

  • Pros:
    • Newest
    • Synology OS
  • Cons:
    • Slowest cpu by far (32 bit)
    • 1GB ram non-upgradable

QNAP TS451 (410)

  • Pros:
    • 1GB User upgradable ram
    • Slightly faster writes (160 vs 140 MBps)
  • Cons:
    • Oldest variant (closest to EoL)
    • Plastic sleds

QNAP TS451+ (480) 

  • Pros:
    • Fastest (of OTS)
    • 2 GB User upgradable ram
  • Cons:
    • Plastic sleds

 

Now as I said before, DYI really starts to show it's stuff at the 4+ bay arena. In fact, Ainulindale, with it's current case supports 6 drives, and with other cases can support up to 12 (although you will want much more ram and probably a 10 GbE card at that point).

 

Click for a list of 6 Bay NASs from Amazon (Pricing Comparison)

 

As you can see 6 bay NAS from the top Manufactures will set you back around 600-900 USD (diskless) at the same feature set (and slower hardware generally) than Ainulindale. Pretty signficant savings.

 

An OTS 4 Bay FreeNAS build from IXSystems (the "owners" of FreeNAS these days) actually uses almost identical internal hardware as Ainulindale (with a the C2750DL motherboard instead of the C2550DL motherboard), while costing 400-500 USD more.

http://www.amazon.com/FreeNAS-Mini-Network-Attached-Diskless/dp/B00EQJ1BTU/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&srs=9199424011&ie=UTF8&qid=1455926760&sr=1-1

 

 

TL:DR; To everyone on this forum: 

If unless you just want to tinker with your own NAS hardware, here is a SUPER simple rule of thumb for DYI vs OTS NAS choice (assuming you don't skimp on ECC memory or other highly recommended features).

 

1-3 Bay NAS? Buy OTS

4 Bay NAS? Buy OTS unless you want to tinker or think you will want more later.

5+ Bay NAS? DYI 100%.

LINK-> Kurald Galain:  The Night Eternal 

Top 5820k, 980ti SLI Build in the World*

CPU: i7-5820k // GPU: SLI MSI 980ti Gaming 6G // Cooling: Full Custom WC //  Mobo: ASUS X99 Sabertooth // Ram: 32GB Crucial Ballistic Sport // Boot SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 500GB

Mass SSD: Crucial M500 960GB  // PSU: EVGA Supernova 850G2 // Case: Fractal Design Define S Windowed // OS: Windows 10 // Mouse: Razer Naga Chroma // Keyboard: Corsair k70 Cherry MX Reds

Headset: Senn RS185 // Monitor: ASUS PG348Q // Devices: Note 10+ - Surface Book 2 15"

LINK-> Ainulindale: Music of the Ainur 

Prosumer DYI FreeNAS

CPU: Xeon E3-1231v3  // Cooling: Noctua L9x65 //  Mobo: AsRock E3C224D2I // Ram: 16GB Kingston ECC DDR3-1333

HDDs: 4x HGST Deskstar NAS 3TB  // PSU: EVGA 650GQ // Case: Fractal Design Node 304 // OS: FreeNAS

 

 

 

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14 hours ago, Curufinwe_wins said:

1-3 Bay NAS? Buy OTS

4 Bay NAS? Buy OTS unless you want to tinker or think you will want more later.

5+ Bay NAS? DYI 100%.

Your suggestions are interesting and subjective, of course.  The main problem with OTS NASs is their limited operating systems.  Most of them are at the "acceptable" level, but not really "good".  And by "good" I mean included features and flexibility.

 

So folks should also bear in mind the respective OSs' capabilities and whatnot before making a decision.  The bay count as a lone, deciding factor isn't really wise.

 

Editing Rig: Mac Pro 7,1

System Specs: 3.2GHz 16-core Xeon | 96GB ECC DDR4 | AMD Radeon Pro W6800X Duo | Lots of SSD and NVMe storage |

Audio: Universal Audio Apollo Thunderbolt-3 Interface |

Displays: 3 x LG 32UL950-W displays |

 

Gaming Rig: PC

System Specs:  Asus ROG Crosshair X670E Extreme | AMD 7800X3D | 64GB G.Skill Trident Z5 NEO 6000MHz RAM | NVidia 4090 FE card (OC'd) | Corsair AX1500i power supply | CaseLabs Magnum THW10 case (RIP CaseLabs ) |

Audio:  Sound Blaster AE-9 card | Mackie DL32R Mixer | Sennheiser HDV820 amp | Sennheiser HD820 phones | Rode Broadcaster mic |

Display: Asus PG32UQX 4K/144Hz displayBenQ EW3280U display

Cooling:  2 x EK 140 Revo D5 Pump/Res | EK Quantum Magnitude CPU block | EK 4090FE waterblock | AlphaCool 480mm x 60mm rad | AlphaCool 560mm x 60mm rad | 13 x Noctua 120mm fans | 8 x Noctua 140mm fans | 2 x Aquaero 6XT fan controllers |

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2 hours ago, jasonvp said:

Your suggestions are interesting and subjective, of course.  The main problem with OTS NASs is their limited operating systems.  Most of them are at the "acceptable" level, but not really "good".  And by "good" I mean included features and flexibility.

 

So folks should also bear in mind the respective OSs' capabilities and whatnot before making a decision.  The bay count as a lone, deciding factor isn't really wise.

 

Well, having used Synology OS (this one at least) I certainly know of no features most people looking for non-extreme NAS systems would miss.

 

The real factor anyways I was going for was "value". Cost is almost 100% dependent on bay count when comparing the two, and from a "value perspective" that is what I have seen.

 

Naturally if you want to tinker or have specific needs that a smaller OTS can't meet then don't buy one.

LINK-> Kurald Galain:  The Night Eternal 

Top 5820k, 980ti SLI Build in the World*

CPU: i7-5820k // GPU: SLI MSI 980ti Gaming 6G // Cooling: Full Custom WC //  Mobo: ASUS X99 Sabertooth // Ram: 32GB Crucial Ballistic Sport // Boot SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 500GB

Mass SSD: Crucial M500 960GB  // PSU: EVGA Supernova 850G2 // Case: Fractal Design Define S Windowed // OS: Windows 10 // Mouse: Razer Naga Chroma // Keyboard: Corsair k70 Cherry MX Reds

Headset: Senn RS185 // Monitor: ASUS PG348Q // Devices: Note 10+ - Surface Book 2 15"

LINK-> Ainulindale: Music of the Ainur 

Prosumer DYI FreeNAS

CPU: Xeon E3-1231v3  // Cooling: Noctua L9x65 //  Mobo: AsRock E3C224D2I // Ram: 16GB Kingston ECC DDR3-1333

HDDs: 4x HGST Deskstar NAS 3TB  // PSU: EVGA 650GQ // Case: Fractal Design Node 304 // OS: FreeNAS

 

 

 

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29 minutes ago, Curufinwe_wins said:

Well, having used Synology OS (this one at least) I certainly know of no features most people looking for non-extreme NAS systems would miss.

I wouldn't necessarily consider ZFS as an "extreme" NAS feature.  And Synology doesn't have it, as far as I know.  FreeNAS, since it's based on FreeBSD, does.

 

 

 

 

Editing Rig: Mac Pro 7,1

System Specs: 3.2GHz 16-core Xeon | 96GB ECC DDR4 | AMD Radeon Pro W6800X Duo | Lots of SSD and NVMe storage |

Audio: Universal Audio Apollo Thunderbolt-3 Interface |

Displays: 3 x LG 32UL950-W displays |

 

Gaming Rig: PC

System Specs:  Asus ROG Crosshair X670E Extreme | AMD 7800X3D | 64GB G.Skill Trident Z5 NEO 6000MHz RAM | NVidia 4090 FE card (OC'd) | Corsair AX1500i power supply | CaseLabs Magnum THW10 case (RIP CaseLabs ) |

Audio:  Sound Blaster AE-9 card | Mackie DL32R Mixer | Sennheiser HDV820 amp | Sennheiser HD820 phones | Rode Broadcaster mic |

Display: Asus PG32UQX 4K/144Hz displayBenQ EW3280U display

Cooling:  2 x EK 140 Revo D5 Pump/Res | EK Quantum Magnitude CPU block | EK 4090FE waterblock | AlphaCool 480mm x 60mm rad | AlphaCool 560mm x 60mm rad | 13 x Noctua 120mm fans | 8 x Noctua 140mm fans | 2 x Aquaero 6XT fan controllers |

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I used Freenas for a long time till I made a big mistake by deleting files via command-line by accident...

With regular Linux FS (like Ext 2 or 3 or 4) a boot disk and some undelete-options could have helped, but ZFS ... no chance

 

For the decission:

I've an old HP Microserver N40L (with 8GB RAM) with modded BIOS to allow 6 SATA-Disks. All Disks are (only) 1 TB makes 6 TB when RAID0

With FreeNAS, I`ve used the ZFS with 1 disk redundancy (I think it was called ZFS-1 or something like that).

The transfer speed via 1 GBit/s network was around 60 - 80 MByte/s and a high CPU - load.

 

Then I discovered xpenology (Synology on NON-Synology hardware) and tested it: Disk-Layout set to "RAID 5" (not the Synology with 1 disk redundancy) and the transfer to the server is now between 100 and 120 MByte/s (but almost same CPU load).

 

So for my case, I prefer using Synology OS on my HP Microserver N40L .

If the Server would have enough CPU-Power, then I would also go with FreeNAS...

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1 hour ago, jasonvp said:

I wouldn't necessarily consider ZFS as an "extreme" NAS feature.  And Synology doesn't have it, as far as I know.  FreeNAS, since it's based on FreeBSD, does.

 

No,  but most people won't actually give a fuck (or even know/understand  the difference)  about zfs vs normal raid systems. 

 

Z1 vs raid etc. 

LINK-> Kurald Galain:  The Night Eternal 

Top 5820k, 980ti SLI Build in the World*

CPU: i7-5820k // GPU: SLI MSI 980ti Gaming 6G // Cooling: Full Custom WC //  Mobo: ASUS X99 Sabertooth // Ram: 32GB Crucial Ballistic Sport // Boot SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 500GB

Mass SSD: Crucial M500 960GB  // PSU: EVGA Supernova 850G2 // Case: Fractal Design Define S Windowed // OS: Windows 10 // Mouse: Razer Naga Chroma // Keyboard: Corsair k70 Cherry MX Reds

Headset: Senn RS185 // Monitor: ASUS PG348Q // Devices: Note 10+ - Surface Book 2 15"

LINK-> Ainulindale: Music of the Ainur 

Prosumer DYI FreeNAS

CPU: Xeon E3-1231v3  // Cooling: Noctua L9x65 //  Mobo: AsRock E3C224D2I // Ram: 16GB Kingston ECC DDR3-1333

HDDs: 4x HGST Deskstar NAS 3TB  // PSU: EVGA 650GQ // Case: Fractal Design Node 304 // OS: FreeNAS

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, pat-e said:

I used Freenas for a long time till I made a big mistake by deleting files via command-line by accident...

With regular Linux FS (like Ext 2 or 3 or 4) a boot disk and some undelete-options could have helped, but ZFS ... no chance

 

For the decission:

I've an old HP Microserver N40L (with 8GB RAM) with modded BIOS to allow 6 SATA-Disks. All Disks are (only) 1 TB makes 6 TB when RAID0

With FreeNAS, I`ve used the ZFS with 1 disk redundancy (I think it was called ZFS-1 or something like that).

The transfer speed via 1 GBit/s network was around 60 - 80 MByte/s and a high CPU - load.

 

Then I discovered xpenology (Synology on NON-Synology hardware) and tested it: Disk-Layout set to "RAID 5" (not the Synology with 1 disk redundancy) and the transfer to the server is now between 100 and 120 MByte/s (but almost same CPU load).

 

So for my case, I prefer using Synology OS on my HP Microserver N40L .

If the Server would have enough CPU-Power, then I would also go with FreeNAS...

This.

 

N40L is a very nimble machine and I find Freenas a bit dangerous and OTT for the average user, You cant go wrong with Synology especially the performance it gets from that little AMD chip 

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