FreeNAS

[AvocadosGuac]

Hi again all,

 

Im looking into installing FreeNAS onto a server(HP MicroTower dc5800).

 

I also will be running a Plex server on there.

 

Specs of the system

 

-Core2Quad q8300

-3.5GB of ram(soon to be 6gb)

-160GB Internal Boot HDD and a 2TB USB External drive for all of the storage.

 

So, is Plex easy to run on FreeNAS and what are some advantages in running it over say Windows 10 or CentOS(Gui Disabled)?

[desertcomputer]

I would suggest running a Ubuntu sever or Linux distro, as you need 8G of ram for freenas to work correctly.

[piajesse]

I would use CentOS or OpenSUSE Leap or maybe even Ubuntu. FreeNAS is a great ZFS manger, but it takes like a butt-load of ram, something like 8GB plus 1GB per TB of storage. It wouldn't be to much different running Linux instead of FreeNAS, because Plex runs in a Docker container on both OS's... Let me know if you would like a guide for CentOS or OpenSUSE or some other Linux based OS.

[Beskamir]

1 hour ago, MrUnknownEMC said:

I would suggest running a Ubuntu sever or Linux distro, as you need 8G of ram for freenas to work correctly.

Not to mention that freenas works best with ecc ram which the OP may not have.

[SCHISCHKA]

CoW file systems (btrfs and FZF) are arguably not going to have any advantage over ext4 or FAT on your hardware.

Freenas will work but you won't be able to make use of the error correction features using only one drive.

Because you are using USB I think you should use exFAT so you can plug it into a windows computer when your hardware dies. 

I would use ubuntu server with that hardware because you get a couple of years of free commercial grade security updates