Building my first NAS Server for a Law Firm

[Vyndorialan]

I'm doing some tech support work for a law firm and they desperately need a new NAS server. While I've never built one before, I have built several PCs and I figured it wouldn't be much more than a mid-ranged PC build with some Seagate IronWolf hard drives and a RAID controller. However, I'm not entirely sure which RAID controller I'd like to buy, I plan on using RAID 5 for the build and I don't know if only certain RAID controllers support RAID 5 and if so, which ones I should buy. My second question would be the operating system I put on it. I think that FreeNAS should get the job done just fine, but I would like the option of adding additional drives without having to wipe the NAS that Unraid gives you. 

Here is my current part list, if you see anything I should change outside of my two questions, feel free to critique it. 

• RAM - Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 DRAM 3000MHz C15 Desktop Memory Kit - Black (CMK16GX4M2B3000C15)
• PSU - EVGA 750 GQ, 80+ Gold 750W, Semi Modular, ECO Mode, 5 Year Warranty, Power Supply 210-GQ-0750-V1
• Motherboard - MSI Gaming AMD Ryzen B350 DDR4 VR Ready HDMI USB 3 CFX ATX Motherboard (B350 TOMAHAWK)
• Processor - AMD Ryzen 5 2600 Processor with Wraith Stealth Cooler - YD2600BBAFBOX
• RAID Controller (?) - IO Crest 4 Port SATA III PCI-e 2.0 x1 Controller Card Marvell Non-Raid with Low Profile Bracket SI-PEX40064
• Hard Drives (2x) - Seagate IronWolf NAS 5900RPM Internal SATA Hard Drive 4TB 6Gb/s 3.5-Inch (ST4000VN008)

[LukeSavenije]

I don't know anything about raid cards, but I do know a lot about general building

 

change that psu to a lower wattage higher quality psu like the g2, whisper, focus gold, formula gold, rmx, txm, pure power 11, psu's like that

change the mobo to a b450, the b350's were pretty bad at msi...

[Electronics Wizardy]

Are you on a domain? 

 

How much does security matter>

 

Id really buy one from a large company, that way there is good support if something goes wrong. Id probably get a basic dell server here. You get great support(you can get same day or 4 hr support),  and hardware that the next guy knows how to work with.

 

If you use freenas you don't want a raid card, you have zfs for software raid.

 

If you get a raid card, you want one from lsI(now broadcom), adaptech, or areca, all the cheap ones are bad.

 

If you have 2 drives you can't do raid 5.

 

Really get a dell server with windows server or get a synology, Id stay away from diy here.

[Mr.Humble]

A law firm should not have a problem buying (and paying for) a complete business class solution. One that comes with a business class tech support, warranty and security. Wouldn't wanna have a bunch of important contracts leaked.

[jj9987]

4 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Are you on a domain? 

 

How much does security matter>

 

Id really buy one from a large company, that way there is good support if something goes wrong. Id probably get a basic dell server here. You get great support(you can get same day or 4 hr support),  and hardware that the next guy knows how to work with.

 

If you use freenas you don't want a raid card, you have zfs for software raid.

 

If you get a raid card, you want one from lsI(now broadcom), adaptech, or areca, all the cheap ones are bad.

 

If you have 2 drives you can't do raid 5.

 

Really get a dell server with windows server or get a synology, Id stay away from diy here.

This. Don't bother going with a RAID card, software RAID is good enough for modern day.

 

And think carefully you are willing to spend a good amount of time on potential issues and troubleshooting and what kind of effect it has on the firm, if they do not have access to it. Could also consider a proper NAS system aside from buying a server.

[Minbari]

Don't go with a whitebox solution here. If next year you aren't with them anymore and they bring somebody else in, that could be messy. It also isn't worth the risk of using consumer off the shelf hardware with zero support for an application like this. Dell and HPE and lots of tier 1's have "small business" NAS solutions such as the Dell NX appliances. They are relatively affordable and have legitimate one stop warranty and support contracts. There is nothing wrong with DIY solutions for home NAS, but for a legitimate business/enterprise there really wouldnt be an excuse to have a server down for potentially weeks while you go through with an MSI motherboard RMA or something like that. Things are always bound to go wrong, so save yourself the potentially massive issues down the road and get in tough with some vendors and make a proposal for your law firm. It will almost assuredly work out better for them in the end. 

[Vyndorialan]

6 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Are you on a domain? 

 

How much does security matter>

 

Id really buy one from a large company, that way there is good support if something goes wrong. Id probably get a basic dell server here. You get great support(you can get same day or 4 hr support),  and hardware that the next guy knows how to work with.

 

If you use freenas you don't want a raid card, you have zfs for software raid.

 

If you get a raid card, you want one from lsI(now broadcom), adaptech, or areca, all the cheap ones are bad.

 

If you have 2 drives you can't do raid 5.

 

Really get a dell server with windows server or get a synology, Id stay away from diy here.

I would do a full business-class solution here, but we won't be putting much more than a bunch of documents and other miscellaneous items in there and using it as a central place for our printer to spit out its scans so I don't think we necessarily need a full business-class solution to it. 

 

How many drives would I need to do RAID 5?

[Mr.Humble]

1 minute ago, Minbari said:

It will almost assuredly work out better for them in the end. 

And for you @Vyndorialan. Consider that in an event of a failure with signifficant downtime, which costs money - both to fix as well as potential missed revenues - they might decide it's your fault and sue you for damages.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Vyndorialan said:

I would do a full business-class solution here, but we won't be putting much more than a bunch of documents and other miscellaneous items in there and using it as a central place for our printer to spit out its scans so I don't think we necessarily need a full business-class solution to it. 

 

How many drives would I need to do RAID 5?

How much storage do you need?

 

Id just get a synology nas then. Cheaper, easy to use.

 

How about this nas https://www.amazon.com/Synology-bay-DiskStation-DS918-Diskless/dp/B075N1Z9LT

 

It would work fine for your use, and is easy to use and pretty cheap.

 

Still suggesting getting a IT firm for this, you probably want to be on a domain, and have a stragety for managing all your documents and backup

 

How are you doing backup?

[Mr Technician]

9 minutes ago, jj9987 said:

This. Don't bother going with a RAID card, software RAID is good enough for modern day.

This. I have a hardware raid card in my freenas build but it's flashed to IT mode so it actually runs software raid.

[Mr.Humble]

4 minutes ago, Vyndorialan said:

I would do a full business-class solution here, but we won't be putting much more than a bunch of documents and other miscellaneous items in there and using it as a central place for our printer to spit out its scans so I don't think we necessarily need a full business-class solution to it.

Oh, ok, if it's something this trivial just get a suitable QNAP 4 bay box and an external HDD to back it up to periodically.

 

5 minutes ago, Vyndorialan said:

How many drives would I need to do RAID 5?

Why do you want RAID5 so much?

[Vyndorialan]

3 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

How much storage do you need?

 

Id just get a synology nas then. Cheaper, easy to use.

 

How about this nas https://www.amazon.com/Synology-bay-DiskStation-DS918-Diskless/dp/B075N1Z9LT

 

It would work fine for your use, and is easy to use and pretty cheap.

 

Still suggesting getting a IT firm for this, you probably want to be on a domain, and have a stragety for managing all your documents and backup

 

How are you doing backup?

Somehow in my Googling, I missed that Synology server. That should be a much better solution than what I was going to do. I have a strategy for documents and backup. For backup, I'm going to (try to) get the law firm to contract with a local IT firm to provide an offsite backup solution.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Vyndorialan said:

Somehow in my Googling, I missed that Synology server. That should be a much better solution than what I was going to do. I have a strategy for documents and backup. For backup, I'm going to (try to) get the law firm to contract with a local IT firm to provide an offsite backup solution.

Id just do this all with the IT firm, its nice having one person manage it all. 

[Vyndorialan]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

Id just do this all with the IT firm, its nice having one person manage it all. 

I would, but the lawyer in charge of the firm has had bad previous experiences with IT firms ripping him off, so he's much more receptive to having me take care of most issues that arise and I like troubleshooting anyway, so it works out.

[Mr.Humble]

1 minute ago, Vyndorialan said:

Somehow in my Googling, I missed that Synology server. That should be a much better solution than what I was going to do. I have a strategy for documents and backup. For backup, I'm going to (try to) get the law firm to contract with a local IT firm to provide an offsite backup solution.

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

Id just do this all with the IT firm, its nice having one person manage it all. 

Yeah speaking from personal experience it really helps (I help my parents' with their IT - mostly maintenance and backup - needs but they both have actual IT technicians on retainer for the serious stuff)

 

[Mr.Humble]

1 minute ago, Vyndorialan said:

I would, but the lawyer in charge of the firm has had bad previous experiences with IT firms ripping him off.

Not a very good lawyer it would seem.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Vyndorialan said:

I would, but the lawyer in charge of the firm has had bad previous experiences with IT firms ripping him off, so he's much more receptive to having me take care of most issues that arise and I like troubleshooting anyway, so it works out.

You need to keep hunting for a better IT solution then. I have seen lots of buinesses that kinda skimp along with IT and a tech guy, and its fine until some bad happens, Id keep looking for a IT solution that will manage it all at a price you like and that you trust. 

[Vyndorialan]

3 minutes ago, vojta.pokorny said:

Yeah speaking from personal experience it really helps (I help my parents' with their IT - mostly maintenance and backup - needs but they both have actual IT technicians on retainer for the serious stuff)

 

I should probably clarify, when I mean "law firm" I mean two lawyers (one of which is so old he doesn't even use a computer) a paralegal, and an accountant. IMHO it isn't something that needs a full-fledged IT firm as of yet. If I get overwhelmed though, I'll be sure to keep that in mind though.

[tryingmybest]

I was looking into NAS a while ago. If your going to build your own you do NOT need 16GB of ram, r5 2600. Just a cheap SBC; a controller? A microSD card (doesn’t need to be huge in size) and an Ethernet cable and a power cord. I recommend the Marvell espressobin ($50) you’ll need a 12VDC/2A power cord to charge as well as a microSD card for linux. It has usb 3.0 (SATA SLOWLY through here?) and an SATA III port. Most crucially it has 1Gbps Ethernet making it a quick NAS. You’ll need an enclosure though. There are also plenty of tutorials online to make a Linux machine a NAS.