Making a Freenas

[Madmanchris1]

So like a lot of people now im wanting to make a NAS. 

I'm unsure of a few features and would like to know what's possible and what's not. 

 

1:  Is ZFS worth it? and can i add more HDD's once ive set it up?

 

2: If i put my movies on it with say plex/xbmx, can i then stream them to a tablet? what if the tablet is not on the home network but my friends/hotels?

 

3: How safe is it to have you media accessible from the outside connections?

 

4: What's this 10Gb/s is it necessary for a NAS or will the LAN on the motherboard be ample for my usage?

 

So here is what id use my Nas for :

 

This will be my first freenas

Watch movies and play music from any pc in my house (instead of my parents asking me for it on a usb).

General file storage, pictures,documents, ect.

I work away from home so access to my media from my hotel wifi (if possible).

 

My setup :

 

I have a standard virgin media superhub router which i will wire the nas upto. 

i will use wifi to stream to most of my pc's with my gaming (main) pc being the exception with wired. 

 

My Build:

 

My budget is £500 and im starting from scratch as i have a few spare HDD's but not much else.

 

Case: Fractal Node 304. with some cooling fans installed.

 

Mobo: It is either a 

 

ASRock AD2550R/U3S3 Server Board (Atom D2550, Intel ICH10R, DDR3, S-ATA 600, Mini ITX)

Or

C2550D4I - ASROCK MOTHERBOARD MINI-ITX C2550 FCBGA1283 SOCKET

Will probably go for the atom D2550 because its cheaper unless people tell me otherwise.

 

Ram: i was going to buy 1 stick of 8GB and then expand ( is this possible?)

 

Psu: it will be a cheap but good branded 300-400w any suggestions?

 

HDD's: i was going to start with 2 WD Green 3TB drives and then later expand when necessary.

 

OS : Freenas

 

 

Any help with advising me with parts and what wont work will be very much appreciated. 

And all suggestions are welcome as this will be my first nas. 

 

Thanks very much in advance.   

 

 

 

 

[Vitalius]

1:  Is ZFS worth it? and can i add more HDD's once ive set it up?

If you can afford powerful hardware, yes. And powerful hardware isn't much more expensive than not powerful hardware. ZFS doesn't like being on weak stuff. It can, it just doesn't like it. 

Yes, but depending on how you do it, it can be dangerous. The only way to expand a RAID array in ZFS is to replace each small drive with a larger drive, or add a RAID 1 (mirror). Otherwise, to expand a RAID 0, 5 (Z1), 6 (Z2), or 7 (Z3), you have to delete the entire RAID and then remake it with the additions. Meaning you have to move the data or lose it.

The reason I say it's dangerous is because if you just start adding HDDs to a Zpool willy-nilly, then if even a single HDD dies, the whole ZPool is lost. Even if the drives are connected in a RAID array or not. 
 

2: If i put my movies on it with say plex/xbmx, can i then stream them to a tablet? what if the tablet is not on the home network but my friends/hotels?

Yes, and yes. I have done the first thing and I know the second thing is possible. There are plenty of guides on the FreeNAS Forums for such things.

 

3: How safe is it to have you media accessible from the outside connections?

Depends how you do it. Plex lets you access it via their website which requires you create an account so it's as secure as your password is. I would just do it that way as it's easiest personally.

 

4: What's this 10Gb/s is it necessary for a NAS or will the LAN on the motherboard be ample for my usage?

A single LAN will be ample for your usage. You only need multiple if you are pushing more than 120 MB/s (you won't with that budget or those HDDs) or you need network redundancy (you don't as a home user). 10 Gb/s is for professionals and businesses. Home users will most likely never even get close to needing it unless you have all the money (like, all of it) for 4K and Steam Streaming (though it's not ready for that yet as Linus has shown). 

So here is what id use my Nas for :

 

This will be my first freenas

Watch movies and play music from any pc in my house (instead of my parents asking me for it on a usb).

General file storage, pictures,documents, ect.

I work away from home so access to my media from my hotel wifi (if possible).

That is all very possible and you don't need ZFS to do it. ZFS just raises the requirements for the hardware in your situation. UFS doesn't and would be more than adequate for your situation. ZFS is powerful and has many awesome features, but you only really need those if you are storing confidential information, data that needs to be available and not corrupted over years (decades even), or very very available (redundancy). 

Unless you really love your movies/music and intend to watch/listen to them for years (or family photos and such), you don't need ZFS, but at the same time, I would shoot for that anyway just because it's awesome and more is usually better than less in terms of features. Don't do it if you simply don't want to pay for what would make ZFS useful.

My setup :

 

I have a standard virgin media superhub router which i will wire the nas upto. 

i will use wifi to stream to most of my pc's with my gaming (main) pc being the exception with wired. 

Sounds fine. FreeNAS won't care about the WiFI as long as it's ample for streaming.

 

My Build:

 

My budget is £500 and im starting from scratch as i have a few spare HDD's but not much else.

 

Case: Fractal Node 304. with some cooling fans installed.

+1 for that case. Awesome NAS M-ITX case.

 

Mobo: It is either a ASRock AD2550R/U3S3 Server Board (Atom D2550, Intel ICH10R, DDR3, S-ATA 600, Mini ITX)

 

Or C2550D4I - ASROCK MOTHERBOARD MINI-ITX C2550 FCBGA1283 SOCKET

 

Will probably go for the atom D2550 because its cheaper unless people tell me otherwise.

That's actually a hard call. Plex Media Server transcodes the video on the fly from whatever format it's in to whatever format your device prefers (as well as resolution) auto-magically. Video encoding is intensive. I feel like the 4 cores would be prefered over the dual core and the extra 0.14GHz would help, but if you really can't afford it, stick with the 2nd one. I was able to stream Plex with a Phenom II X4 @ 2.00 GHz with 2 cores disabled (making it a dual core) so ... I think the AD2550R/U3S3 should be fine for you. Just don't expect to run more Jails other than a Plex one.

If you can fork over the extra money for the C2550D4l, then I would seriously try if you can. More is better usually and you don't want to buy this stuff and go "Well crap, now I can't use it for what I wanted." I mean any machine can do simple file sharing, but adding in Plex and ZFS changes things.

 

Ram: i was going to buy 1 stick of 8GB and then expand ( is this possible?)

Yes, that's perfectly fine.

 

Psu: it will be a cheap but good branded 300-400w any suggestions?

Gold rated is preferred. A NAS will be on 24/7. You can actually make back the price difference between a Gold and Bronze PSU over a year or 2 of use. Then it's pure savings. Bronze/Silver are good but not great and Platinum's price premium can't be made back in a reasonable amount of time unless you pay a looot for electricity.

Define "Cheap". Here's a Seasonic 350w PSU. It's not ATX, but that's a good thing imo. The only thing is you would have to just screw in 1 or 2 screws for it in the Node, but it will take up less space. Seasonic PSUs = best PSUs imo.

Modularity in a case the size of the Node 304 is a Godsend, so fully modular is preferred as well (but can be ignored if you are willing to for the sake of saving a tiny bit of cash).

 

HDD's: i was going to start with 2 WD Green 3TB drives and then later expand when necessary.

... This entirely depends on your redundancy scheme. Do you ever intend to use RAID 5 (Z1) or other Parity RAID setups? Or will RAID 0/1 be all you use?

Personally, I would fork out the extra money for a NAS oriented drive (i.e. Hitachi's Deskstar NAS drives, WD Reds, Seagate NAS drives, etc). But that's just me. They'll perform faster for longer by a long shot and are best for NAS environments (always on, closed spaces for temperatures, etc).

 

OS : Freenas

 

This is good and all, and I highly recommend it, but just so you know, Linux has support for ZFS as well and there are guides for setting that up too (though good luck getting Plex to work as I have no experience with that). Then there's Debian, which MG2R has made a guide for on the forums as well to make a file server with plugins.

Of those though, FreeNAS is the easiest to get running and configured fully imo. The GUI makes life easier as well. Debian/Linux would take a bit of time to learn, so you might not want to bother with that.
 

Any help with advising me with parts and what wont work will be very much appreciated. 

And all suggestions are welcome as this will be my first nas. 

 

Sure. 

[Madmanchris1]

 

Snip. 

 

Thanks for the quick and well informative reply.

 

well i doubt i will use zfs now but it might be something id use in the future.

 

I think i will go with the C2550D4I might just have to make a few changes or save a

bit longer.

 

I think i will get 1 x 3TB WD Red as they do seem better suited. and i will expand and i can use the current 3TB in my pc to compensate. 

 

I have got about 3.5TB of media right now and probably add about 5-10gb a week.

 

If i used a ssd for caching would that make a significant improvement ?

 

Thanks 

[Vitalius]

Thanks for the quick and well informative reply.

 

well i doubt i will use zfs now but it might be something id use in the future.

 

I think i will go with the C2550D4I might just have to make a few changes or save a

bit longer.

 

I think i will get 1 x 3TB WD Red as they do seem better suited. and i will expand and i can use the current 3TB in my pc to compensate. 

 

I have got about 3.5TB of media right now and probably add about 5-10gb a week.

 

If i used a ssd for caching would that make a significant improvement ?

 

Thanks 

You're welcome. I'm kind of always here. My work place's workload is erratic and they are fine with me surfing tech forums because I learn cool stuff here that I can then use at my job.

Ya. Do note that you want ECC and lots of RAM for ZFS, but for UFS, you don't need either. 2-4GB would suffice (4 since you will be using Plex) and non-ECC would be fine. You could save money there and just buy the ECC RAM later when you decide to move to ZFS. That could save you a good bit of money now.

Awesome. I highly recommend doing that. HDD quality is more important than redundancy via RAID (though not as important as backups) imo. 

I believe so. I don't know as much about UFS as I do about ZFS, but I'm pretty sure that since you aren't using ZFS, an SSD would make a noticeable improvement to your transfer speeds. 

One important thing to note: You would only want an SSD for cache when using ZFS if the SSD is much bigger than your RAM. By much bigger, I mean having 8GB of RAM and a 32GB SSD. The reason I say that is because if you buy an SSD thinking you will want to use it for cache later in ZFS as well, you might not want to. Having an SSD cache in ZFS adds to what goes in the RAM, so depending on the situation (it can get complicated), it might actually hurt you more than help you. 

But for UFS, it's a good idea all around (I believe) since it's a simpler file system. Just something to keep in mind when looking around for the potential, eventual, move to ZFS.

You're welcome.

[Ahnzh]

So like a lot of people now im wanting to make a NAS. 

I'm unsure of a few features and would like to know what's possible and what's not. 

 

Well, I spent like one and a half years now getting into freeNAS/nas4free/Amahi/Zarafa/NAS in general so i consider myself educated in this specific area.

 

 

1:  Is ZFS worth it? and can i add more HDD's once ive set it up?

 

ZFS is an awesome system in general. I really like it. Since it's a combination of a File System and a Volume Manager, you have to pay attention to some things. First off: you start with VDevs (Virtual Devices). That can be a single Drive or multiple drives in a RAID array. You can put multiple VDevs together into a zPool. For example you got 3 RAID5 VDevs with 4 HDDs each with 1 TB (3TB accessible out of 4TB per VDev) and put them together into a zPool, you have shown a single HDD of 9TB. so you are putting together 3 Raid arrays into one single volume. ZFS has got additional RAID modes than the ones you know already but they work the same basically. RaidZ=Raid5, RaidZ2= Raid5, RaidZ3=Tripple Parity.

 

You cannot change the number of drives you have in a VDev. If you try to do, you lose all data in the zPool. That will be basically everything. What you could do though is add more VDevs to a zPool. You won't profit from the existing VDev data security though and having a single drive breaking down will result in a loss of your zPool as well. So make sure to add 2 drives if you want to add drives and put them into a RAID1 array. Going from a single drive into a RAID1 array later is supported. What you could do though is putting larger drives into the existing VDevs, that's something that's hard to do actually in standard RAIDs. Synology invented a system that splits every HDD in 500GB parts and reduce Parity + allow different HDD sizes. ZFS does not do that.

 

2: If i put my movies on it with say plex/xbmx, can i then stream them to a tablet? what if the tablet is not on the home network but my friends/hotels?

 

If you got enough upstream at home, that might work. Create an OpenVPN connection to your NAS. It's like you are in the same network then.

 

3: How safe is it to have you media accessible from the outside connections?

 

VPN is safe I dare to say. It's a crypted connection and you are just able to decrypt if you got both the server and the client certificate. FreeNAS's boot device is read-only, so it cannot be manipulated that easily. Safe i dare to say.

 

4: What's this 10Gb/s is it necessary for a NAS or will the LAN on the motherboard be ample for my usage?

 

10GbE is able to transfer 1.2 Gigabyte per second. That's faster than 2 SSDs in a raid0. Do you need it? NO! Don't get confused by my thread. I'm using the NAS to edit 4k footage and need a device that puts out around 400Megabyte per second or more. I had the option of going the DAS route and plug in external drives into my Mac Pro or  going for: freeNAS. For the average home user that's saving his movies and pictures and music on it, 1GbE will be far enough. It's able to transfer 120MB/s at maximum speeds. Even lots of virtualization solutions in companies run of 1GbE. 10GbE hardware costs a lot. I calculated in 2200$ roughly for a switch, 1 server and 2 clients. 2200$ for home use 10GbE? Just for enthusiasts that got lucky and got into a job that's payed above average ;D

 

 

So here is what id use my Nas for :

 

This will be my first freenas

Watch movies and play music from any pc in my house (instead of my parents asking me for it on a usb).

General file storage, pictures,documents, ect.

I work away from home so access to my media from my hotel wifi (if possible).

 

My setup :

 

I have a standard virgin media superhub router which i will wire the nas upto. 

i will use wifi to stream to most of my pc's with my gaming (main) pc being the exception with wired. 

 

My Build:

 

My budget is £500 and im starting from scratch as i have a few spare HDD's but not much else.

 

Case: Fractal Node 304. with some cooling fans installed.

 

Mobo: It is either a 

 

ASRock AD2550R/U3S3 Server Board (Atom D2550, Intel ICH10R, DDR3, S-ATA 600, Mini ITX)

Or

C2550D4I - ASROCK MOTHERBOARD MINI-ITX C2550 FCBGA1283 SOCKET

Will probably go for the atom D2550 because its cheaper unless people tell me otherwise.

 

Ram: i was going to buy 1 stick of 8GB and then expand ( is this possible?)

 

Psu: it will be a cheap but good branded 300-400w any suggestions?

 

HDD's: i was going to start with 2 WD Green 3TB drives and then later expand when necessary.

 

OS : Freenas

 

The thing when using freeNAS and ZFS is: you need 1. ECC ram, 2. lots of it, 3. HDDs that support 24/7 usage and possibly some sort of error detection/correction mechanisms. That limits you to either WD Reds, Seagate NAS HDDs or Enterprise HDDs. I would go for the Reds. Both Reds and their Seagate counterpart are made for NAS usage. Greens are not suited for NAS usage if you value your data.

 

Caching is harder to configure. I saw multiple times when the whole zPool went for Valhalla because users used ZIL/L2ARC (SSD read/write caching). If you are not using things like ESXi and other business server related things, don't use it. What you have to pay attention to is that you can utilize the machine to the needs of you. That board is great for that cause. 

 

ZFS is made to be run for LONG times. The worst enemy of ZFS is data corruption. You want to avoid that. That's the reason why it's recommended to use a small USV, ECC RAM and enterprise grade HDDs or HDDs that are made to be used in NAS devices because they provide the important enterprise grade functions 'n stuff.

 

C2550D4I is the only viable option if you want ZFS. The other board is very limited on RAM. for an 6TB ZFS based system you want around 8GB ECC.

 

 

 

I would not recommend using freeNAS for you though. Take a good look at Amahi. It's running pretty stable, Fedora based, easy configuration. works out of the box. It would suit your needs as well (streaming data, backing up some data, accessing it through the webs).

 

If you really want to go for freeNAS, I still would say: start off using Amahi, don't use ZFS. 2 3TB drives will run in a RAID1 either way. ZFS gives you close to none profits.

 

 

The plan to go would be: get the case, get the C2550D4I board, get 4GB ECC (just like +10$), install Amahi on an USB stick and use it until you decide you need more storage. With what you got you can easily decide to continue using Amahi or switch to freeNAS/something similar. You would have to set up your raid again either way -> RAID1.

 

 

/edit: Amahi because it completely removes the need of setting up something. Just be sure to use DHCP on your clients, deactivate the DHCP server in your router and you're good to go. forward the DNS to your NAS in case it's needed. ready to roll.

[Madmanchris1]

<snip>

 

Thanks for the great reply.

wow 10GBE is expensive you're lucky!

 

do you have a link i could use for amahi?

 

So im going to go for the C2550D4I board, i tried looking at ecc ram for it though based on the manual for it and i cant find any of them for sale on Amazon, could you recommend some ecc memory?

i found this one Kingston Technology KVR16E11/8 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz ECC DIMM Memory with Thermal Sensor do you think it will work? it meets the requirements but isn't on the parts list.

 

will most types of non-ecc work with this board? found out most are

 

Im not sure if im going to start with any raid unless i can afford two wd reds. in my local store the wd's they sell are network, performance and basic is the networking the reds ( they say for nas)?

 

i think im going to do a lot of research this week and then buy it all on Friday.

 

Thanks for the great reply again, people in this community are great!

Edited April 27, 2014 by Madmanchris1

[Ahnzh]

Thanks for the great reply.

wow 10GBE is expensive you're lucky!

 

do you have a link i could use for amahi?

 

So im going to go for the C2550D4I board, i tried looking at ecc ram for it though based on the manual for it and i cant find any of them for sale on Amazon, could you recommend some ecc memory?

i found this one Kingston Technology KVR16E11/8 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz ECC DIMM Memory with Thermal Sensor do you think it will work? it meets the requirements but isn't on the parts list.

 

will most types of non-ecc work with this board? found out most are

 

Im not sure if im going to start with any raid unless i can afford two wd reds. in my local store the wd's they sell are network, performance and basic is the networking the reds ( they say for nas)?

 

i think im going to do a lot of research this week and then buy it all on Friday.

 

Thanks for the great reply again, people in this community are great!

 

 

The compatibility test just shows a few RAMs that are tested over a certain amount of time with really deep run analysis. It doesn't mean that others won't run as well. It's just not tested all out. Kingston never let me down during the time i worked with them but I'm building with either ADATA or Samsung at the moment. Not because Kingston is building bad RAMs but because Samsung was built into the servers of my preferred server manufacturer (Terra Computer) because their broad compatibility. I'm not sure if they're exporting in other countries except Germany though, but from office computers to workstations to small servers to big servers, they got an incredible quality and it's hard to even get your hands on certain models because of an insane demand. Delivery time for low end office PCs and mobile computers is like 3-4 weeks. Servers are at 6 weeks for some of the series. Seems like they have some sort of maintenance on their site at the moment.

 

 

amahi.org for the link. 

 

 

Actually i personally grew to dislike Reds lately. I was used to get good quality from WD but lots of Reds blew up lately in my circle of friends. (some didn't even last half a year)

Maybe that doesn't represent the drives' quality all in all but compared to Seagate ES.3 (1TB versions' price difference is 20 dollars) they are worse in quality, performance and time between failures. The Seagates are a tad louder though.

 

Sure the Reds are made for NAS usage. They got TLER integrated (which consumer drives do not have), better bearings and electro motors but else they are technically consumer drives with a few more features that favors NAS usage and made for 24/7 usage thanks to the increased quality in parts that get stressed in NAS usage.

 

I didn't hear anything bad till now about the Seagate NAS drives but i don't know lots of people either that uses them since Western Digital drives were heavily favored the last few years. Testing them hints at Seagate NAS having a larger throughput while WDs possess more IOPS. Energy consumption and noise is pretty much on par.

 

In the end it's just a preference. 

[Madmanchris1]

So i've been playing around with Freenas on an old pc of mine. I'm having a lot of fun with it even if it is frustrating at times. im running 1x 320gb 1x 120gb hdd's with 4gb ram and phenom 2.4 GHz 4 core (i think). i really like all the options and plugins that it gives you, but i doubt il use most of the advanced options. 

 

I've had problems setting up my Plex and read that plugin's are only available with the ZFS format i'm using the UFS atm, is this true?

 

If this is true i will need ZFS so will my mobo still be able to handle it or should i save up and go for the Octocore version [ now imagining a tiny octopus handling all my data from the cpu aha]

 

I've had a look at amahi and it does look very good, have yet to test it yet though. will Plex work on that with a normal file setup?

 

In your opinions which is the better os, which is more suited to my needs? Money isn't too much of an issue but i would like to keep the costs down if possible.

 

Thanks very much in advance.

[Vitalius]

I've had problems setting up my Plex and read that plugin's are only available with the ZFS format i'm using the UFS atm, is this true?

Yes. You cannot use plugins without ZFS. Not sure why, but I'm guessing there's a good reason for it.

 

If this is true i will need ZFS so will my mobo still be able to handle it or should i save up and go for the Octocore version [now imagining a tiny octopus handling all my data from the cpu aha]

I don't believe you need the extra 4 cores for ZFS. It's primarily RAM you need for it, not more cores. The motherboard is more than capable as a 4 core imo. 

 

In your opinions which is the better os, which is more suited to my needs? Money isn't too much of an issue but i would like to keep the costs down if possible.

If you want the plugins that FreeNAS has, then FreeNAS. Not sure if you can set this stuff up on Amahi, but FreeNAS makes it really easy to do imo (i.e. install plugin, configure and it just works). 

 

Thanks very much in advance.

You're welcome.

[Ahnzh]

So i've been playing around with Freenas on an old pc of mine. I'm having a lot of fun with it even if it is frustrating at times. im running 1x 320gb 1x 120gb hdd's with 4gb ram and phenom 2.4 GHz 4 core (i think). i really like all the options and plugins that it gives you, but i doubt il use most of the advanced options. 

 

I've had problems setting up my Plex and read that plugin's are only available with the ZFS format i'm using the UFS atm, is this true?

 

If this is true i will need ZFS so will my mobo still be able to handle it or should i save up and go for the Octocore version [ now imagining a tiny octopus handling all my data from the cpu aha]

 

I've had a look at amahi and it does look very good, have yet to test it yet though. will Plex work on that with a normal file setup?

 

In your opinions which is the better os, which is more suited to my needs? Money isn't too much of an issue but i would like to keep the costs down if possible.

 

Thanks very much in advance.

 

you neither do need a huge Mobo nor an incredibly large processor. You won't run ZFS as a business solution with iSCSI and 18 drives. I've got a xeon e3 v3 4core with 3.5 Ghz i think and when using freeNAS with ZFS and dual LAG i hardly get more than 10% usage out of it. your phenom should just be fine.

 

 

Ahahi does not support ZFS and all plugins are ready to go. you have very limited options of changing stuff because it's hard coded in multiple layers at times (DNS for example) but it runs out of the box. very convenient for people that need a fast and easy solution for a home data and media server. I highly doubt you need more than what it's offering!

 

I cannot tell you what you need... freeNAS is a enthusiast solution, nas4free is basically freeNAS but targeted for home users. Amahi is the basic home user version of a NAS OS with minimal config that works perfect out of the box for people that need space to store Pictures and files an easy way with the ability to stream via plugins. the most positive thing about amahi is the large number of apps that extend it. not every app is entirely free but they are available for like 2 dollars or so. for me the only reason to go for a ZFS based solution is extensive storage space (10TB up) or when you want to use the NAS for business purposes. For everybody else Amahi should be the solution to look at.

[Ahnzh]

 

I've had problems setting up my Plex and read that plugin's are only available with the ZFS format i'm using the UFS atm, is this true?

Yes. You cannot use plugins without ZFS. Not sure why, but I'm guessing there's a good reason for it.

 

If this is true i will need ZFS so will my mobo still be able to handle it or should i save up and go for the Octocore version [now imagining a tiny octopus handling all my data from the cpu aha]

I don't believe you need the extra 4 cores for ZFS. It's primarily RAM you need for it, not more cores. The motherboard is more than capable as a 4 core imo. 

 

In your opinions which is the better os, which is more suited to my needs? Money isn't too much of an issue but i would like to keep the costs down if possible.

If you want the plugins that FreeNAS has, then FreeNAS. Not sure if you can set this stuff up on Amahi, but FreeNAS makes it really easy to do imo (i.e. install plugin, configure and it just works). 

 

Thanks very much in advance.

You're welcome.

 

basically this. Amahi is based on Fedora19 atm i think, so you can add/remove whatever you like. What's hard coded is the DNS/DHCP config and the NAS IP + Gateway IP. So you cannot add a LAG as far as i know. Everything else is Fedora19 and you can put whatever you want on it. And even the add ons come around in a really decent number for people that don't want to spend time using the terminal. And there are a lot more apps than freeNAS has to offer...

[Vitalius]

And there are a lot more apps than freeNAS has to offer...

*that are easy to install

You can basically install anything in the Jails on FreeNAS if you know how. It's a very intensive process in that a noob will probably have no luck doing it without a guide. 

There are many guides for things from Minecraft and Teamspeak 3 Servers to MySQL+PHP+Apache servers, Linux OS' (such as CentOS or Ubuntu), and basic apps like what FreeNAS enables you to easily install.

In fact, in FreeNAS, you can change where the OS looks for the "easy to install" plugins that are listed, so you aren't limited to the default list you see (i.e. transmission, plex, couchpotato, owncloud, etc). Though there's no guarantee it will work for obvious reasons.

I'm just saying, the potential of FreeNAS is probably much greater than Amahi for plugins/features, but you have to invest a lot of time to get many of those things working correctly, which is the disadvantage of it. 

I would just use Amahi if I didn't like tinkering though because time is limited and the like.

[Madmanchris1]

Thanks @Vitalius @Ahnzh.

 

I'm going to have a proper look at amahi tomorrow.

 

The phenom mobo is quite unreliable and has very limited sata & storage space in the case. i use it more of a test pc. 

 

I'm building this because id like to have a very capable and reliable machine that doesn't require much power and has room to expand on in the future.

Pretty much just want to get my storage sorted once and for all instead of multiple copy's on different pc's so that's why i'm going on the higher end of things.

 

Il let you know what os i go with and might do some kind of build blog or something. i should be buying the components soon.

 

What do you two think of this as a power supply 

Corsair Builder Series CXM 430W Modular 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX/EPS PSU

 

Thanks again.

[Ahnzh]

if you go for a higher end, go with the AsrockRack Atom 4Core  Board with an embedded Processor on it. You need to add RAM, but it got ECC ram a server grade Intel Atom processor and a hellofalot SATA ports. You have to calculate in that a drive needs around 13 Watts maximum while being in use. If you go for a Seagate NAS your PSU needs 24 Watts when spinning up. The CPU will need 14W, another 6 or 7 for the Board and some additional watts to be on the save side. Go for a PicoPSU i would say. That's one of the external ones like you use for mobile computers or a XBox. Let's calculate in 35 Watts for the Board+Processor. now add 24 for each drive. 5*24=120+35=155, go with a PicoPSU with 150 Watts and you will be fine. Since it's just a small period of time the whole wattage is drawn from the PSU because spinning up the HDDs is taking more wattage than working with them (3x as much actually) you can expect a system that needs around 65W when under full working load and around 140W when spinning up (for like 3 or 4 seconds, 145 because the Atom needs the watts just when being at full load..). 

 

I was going to test the board either way, i can tell you soon what it's capable of, if you can wait 1 or 2 weeks...

 

 

If not, you can take a look at Seasonic PSUs, they might look like crap but trust me they're the best low energy PSUs available

 

 

/edit: i'll make a shopping list for you, maybe i can give you a rough overview this way...

[Madmanchris1]

 

I was going to test the board either way, i can tell you soon what it's capable of, if you can wait 1 or 2 weeks...

Yeah i might wait a bit longer now and mess round with freenas and other nas stuff as well to see what suits me best.

 

 

If not, you can take a look at Seasonic PSUs, they might look like crap but trust me they're the best low energy PSUs available

well i have around £50 budgeted for the psu and the seasonic was a bit pricey and so are those pico ones. ive seen a be quiet 300w slim one here that looks alright. although if the seasonic ones are much better il probably go with that.

 

 

/edit: i'll make a shopping list for you, maybe i can give you a rough overview this way...

Yeah that would be great, Thanks very much Ahnzh. 

[Ahnzh]

ASRock C2550D4I Mini ITX Server Motherboard DDR3 1600/1333/1066 – 280$
2x Kingston 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Registered DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) 1.35V CL11 - 45$
2x Seagate NAS HDD ST3000VN000 3TB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive - 130$
BitFenix BFC-CLI-300-KKLS1-RP Black Mini-ITX Tower Computer Case - 100$
PICOPSU-150-XT - 45$

Total: 685$

 

If you have got an old Case, reduce 100$... This solution would have 6 TB in it.

 

What you could do as well is get a single 3TB or 4TB (if that's enough for you in the beginning), use Greyhound from Amahi (It's basically a JBOD solution) and add drives later. As soon as you add the second drive later you would achieve data redundancy. Do that until you're at your desired storage capacity and create a RAID5.

That way you can extend your system bit by bit. so in case you got an old case and start off with 1 hdd you can get those stuff for 450$.

 

The Lian-LI PC-Q35 Case is worth a thought though. I like to build HDD cages into my builds. 2x5.25in to 3x3.5in or 3x5.25in to 5x3.5in. Would cost around 150$ the case + around 80$ per cage.

 

 

/edit: what exactly is your budget, maybe we can tune some things

[Vitalius]

@Ahnzh

While the Bitfenix case is nice, I like the Fractal Node 304 myself. It has 6 3.5" bays built into it so 1 more than the Bitfenix one, and it's $30 cheaper. Though you sacrifice a 5.25" bay.

[Ahnzh]

i just looked up a random case for under 100$   The Fractal one's HDDs are too hard to get access to and change imho. If i want a NAS case i want good access to the drives. If not external access then at least a backplane internally and if that's not possible then at least the possibility of switching them fast. The Lian-Li is pretty good but my all time favorite is the iStarUSA S-915 for really small cases in combination with drive cages into the 5.25in bays. I just love the whole iStarUSA m-ITX series! I cannot imagine a more versatile series for NAS usage while being small.

 

Or a Chenbro SR301 Series for 160$...

[Madmanchris1]

ASRock C2550D4I Mini ITX Server Motherboard DDR3 1600/1333/1066 – 280$

2x Kingston 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Registered DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) 1.35V CL11 - 45$

2x Seagate NAS HDD ST3000VN000 3TB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive - 130$

BitFenix BFC-CLI-300-KKLS1-RP Black Mini-ITX Tower Computer Case - 100$

PICOPSU-150-XT - 45$

Total: 685$

 

/edit: what exactly is your budget, maybe we can tune some things

 

Thanks, Ahnzh

 

My budget for this build has been extended to £600, I also plan on starting with 2 x 3TB Hdd's then expand to 6 x 3TB drives through out the year. (4K Prepper)

It might be worth noting that i currently have

1 x 3TB (in use) 

2 x 1TB  (spares, used to be externals)

and about 4 x 120-500gb 2.5" (Spares)

 

 

I've just bought the Node 304 as it was £20 Cheaper and suits my room nice. 

All of those case's look really nice!

 

I might buy the board tomorrow as I'm positive I want that one.

 

I have 3 power supplies in mind right now:

 

Seasonic SS-250SU 250W Flex ATX 1U power supply

 

Seasonic SS-350TGM - 350W Silent TFX power supply with modular cables and 80plus gold certification

 

Mini-Box picoPSU-160-XT High Power 24 Pin Mini-ITX Power Supply - With a pico brick 

 

The picoPSU doesn't say gold cert, are they as power efficient as the Seasonics? also do I just use sata splitters to get the 6 drives and 1 molex connections that I will eventually need?

 

I'm setting up Amahi now so I'll let you know how I get on with it. 

 

Thanks again.

Edited May 1, 2014 by Madmanchris1

[Madmanchris1]

So here's my final list of specs, hopefully it looks a lot better than when I started.

Going to buy them tonight.

 

Case: Fractal Node 304

Mobo:C2550D4I - ASROCK MOTHERBOARD MINI-ITX C2550 FCBGA1283 SOCKET

Ram: Kingston Technology KVR16E11/8 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz ECC DIMM Memory with Thermal Sensor (unbuffered)

PSU: Seasonic SS-250SU 250W Flex ATX 1U power supply

HDD's: 2 x 3TB WD reds (expand later)

 

Let me know what you guys think.

 

I'm also going to use Freenas as I couldn't get Amahi to work correctly with my Lan port, so might give it another go or just stick to learning all i can about Freenas.

 

Thanks for all the help  @Ahnzh  @Vitalius it was very helpful!

[Vitalius]

That looks great Madmanchris1. You're welcome.

[Ahnzh]

It really looks solid now. I think you will enjoy your NAS. If you run into problems just write me via PM or post somewhere. When you are finished setting up, please post about your results. Like your throughput, general experience, if you encountered problems and if you are satisfied by the hardware. This can act as a reference for other people building stuff for the near future since your build reflects really well what people are looking for in general.

 

I'm happy you are satisfied by our help and i wish you the very best.

 

Ahnzh

[Ahnzh]

And to round it up: the PSU is good. Seasonic is awesome because of 2 things: they are low noise and they provide an incredible performance (effectivity). Gold certified doesn't mean too much in low wattage areas. the lower the consumption the harder it gets to assemble a gold status PSU for a manufacturer since they need to have a percentage of effectivity to be gold certified (power loss percentage). hard to explain since english isn't my native language. 1U PSUs generally are noisy because of the small fan but since it's Seasonic i believe you get something quiet.

[Madmanchris1]

And to round it up: the PSU is good. Seasonic is awesome because of 2 things: they are low noise and they provide an incredible performance (effectivity). Gold certified doesn't mean too much in low wattage areas. the lower the consumption the harder it gets to assemble a gold status PSU for a manufacturer since they need to have a percentage of effectivity to be gold certified (power loss percentage). hard to explain since english isn't my native language. 1U PSUs generally are noisy because of the small fan but since it's Seasonic i believe you get something quiet.

Thanks, I did look a lot into the pico ones, they look really good but I think id just trust the seasonic one more.

Also think I'm going for the 8 core version now as I'm going to be working away so multiple plex transcode's will be more than likely and the plex plugin can utilise more cores.  and its a small price to pay for longevity of a product. 

 

Also your English is excellent, probably better than mine (but I'm welsh so that's my excuse haha) .

[Ahnzh]

Thanks, I did look a lot into the pico ones, they look really good but I think id just trust the seasonic one more.

Also think I'm going for the 8 core version now as I'm going to be working away so multiple plex transcode's will be more than likely and the plex plugin can utilise more cores.  and its a small price to pay for longevity of a product. 

 

Also your English is excellent, probably better than mine (but I'm welsh so that's my excuse haha) .

I'm just saying, samba is single thread so your basic throughput will be limited by the power of a single core. Plex will profit from it though. good luck with your product and don't forget the benchmarks ;D