my NAS build finally taking the first step!

[yurihellsing]

Ok was thinking about doing a new build but I kind of want to have a NAS too so why not just build the NAS first then it’ll be easier to think of the new build as it won’t have as many HDDs in it.

Budget = at the moment unknown but I know it won’t be as cheap as I’d like it to be

Main uses = media storage and delivering to devices both on my network and outside (phone/tablet)

Features I want

• Running ZFS or any file system that can reduce the amount of space taken up by duplicates
• Expandability
• Low power consumption or as low as I can get it

 

Also what sort of RAID cofig would I need to be using so that if one HDD were to go bad or die I can just swap it out the data is repopulated and the system is working as if nothing went wrong

 

Thanks for all and any input!!!

 

 

anything else need adding?

[yurihellsing]

anyone?

 

also what chipset should i aim for or does that not matter as much?

[Madmanchris1]

Hey, 

well a budget would be a great help how much were you thinking or spending? 

What Os did you want to run? freenas, amahi, windows sever (freenas is the only one that i know of that supports ZFS but im sure there are others).

DeDulplication requires a lot of Ram. if you watch Tek sysndicates video on freenas that might help. they have a lot of nas stuff.

 

Take a look at my freenas build (currently on hold due to moving house) HERE

 

If you have an old pc lying around id test freenas out on that. That's what i did, it will give you an insight of what it has to offer. 

[yurihellsing]

Yeah after looking at your NAS build I think I’ll be going with the avaton too and I’ve seen the video both on the build and FreeNAS by the Tek syndicate and I liked what I saw so I will be going with that. On the topic of file systems that use deduplication  is that something that it just does on its own or is it something I can enable once I have enough RAM?

 

Also depending on the answer to the last question I may not be using ZFS to begin with since I won’t have the RAM to use it to its fullest so if I have to use something other than ZFS can I convert to it without losing data like you can convert from FAT32 to NTFS without having to format to it?

 

A question on RAID which ones will I have to look into for the ability to just swap out HDDs that are either failing or flat out dead with a new one and the whole system just acts as if nothing happened?

 

And as for budget at this moment I’m still not sure the core of the system I know I can afford but the HDDs  my main plan is to start small maybe 2 or 3 2TB HDDs then over time expand and replace with bigger HDDs so is there anything else I need to take into consideration?

[Madmanchris1]

Snip

 

With de-duplication you can enable it when you create your dataset or zvol (its on one of them). I think you can enable it after you've made your zvol/dataset and got all your files sorted just don't hold me to that as i haven't used it yet.

 

If you go with the avaton board (its a good choice) you would be best off going with ECC ram an 8GB stick costs £60 on Amazon. check out the supermicro boards as well i hear really good things about them as well as the benefit of supporting a xeon processor. 

 

If you go with freenas and ZFS 8GB is the minimum amount of ram that they recommend using. general rule of thumb is 6GB base + 1GB for every 1TB of storage. 

with freenas you will need ZFS for plugins such as plex and transmission so its worth spending the extra £ for ZFS.

 

With Raid i am only using 1x 3TB HDD at the moment so im not well versed on this. But i believe zfs uses raidz (similar to raid 5 i think) you will need a minimum of 3 HDD's to achieve this.  im not sure on this so check out the freenas forums they will probably correct me on a few things. linus has raid videos too. (when you make your ZFS it will auto select the best option in raid for your system)

 

Converting NFTS/Fat32 to a ZFS i highly doubt this is achievable. you would most likely have to format the drives before converting. once again check out the freenas forums on this. there is a really helpful Noob section. 

[yurihellsing]

thanks will be checking out the freenas forums now.

[Madmanchris1]

Cool let me know how it goes, and pm me or post on my build if you have anymore questions.

 

Have fun with your build!