FreeNAS configuration

[Giuseppe96]

Hi I'm configuring FreeNAS on an old computer, I've two question:

1) I've both Macs and PCs in my house, so with format I've to chose to format my HDD on NAS?

2) I've at the time 3 active HDD, 1TB, 500GB and 500GB, if i buy another HDD Can I add this to the NAS and extend the capacity? (I have now also an 80GB HDD but i'm going to remove that and replace)

[Mikensan]

That's asking what type of share you want to create. So you can skip and do it manually or create whichever one you want initially.. Either create 1 type of share that everybody can talk to (CIFS/NFS) or create a specific share for each type of system you need and point it to the same dataset.

 

Normally when you are creating a raid of any type, you want to use the same drives (exactly the same, if not then same size and rpm at least).

 

With freenas you start off creating a vdev which is a group of hard drives configured in a raid (or just a single drive.)

Then you create a pool, which is a pool of vdevs.

You cannot add more drives to a vdev once you have created, but you can add more vdevs to a pool.

 

The risk is that should any vdev die, the entire pool dies. 

[Giuseppe96]

16 minutes ago, Mikensan said:

That's asking what type of share you want to create. So you can skip and do it manually or create whichever one you want initially.. Either create 1 type of share that everybody can talk to (CIFS/NFS) or create a specific share for each type of system you need and point it to the same dataset.

 

Normally when you are creating a raid of any type, you want to use the same drives (exactly the same, if not then same size and rpm at least).

 

With freenas you start off creating a vdev which is a group of hard drives configured in a raid (or just a single drive.)

Then you create a pool, which is a pool of vdevs.

You cannot add more drives to a vdev once you have created, but you can add more vdevs to a pool.

 

The risk is that should any vdev die, the entire pool dies. 

I don't want to create a Raid 0, because i've different HDD, but can i add to the NAS 3 drives and use this 3 drives like "three folders"? for example in one drive all movies, in other all photos ecc... Can I?

[Mikensan]

Yes you would create a vdev with 1 drive, then you would put a data set on each. Then you'd create a share for each one and when people browse your \\freenas servre, they'll see all three folders\shares.

[Giuseppe96]

13 hours ago, Mikensan said:

Yes you would create a vdev with 1 drive, then you would put a data set on each. Then you'd create a share for each one and when people browse your \\freenas servre, they'll see all three folders\shares.

Thanks I've done, but only one folder because I can't format the other HDD to use with this service, maybe you know why? Is possible that because those HDD where previously in RAID it can't?

[Cvdasfg]

You do realize freenas has to be installed on a drive by itself. If you are using one of those drives as the OS drive nothing else can be stored on it. 

[Aekim]

For what you are planning an other OS would be a better choice.

 

Windows with its storage pools are very flexible, you can add drives and they don't have to be the same size. Unraid would be an alternative. They are both easy to configure

 

 

 

[Giuseppe96]

14 hours ago, Cvdasfg said:

You do realize freenas has to be installed on a drive by itself. If you are using one of those drives as the OS drive nothing else can be stored on it. 

I've the OS on a flash drive USB, those HDD are only for storage.

2 hours ago, Aekim said:

For what you are planning an other OS would be a better choice.

 

Windows with its storage pools are very flexible, you can add drives and they don't have to be the same size. Unraid would be an alternative. They are both easy to configure

 

 

 

Yes but UnRaid is a paid software and I've both Windows and Mac OSX and I need to access to the NAS with both OS.

[Aekim]

You can try rockstor as OS, it's more like unraid but free. (I had problems with my amd nas so I can`t say much about it)

You can access the windows share with macs (both can smb).

Sometimes macs have problems to find windows pc over the network, than just typ that into the Connect To Server function

smb://servername/sharename

 

[Giuseppe96]

6 hours ago, Aekim said:

You can try rockstor as OS, it's more like unraid but free. (I had problems with my amd nas so I can`t say much about it)

You can access the windows share with macs (both can smb).

Sometimes macs have problems to find windows pc over the network, than just typ that into the Connect To Server function

smb://servername/sharename

 

I know that maybe there are many other OS for NAS, but it works on the other HDD, maybe the problem is with the HDD and not with the OS, I'll check by myself and make a diagnostic when I've time to do that.