Old Dell t3500 as home nas

[mahii]

Can a use dell t3500 workstations used as home nas server??should I make any changes in configuration. 

 

Thank you.

[Ben Potter]

Hi there,

 

You can totally use your old Dell Workstation as a NAS. I would recommend installing Ubuntu Server on it because that uses a lot less resources. I have an old PC from 10 years ago working as a NAS, Plex Server, and web server and the CPU usage never goes above 20% unless I'm doing video encoding or something. Also, in most cases 2gb of RAM will be plenty! But, if you don't want to worry about installing and configuring Ubuntu, you could always just stick with Windows.

 

So here are the steps for installing Ubuntu Server and setting up a NAS:

1. Follow this full tutorial I wrote on how to install Ubuntu Server or use this one.
2. Follow this tutorial to configure OpenSSH so you can access it from your main computer.
3. Install Webmin (a web server control panel) using their page.
4. Install samba by typing "sudo apt-get install samba -y" and type your password to confirm.
5. On Webmin's page you can configure Samba or use Webmin's Samba Configuration page and skip to Step 3.

I would SERIOUSLY recommend Ubuntu and I found it really fun setting up my Ubuntu Server, even when I didn't know what I was doing. Feel free to message me if you have any questions. 

[AshleyAshes]

3 hours ago, Ben Potter said:

Hi there,

 

You can totally use your old Dell Workstation as a NAS. I would recommend installing Ubuntu Server on it because that uses a lot less resources. I have an old PC from 10 years ago working as a NAS, Plex Server, and web server and the CPU usage never goes above 20% unless I'm doing video encoding or something. Also, in most cases 2gb of RAM will be plenty! But, if you don't want to worry about installing and configuring Ubuntu, you could always just stick with Windows.

 

So here are the steps for installing Ubuntu Server and setting up a NAS:

1. Follow this full tutorial I wrote on how to install Ubuntu Server or use this one.
2. Follow this tutorial to configure OpenSSH so you can access it from your main computer.
3. Install Webmin (a web server control panel) using their page.
4. Install samba by typing "sudo apt-get install samba -y" and type your password to confirm.
5. On Webmin's page you can configure Samba or use Webmin's Samba Configuration page and skip to Step 3.

I would SERIOUSLY recommend Ubuntu and I found it really fun setting up my Ubuntu Server, even when I didn't know what I was doing. Feel free to message me if you have any questions. 

I'd say just go with NAS4Free or something.  It's an entire embedded style solution and well documented.  It also spares you the need of installing a full desktop OS.  ...And it'll all run off a 2GB USB Key

[Ben Potter]

23 minutes ago, AshleyAshes said:

I'd say just go with NAS4Free or something.  It's an entire embedded style solution and well documented.  It also spares you the need of installing a full desktop OS.  ...And it'll all run off a 2GB USB Key

That's actually a great idea! I was thinking there weren't solutions like that available because FreeNAS requires 8gb of RAM, but Nas4Free is a better option in this case

[AshleyAshes]

1 hour ago, Ben Potter said:

That's actually a great idea! I was thinking there weren't solutions like that available because FreeNAS requires 8gb of RAM, but Nas4Free is a better option in this case

NAS4Free basically turns any x86 PC into a NAS appliance, as a result most end users would never have to know much beyond 'How to use NAS4Free' without needing to learn the underlying OS.  It's really one of the best solutions if you JUST want to make a NAS and a feature rich NAS at that.  Obviously going full Ubuntu gives a wacktonne more options but options few would ever need and it'd really complicate the machine.

[Ben Potter]

5 hours ago, AshleyAshes said:

NAS4Free basically turns any x86 PC into a NAS appliance, as a result most end users would never have to know much beyond 'How to use NAS4Free' without needing to learn the underlying OS.  It's really one of the best solutions if you JUST want to make a NAS and a feature rich NAS at that.  Obviously going full Ubuntu gives a wacktonne more options but options few would ever need and it'd really complicate the machine.

Yeah absolutely! I also found about OpenMediaVault and unraid basic can do the same! I'm going to make a post on my blog about Nas4Free definitely. It looks really cool.

[mahii]

On 4/17/2016 at 6:50 AM, Ben Potter said:

Yeah absolutely! I also found about OpenMediaVault and unraid basic can do the same! I'm going to make a post on my blog about Nas4Free definitely. It looks really cool.

Thanks !!!!!!!!!!! ..........for suggestions.....it was a big help........

[wunderhacker]

I use a t3400 with nas4free  as a vm host and a samba share.  Currently have 2GB of RAM in there. I plan on upgrading the RAM at some point but it works fine!