NAS Build guide

[Mikensan]

My hope is to get stickied, or at least give some of us something to easily link others to when they're looking for a build guide. 

 

SOFTWARE:

Unfortunately going into more detail regarding O/S is going to be very user-specific and each O/S could have its own entire thread (heh, forum actually). All I mean by "custom" is it's not pre-packaged.

 

NAS focused (Some do support virtualization, but otherwise are not type-1 hypervisors):

FreeNAS

NAS4Free

Unraid

Windows Storage Spaces

Custom: Windows + FlexRAID

Custom: Linux + ZFS

 

Virtualization: (You could then virtualize your NAS solution with some caveats in mind)

Linux: Everyone in the end uses KVM, so you can do it yourself or chose one that's been gussied up: Proxmox / unraid / others

Windows: Hyper-V (Included with Windows Server, also free if you download Windows Server Core Edition)

vmware: ESXi (actually runs on linux-ish, but not KVM)

Citrix: Xenserver

 

 

HARDWARE:

Nothing will include disk prices...

Used ($250+):

Pros: Cheap, rack mountable, powerful

Cons: Uses more energy than custom (120w idle), very limited options when upgrading the processor, much louder than a PC

Spoiler

 

Dell: R510, R610, R710, C2100  

R510 supports up to 12 disks in 3.5 configuration

R610 supports up to 6 disks in 2.5 configuration

R710 supports up to 8 disks in 2.5, and 6 disks in 3.5 configurations

C2100 supports up to 12 disks in 3.5 configuration

Average configuration will be 24-32gb with 2x 2010-era Xeon processors (usually similar to an i7 920) and no disks. They should all be very close in price, but YMMV.

Research any raid card it may come with - ideally buy your own HBA (I'm using an IBM M1015 that I flashed to IT mode. It is a re-branded LSI card.) Some raid cards may only support 2TB and may need a firmware update.

 

 

New ($453+) Not suggested for virtualization:

Pros: Everything is shiny and new, uses slightly less energy.., can be upgraded

Cons: More expensive than used

Spoiler

 

CPU: Intel Pentium G4400 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor $57.33    

Board: ASRock H110M-HDS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard $46.99    

RAM: 8GB $50

Case $100

SeaSonic 360W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply $59.99    

HBA card: $120

 

 

 

New ($683+) For virtualization:

Pros: Same as above

Cons: Same as above.

Spoiler

For virtualization, I would go for 32GB, it's always the first issue you hit. I'd also switch the processor out to an i3 / e3 series or better.

 

 

This gets regurgitated over and over. I forgot the HP ones so if somebody chimes in I'll add them.

[The Sloth]

for a cheap nas get a pi for 35 usd and a bunch of hdd bonus being very low power consumption. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

some tips/ suggestions

 

For the cheap build.

 

These will suck power about 120w idle, so look at the power bill before getting

 

Many old raid cards will only support drives up to 2tb

 

These can be very loud, heavy and big.

 

for the mid tier

 

Id go 8gb personally

 

beware these nics on board can suck if you want to do vlans or other fancy stuff.

 

For the top tier

 

Virt mainly wants ram, but depends on the use. Id get 32gb if your gonna be running lots of vms

 

Other suggestions.

 

For OS, Centos/ubuntu server/debian are great if you know linux well. Windows server 2016(or 2012r2 if you want) costs about 400, but works very well in a windows enviroment, and can also be used as a domain controller. Windows 10 can work as a basic nas if you like windows, but it still costs about 120 dollars and is worse in most uses compared to linux. But you have smb multichannel on windows and better AD support. For a premad nas OS freenas and openmedia vault are my current top pics.

 

If you want plug and play or want support look at a qnap or synology nas. They cost about 300 for a basic 4 bay and about 800 for a good 8 bay, but your getting a very low power system, plug and play support, often support for running things like vmware off it and comerical support. If you doing this for a larger buiness look at something like the dell emc storagre(but this is way out of home nas catagory and your thinking 5k+)

 

 

 

 

[tt2468]

Instead of an r610 or r710, go for an r510. You can get models that have 12 3.5" bays for the same price of an r710. r510s also support the newer h700, which means that you can use capacities of greater than 2TB.

[Mikensan]

@Electronics Wizardy - Added additional cons to cheapy, edited "new" one to only have 8gb (I agree, 8gb would be enough) Edited mid-tier to specifically say 32GB. However for the CPU I'd still upgrade it from a G4400. Great processor but at only 2 cores total, it gets overworked pretty quickly. The "next up" processor I'd switch to is an i3 or e3 since they're still fairly reasonably priced and will happily chug along with most home labs.

 

@nerdslayer1 Last I looked at Pis, you're not connecting SATA disks without a USB adapter. Not something I am going to personally recommend to anyone - better off just throwing the drives inside your personal computer and creating shares. I haven't researched nor ever tried, but I would be surprised it if could saturate a gigabit network. I believe the NIC bums a ride of the USB controller - which you'd also have your disks on... I'd get a WD mycloud before a pi.

 

@tt2468 I've added the R510 - however you can stick any card in any machine, and can you one way or another simply pass disks through an H700 (similar to IT mode)?

[The Sloth]

8 minutes ago, Mikensan said:

Last I looked at Pis, you're not connecting SATA disks without a USB adapter. Not something I am going to personally recommend to anyone - better off just throwing the drives inside your personal computer and creating shares. I haven't researched nor ever tried, but I would be surprised it if could saturate a gigabit network. I believe the NIC bums a ride of the USB controller - which you'd also have your disks on... I'd get a WD mycloud before a pi.

 

 

you would be surprised also almost no power consumption. 

[Mikensan]

8 minutes ago, nerdslayer1 said:

you would be surprised also almost no power consumption. 

Unless there's a newer Pi3, they're limited to 100mbps according to the internet. Even with an adapter, you won't reach gigabit speeds thanks to USB 2.0....

https://www.cnet.com/how-to/raspberry-pi-as-cheap-nas-solution/

https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blogs/jeff-geerling/getting-gigabit-networking