Windows File Server?

[LucasMadman]

Hello one and all,

 

I am currently working on a home server / NAS system for the family. Specs are not a problem, but what i am having trouble figuring out is what OS to use. I am hoping to be able to use the server as a server, and not just a NAS, hosting test servers etc. for hobby work. The Main function of the server is going to be network attached storage - is it possible to use an OS such as Windows Server or just a standard windows OS to host a NAS in the way that FreeNAS would? Or am i going to have to ditch the hobby bit and just use FreeNAS?

 

Thank you for reading this and i would be interested in finding out what home server's you've got if you've got one. So far i've been given a £300 budget, along with anything i can spare for a couple months in order to build the box.

 

Thank you and Kind Regards,

 

~Lucas Madden

[Kered124]

Freenas can be used as a hypervisor for virtual machines, so you can certainly run virtual servers for toying around with. The only issues you may run into are performance related depending of the size of the NAS, as Freenas is pretty RAM hungry. Otherwise, nothing stops you from doing something more basic, like using something like Ubuntu Desktop as your OS. Just install Plex, Kodi, or another media managing software for your media needs, use the built in samba shares for networking to windows machines, and install KVM or virtualbox for running your virtual machines. All just suggestions, in short, if you want to use Freenas, it will work for everything you want to do, but I would recommend doing virtualization on a GUI first to get used to how things work.

[KangUsapEmenq]

Standard Windows can actually use some "basics" of the network sharing, but yeah, not so reliable. Go for FreeNAS for better flexibility and settings, as it's the OS that dedicated for the function itself.

 

And FreeNAS is free, either. I wouldn't spend a hundred bucks for NAS OS lol

 

But from here.

Quote

I am hoping to be able to use the server as a server, and not just a NAS, hosting test servers etc. for hobby work.

You can use Windows Server, or other Linux server distro (like Ubuntu server) if you wanna use this server for other use beside NAS. But this multi functionality really depends on your hardware you gotta use. So don't force it too much. 

[LucasMadman]

1 hour ago, dhannemon13 said:

Standard Windows can actually use some "basics" of the network sharing, but yeah, not so reliable. Go for FreeNAS for better flexibility and settings, as it's the OS that dedicated for the function itself.

 

And FreeNAS is free, either. I wouldn't spend a hundred bucks for NAS OS lol

 

But from here.

You can use Windows Server, or other Linux server distro (like Ubuntu server) if you wanna use this server for other use beside NAS. But this multi functionality really depends on your hardware you gotta use. So don't force it too much. 

Looking into it a bit more, do you know how Schools or colleges work their systems. The school i went too has a system where you log in to any computer and your connected to your own "Drive" so to speak, where you can keep your files. Would this be more of a home cloud system?

[AshleyAshes]

My home FreeNAS server just runs Win10Pro.  Obviously I'm using a additional software, FreeNAS, to manage the drive pooling and parity and such, but the actual shares and stuff are all just SMB shares on 10Pro.

 

I also run other services and such through the box and I stick to Windows because, frankly, I know how to use it.

[LucasMadman]

Just now, AshleyAshes said:

My home FreeNAS server just runs Win10Pro.  Obviously I'm using a additional software, FreeNAS, to manage the drive pooling and parity and such, but the actual shares and stuff are all just SMB shares on 10Pro.

 

I also run other services and such through the box and I stick to Windows because, frankly, I know how to use it.

I'm assuming that your running FreeNAS as a VM?

[AshleyAshes]

2 minutes ago, LucasMadman said:

I'm assuming that your running FreeNAS as a VM?

Nope.  Just FlexRAID for drive pooling and parity, then the pooled virtual drive is running on SMB shares in Windows.  There's no VMs, it's just a Windows box.

[LucasMadman]

1 minute ago, AshleyAshes said:

Nope.  Just FlexRAID for drive pooling and parity, then the pooled virtual drive is running on SMB shares in Windows.  There's no VMs, it's just a Windows box.

Oh, okay! I think that's the best way for me to go about things. 

Much thank for help good sir!

[bcguru9384]

2 hours ago, LucasMadman said:

Hello one and all,

 

I am currently working on a home server / NAS system for the family. Specs are not a problem, but what i am having trouble figuring out is what OS to use. I am hoping to be able to use the server as a server, and not just a NAS, hosting test servers etc. for hobby work. The Main function of the server is going to be network attached storage - is it possible to use an OS such as Windows Server or just a standard windows OS to host a NAS in the way that FreeNAS would? Or am i going to have to ditch the hobby bit and just use FreeNAS?

 

Thank you for reading this and i would be interested in finding out what home server's you've got if you've got one. So far i've been given a £300 budget, along with anything i can spare for a couple months in order to build the box.

 

Thank you and Kind Regards,

 

~Lucas Madden

you can use any version of windows to be a NAS

just use the public folders and if whole hdd to be shared right click its icon then share(might be under properties too)

now ensure your firewall and antivirus is appropriately configured

windows can also (if server OS) download windows updates to one machine then other lan machines get update from local machine saving ISP bandwidth(be wise for ISP to become a win10 update branchcache for their ISP customers)

[LucasMadman]

1 minute ago, bcguru9384 said:

you can use any version of windows to be a NAS

just use the public folders and if whole hdd to be shared right click its icon then share(might be under properties too)

now ensure your firewall and antivirus is appropriately configured

windows can also (if server OS) download windows updates to one machine then other lan machines get update from local machine saving ISP bandwidth(be wise for ISP to become a win10 update branchcache for their ISP customers)

So with public folders, anyone on the network can access them?

[bcguru9384]

31 minutes ago, LucasMadman said:

So with public folders, anyone on the network can access them?

yup as if they were local to them

if done right even non full OS devices can see(like xbox360 or xbox1, ps2 to ps4, tablets etc) 

if device can discover network resources then likely it will see these shared files

make sure network set to private and file sharing enabled

you can also share printers and dvd drives this way as well(right click icon then share(maybe under properties))

[bcguru9384]

not sure if you can share a floppy(3.5"drive like this)but you can share usb dongles this way

pxeboot a nocd drive system to a shared dvd drive with OS disc this way as well

[bcguru9384]

note if you do server like this and have large storeage then you can setup an edge to edge dnsserver on the server for kids to call

now repeated 50 times a day youtubevid can be cached in server and save isp bandwidth but still get fresh ads delivered (you set servers edge browser settings to ram=2gbyte to your alloted size and temp files to 10gbyte or allotted size(its a temp dvr type folder so larger is better))

[LucasMadman]

8 minutes ago, bcguru9384 said:

note if you do server like this and have large storeage then you can setup an edge to edge dnsserver on the server for kids to call

now repeated 50 times a day youtubevid can be cached in server and save isp bandwidth but still get fresh ads delivered (you set servers edge browser settings to ram=2gbyte to your alloted size and temp files to 10gbyte or allotted size(its a temp dvr type folder so larger is better))

Okay, so this way is the best way of simply having another option to click on when in 'This PC'.

[LucasMadman]

I'd like to thank eveyone for their imput. After looking into it a bit more i think i am going to use FreeNAS and set it up so i can access it via a dormain - allowing me to access them from work etc. I'll build another box in the future for anything else that i may want to play with.

 

Once again, Thanks for the quick replys and inputs.

 

-Lucas

[bcguru9384]

1 minute ago, LucasMadman said:

I'd like to thank eveyone for their imput. After looking into it a bit more i think i am going to use FreeNAS and set it up so i can access it via a dormain - allowing me to access them from work etc. I'll build another box in the future for anything else that i may want to play with.

 

Once again, Thanks for the quick replys and inputs.

 

-Lucas

type set windows workgroup name into web search

set domain here as well as workgroup? 

windows is a pretty handy OS

[KangUsapEmenq]

17 hours ago, LucasMadman said:

Looking into it a bit more, do you know how Schools or colleges work their systems. The school i went too has a system where you log in to any computer and your connected to your own "Drive" so to speak, where you can keep your files. Would this be more of a home cloud system?

This actually interests me. Does it need some kind of username and password?

[LucasMadman]

On 12/7/2017 at 11:18 AM, dhannemon13 said:

This actually interests me. Does it need some kind of username and password?

Yes, you login with a given username and password which may be changed at your discretion, and you can then access what is basically the same PC from any PC on the network. The same login details can be used to access email and a web based system of some kind. My old school used their own cloud file system that linked in directly with your own 'drive' and they also used Microsoft online, or share point as i believe they are now calling it.

 

Sorry for the slow reply, been working the past couple days.

 

-Lucas