Advice: Reccomndating for only file sharing as a WAN drive in win/mac

[LittOmAlt]

Hi

I will build a NAS, using FreeNAS for the following purpose:
A small company file server (1 TB disk)
Only file sharing, no media-, web-, email-server
Mount and access shares over wan connection
No fixed IP, will use dyndns.org for this purpose.

Use:
The use will be for up to 10 persons to share drives, like, Admin, Office, Factory, Managment
In windows install (win10) and Mac my co-workers and I will mount the shares as drives:

G:\Admin
H:\Office
I:\Factory
J:\Managment

Backup of NAS:
Upload directly from NAS to, preferably, Jottacloud.com alternative is google drive/dropbox, other

Can I ask you members for HW advice?
Budget ex disks is up to 500 US$ (500 Eur)

Thanks up front!

 

[Chris Moore]

I did some searching and this is the best value, for FreeNAS, that I was able to find. It comes with a 1TB drive, and you would need to add another one to have a mirrored pair to provide redundancy, but it is otherwise good the way it is.

https://www.amazon.com/Newest-Dell-PowerEdge-Server-E3-1225/dp/B0722J7NNX

You could also use a pair of these USB drives (USB 2.0 on purpose) as boot media:

https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Cruzer-Low-Profile-Drive-SDCZ33-016G-B35/dp/B005FYNSZA

USB 3.0 drives tend to overheat and fail early under the constant use FreeNAS puts on the boot pool.

 

[LittOmAlt]

Chris Moore, thank you for the info.

As you inderstand I'm notexperienced in NAS stuff, but I need a NAS for my new comany.

My follow up question is:
Can this Dell NAS help me with my needs if install FreeNAS on it, ref post 1?

The USB drives 2.0 i have, but what puzzeled me is that the NAS needs a usb drive to boot?

I have an old netgear NAS, and that NAS boot without any USB, I expect it is booting from the storage disks.
So why do I need USB to boot Dell NAS, is this recovery boot, or is it to install SW first time?

Do you think I can use this NAS, without another PC to make backup to Jottacloud/Google drive?

Thanks again

 

[Yorick]

@LittOmAlt Yes, FreeNAS can do all of those things, including backup to Google Drive ... and yes, it'll be a little bit more involved to set up than you might have hoped for. The Cloud Sync is a fairly manual process via rclone on command line. It's not complicated as such, but it's also not GUI driven. Everything else ... the SMB share, disk setup, et al ... is all GUI.

FreeNAS has a separate boot pool from the storage pool. That's why the two USB drives.

I'm wanting you to have a good experience. Your budget is the difficulty here. Hardware-wise, you can build this on FreeNAS within your budget. And, if you need something that's 100% mouse-click-done, and you have 0 budget for someone who is FreeNAS-experienced to set it up for you, you may not be happy with your FreeNAS experience.

Don't get me wrong, it'll work great once set up. And, there'll be a learning curve that's a bit steeper than other solutions.

 

[LittOmAlt]

@Yorick thanks for info

My budget can be stretched...

I may also pay for help, I dont know how that works, but...
I will place it behind a pfsense FW.

Have anybody any experience with Jotta Cloud backup from NAS (Norwegian site, good price for sky storage)?
I will try to get jotta to work, i have used it for like companies startup (7-8 years) and im wery pleased with the service (and in Norway we have no NAS...)

 

[Yorick]

Depends on how Jotta is accessed. FreeNAS supports FTP, HTTP, WebDAV and SFTP upload, as well as a bunch of commercial cloud providers. Under the hood it's rclone for the most part, I think ... I haven't set up my own cloud sync yet. If Jotta can do SFTP for example, you'll be fine. If Jotta requires its own custom client, you may be out of luck.

I have no idea how paying for help works either :). If you're happy to climb the learning curve, you can get all the help you need for free in this forum. If your need is to buy the hardware and then have it just work, FreeNAS is going to be a bit rough to start with Cloud Sync.

>> and in Norway we have no NAS...

Lol wut? :D Don't believe in NAS, Norwegians do, do they?

 

[Chris Moore]

in Norway we have no NAS

I am not quite sure what that means

I could be mistaken, but I think all of these forum members are from Norway, so you might be able to get some local help.
@Evertb1
@otpi
@Erlhau9
@xyz-cases
@NismoC32
@IQless
@71degreenorth
@sitelux
@nine09
@ChriZ
@gpsguy

I could be totally wrong on that though.

I think @Dice is in Sweden and might be able to offer some suggestions.

 

[Evertb1]

could be mistaken, but I think all of these forum members are from Norway, so you might be able to get some local help.

Nope I am not from Norway (though I once had a lovely girlfriend there) but I am from the Netherlands :)

 

[Chris Moore]

Nope I am not from Norway (though I once had a lovely girlfriend there) but I am from the Netherlands :)

My mistake. I remembered that you had helped with hardware sources for that part of the world in a previous thread. If you have a moment to help, I am sure the OP would appreciate it.

 

[Chris Moore]

Can this Dell NAS help me with my needs if install FreeNAS on it, ref post 1?

The Dell server I suggested is not a NAS. It is a hardware platform that you can install the FreeNAS software on. It is the NAS operating system that turns a server into a NAS. The USB drives I suggested were intended to be used for what is called the "boot pool" which is where the FreeNAS operating system is installed. The only reason to use USB drives is to save SATA ports on the system board for use with storage drives. The server I suggested comes with a single 1TB storage drive, but if you are using it in a company, you will want to add a second drive, which is easily done, to allow the storage to be mirrored on both drives. This is to protect you from a single disk failure causing data loss.

If you have questions about any of this, please ask and do explore the resources here as there is a great deal of documentation that has been collected here over the years in addition to the manual.

 

[Evertb1]

@LittOmAlt. As already stated I am not from Norway. The only store I know with it's roots firmly in Norway is Komplett (based in Sandefjord). And as far as I know they are targetting the consumer market, judged by their offerings on their Dutch Webshop. So no help from me there. On the other hand there should be possibilities for you with your budget.

I think it's fair to say that something of the caliber of a small business server is exactly what your busines case is asking for. Something like the Dell proposed by @Chris Moore. Or one of the smaller HP offerings.

However, before you buy anything I want to encourage you do some badly needed reading (and looking at You tube video's). A fileserver for a company, no mather how big or small, is to important to do things half baked. I am an IT professional and I know that data is in many ways one of the most important posessions of any company. Backing up to only the cloud for example is a no-no in my book.

Installing FreeNAS and configuring it for use as a fileserver with shares is not all that hard if you read some of the offered resources. Like the ZFS primer etc. Just click around in the resources pages and see what a wealth of information is offered. Believe me, the time you spend with that will benefit you enormously.

 

[LittOmAlt]

Lol wut? :D Don't believe in NAS, Norwegians do, do they?

NSA Ha ha!

 

[LittOmAlt]

@Evertb1 @Chris Moore @Yorick
Thanks for all your kind replies, please dont stop Im not a compleete newbie regarding computers and stuff, but for FreeNAS I dont have any experience. And since I know my goal, share file shares on wan, I do plan to ask in forums, read and see youtube clips before I start. Do you have any good links?

@Chris Moore Thanks for pointing out that FreeNAS makes HW to a NAS. Did I understand it correct that a USB is for booting to save one of the 2 SATA connections in the Dell NAS, and in this way I have option for 1+1 drives when booting from USB?


@Evertb1 Regarding backup, you say no-no to only NAS + cloud. What is a better strategy? Another NAS? Another service?
I have a NegearReadyNAS that is backed up to jottacloud (like 8-9 TB), maybe I can backup companyNAS to ReadyNAS and run my jotta job as usual? This is a possibility, but then I need to figure out how to backup to ReadyNAS... (My ReadyNAS is old (10 years/new disk though) and runs on radiator 4,x, not 6.x)

My router is a dedicated pfsense box+installation for my LAN, I assume this can do the job regarding portforward, safety and logging for company NAS reachable on WAN.

 

[LittOmAlt]

I have in my drawer a 1 TB SSD, is it an idea to use only SSD in a NAS to save on the electric bill?

One kWh costs today, Norway, 1,2 kr = 0,12 EUR. In one year with a normal NAS with HHD using 290 W I need to spend 210 EUR in power.
If I use a SSD wich i think use about 2W, a HHD use up to 25W then SSD uses 0,14 EUR vs 182 EUR

Im not surtain about W use, so is this W discussion a issue compared to total W for a NAS?

 

[Evertb1]

Regarding backup, you say no-no to only NAS + cloud. What is a better strategy? Another NAS? Another service?

I don't think there is such a thing as a perfect backup strategy. Loosing data always means loss of that data or loss of time or even both. That being said there are backup strategies that can mitigate a lot of problems. For my own server I go with the 3-2-1 backup strategy (with a cloud backup as the off site backup). If you Google for the 3-2-1 backup strategy you will be almost overwhelmed with information but you can look at this URL for one explanation The 3-2-1 Backup Strategy.

 

[Yorick]

A 1TB disk should draw about 6-10W. The 25W you’re citing is max draw while starting up. Allow for 80% efficiency of the PSU and that’s 7.5 to 12.5 at the wall.

Your savings will be a bit lower than you anticipated. Whether the additional cost of SSD is worth it because of the savings on the power bill, I’ll leave to you to calculate :).

 

[otpi]

Komplett targets consumer markets. Selling components. However, they have some server grade stuff if you know what to search for (it's really well hidden). If you just want a (new) pre-built server for a NAS advania.no is more business oriented.

I generally use this as a rule of thumb: 1 W = 10 NOK/year, it's close enough, with some margin. SSD vs HDD ~ 5 W difference, i.e.: NOK 50/y, or 250 over 5 years. So, really not a consideration unless SSD have other features you need.

I've heard good things of jotta cloud. I considered using it myself, however I went down the rabbit hole and built a NAS (used HW, all free, except HDDs). But I also had other reasons for a local NAS.

However, from your description: If all you need is 1 TB, sharing and office apps, just buy office 365 licences and use onedrive/sharepoint.