Another Noob Asking For Thoughts:)

[stephenstud]

I have been reading about this, for a bit now. It seems to me you need really good hardware, and you really can get your money's worth on almost anything. So, as I was reading this blog:

http://blog.brianmoses.net/2012/01/do-it-yourself-network-attached-storage.html?r=related

I came up with my list of my work good for me... Or so I hope?

Case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112316

M/B:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182829

CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116907

P/S:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151119

Memory as per Manf. Specs:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820391017

Hard Drives:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236603

The motherboard, and power supply are from reading here. Memory is from the manufactures web, case and hard drives are my choosing. Im just going to be streaming media, maybe some android back up. Im interested in cloud recording for my cameras, but not sure this would do it? And way, I just thought I would see where I need to tweak, or rethink what I have? Thank you:)

 

[rm-r]

hi, and welcome

you used code tags for your links... best not too.

also 4gb of non ECC ram is not recommended for zfs.... at all....

check the sickies for hardware guides is best

you may also want to buy a cpu :)

 

[stephenstud]

Wow... What an idiot I am....lol I guess that would help.... And if Im reading around correctly, zfs is system back up? Im not interested in that for this setup. Im just thinking really just a simple home media server to 1 tv. No music, or photo's. I would like to read up more on the file sharing side of it though..... And the memory is per the manufactures specs:

http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Core/Q87/X10SLQ.cfm

#3 says : Up to 32GB DDR3 non-ECC 1600MHz UDIMM in 4 sockets.

Should I look at another board instead?

 

[rm-r]

soo... ZFS is the file system and disk management, not "backups" - please read this http://forums.freenas.org/threads/slideshow-explaining-vdev-zpool-zil-and-l2arc-for-noobs.7775/

ECC ram has nothing to do with manufacturer recommendations - its more to do with how much you care about your data.... ECC ram checks for errors as it transfers the data - non ecc doesn't so if you use non-ecc then you can write a file that's corrupt.

also... reading between your lines... are you expecting this freenas to display the media to the TV? is so it wont. you will need another machine to run the TV

 

[Dusan]

ECC ram has nothing to do with manufacturer recommendations - its more to do with how much you care about your data....

It actually does. You can only use the memory that is supported by the motherboard. The X10SLQ is based on a desktop chipset (Q87) and does not support ECC memory.
@stephensud, looking at the specs the board also does not (officially) support Xeon CPUs (http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Core/Q87/X10SLQ.cfm). You should look at a server board: X10SLL or X10SLM should be a much better match for a FreeNAS build.

 

[stephenstud]

I thought I read there is plug-ins, or another add-in that will run the media?

 

[rm-r]

It actually does. You can only use the memory that is supported by the motherboard.

sorry that's more accurate - i meant more that using it or not should not just be defined by the MB / cpu, but also how much you care about your data integrity.

I thought I read there is plug-ins, or another add-in that will run the media?

there are - plex is a great one, but they manage and sort, order. the freenas box itself will not display the movies on the TV screen, you will need another PC /raspberrypi etc to connect to the TV. a plus of this is you don't need a hdmi out on the freenas mb - you can just use a low end vga - check my signature for my setup - works perfectly... as a NAS

 

[stephenstud]

So, Im trying to build a media server. What your saying is theres no way that running freenas will allow it to stream?

 

[pirateghost]

Freenas is a server. You can stream from it as long as you have a client on the other end to display it on your TV. It cannot, by itself, directly display the media on your TV.

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

[stephenstud]

Well poo poo..... I guess I need to look at another operating system then...lol I thought I did most of the homework, I guess not. I have tvmobili running now, but I thought having a server set up would be great. Then being able to back up my phone, and record(at times) with my network cameras. If anyone doesn't mind me asking, what is a good server OS for that?

 

[ewhac]

I think there might be some talking past one another going on. At the risk of appearing condescending:

A "media streaming" setup generally involves two things: The Thing That Holds The Media files, and The Thing That Plays The Media files on the display. For a long while, these were the same box, but increasingly we're seeing The Thing That Holds The Media become a separate box tucked away in a corner somewhere and administered via a Web browser; and The Thing That Plays The Media is a small-ish device with a network interface, an HDMI port to go to the TV/display, and a UI. The process of getting media files from The Thing That Holds The Media to The Thing That Plays The Media is fairly ad-hoc at the moment. There is no single settled standard for doing it and, as a consequence, there is no single solution that will work across all Things That Play The Media.

FreeNAS is very well suited to being The Thing That Holds The Media, but has no facility for also being The Thing That Plays The Media. There are a handful of plugins for FreeNAS that will let it talk to other Things That Play The Media, but FreeNAS will not do the playback itself.

 

[pirateghost]

Well poo poo..... I guess I need to look at another operating system then...lol I thought I did most of the homework, I guess not. I have tvmobili running now, but I thought having a server set up would be great. Then being able to back up my phone, and record(at times) with my network cameras. If anyone doesn't mind me asking, what is a good server OS for that?

FreeNAS can do all of those things but it seems you don't understand the concept of server/client. You keep asking about a server but indicate you want a client to run the video.

What EXACTLY are you looking for?

Do you want a media server and central storage location for your home network files? FreeNAS is perfect.

Do you want something you can plug directly into your TV? You are looking for a client that could also function as a server, but you lose the benefits of what FreeNAS has to offer.

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

[stephenstud]

Not all condescending! I prefer honesty:) My tv has no problem playing media streamed to it from my windows pc, with the help of tvmobili. Is Plex something like that? At least from what I saw on the website, it looked to be the same? But I have been known to miss a thing or 2....lol

I'm looking for a media server and central storage location for your home network files. I would like to back up my android phone to it from cloud, or where ever. I would like to also record my cloud camera's on it when I need them too.

 

[pirateghost]

Not all condescending! I prefer honesty:) My tv has no problem playing media streamed to it from my windows pc, with the help of tvmobili. Is Plex something like that? At least from what I saw on the website, it looked to be the same? But I have been known to miss a thing or 2....lol

I'm looking for a media server and central storage location for your home network files. I would like to back up my android phone to it from cloud, or where ever. I would like to also record my cloud camera's on it when I need them too.

Then FreeNAS will likely work for you assuming you meet the hardware requirements.

You will likely use dlna or plex plugin to provide the stream for your TV to pick up.

What you are asking for is precisely what a NAS appliance does.

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

[stephenstud]

Perfect!!! So If I look at the M/B the person pointed out above, then I should be good to go:) Is there plugins for Phone back ups, and camera recording as well? Or should I go read some more?:)

 

[pirateghost]

Perfect!!! So If I look at the M/B the person pointed out above, then I should be good to go:) Is there plugins for Phone back ups, and camera recording as well? Or should I go read some more?:)

backups are handled on the client side, and have nothing to do with the actual storage. Backing up your phone depends on what OS it is running. There isnt some magical plugin that 'backs up phones'. There are a number of ways to accomplish what you want.

Camera recording? Nearly the same answer. There are so many different models out there, there is no way for a 'one-size-fits-all' solution to exist. FreeNAS provides the storage, and you tell your camera recording software (running on another machine, dvr, etc) where the files need to go.

 

[stephenstud]

Ok, so I think I getting it now. A server is really just storage, nothing more... So I can move forward on looking at my hardware list, and freenas should work well for what I'm looking for:)

 

[stephenstud]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1519398

This set looks to be good? It handles ECC, and i3 i5 and i7. Should I sat with X10SLM, oe X10SLL?

 

[jgreco]

The X10SAE is targeted as a workstation board, not a server board. Telltales: audio, several PCIe x1, and two PCIe x16, along with PCI and also requiring an E3-xxx5 CPU to drive the onboard video.

Quite frankly, I am usually full of nasty things to say about non-server boards because they typically fail to hit important points for server use. But this has Intel ethernets and supports ECC, and is likely to be problem-free. You just have to live with limited expansion options. If you are looking for a board that might someday be retasked as a workstation, this is good. If not, look carefully for better combinations of server board (usually a bit cheaper, and it is perfectly fine to go with Ivy Bridge, which is very solid) and CPU.

 

[stephenstud]

Thank you sir! I really appreciate all the help on this. I have repaired computers for years, but I have never really dealt with the server side....lol As long as the forum doesn't mind, I will post something:)