BUILD Building FreeNas for Home with Plex

[DarkMagus]

Hello everyone. I am new the to the community and have been drawn to FreeNAS by many reviews and suggestions from people I trust. I want to thank cyberjock for his great hardware guide and slideshow for noobs like me. I learned a lot from it. Also want to thank Ericloewe for the info on the Supermicro x10. It actually got me to change my mobo choice.

My objective is to create a centralized server for all my data and backups. I would also like the server to run my Plex media server to host my movie collection. If possible I want to have everything backed up offsite with crashplan. If possible i would also like to offload all my bit torrent work to run from the NAS in an isolated Jail during off hours. Last one is not really a requirement but a want.


Goals:
-Plexmedia server with up to 3-4 concurrent sessions (only 1-2 transcoding)
- Backing up 2 PC computers to the NAS
- Backup of the entire NAS
-Setup BitTorrent to run in an isolated environment


Current Planned Build Phase 1:
Case:Fractal Design Define R4
Motherboard: Supermicro MBD-X10 SL7-F-O
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230V3 Haswell 3.3GHz BX80646E31230V3
RAM: 2x Crucial 8GB Single DDR3 1600 ECC CT102472BD160B
PSU: SeaSonic SSR-450RM 450W ATX12V 80 Plus Gold rated
Drives: 3x 2TB Western Digital Reds with 2x 2TB WD Green(note on the drives to follow)

I am planning to setup the 5 drives in a Raid-Z2 in this phase of the build. The goal is over the next year to upgrade all the drives to 4TB Red Drives and double the RAM. Due to the fact that the Green drives have been used before they will be replaced first and quickly.

Phase 2 Build:
Replace all 5x 2TB drives with 5x 4TB WD Reds.
Add 2x Crucial 8GB Single DDR3 1600 ECC CT102472BD160B to increase total RAM to 32GB
Turn the 3x 2TB Red Drives in the additional volatile storage in a Raid-z1 (I understand the risks and all data in there is expected to either be already backed up or safe to lose)

I want to do this in phases due to budgeting issues and the need to get this up and running as my current Plex Media Server died and I am kind of missing is big time.

I welcome any comments on the build and suggestions to make improvements or changes to the plan in order to achieve a better outcome.

 

[Jailer]

Step up and get one more drive for your pool. 6 drives for a RAID Z2 setup makes more sense than 5.

Other than that everything looks great and it should perform well for you.

 

[Ericloewe]

Step up and get one more drive for your pool. 6 drives for a RAID Z2 setup makes more sense than 5.

Other than that everything looks great and it should perform well for you.

Yeah, that's good advice. Not absolutely essential, but it eliminates some what-ifs.

Hello everyone. I am new the to the community and have been drawn to FreeNAS by many reviews and suggestions from people I trust. I want to thank cyberjock for his great hardware guide and slideshow for noobs like me. I learned a lot from it. Also want to thank Ericloewe for the info on the Supermicro x10. It actually got me to change my mobo choice.

My objective is to create a centralized server for all my data and backups. I would also like the server to run my Plex media server to host my movie collection. If possible I want to have everything backed up offsite with crashplan. If possible i would also like to offload all my bit torrent work to run from the NAS in an isolated Jail during off hours. Last one is not really a requirement but a want.


Goals:
-Plexmedia server with up to 3-4 concurrent sessions (only 1-2 transcoding)
- Backing up 2 PC computers to the NAS
- Backup of the entire NAS
-Setup BitTorrent to run in an isolated environment


Current Planned Build Phase 1:
Case:Fractal Design Define R4
Motherboard: Supermicro MBD-X10 SL7-F-O
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230V3 Haswell 3.3GHz BX80646E31230V3
RAM: 2x Crucial 8GB Single DDR3 1600 ECC CT102472BD160B
PSU: SeaSonic SSR-450RM 450W ATX12V 80 Plus Gold rated
Drives: 3x 2TB Western Digital Reds with 2x 2TB WD Green(note on the drives to follow)

I am planning to setup the 5 drives in a Raid-Z2 in this phase of the build. The goal is over the next year to upgrade all the drives to 4TB Red Drives and double the RAM. Due to the fact that the Green drives have been used before they will be replaced first and quickly.

Phase 2 Build:
Replace all 5x 2TB drives with 5x 4TB WD Reds.
Add 2x Crucial 8GB Single DDR3 1600 ECC CT102472BD160B to increase total RAM to 32GB
Turn the 3x 2TB Red Drives in the additional volatile storage in a Raid-z1 (I understand the risks and all data in there is expected to either be already backed up or safe to lose)

I want to do this in phases due to budgeting issues and the need to get this up and running as my current Plex Media Server died and I am kind of missing is big time.

I welcome any comments on the build and suggestions to make improvements or changes to the plan in order to achieve a better outcome.

Sounds good, just be sure to properly stress test the server, particularly the hard drives.

 

[pschatz100]

On the WD Green drive, you might want to use the WDIDLE3 utility to adjust head parking behavior in order to avoid excessive Load Cycle Count. Google this for more detail about checking your drive and adjusting the value if necessary. Should not be an issue with WD Red drives.

I have a Green drive that is three years old, and it works just fine.

 

[DarkMagus]

Thanks for all the advise. I will see about adding another drive to up the total to 6.

I will also check out what pschatz100 said about the Greens before I used them.

Alas I was already to pull the trigger on this build when the GFX card in my desktop went boom. Now I am $500 light on the money needed for this build and it has to be delayed. Oh well I build a basic setup on old hardware with old drive to play around with the OS and get comfortable with it while I wait for the next few pay checks to get me back in the green.

Thanks again.