Can I use a freeNAS server to run software as a PC?

[Marco_Paris]

Hi everybody,

I'm new to servers and I'm still struggling understanding the differences between the different kinds of them. So please forgive me if what I ask is dumb.
I work in a research lab and I need to set up a server for my team. We are few people (5-10) and everybody but me will use the server just for file sharing. For this reason I was thinking to use freeNAS as OS.

I work with MatLab and I use a powerful workstation for the computationally heavy work (or when needed a cluster) . What I would need to be able to do with the machine with freeNAS more than file sharing would be the following:
- launch on the server from my workstation MatLab, not necessarily with a graphical interface
- use it to run time-consuming (but not computationally demanding) scripts while I keep my workstation available for other work
- this while the server keeps working for file sharing (these scripts need almost a day to get completed)

Of course the machine will be powerful enough, I was thinking at something like
Lenovo ThinkServer TD340.

Will I be able to do this with freeNAS?

Many thanks in advance for your help

Marco

 

[anodos]

Hi everybody,

I'm new to servers and I'm still struggling understanding the differences between the different kinds of them. So please forgive me if what I ask is dumb.
I work in a research lab and I need to set up a server for my team. We are few people (5-10) and everybody but me will use the server just for file sharing. For this reason I was thinking to use freeNAS as OS.

I work with MatLab and I use a powerful workstation for the computationally heavy work (or when needed a cluster) . What I would need to be able to do with the machine with freeNAS more than file sharing would be the following:
- launch on the server from my workstation MatLab, not necessarily with a graphical interface
- use it to run time-consuming (but not computationally demanding) scripts while I keep my workstation available for other work
- this while the server keeps working for file sharing (these scripts need almost a day to get completed)

Of course the machine will be powerful enough, I was thinking at something like
Lenovo ThinkServer TD340.

Will I be able to do this with freeNAS?

Many thanks in advance for your help

Marco

You can create a virtual box jail and run MATLAB in a Linux VM. Freenas 10 will include bhve support and so you will be able to create Linux VMs without using virtualbox.

You will need to have enough resources for MATLAB and freenas and your vm. Freenas by itself requires 8GB ECC. My guess is the more the merrier.

 

[cyberjock]

I just want to add that if MATLAB is doing things that are either heavy on the CPU side or heavy on the disk side, the performance of the entire FreeNAS server may suffer... potentially tremendously. I don't know what you use MATLAB for (and I've never used MATLAB personally, just watched others use it for engineering stress testing), so I can't really say for sure how much it may/will affect your server's performance.

 

[Marco_Paris]

thank you very much for these advices!

I will be using MATLAB for things light on the CPU, so do not need an extremely performing machine, but heavy on disks. The good things is that the server won't be heavily used by the other users so I do not think it will be an issue if the filesharing performaces will slow down, as long as they will keep working.

RAM-wise, FreeNAS alone requires 8Gb, but how much do you think a Linux VM will require?

Thanks again for your help

 

[cyberjock]

No way to know, but if you are going heavy on disks I'd try for 32GB of RAM. More the merrier and will help absorb some of that disk workload.

 

[depasseg]

How much does MATLAB use/require? Add ~10-20% and that is what the VM will need.