ctag
Patron
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2017
- Messages
- 225
Hi,
First of all, thank you for dropping by! I know forums can be a chore for those sharing knowledge to complete noobs, but I really appreciate that this community exists.
I'm hoping to use this thread as a staging area to plan, receive feedback, and then carry out my first FreeNAS project. I'll try to respect your time and not get too off topic, but I do want to be thorough as well.
Current situation:
Personal computers:
The NAS is a sticking point. It's a Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ that I got a while back and installed 3x 2T WD Red disks in. It's just atrociously slow; enough so that I've given up using it to keep regular backups of the other computers and only store long-term documents/pictures/video on it.
The lvm-raid on my desktop is for stuff I'm not planning to keep forever, like the security footage. So it doesn't get bulletproof solutions. I honestly can't even remember what the scheme is for it: if it has any redundancy or is just a few disks striped together... Need to look that up.
FreeNAS plan:
I'd like to replace the ReadyNAS with a FreeNAS box, and possibly consolidate some of the other systems into it as well. So I'm looking for long term file storage, media streaming, maybe website hosting, and maybe small services like IRC. To be worthwhile, I wouldn't want to build it for less than 8 terabytes usable space, but I'm leaning more toward 16 so there's plenty of room to grow into. I'd like to spend less than $2500, but my budget philosophy is that I'd rather splurge and do it right the first time than have to build it twice, or worse lose my data.
Just because I feel like it, I name all of my computers after fictional spacecraft from movies and games. The ReadyNAS is the sole exception, because it's garbage. Anyway, my next NAS box is going to get the hostname
Below is the list of hardware. It's very generic, and taken mostly from the hardware guide without any competency. But hopefully it's a starting point for figuring out overall system price and making changes.
If I do a single Vdev with RaidZ2, then I'd need 6 of those NAS drives to get 16T, which would be $804. So the total system cost is at $1289, and I still haven't figured out what to do about RAM, PSU, fans, etc.
FreeNAS conceptions:
I'm not sure if what I've picked up from reading around is accurate or up-to-date, so here's some of the stuff floating around in my head:
First of all, thank you for dropping by! I know forums can be a chore for those sharing knowledge to complete noobs, but I really appreciate that this community exists.
I'm hoping to use this thread as a staging area to plan, receive feedback, and then carry out my first FreeNAS project. I'll try to respect your time and not get too off topic, but I do want to be thorough as well.
Current situation:
Personal computers:
- Desktop - 100G root, 500G home, 3.6T lvm-raid
- Laptop - 100G
- IRC box - 200G root (20G used)
- HTTP box - 150G root (10G used)
- NAS - 3.7T x-raid
- Security Camera - SD card root, streams video to desktop lvm-raid and internet
The NAS is a sticking point. It's a Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ that I got a while back and installed 3x 2T WD Red disks in. It's just atrociously slow; enough so that I've given up using it to keep regular backups of the other computers and only store long-term documents/pictures/video on it.
The lvm-raid on my desktop is for stuff I'm not planning to keep forever, like the security footage. So it doesn't get bulletproof solutions. I honestly can't even remember what the scheme is for it: if it has any redundancy or is just a few disks striped together... Need to look that up.
FreeNAS plan:
I'd like to replace the ReadyNAS with a FreeNAS box, and possibly consolidate some of the other systems into it as well. So I'm looking for long term file storage, media streaming, maybe website hosting, and maybe small services like IRC. To be worthwhile, I wouldn't want to build it for less than 8 terabytes usable space, but I'm leaning more toward 16 so there's plenty of room to grow into. I'd like to spend less than $2500, but my budget philosophy is that I'd rather splurge and do it right the first time than have to build it twice, or worse lose my data.
Just because I feel like it, I name all of my computers after fictional spacecraft from movies and games. The ReadyNAS is the sole exception, because it's garbage. Anyway, my next NAS box is going to get the hostname
citadel
after the large space station from Mass Effect. So that's why the thread title is what it is.Below is the list of hardware. It's very generic, and taken mostly from the hardware guide without any competency. But hopefully it's a starting point for figuring out overall system price and making changes.
- Chassis
- Silverstone Technology CS380B Silverstone DIY ATX NAS Storage Case with Hot Swap Cases
- https://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-Technology-Mini-ITX-Computer-DS380B/dp/B01MA6NJE8
- $125
- Motherboard
- Supermicro Motherboard MBD-X10SRL-F
- https://www.amazon.com/Supermicro-Motherboard-MBD-X10SRL-F-B-E5-1600-LGA2011/dp/B00PS67III
- $260
- CPU
- Intel Xeon E5-1650
- https://www.ebay.com/p/Intel-Xeon-E5-1650-3-2GHz-Six-Core-CM8062101102002-Processor/127385868
- $100
- HDD
- WD Red 4TB
- https://smile.amazon.com/Red-4TB-Hard-Disk-Drive/dp/B00EHBERSE/ref=sr_1_1
- $134
- 8T drives cost a bit less per gig, but they just seem like overkill...?
If I do a single Vdev with RaidZ2, then I'd need 6 of those NAS drives to get 16T, which would be $804. So the total system cost is at $1289, and I still haven't figured out what to do about RAM, PSU, fans, etc.
FreeNAS conceptions:
I'm not sure if what I've picked up from reading around is accurate or up-to-date, so here's some of the stuff floating around in my head:
- Don't use more than 80% of the storage available, because ZFS will slow way down.
- Pools can be expanded with additional vdevs. Vdevs cannot be changed. (Exception: vdevs can be increased by replacing drives with larger capacity ones) (Exception: Can add additional disks to a mirror vdev.)
- Pools just wrangle vdevs. Vdevs are where all of the redundancy lives.
- RaidZ is on the way out because larger drives (4T+) take too long to resilver, and the risk of losing a second drive while that's going on is increased.
- All the RAM.
- Server grade is worthwhile, and doesn't necessarily cost way more than consumer.
- Keep HDD temps below 40 degrees C.
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