First server build

cheeseham

Cadet
Joined
Jul 20, 2019
Messages
2
Hi everyone,
I am looking to build a server to centralise and back up photos / other media so I can access the media from one central location. I have a case, fans and a power supply that I would like to re-use. I looked through the recommended hardware guide, found some the following components and I am looking for help to see if I am on the right track with the project.

Motherboard: https://www.ebay.ie/itm/Supermicro-...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649
CPU : https://www.ebay.ie/itm/Intel-Xeon-...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649
Hard drives: https://www.amazon.co.uk/WD-TB-NAS-...9303&s=gateway&sprefix=red+2tb,aps,164&sr=8-3
RAM : https://www.ebay.ie/itm/Hynix-16Gb-...885488?hash=item41fcaa2db0:g:f1kAAOSwdOdchSSU
PSU is a thermaltake toughpower 600w.

For the ram i just searched 16gb of ecc ram on ebay so not sure if it is compatible with the motherboard.


Also a question on freenas. My current understanding is that it creates redundancy through the use of RAID. ie a hard drive fails and you are able to rebuild the info from the second harddrive. I would like to know does it have the ability to back up to another harddrive within the system ?
ie you would have your RAID across 2 hard drives and then you would have a back up on another hard drive?
Basically I am looking for redundancy and back-up capability in the one machine. Any suggestions on this would be very helpful.

Again, my main goal is to centralise my photo / media library along with having redundancy and back up capabilities.

Thanks in advance for the help, I hope I have given ye the info needed to help.
 

zorak950

Dabbler
Joined
Jul 6, 2019
Messages
16
I'm new to FreeNAS myself, so I'll leave the hardware question for others, but as for the backup, yes you can do that, but be very careful about considering another drive on the same system a proper backup: if that computer gets malware, or is damaged, or is stolen, it doesn't really matter how many hard drives your data is on. If your data is important to you you definitely want it on multiple machines, and at least one of them off-site. Investing in a good cloud backup service will add more protection against data loss than the greatest FreeNAS setup ever will.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2018
Messages
969
For the ram i just searched 16gb of ecc ram on ebay so not sure if it is compatible with the motherboard.
I think you'll want to put a bit more effort into matching memory to your board than that. For one, the memory posted is registered memory, it also looks like it is 16GB DIMMs. From the supermicro page for that board it looks like you need Unbuffered ECC UDIMM, DDR3-1600MHz in DIMMs up to 8GB.

My current understanding is that it creates redundancy through the use of RAID. ie a hard drive fails and you are able to rebuild the info from the second harddrive. I would like to know does it have the ability to back up to another harddrive within the system ?
ie you would have your RAID across 2 hard drives and then you would have a back up on another hard drive?
Basically I am looking for redundancy and back-up capability in the one machine. Any suggestions on this would be very helpful.
FreeNAS makes use of ZFS to keep your data safe. ZFS builds pools, which are made vdevs, which are made of disks. The vdevs themselves is where the redundancy lives by having either mirrored vdevs or RAIDZ1|2|3 vdevs.

It sounds like you're looking to use FreeNAS for its intended purposes but you may have some more reading to do. Check out the resources section for primers on how ZFS works, how to design your pool layout etc. It is also work looking up various terminology etc for ZFS to make communication easier.

I'm also going to second what @zorak950 said. My own backup strategy involves an on-site backup FreeNAS machine which gets copies from the primary on a regular basis as well off-site rotated disks so that if my house burns down I don't lose everything.


I hope this helps some. Welcome to the forums! FreeNAS is a great tool and a chance to learn a TON.
 

cheeseham

Cadet
Joined
Jul 20, 2019
Messages
2
Thanks for the info. I have checked out the resources section and it is great. Download a doc on ZFS and looked at the compatible ram section for the motherboard also. Also good points about baking up, must look at my options for this.

Also on the hardware I found the following : https://www.ebay.ie/itm/Server-Memo...-12800R-DDR3-1600-RDIMM-ECC-1-5V/303181167608

However it is not on the recommended list. Should I keep it simple and stick to the list and pay more or has anyone had any success with ram like this?
Thanks again!!
 
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