FreeNAS Custom-Built NAS for Plex Media Server

[Guinea]

I am very new to the FreeNAS idea. I used a QNAP NAS for awhile and ran my Plex Media Server on it. I am now looking at building a custom built NAS to serve a new home I am building. I am aiming for a rackmount setup and looking to use FreeNAS and potentially ZFS for my setup, as I have heard a lot of recommendations for it.

I am very new to these concepts and wanted to know what the recommended configuration would be for my goal. My build is as follows (so far):

• Chassis - iStarUSA D-380HN
• Motherboard - SUPERMICRO X10SRM-TF Micro ATX
• CPU - Intel Xeon E5-2630 V4
• RAM - Crucial CT16G4RFD4213 16GB 288-Pin DDR4 2133 Server Memory (x2 - 32GB)
• PSU - SeaSonic X Series X-850 (SS-850KM3 Active PFC F3) 850W
• HDD's - WD Red 8TB (x8)

I am still shopping for the HDDs and I am still on the fence about that chassis. I prefer the HGST DeskStar HDDs but they are pricey, unless I went with 4TB models. The chassis is really nice looking aesthetically, but the limitation of 3U space, 80mm fans, and only 8 bays might harm my futureproofing and noise and cooling in that chassis. I am looking for advice on this and what the ZFS configuration would be for an ideal setup.

Basically I am planning to run this as a purely Plex Media Server. I am planning to serve up 1:1 ripped Blu-rays to a home theater system in lossless format (hence the beefy specs) and also stream to 3-4 TVs throughout the house and have the ability to transcode if necessary without any loss of quality. The home theater is the primary quality focus, but you get the idea.

For HDDs I am not sure I want to drop over $2000 on eight 8TB drives right away and I don't think I would need that space. What would you recommend for a ZFS configuration for me if I wanted to start off with a decent amount of space, be able to add space to the primary pool down the road, and also has solid safety over my data. I don't want to have to rip all of my movies again, I want them to be secure and recoverable in a hardware failure.

 

[SweetAndLow]

I like your build except getting a dual socket cpu in a single socket motherboard is dumb. get the E5-1650v4 much better cpu than the one you have and way less money.

 

[Guinea]

Oh interesting. I didn't even realize that. I was basically going off of a high PassMark rating to ensure it could handle a lot of transcoding efficiently. If I ended up going with a larger chassis (I am looking around still for chassis' that are quiet, a little bit higher capacity, but still aesthetically pleasing)....should I go for upgrading the motherboard to be dual socket instead?

UPDATE: I just looked into that CPU and it is actually ranked higher even on PassMark. So touche! I will definitely make that adjustment then.

 

[Guinea]

So should I be aiming for 12 bays? Or would 5 drive vdevs be better than 6 drives? I am trying to figure out a solid chassis to go with, but I don't want to be purchasing a 24 bay chassis and letting half of them go to waste. I want it to match my desired configuration. I shouldn't need that much storage...1:1 blu rays rips primarily...and some random documents and pictures. Maybe 100TB? Maybe 1/2 of that?

So I am trying to decide if I want to go with a 12 bay chassis or aim for 15 bays instead? Trying to decide if hot swappable is even a necessity based on how reliable the hardware will be and the configuration. So I think the configuration of the hdd's and the ZFS will be a determining factor in what chassis I go with.

So I guess my main initial question is, knowing what I want to accomplish with 4TB drives, later going to 8TB drives as an upgrade...should I do 2 six-drive vdevs or 3 five-drive vdevs. The 2 chassis' I am leaning towards are 12 and 15 bay drives.

 

[Guinea]

Anyone have any input into this?

 

[SweetAndLow]

You don't need hot swap drive bays, most of the time they will not work.

I would get a 16 Bay case and do 2 vdevs with 8 disks each. If you used 8TB disks you could start with 48TB usable then if you extend your pool you can have 96TB usable.

That would be really expensive so 6TB might be better option. Stick with the same layout for 36TB or 72TB.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[Dave Hamby]

https://pcpartpicker.com is your friend. It will vet system board, processor, and memory. I discovered pcpartspicker after planning my build. It would have saved a lot of fine print reading.

If I understand correctly you are looking at storing large amounts of media beyond what will fit on 6 RaidZ2 disks. As long as you are 6 or 8 disks or less, you can easily build on commodity hardware from SuperMicro. Going beyond that you need to look at SAS as a possible storage architecture, determine the number of controllers needed, how many storage pools, etc. You need to work back from the storage requirements and then back through the storage system hardware, type and number of controllers, processor enclosure, storage enclosures, etc. Pay particular attention to the ZFS planning guidance in the Resources.

 

[Guinea]

Ok so what you are saying is (I will repeat it back just to make sure I understand it properly) is that it would be recommended to do 2 8 drive vdevs for my setup. I could start with 8TB discs in 8 drives initially and have 48TB of usable space and then add a 2nd vdev of 8 drives down the road to the same pool and it would function properly? Or 6TB if the price was too high.

How would I want to setup the ZFS configuration? I am not really familiar with the configurations, so I am curious what would be ideal for redundancy and protecting my media, but still having a decent amount of performance and usable space. I will also be adding an SSD (probably 512GB) as the OS drive, so I could always partition it for using it as a cache (I heard that is a good idea). The 6TB would make the most sense I think because 36TB of space = 36GB of RAM required, which is what I am using.

 

[Guinea]

https://pcpartpicker.com is your friend. It will vet system board, processor, and memory. I discovered pcpartspicker after planning my build. It would have saved a lot of fine print reading.

If I understand correctly you are looking at storing large amounts of media beyond what will fit on 6 RaidZ2 disks. As long as you are 6 or 8 disks or less, you can easily build on commodity hardware from SuperMicro. Going beyond that you need to look at SAS as a possible storage architecture, determine the number of controllers needed, how many storage pools, etc. You need to work back from the storage requirements and then back through the storage system hardware, type and number of controllers, processor enclosure, storage enclosures, etc. Pay particular attention to the ZFS planning guidance in the Resources.

That website is very helpful thanks! As far as the goal, I am just trying to build a single pool NAS for Plex Media Server. I am not looking to reinvent the wheel or dissect a human brain....I just want to understand the ideal scenario for that. I want to be able to store 1:1 blu rays, so I am hoping for storage capacity between 40-100 TB down the road. That should be sufficient for me.

 

[Stux]

I would look at my build thread ;)

https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...24-supermicro-x10-sri-f-xeon-e5-1650v4.46262/

And go with an 8-way Raidz2 vdev made with 4TB drives. Then you add another 8 drives and then another 8, and then you replace the first 8 with 26TB drives ;)

 

[SweetAndLow]

Ok so what you are saying is (I will repeat it back just to make sure I understand it properly) is that it would be recommended to do 2 8 drive vdevs for my setup. I could start with 8TB discs in 8 drives initially and have 48TB of usable space and then add a 2nd vdev of 8 drives down the road to the same pool and it would function properly? Or 6TB if the price was too high.

How would I want to setup the ZFS configuration? I am not really familiar with the configurations, so I am curious what would be ideal for redundancy and protecting my media, but still having a decent amount of performance and usable space. I will also be adding an SSD (probably 512GB) as the OS drive, so I could always partition it for using it as a cache (I heard that is a good idea). The 6TB would make the most sense I think because 36TB of space = 36GB of RAM required, which is what I am using.

Don't use a cache, it will give you less performance usually. Don't bother getting such a large SSD for the boot device. You only need 16GB or so.

You can also ignore the ram requirements. Once you get above 16GB of memory the rules don't apply. What you want is enough memory so that you get the performance you need. With your pool size and wanting to grow to 100TB I suggest maxing your ram out. This would also guaranteed your jails have plenty of resources as well.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[Guinea]

I would look at my build thread ;)

https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...24-supermicro-x10-sri-f-xeon-e5-1650v4.46262/

And go with an 8-way Raidz2 vdev made with 4TB drives. Then you add another 8 drives and then another 8, and then you replace the first 8 with 26TB drives ;)

Ok so you are suggesting to go with 8 drive vdevs with 4TB drives. If I do it that way and build a 24 bay NAS, I can just add 8-drive vdevs 2 more times to expand the capacity and it will all be part of the same pool if I use Raidz2?

 

[Jailer]

Ok so you are suggesting to go with 8 drive vdevs with 4TB drives. If I do it that way and build a 24 bay NAS, I can just add 8-drive vdevs 2 more times to expand the capacity and it will all be part of the same pool if I use Raidz2?

That is correct.

 

[Guinea]

That is correct.

Awesome. That is a really solid build. What does RAIDZ2 provide in terms of redundancy and performance? Can I easily add vdevs to the pool? Can I hot swap failed drives without losing data? Is the data backed up in any way to prevent data loss?

Also, could I do a 16 bay setup instead? I don't think I would ever fill up 24 bays worth of data if I am just doing movies and shows. And my last question is...if you had to do it all over again, would you go with a different chassis? I am not a fan of drilling into the chassis, so I am hoping to find a chassis and/or rails that fit my rack. I ordered the Middle Atlantic RCS-3524. I am hoping to keep things aesthetically pleasing as much as possible.

I also ordered a Furman Power Conditioner. Would it be recommended to also pick up an UPS as well and plug the power conditioner into the UPS?

 

[danb35]

What does RAIDZ2 provide in terms of redundancy and performance?

RAIDZ2 gives you two disks' worth of redundancy--if two disks fail in one vdev, your data is still safe, but if a third disk fails in the same vdev, your entire pool is lost.

Can I easily add vdevs to the pool?

Yes.

Can I hot swap failed drives without losing data?

Certainly, if your hardware supports it.

Is the data backed up in any way to prevent data loss?

It is if you configure a backup solution.

Also, could I do a 16 bay setup instead?

Sure, but in rack chassis, 12- and 24-bay solutions (in 2U and 4U, respectively) are more common and more efficient uses of space.

Would it be recommended to also pick up an UPS as well

Certainly. If you're going to use both the power conditioner and the UPS, I'd plug the UPS into the power conditioner rather than the other way around--but I'm thinking the power conditioner would be somewhat redundant in that case.

 

[danb35]

You don't need hot swap drive bays, most of the time they will not work.

Huh?

 

[Guinea]

RAIDZ2 gives you two disks' worth of redundancy--if two disks fail in one vdev, your data is still safe, but if a third disk fails in the same vdev, your entire pool is lost.

Yes.

Certainly, if your hardware supports it.

It is if you configure a backup solution.

Sure, but in rack chassis, 12- and 24-bay solutions (in 2U and 4U, respectively) are more common and more efficient uses of space.

Certainly. If you're going to use both the power conditioner and the UPS, I'd plug the UPS into the power conditioner rather than the other way around--but I'm thinking the power conditioner would be somewhat redundant in that case.

Well I originally ordered the power conditioner because I will be plugging in my home theater receiver into it to clean the power and prevent interference and noise. With that in mind, is it still redundant? Does the UPS also condition the power or should I still go for both in the setup? I have space in the rack for sure, but not sure if it makes sense to do that or if it is overkill and a waste of money.

I would like to follow his build above in a way. That seems like a solid plan that matches what I was trying to accomplish. I just felt like I would never use all 24 bays so I would end up with wasted bay drives just sitting there. But I guess having the option might just be better than not.

So if I followed his build and started off with 4TB HGST DeskStar drives (x8) for the initial vdev, would that work? Or do I need at least 2 vdevs to work with Z2? It would be nice to be able to just start with the initial vdev and then as I filled it up, I could just add a 2nd vdev to the pool. And what would be your recommendation on the backup mechanism?

 

[danb35]

So if I followed his build and started off with 4TB HGST DeskStar drives (x8) for the initial vdev, would that work?

Sure--any number of disks between 4 and 10 will work.

Or do I need at least 2 vdevs to work with Z2?

No. Your asking this question indicates that you don't understand RAIDZ levels very well. Each vdev has its own RAID configuration (they would ideally be the same, but they can be different); all vdevs are striped together.

And what would be your recommendation on the backup mechanism?

How much data would you want to back up? How much are you willing to spend? What events are you trying to protect against?

 

[Guinea]

Sure--any number of disks between 4 and 10 will work.

No. Your asking this question indicates that you don't understand RAIDZ levels very well. Each vdev has its own RAID configuration (they would ideally be the same, but they can be different); all vdevs are striped together.

How much data would you want to back up? How much are you willing to spend? What events are you trying to protect against?

I definitely do not know much about RAIDZ yet. I am still learning as I go.

For backups, I am just wanting my data to be safe. I will be ripping blu rays and I don't want to lose the data in the event of a hardware failure. As long as I can survive hardware failures with RAIDZ and not need backups, then I am fine with it. This is a Plex Media Server essentially...but I want my data to be safe and performance to be high.

So in essence, I should just follow his build above and use that as my foundation. I think it matches my needs well and I can start with a single vdev for now and add 2 more vdevs as necessary as time goes on. The next step would be to understand the ideal configuration for Plex Media Server for RAIDZ2 and how to configure it all.

 

[diedrichg]

As long as I can survive hardware failures with RAIDZ and not need backups, then I am fine with it.

RAID is NOT a substitution for a backup. You have basically four choices. Mirror, 1 disk fault tolerance, 2 disk fault tolerance, and 3 disk fault tolerance. It all depends on how you want to gamble - can you replace a disk in RAIDZ1 quickly and hope that another disk doesn't die while the new disk is being resilvered into the array. Or would you rather go with RAIDZ2 to allow for two disk failures before you lose your data on the third failed drive. It's all in how much space you are willing to give up to keep your data intact. But then again, what if you have a flood or fire? It doesn't matter which RAIDZ configuration you went with, that computer is toast! Only an off-site backup will save you there.