Freenas Newbie - Configuration/Setup advice needed on my Hardware spec.

[fran7802]

Hi all,
Im busy planning a new build. Ive got some hardware that my budget allows. Here below is the spec:

1 x 470065-507 HP Proliant DL180G6 E5606 (2.13GHz, 8MB, 80W, 1066, 4-core),(3 x 2GB) PC3-10600E (UDIMM),Smart Array P410/512+BBWC , NC362i Dual Port Gigabit Server Adapter,
5 x 458928-B21 Hard Drive Pluggable 500GB 3G SATA 7.2K 3.5" Midline HDD (Raid5=2T)
1 x 506924-B21 HP 2U G6 8HDD LFF DL18X KIT
1 x 481043-B21 HP Slim SATA DVD-RW Drive 12.7mm

Firstly i would like to know your thoughts on creating a Vmware VM of this freenas device.

My plan was - Raid5 - 5 x 500GB SATA HOTPLUG Drives = 2T (1 logical drive) - A PHYSICAL MACHINE _ NOT A VM.SO is it wise to not install FreeNas directly on the logical drive. (well i have done that in a test on another machine and i cant see the logical drive - so i guess the answer is NO) - will need to play with USB.

Really what im after is some advice on my hardware - im affraid its all i can afford. I will be using this storage for backups (exchange and AD) and filestorage.
I currently only have a SBS2003 DC/Exchange - all data stored locally and then backup weekly on different devices. SO im really just building a redundant network storage solutuion.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards

 

[fran7802]

So much for using this forum..

 

[Darkaine]

Lol the forum... anyway In my brief experience with FreeNAS 8, I've found that the system requirements given by the FreeNAS team are a bit over exaggerated. I have it running fine on this.


Some random motherboard I had
Pentium IV 2.6GHz (Single Core Obviously)
512MB (YEA MB) of memory (RAM)
A 100MBs Network Controller
2x 250GB HDDs (For Storage)
1x 10GB HDD (For Operating System)

When you think about it, why does a data server need much for hardware? Obviously if it was high volume or something (100+ People) then I could see it. But for me and my family. Why do i need much. Especially since the most it does is stream videos. Store pictures,documents and that's about it. Next I'm going to try to get it to run on an old Xbox. (Already had Linux on it at one point).

 

[fran7802]

Hi, thanx for your reply every little bit helps! Yes i currently have it running on a HP DL 380 G2, just as a test machine. I feel that i wont be running life data from it. Just mainly storage/backups - who knows, but thanks again for your info.
Cheers

 

[matthewowen01]

Hi all,
Im busy planning a new build. Ive got some hardware that my budget allows. Here below is the spec:

1 x 470065-507 HP Proliant DL180G6 E5606 (2.13GHz, 8MB, 80W, 1066, 4-core),(3 x 2GB) PC3-10600E (UDIMM),Smart Array P410/512+BBWC , NC362i Dual Port Gigabit Server Adapter,
5 x 458928-B21 Hard Drive Pluggable 500GB 3G SATA 7.2K 3.5" Midline HDD (Raid5=2T)
1 x 506924-B21 HP 2U G6 8HDD LFF DL18X KIT
1 x 481043-B21 HP Slim SATA DVD-RW Drive 12.7mm

Firstly i would like to know your thoughts on creating a Vmware VM of this freenas device.

My plan was - Raid5 - 5 x 500GB SATA HOTPLUG Drives = 2T (1 logical drive) - A PHYSICAL MACHINE _ NOT A VM.SO is it wise to not install FreeNas directly on the logical drive. (well i have done that in a test on another machine and i cant see the logical drive - so i guess the answer is NO) - will need to play with USB.

Really what im after is some advice on my hardware - im affraid its all i can afford. I will be using this storage for backups (exchange and AD) and filestorage.
I currently only have a SBS2003 DC/Exchange - all data stored locally and then backup weekly on different devices. SO im really just building a redundant network storage solutuion.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards

Your post is kind of confusing. it's probably why you did not get much of a response. you jump around topic to topic....

if you're going to use an OS that has good support for ZFS, use it. ditch the raid5 and use a raidz2.

i have no idea what you are asking regarding virtualization.

 

[Darkaine]

Bottom Line is Fran that your setup that you described should work fine. I see matthewowen01's point about ZFS. But to me, the requirements of ZFS don't seem to make it worth the while on a home server. For a business you'd probably want to look into it. but either way its probably down to personal preference/requirements by end user. Here is a link to a wiki article comparing all the different file systems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_file_systems

Also here is a link to a blog by backblaze which talks about their experience with file storage, servers, and drives.

http://blog.backblaze.com/2011/07/20/petabytes-on-a-budget-v2-0revealing-more-secrets/

Hope all that helps you out.

Also I can't say much about RAIDs as I've never had one. (However I plan on implementing one soon)