FreeNAS on ThinkServer ts430

[davide445]

An old ts430 is lying unused in the office, I want to upgrade it and setup as NAS for a small 4-5 person group. I have no experience on NAS or hw configuration except some disk change. My only experience with NAS is my home Synology DS213.

Currently with 2x300GB hdd my idea is to purchase 2x2TB Seagate Ironwolf HDD to be used for fault rolerance and 1x120GB WD Green SSD to be used for the OS. The server does currently have Windows Server 2008 R2 installed.

Will this configuration work or I will have compatibility problems with Lenovo hw.

 

[Inxsible]

Currently with 2x300GB hdd my idea is to purchase 2x2TB Seagate Ironwolf HDD to be used for fault rolerance

So you are only going to have 2 drives in the NAS? If so, you can create 1 mirror using the 300GB drives. But if a drive fails, you won't realize the extra space from 2TB unless you change both drives.

 

[davide445]

So you are only going to have 2 drives in the NAS? If so, you can create 1 mirror using the 300GB drives. But if a drive fails, you won't realize the extra space from 2TB unless you change both drives.

Yes but I want to remove the 300gb drives that are 7 years old and use only the new one.
But will FreeNAS work on this hw, I didn't find it in the list of official supported OS
https://lenovopress.com/osig#servers=ts430&support=all


Sent from my BLA-L29 using Tapatalk

 

[Inxsible]

Yes but I want to remove the 300gb drives that are 7 years old and use only the new one.
But will FreeNAS work on this hw, I didn't find it in the list of official supported OS
https://lenovopress.com/osig#servers=ts430&support=all


Sent from my BLA-L29 using Tapatalk

You should go ahead and install freenas on the box and see how things work out before purchasing the larger drives. Remember however, that when you use a mirror, you lose 50% capacity. So if you put in 2x300GB, you will get only 300GB of space and the usable space will be even less due to overhead. Plus ZFS works best when you have at most 80%-85% full. So keep that all in mind when selecting the size of your drives especially because you are only going to have 2 drives max.

 

[davide445]

You should go ahead and install freenas on the box and see how things work out before purchasing the larger drives. Remember however, that when you use a mirror, you lose 50% capacity. So if you put in 2x300GB, you will get only 300GB of space and the usable space will be even less due to overhead. Plus ZFS works best when you have at most 80%-85% full. So keep that all in mind when selecting the size of your drives especially because you are only going to have 2 drives max.

There is any reason for using ZFS if I will already have a disk mirror. In my 20 years of working I never need to restore a previous version of a file, always created new versions by hand.

 

[Inxsible]

There is any reason for using ZFS if I will already have a disk mirror.

Are you intending on using a hardware raid? FreeNAS only supports ZFS now. UFS support is no longer available in the latest editions.

 

[davide445]

Are you intending on using a hardware raid? FreeNAS only supports ZFS now. UFS support is no longer available in the latest editions.

Using the wrong question. Need to wrote: why I need to accept the ZFS heavy requirements (more RAM, more CPU, less space) mandatory associated with FreeNAS, instead of choosing another nas os using another less demanding file system.
I'm missing the plus I get from ZFS if I can just mirror (hw or sw) the disks and didn't need file versioning.
Sorry for asking stupid questions but I just need a basic file server, didn't need complex services.

 

[Inxsible]

Using the wrong question. Need to wrote: why I need to accept the ZFS heavy requirements (more RAM, more CPU, less space) mandatory associated with FreeNAS, instead of choosing another nas os using another less demanding file system.
I'm missing the plus I get from ZFS if I can just mirror (hw or sw) the disks and didn't need file versioning.
Sorry for asking stupid questions but I just need a basic file server, didn't need complex services.

You don't have to use FreeNAS. If all you want is a basic file server and you don't need redundancy, then you should just install your favorite Linux distro without a DE/WM and call it a day. Enable NFS services on it and share it on your network. If you use windows clients then enable SMB/CIFS services.
I used to run Archlinux on my current FreeNAS box before moving to FreeNAS. Never gave me any trouble. I used to simply ssh into the box and update it each time I updated my Archlinux desktop (Archlinux is rolling release, in case you didn't know).

 

[MrToddsFriends]

I'm missing the plus I get from ZFS if I can just mirror (hw or sw) the disks and didn't need file versioning.

Start by reading the ZFS Primer. If nothing written there causes a "wanna have reflex" then FreeNAS is probably not the right solution for you.

 

[Inxsible]

I looked up the tower that you said you have and if this is what you have,

https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-ThinkServer-TS430-Tower-Server/dp/B008TYAVJE

then it can fit 4 drives in the bottom bay and you can convert the 5.25" bays to hold an additional 2x3.5" drives easily. I am not sure why you only wanted a 2 drive max NAS appliance. I am confused.

 

[davide445]

This is the available server, I was reading this
http://louwrentius.com/the-hidden-cost-of-using-zfs-for-your-home-nas.html
and appear after all ZFS is not the best solution for us.
Yes I could start with 8 HDD, but there is simple no reason to do that: we didn't need a so big storage, we didn't want to invest immediately. We want a basic solution that can grow during the time as our needs.
I will look for other less demanding options or just purchase a trouble free Synology small office series NAS.

 

[Inxsible]

This is the available server, I was reading this
http://louwrentius.com/the-hidden-cost-of-using-zfs-for-your-home-nas.html
and appear after all ZFS is not the best solution for us.
Yes I could start with 8 HDD, but there is simple no reason to do that: we didn't need a so big storage, we didn't want to invest immediately. We want a basic solution that can grow during the time as our needs.
I will look for other less demanding options or just purchase a trouble free Synology small office series NAS.

That can fit a total of 10 drives. You can always go with 1 mirror of 2 drives and then when you ifll that up, add another mirror of 2 drives. That way you only have to purchase 2 drives at a time and also the drives can be of different sizes in different vdevs. You can choose to slowly expand at your leisure that way.

Or use an off-the-shelf solution.

 

[davide445]

That can fit a total of 10 drives. You can always go with 1 mirror of 2 drives and then when you ifll that up, add another mirror of 2 drives. That way you only have to purchase 2 drives at a time and also the drives can be of different sizes in different vdevs. You can choose to slowly expand at your leisure that way.

Or use an off-the-shelf solution.

This using FreeNAS, or just using a mirroring system with some standard OS.

 

[Inxsible]

This using FreeNAS, or just using a mirroring system with some standard OS.

This is using just FreeNAS. You can either use FreeNAS or some other OS. FreeNAS doesn't work within another OS, unless you are calling a hypervisor an OS.

You can run FreeNAS in a VM on a hypervisor, but I think I am getting ahead of you at this point. You really need to read the ZFS Primer that @MrToddsFriends posted above.