Hardware Build Feedback

[jchan94]

Hi FreeNAS community!

After months of contemplating, I have decided to finally move forward with building a FreeNAS system instead of buying a QNAP/Synology NAS.

Here are a few things that I'm looking to accomplish.
- Around 100MBps read/write speed to Multiple Clients
- Going to have a Cisco switch that allows for static link aggregation to link two 1GB ports together.
- 1080P Streaming (with transcoding) via Plex !
- Potential Upgrade to 4K Streamable content (I just want the flexibility to do it someday).
- Of course, I'd have to upgrade to a 10GB nic.
- Good Redundancy via Raidz2 !
- Backup to Google Drive (need to look if there's some plugin that I can add to do this)
- Because I have unlimited google drive.
- External Network File Access
- Would like to access it via Android/iPhone app; not videos, but document files etc
- iSCSI Targetting for VMware!

This is the hardware I have planned, but I'm open to changes, and that's where I need help to see if I can accomplish everything that I want with what I have. Please let me know, thank you!

Motherboard: E3C224D4I-14S
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157486
Reason for Choosing it: 1150 Compatible Chipset, SAS for moar drives. Going to be running the drives with SAS instead of direct SATA.

CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116907
Reason for Choosing it: Quad Core Xeon Grade

Ram: 16GB Crucial ECC Ram 240PIN

PSU: Silverstone 450W SFX Gold
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008VQ2Y4K/?tag=ozlp-20
Reason for Choosing it: Gold Rated PSU, SFX Form factor, Modular for saving space!

Case: Silverstone DS380
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IAELTAI/?tag=ozlp-20
Reason for Choosing it: Form Factor & 12 Drive with 8 hotswaps!

Drives: 7x 4TB WD Reds
Configuration: Raidz2 (2 drive redundancy) with 1 drive in hotswap in case of drive failure.

 

[Ericloewe]

Looks good.

Raidz2 (2 drive redundancy) with 1 drive in hotswap in case of drive failure.

Doesn't make sense.

Do 8-disk RAIDZ2 with a cold spare tested and ready to go, OR a 7-disk RAIDZ2 with a cold spare tested and ready to go, OR 8-disk RAIDZ3 (optionally with a cold spare tested and ready to go).

 

[jchan94]

Looks good.

Doesn't make sense.

Do 8-disk RAIDZ2 with a cold spare tested and ready to go, OR a 7-disk RAIDZ2 with a cold spare tested and ready to go, OR 8-disk RAIDZ3 (optionally with a cold spare tested and ready to go).

Thanks for the insight. I'll probably go and do the 7disk raidz2, or 8disk raidz3, or even consider a raid 10

 

[joeschmuck]

You never stated how much storage capacity you desired for you NAS, 7 (4TB) disk raidz2 = 18.2TB. Also you never said how important your data was but if you're considering a RAIDZ3, well to me that means it is important. This looks like a home machine, not office.

 

[jchan94]

You never stated how much storage capacity you desired for you NAS, 7 (4TB) disk raidz2 = 18.2TB. Also you never said how important your data was but if you're considering a RAIDZ3, well to me that means it is important. This looks like a home machine, not office.

I think I want to go with Raidz2 with 7 drives. The data is important to me because they are family photos, and other important files that I need to keep for school, work, and such. This machine will be running as a redundant backup for people (family, a few friends), and I'd like to keep the data safe. and yes, this is a home machine.

 

[joeschmuck]

Periodically I copy the important stuff to DVDs like the data you described because you never know when someone might accidentally erase the data, then it's not very recoverable.

 

[jchan94]

Periodically I copy the important stuff to DVDs like the data you described because you never know when someone might accidentally erase the data, then it's not very recoverable.

Sounds sweet. I plan on purchasing a crash plan to only upload my important content (not movies).

 

[joeschmuck]

Just ensure your files are encrypted before they leave the computer. There are hackers everywhere so if it's financial data, encrypt it.

 

[jchan94]

Just ensure your files are encrypted before they leave the computer. There are hackers everywhere so.
if it's financial data, encrypt it.

Yes of course! I was looking at others talking about LZ4 encryption done with FreeNAS. I was wondering if you had any insights or suggestions on how to go about the encryption

I currently use Veracrypt for some of the encryption of my files on my personal machines. It's great because it mounts as a drive and is based off of Truecrypt.

 

[joeschmuck]

Truecrypt is a good solution but it will be up to your specific needs as to what works best for you. I've not heard of Veracrypt before but there are a lot of products I'm unaware of.

 

[Ericloewe]

Full-pool encryption is not for the faint of heart. Container files are a better idea in most cases, since the margin of error is larger and the penalty much less extreme.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

I was looking at others talking about LZ4 encryption done with FreeNAS.

LZ4 is a compression method.

 

[jchan94]

Full-pool encryption is not for the faint of heart. Container files are a better idea in most cases, since the margin of error is larger and the penalty much less extreme.

Yeah I think I'll have to stick with veracrypt and just encrypt small amounts of data.

 

[jchan94]

LZ4 is a compression method.

My bad! I must have misread that in the forums. Thanks for correcting me.