hardware list?

[JasonWhitener]

Is anyone aware of a hardware list for 4-5 bay enclosures? Buffalo models seem to be the most common hit, but there isn't a good list of competitors that I've come across. Does anyone in the freenas community maintain a list of good hardware choices?

I could build something based on regular pc parts/cases, but I'm mainly looking for ready made 4-5 bay enclosures.

 

[m0nkey_]

How about the FreeNAS mini if you want something pre-built.

https://www.ixsystems.com/freenas-mini/

 

[DrKK]

Also for the record, the kind of enclosures where you are busting out an eSATA port multiplier to service the cage are known, as far as I know, to be very bad fits for FreeNAS. I don't know if the cages you are looking at are interfaced like that.

 

[JasonWhitener]

How about the FreeNAS mini if you want something pre-built.

https://www.ixsystems.com/freenas-mini/

I looked at that model, its about 1,000 dollars. I know it comes with 16GB ram, which is nice, but the synology ds9... something+, has 8GB ram, quad core cpu, and hardware transcoding/video 4k. And its about 699 dolllars.

And I saw some buffalo models that were 300 dollars. Probably wouldn't run freenas very well though. Low ram.

I suppose I could just build standard pc instead of looking at the little enclosures.

 

[JasonWhitener]

Also for the record, the kind of enclosures where you are busting out an eSATA port multiplier to service the cage are known, as far as I know, to be very bad fits for FreeNAS. I don't know if the cages you are looking at are interfaced like that.

So something like "3-Bay to 4-Hard Drive Hot-Swap SATA Backplane RAID Cage 3.5" Internal Storage" that I see on ebay / other sites, for ~150 dollars, will not work well with freenas?

Or StarTech HSB430SATBK 4 Drive 3.5in Trayless Hot Swap SATA Mobile Rack Backplane. Those type 'sata backplanes' are bad?

 

[Arwen]

There are 3 things:

1. Backplanes, (SATA or SAS)
2. SAS Expanders, (turn 1 or more SAS ports into more than 1 disk port)
3. SATA port multipliers

Basically the first requires a host port for each disk slot. So if you have 2 x 4
disk cages, you need 8 host ports.

The second requires a SAS host controller, (generally they come in 8 or 16 port
models). SAS, (Serial Attached SCSI), has a backward compatibility mode that
allows SATA II or III disks to be connected. SAS expanders generally take at
least 4 host SAS ports and turn them into 12, or more, (even 32), disk slots. SAS
Expanders tend to add cost to a backplane, (but can be worth it).

You REALLY want to avoid the last. SATA port multipliers tend not to work well.
They, in theory, turn 1 SATA port into 5, (or less). They require SATA controller
chip support, driver support and OS support. All of which can be poorly done.
Thus, we recommend to avoid them. Plus, pooly implemented ones, (software or
hardware), can hide things like direct access to the disk, (SMART).

Note I have not checked your listed backplanes. There are just too many devices
out there.

 

[gpsguy]

My guess is that everyone except @m0nkey_ misunderstood the OP's message. It sounds like he's looking for a small 4-5 bay server. He sees the Buffalo Linkstations, etc. for a couple hundred $$'s and thinks he can run FreeNAS on it.

While you can build your own FreeNAS mini (it uses off the shelf parts), motherboard selection is quite limited. Ideally you want one that supports at least 32 GB ECC RAM and ECC capable CPU. If you can settle for a case that accomodates a microATX mobo, there are a lot more options in motherboards and you'll get more bang for the buck.

Many FreeNAS users, started off facing the same dilemma. Should we buy something like a Synology,etc.or go with FreeNAS? On small systems (2-4 drives), hardware costs for FreeNAS will be higher than the alternatives. Then there's the learning curve. FreeNAS has matured over the years and we have an active community, supporting users, whether noobies or experts.

For me, it boiled down to a couple of things.

1) When thinking about alternative NAS' like Synology, what happens if I have a hardware failure, especially if the device is out of warranty? Yes, I should have backups, but what if I didn't? Would I be scouring ebay looking for parts. With FreeNAS I can (and did) move the drives and boot device to another machine and be up and running again.

2) Data protection. Do some reading on ZFS.

3) Desire to learn something new.

I struggled with this issue for several months and finally decided to go with FreeNAS. I don't regret making the decision I made.

 

[Ericloewe]

Moved. Not a build.

 

[JasonWhitener]

My guess is that everyone except @m0nkey_ misunderstood the OP's message. It sounds like he's looking for a small 4-5 bay server. He sees the Buffalo Linkstations, etc. for a couple hundred $$'s and thinks he can run FreeNAS on it.

While you can build your own FeeNAS mini (it uses off the shelf parts), motherboard selection is quite limited. Ideally you want one that supports at least 32 GB ECC RAM and ECC capable CPU. If you can settle for a case that accomodates a microATX mobo, there are a lot more options in motherboards and you'll get more bang for the buck.

Many FreeNAS users, started off facing the same dilemma. Should we buy something like a Synology,etc.or go with FreeNAS? On small systems (2-4 drives), hardware costs for FreeNAS will be higher than the alternatives. Then there's the learning curve. FreeNAS has matured over the years and we have an active community, supporting users, whether noobies or experts.

For me, it boiled down to a couple of things.

1) When thinking about alternative NAS' like Synology, what happens if I have a hardware failure, especially if the device is out of warranty? Yes, I should have backups, but what if I didn't? Would I be scouring ebay looking for parts. With FreeNAS I can (and did) move the drives and boot device to another machine and be up and running again.

2) Data protection. Do some reading on ZFS.

3) Desire to learn something new.

I struggled with this issue for several months and finally decided to go with FreeNAS. I don't regret making the decision I made.

1,2 are the reasons I'm considering FreeNAS. We use zfs at work and I love it.

My debate is time vs money: The config time of a synology vs a do it yourself FreeNAS. If I can buy a ready made enclosure that is hot swap capable, and FreeNAS itself is easy to setup... then I'd much rather have the future-proof capabilities of zfs. If I'm going to have to hunt and search for hardware parts and build something from scratch, mess with drivers, etc.. them I'd tend to lean towards a synology/qnap.

I did just find this in my forum welcome message: https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/freenas®-quick-hardware-guide.7/ So that will save a lot of time. I'll put together some builds and price them out.

You REALLY want to avoid the last. SATA port multipliers tend not to work well.

Thanks. I think a lot of those cheap 100-200 enclosures must be multipliers. So that rules out all the cheap hard drive cages that I could have connected to an existing PC. Especially if the suggestion is that one sata port per drive is best.

 

[gpsguy]

No, the Buffalo Linkstation and Synology that you are looking at are freestanding NAS units with their own firmware/OS. Pop in some disks and go. In general, you won't be able to run FreeNAS on them.

External enclosures that might use a SATA muliplier are something that users might connect to an existing machine, so they can add additional drives. We don't recommend you add these to a FreeNAS server.

I think a lot of those cheap 100-200 enclosures must be multipliers. .

 

[gpsguy]

A few years ago, I might have suggested the Gen 9 HP Microserver. Unfortunately, it's limited to 16GB of RAM. Buying something now, I'd like a system capable of 32, maybe even 64GB. I might not populate it now, but as drive sizes increase and/or needs change, my system would be right-sized for the future.

The FreeNAS Mini uses a mini-ITX motherboard. Unfortunately, other than Asrock and Supermicro, you won't find many other options that are suitable for FreeNAS (ECC capable, etc). IIRC, the Supermicro mini-ITX server board requires special memory ($$$).

If you are flexible on the case size and could live with one that will accommodate a microATX motherboard, that open your options considerable.

My debate is time vs money: the config time of a synology vs a do it yourself freenas. If I can buy a ready made enclosure that is hot swap capable, and Freenas itself is easy to setup... then I'd much rather have the future-proof capabilities of zfs.

 

[JasonWhitener]

No, the Buffalo Linkstation and Synology that you are looking at are freestanding NAS units with their own firmware/OS. Pop in some disks and go. In general, you won't be able to run FreeNAS on them.

Oh, sorry for the confusion there, what I meant was I would just live with a synology/qnap/netgear readynas and not use FreeNAS at all, if the hardware cost and setup time of a custom solution+FreeNAS was too burdensome to justify the future-proofing and general awesomeness of zfs.

And I just found out that one of our server admins setup FreeNAS on a usb stick plugged into a 45 drive rack mount (old) array. So I'll be bugging him about the setup process and considerations as well.

Thank you all so much for the info. I'll spec out some system builds tomorrow and debate if I think it is worth the cost and time.

 

[JasonWhitener]

If you are flexible on the case size and could live with one that will accommodate a microATX motherboard, that open your options considerable.

Mmm. So maybe I've been approaching the options wrong. Instead of re-creating the 'slick' small enclosure nas (synology, qnap, etc..) with a custom build that might be $$$, maybe I should be comparing basically a regular pc build with extra drives vs a pre-built nas solution.

I'm not firm on needing a tiny 4 bay enclosure, so if a regular pc type build with some sort of hot-swap adapter would be cheaper, I may look into that. Thanks for the tip.

 

[Kevin Horton]

Mmm. So maybe I've been approaching the options wrong. Instead of re-creating the 'slick' small enclosure nas (synology, qnap, etc..) with a custom build that might be $$$, maybe I should be comparing basically a regular pc build with extra drives vs a pre-built nas solution.

I'm not firm on needing a tiny 4 bay enclosure, so if a regular pc type build with some sort of hot-swap adapter would be cheaper, I may look into that. Thanks for the tip.

You probably don't need hot swap. It is only really needed when replacing failed disks, and it is not acceptable to take the system off line while changing disks. For home use, it should be quite acceptable to shut down the NAS, do the disk surgery, then restart.

 

[Redcoat]

Mmm. So maybe I've been approaching the options wrong. Instead of re-creating the 'slick' small enclosure nas (synology, qnap, etc..) with a custom build that might be $$$, maybe I should be comparing basically a regular pc build with extra drives vs a pre-built nas solution.

I'm not firm on needing a tiny 4 bay enclosure, so if a regular pc type build with some sort of hot-swap adapter would be cheaper, I may look into that. Thanks for the tip.

For a bit of thinking/mind expansion, may I suggest you take a look here https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/ode-to-the-dell-c2100-fs12-ty.43665/ for details of an approach along the lines of your buddy with the 48 bay rack enclosure. I just got a c2100 initially to set up as a backup for my 4 drive FreeNASMini and as a learning tool. For ~$425 plus drives (that can be relocated to other hardware later if appropriate) this is working out well for me. So well that I may switch it to be my main (likely adding to its existing 6 drives and using the Mini to back up only the irreplaceable file data). Anyway, a read through may give you some broader perspectives. Good hunting!

 

[Arwen]

Oh, sorry for the confusion there, what I meant was I would just live with a synology/qnap/netgear readynas and not use freenas at all, if the hardware cost and setup time of a custom solution+freenas was too burdensome to justify the future-proofing and general awesomeness of zfs.
...

A while back I found that the Netgear ReadyData line uses ZFS. It's the higher end line of Netgear's NAS
devices. Above the ReadyNAS and ReadyNAS Pro devices. But, for completeness, I just wanted to point
out that Netgear does, (did?), use ZFS.

Plus, you can get a pre-built server or NAS devices that either comes with FreeNAS, or FreeNAS can be
installed easily.

 

[Michael Armstrong]

Am I correct in thinking that the Kingwin 3-in-2 cages are passive wrt ports? i.e., if I use 2 of these to mount 6 HDDs in a 4-bay case, I need a MB with at least 6 SATA ports - no multiplying, etc.

 

[Linkman]

Am I correct in thinking that the Kingwin 3-in-2 cages are passive wrt ports? i.e., if I use 2 of these to mount 6 HDDs in a 4-bay case, I need a MB with at least 6 SATA ports - no multiplying, etc.

Correct, these are not expanders. You'll need a SATA cable for each drive. You do save on power connectors, as I believe those use two Molex connectors for the three drives and fan.