HomeNas configuration, because everyone is not the same..

[Eli Martin Leiva]

Hey People,

I already build my own system(FreeNas 9.2.1.9) using parts of an old PC(HP Athlon x2 with 4Gb ram "it´s just the beginning..."). My requirements wasn´t big ones, pretty much just for save some music, photos, videos(Anyways, I have a copy of my very important files in my central PC) and then streaming.

As a HomeUser, I connect to my NAS not very often, I work all day, and in the evening is just to watch some series or movies. At the Weekend could be more, but that´s it.

And what´s the point with all this? Well, I was thinking: I should let the NAS on all 24/7 or just turn it on/off when I need it?
Well, the option number one was really a good one, I found in the configuration that I can turn on the energy save feature of each Drive. Check every 5min if the Disk run, if not then go to "sleep". At the beginning it works, I was wondering if my PC really was "sleeping" because it was too quite. But after a couple of minutes it´s turn on automatically, and then to sleep, and on again.. Really annoying...

I´m wondering what could be the reason? And if there's an ultimate option to make my NAS stand-by when no one need it. Really Stand-by.

The second option was turn in on/off every time, which is not a bad idea, but, it´s not what I was searching when I decide to build a NAS. In addition, my wife is not a qualified IT person, and I don´t really like the idea, that she touch the NAS-system.

I know, I know, there are people with different point of views, "Is a NAS" "A SERVER" "IT´S NORMAL WHEN RUN "24/7" But Hey, is a home configured PC, I´m not making Backup´s every Hour, or making shadows copies, etc, etc. Is just a home storage system and I don´t like the idea of having it running all day if I just need it 2-3 hours per day..

I really appreciate some constructive ideas, solutions, not spam..

Thank for take the time to read it!

 

[anodos]

Not everyone is the same. That's why there are numerous distros and NAS operating systems out there. Like openmediavault. :D

The simple fact of the matter is that something designed to work at mega-scale doesn't always scale down to 'random components I had lying in the corner'. Sometimes the effect of violating these constraints is mimimal (the OS runs slower). Other bad choices can end up with you losing all your data (yes, this happens fairly regularly).

Every project has a finite amount of developer time. This results in distros that are 'tuned' for more limited use cases. Freenas is designed to compete with your NetAPP / EMC enterprise NAS appliances. It's not really designed to compete with / replace a WD MyCloud, and to be frank, there are numerous other distros that do that particular job better.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

HP Athlon x2 with 4Gb ram "it´s just the beginning..."

I assume you know that's half of the minimum required RAM.

But after a couple of minutes it´s turn on automatically, and then to sleep, and on again..

There are a couple of things that help with letting it sleep, if that's what you really want:

1. Make sure SMART disk checks are only allowed if the device is awake.
2. Keep the .system dataset off the main pool (because it gets written to very frequently).

 

[Eli Martin Leiva]

I assume you know that's half of the minimum required RAM.

There are a couple of things that help with letting it sleep, if that's what you really want:

1. Make sure SMART disk checks are only allowed if the device is awake.
2. Keep the .system dataset off the main pool (because it gets written to very frequently).

Yes I know, that´s why I still using the old Freenas version. Is in the moment a Test-phase. LAter I´m thinking to upgrade it to 8 GB. XD

Ok, S.M.A.R.T is now activated to do a scan if the device is runing.. Anyways, I don´t think that was the problem, becasue it was schedule each 30 min.
I thinking I would try the secodn option too, I don´t know how, but google is my friend..

Thanks.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

In 9.3 it's the System Dataset sub-tab of the System tab.

 

[sfcredfox]

I'm not trying to push you away from FreeNAS, you can do what you're talking about with it, but if you want a cheap solution, without enterprise benefits, you might think about one of the other non-ZFS solutions.

Someone already mentioned OpenMediaVault, it's got a super kindergarten and good looking interface. It's not as widely used and I think there's only a few developers though. Depending on your computer experience, you could just build a server with Ubuntu and create a simple share.

There might be nothing wrong with turning off FreeNAS all the time, but ZFS is sensitive to people doing bad things with it. If you mess around with it too much and shut it down wrong or try to tweak things too much to keep your system off all the time, you might end up loosing data.

I'm not 'nay' saying, this just might be a case where you can find smaller/easy things for what you are trying to do. I know there are people who set their system up to use as little power as possible or power down disks.

 

[Nick2253]

It sounds like part of your problem is that FreeNAS is not the right solution for you.

FreeNAS is designed for higher-end hardware that can leverage the capability of ZFS. Your "parts of an old PC" most definitely does not meet that. As Rob pointed out, you have half the minimum required RAM. You are not using ECC (as is strongly recommended), your motherboard probably has a Realtek or similar network card (again, not recommended, as it doesn't play well with FreeBSD).

I would strongly recommend that you look into a different NAS distro for you use case. Openfiler may be a great fit for you.

 

[Eli Martin Leiva]

There might be nothing wrong with turning off FreeNAS all the time, but ZFS is sensitive to people doing bad things with it. If you mess around with it too much and shut it down wrong or try to tweak things too much to keep your system off all the time, you might end up loosing data.

That´s the point, I´m not trying to hack some internal files or alterate some cores to make it run. It´s all about trying to use the options from FreeNas itself! I´m not an expert, but I know that there are some people wich know better the SO, which could maybe show me or help me to configure my system, with the only purpose of satisfied my needs.

I appreciate the feedback's, is really good to know that they are other system options in the net. But as a Linux system, I don´t think the the minimum recommendations are point to all user.

And in the end, non taking a risk, is not fun at all...