I need help to new DIY NAS

[McReiner]

My old iOmega 1TB server is getting too small, so i'm thinking about building a new one.

Requirements:

I just need the NAS to rip my blu-ray films to, and stream them to my TV with my WD TV Live.
I was thinking about 3 x 2 TB drives in RAID 5, wich means 4 TB space.

Hardware:

Motherboard: http://www.edbpriser.dk/bundkort/asrock-960gm-gs3-fx-id-6363050.aspx
CPU: http://www.edbpriser.dk/processor/athlon-ii-x2-270-2-mb-amd-processor-in-a-box-pib-id-5120647.aspx
RAM: 1 x http://www.edbpriser.dk/ram/kingston-valueram-1-x-2-gb-id-4866087.aspx
Discs: 3 x http://www.edbpriser.dk/harddisk/wd-red-wd20efrx-2-tb-id-6876630.aspx
PSU: Used 400w PSU, i dont know the specs.
Case: Used Chieftec miditower
OS Flash drive: Need a little help here.


This is the first time i'm building my own NAS. I know much about computers, but almost nothing about home build NAS.
Of cause it has to be as cheap as possible, and i some of you guys have som good changes to the hardware, then please tell me.

And one last thing - sorry if my english is bad, i'm from Denmark :)

 

[JaimieV]

You should see our Danish!

That all looks fine. I don't know if Denmark has the special offer (~40% cashback) for the HP Microserver N54L or the older N40L? That might suit your needs well and be about the same price as the above.

The OS flash drive can just be any 4gig stick, no particular needs. It's really only used when booting anyhow. Get two, in case one dies.

 

[cyberjock]

I'm about to take off and go to a friends house. You mention RAID-5 which implies using a hardware RAID. ZFS works best when it makes its own RAID. The comparable vdev type to a RAID5 is RAIDZ1. I suspect you made a slip of the keyboard, but I thought I'd mention it.

You have FAR too little RAM. ZFS needs 6GB MINIMUM plus 1GB for each TB of hard disk space. Consult the manual to see this thumbrule. Section 1.4.2 I believe.

Of course, if you plan to do a hardware RAID5 and use UFS then everything may be okay. I'm not a fan of UFS except for very specific uses because ZFS has alot of great features. ZFS has saved a few people's data on this forum.

 

[McReiner]

#2 I've just searched for the N54L, but i can't find it anywhere in denmark. If i have to get i from the outside of EU, i have to pay the high taxes to get it :(

#3 I have never read anything about UFS and ZFS, so i'm going to do that tomorrow.

I don't know how much more safe it would be with ZFS, but otherwise i still have all the original blu-ray discs in case something bad should happen.

Can someone give me a link, so i can learn much more about the ZFS and UFS?

 

[sqwob]

#2 I've just searched for the N54L, but i can't find it anywhere in denmark. If i have to get i from the outside of EU, i have to pay the high taxes to get it :(

there are some on ebay, you should be able to find them cheaper i guess....
http://www.benl.ebay.be/sch/i.html?...kw=N54L&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313

 

[JaimieV]

I see the N40L available at around 1500DKr, which is rather higher than I expected - mine were (in the UK) ~1000DKr each. Maybe not worthwhile at that price.
http://www.mm-vision.dk/produkter/v...=vis&menu=server&type=server&varenr=993001001

Cyberjock gives truth about the RAM - Sorry, I misread it as 3x2gig, not 1x! 8gig should be fine for this, domestic NAS with only one or two concurrent users, right?

Here's some info for ZFS: http://catn.com/vcluster/an-introduction-to-zfs/
UFS isn't very exciting, it's just a plain normal Unix filesystem with no clever parts.

 

[McReiner]

I've seen on the N40L, but as i can see, it will only support RAID 0 and RAID 1?

The NAS will only have one user, and that will be me.

I will read something more about ZFS when i'm home from work later.

 

[sqwob]

I've seen on the N40L, but as i can see, it will only support RAID 0 and RAID 1?

The NAS will only have one user, and that will be me.

I will read something more about ZFS when i'm home from work later.

You won't need the raid functions of your hardware when you use freenas, it's all software raid so you have your sata controller work as normal single disks

 

[McReiner]

So i found this about ZFS in Freenas 8:

http://www.trainsignal.com/blog/zfs-nas-setup-guide

As i understand, i will have to choose between USF and ZFS in the Freenas setup right?
And then i dont even have to use a motherboard with RAID controller, but just choose RAIDZ1 during the install?

The only problem i can see, is that i maybe need about 12 gigs of ram, and then the price starts to get high :/

 

[cyberjock]

The only problem i can see, is that i maybe need about 12 gigs of ram

And you have finally figured out why my first post said "you need more RAM".

As for the cost.. building servers isn't exactly cheap. Depending on alot of factors you can easily end up dropping $2k+ without realizing it.

 

[McReiner]

#10 I understand, but i just think i is weird, beacuse all the Synoligy and Qnas for example, they dont have that much ram, and they are working great, so i don't understand why i have to get so many ram because i want to build i by my self.

 

[sqwob]

#10 I understand, but i just think i is weird, beacuse all the Synoligy and Qnas for example, they dont have that much ram, and they are working great, so i don't understand why i have to get so many ram because i want to build i by my self.

1) They don't use ZFS
2) they probably don't even use BSD

Should you decide not to use ZFS but UFS instead you would need less memory, but in that case you only have Raid 0, 1 or 3 available in Freenas (to my knowledge)

you might want to look at different software like OpenMediaVault or Unraid.

Or choose a cheaper motherboard & buy extra ram instead.

 

[McReiner]

Well, it is not a problem for me to spend some more money at rams.

I found these: http://www.edbpriser.dk/ram/gskill-sq-series-2-x-8-gb-id-6777319.aspx

And i can buy them, but i just want to be sure, i dont need anything else to use ZFS before i start ordering stuff.

 

[JaimieV]

Don't worry so much about RAM. With only you+TV using data you can run fine without spending huge amounts of money on RAM. The standard recommendation is really the requirements for full speed access for everyone in a many-user environment.

My secondary home NAS (which is just used for the first NAS to backup to) runs a ZFS stripe of 4Tb and has just *1*gig RAM. It has never had a problem. My main home NAS has 8Tb ZFS RAIDZ1 and 5gig RAM. Again, never a problem. Lightly loaded domestic NASes do *not* need as much as the folks are saying, I do wish they'd remember that... RAM scales with usage as well as disk.

Also, those g-skill's are SODIMM, laptop size and unlikely to fit in a normal motherboard. Careful what you order, it has to match the motherboard you get.

 

[McReiner]

damn, i haven't seen it was SODIMM, i forgot to search only "DIMM".

So you think if i get about 6-8 gb ram, i would be fine to run 3x2 TB drives? And yes, i don't really need high speed, i just want to stream MKV files to my mediabox, without lag. :)

 

[JaimieV]

8gig should be fine. Just make sure not to fill all the motherboard RAM slots, so if it isn't enough then you have space to add more.

 

[McReiner]

All right, i will try to find a motherboard with 4 ram slots, an start with 2x4 GB.

What about the CPU, is the X2 strong enough for ZFS, or do i need an X4?

EDIT: Found some cheap 2x8 gb kinston sticks, so i can keep the motherboard.

http://www.edbpriser.dk/ram/kingston-hyperx-blu-2-x-8-gb-id-7077713.aspx

Så then i just has to find a random 8GB USB stick to install Freenas on

 

[sqwob]

interesting fact i read about cifs / samba sharing is that because it's single-threaded you want higher single core performance instead of many slower cores.

I'm not knowledgeable about impact on freenas / zfs itself though.

 

[Stephens]

Lightly loaded domestic NASes do *not* need as much as the folks are saying, I do wish they'd remember that... RAM scales with usage as well as disk.

Thanks for injecting some sanity into the discussion.

 

[JaimieV]

The X2 will be fine. Following up on Sqwob's good point, I get 80-100meg/second on Windows shares using a much slower CPU on the home NAS (TurionII@1.3GHz).

(Thanks Stephens for the backup - sometimes I start to doubt myself!)