Low End FreeNAS Upgrade

[joeduffy]

So for the past year I have been using FreeNAS in simplest configuration possible with an old celeron e1500 with 3gb of ram and one 2tb disk (offsite backup available) powered by a seasonic 500w psu. I have just been using it as an smb file server for the local gigabit network with at most 3 simultaneous users streaming music and compressed video from it.

I have now decided to upgrade my nas with 3 additional 2tb disks to form a raidz2 and add additional ram. The question is will I be able to attach those disks directly to my existing system then extend the volume to include them or will it require a reinstall and then restore my data to it.

Additionally how will FreeNAS handle power management of those disks I know there is a power management feature but will it actually spin down the disks when idle?

 

[Stux]

The simplest way is to backup and restore your data.

An alternative would be to create a degraded RaidZ2, but that is quite non-trivial.

 

[enemy85]

[...]The question is will I be able to attach those disks directly to my existing system then extend the volume to include them or will it require a reinstall and then restore my data to it?

You can't. you will have to backup your data, destroy the old volume, create a new raidz2 pool from scratch.
I suggest you to read the basic guides of how FN works and the MINIMAL HW requirements (you are far from) to have a stable and reliable system.

 

[danb35]

The pool change you're talking about wouldn't necessarily require reinstalling FreeNAS, but the easiest and safest way to do it would be to back up your data, destroy the pool, recreate it using all six disks, and restore from backup. Another alternative, assuming your current three disks are in RAIDZ1, would be to extend the pool with a second RAIDZ1 vdev--this is what I did when I expanded from three disks to six. It isn't recommended, as the redundancy isn't as good (and thus the risk of future data loss is greater), but you could do a lot worse.

Your CPU meets the minimum requirements, in that it's a 64-bit CPU, but that's about it. It has a front-side bus, which is a performance killer for ZFS; it doesn't support ECC RAM; it doesn't support virtualization; it doesn't support AES-NI; and it burns a hell of a lot of watts for that. It burns up to 65 watts, and has a passmark of ~1100. A current i3-6100 burns the same 65 watts, with a passmark of ~5500--five times the performance for the same power consumption. And it supports virtualization, AES-NI, ECC, and the rest. Right now, I'd think your best and most economical upgrade, assuming you're in the US, would be to replace your current system with a Proliant ML10 (using that i3-6100), add a 8GB stick of RAM (or even a 16 GB stick), and move your disks over.

 

[Stux]

OP currently has one 2TB disk, wants to add 3 more, and end up with 4 way RaidZ2

If you can backup the data locally, then do that, then install the 3 extra drives. Destroy your old pool, make a new pool with the 4 drives, and restore.

 

[danb35]

OP currently has one 2TB disk, wants to add 3 more

Right--I obviously need to read more carefully.

 

[joeduffy]

So I will have to destroy the pool and manually copy the data back. But what about the power management aspect is it limited to specific disk and motherboard combinations. Also I have discovered that the Biostar G31-M7 TE motherboard uses the Intel G31 Express Chipset which limits it to 4gb of ram crippling its zfs performance. As it its been very stable as is currently with about 3 weeks up-time and never having experienced a major glitch or data loss.
What could I expect with the described config with only 4gb of ram?

 

[danb35]

What could I expect with the described config with only 4gb of ram?

You should expect that it will be unstable and unsafe for your data. Anything more than that would be a gift.

As to spinning down disks, there's a lot of discussion here on the subject, mostly reaching the conclusion of "don't bother."