Media Server

[s1nemesis1s]

Hello All,
First let me thank you for all the help in the past - I am getting close to putting my server together now.

Been reading up on ZFS - I am going to be using this NAS mainly to store my ripped movies and TV shows - alot of bluray stuff. I will have 6 x 4TB drives. I am thinking Raid-Z2 but I hear that the performance can be slower thant Raid-Z1. I have a gigabit network in my house. I care about this content but at the same time I don't want my 1080p stuff to stutter like crazy. I have read all sorts of documentation on this - some say Z2 is fine but Z1 seems like the best for media...I dunno stuck I guess.

 

[tio]

Raid Z2 is a must with that much data.

Your stuff will stutter on the basis if you use plea it tries to transcode it to the player or TV and the bitrate is either too high to play or the data is too large. Id suggest if you're ripping stuff is to encode it with a moderate level of compression.

My old N54L handles HEVC X265 very well at around 80% cpu. but thats only with a standard stereo channel so if you have 5.1 then you will need a good beefy processor

I have 6x 2TB disks in a RaidZ2, I've had 1080p h264 come across a 54mbps wifi network fine without stutter

 

[Robert Riedel]

I use plex or someone in my family almost everyday. You can see my freeNas box down below but I use RAIDZ2 and can not detect any stutter at all. I sometimes have 2 or 3 streams at a time and I just use MakeMKV to rip my movies and store. I use both stereo and 5.1 as well. If you have stutter problems you can always set the client to a lower resolution and should be okay. Plex asks for 20 mbps (2.5 MBps) for a 1080p stream so you should have plenty of bandwidth. I have a gigabyte network and it I don't even notice when someone is using plex. I hope this helps.

 

[s1nemesis1s]

Raid Z2 is a must with that much data.

Your stuff will stutter on the basis if you use plea it tries to transcode it to the player or TV and the bitrate is either too high to play or the data is too large. Id suggest if you're ripping stuff is to encode it with a moderate level of compression.

My old N54L handles HEVC X265 very well at around 80% cpu. but thats only with a standard stereo channel so if you have 5.1 then you will need a good beefy processor

I have 6x 2TB disks in a RaidZ2, I've had 1080p h264 come across a 54mbps wifi network fine without stutter

Excellent - that really helps. I will be using Kodi for the interface so to speak so I should be okay there. I am going to run 16 gigs of ram, ECC, and an i3 so it should be beefy enough. I have thought about a cache SSD drive as well - but I don't know enough to implement that - more reading need on that.
I used to be all wifi but I finally tool the plunge and wired my house - it was a royal PIA but it has been the best thing I have done IT wise. I showed my wife the file transfer rates and it was a "drop the mic," moment in our house lol.

 

[s1nemesis1s]

I use plex or someone in my family almost everyday. You can see my freeNas box down below but I use RAIDZ2 and can not detect any stutter at all. I sometimes have 2 or 3 streams at a time and I just use MakeMKV to rip my movies and store. I use both stereo and 5.1 as well. If you have stutter problems you can always set the client to a lower resolution and should be okay. Plex asks for 20 mbps (2.5 MBps) for a 1080p stream so you should have plenty of bandwidth. I have a gigabyte network and it I don't even notice when someone is using plex. I hope this helps.

This helps as well! Direct experience reports are a big deal for me - reading it is one thing but hearing it from someone who actually does it really helps me. I am using Kodi, did you find plex hard to implement?

 

[Robert Riedel]

Hi, never used Kodi, Plex was easy to setup and configure everything. From start to finish it takes me about 1 hour. The longest part is making sure that Plex connects the file to the right movie or series. My eight year navigates through plex just fine. It is similar to netflix to use. To setup you basically tell plex where the movie files are and it looks and tries to bring in meta data on each one. Then you repeat for tv shows and so one until all the media is loaded.

 

[s1nemesis1s]

Hi, never used Kodi, Plex was easy to setup and configure everything. From start to finish it takes me about 1 hour. The longest part is making sure that Plex connects the file to the right movie or series. My eight year navigates through plex just fine. It is similar to netflix to use. To setup you basically tell plex where the movie files are and it looks and tries to bring in meta data on each one. Then you repeat for tv shows and so one until all the media is loaded.

Interesting - I will have to investigate. I am not locked into Kodi at all - this all sounds great.

 

[Darren Myers]

Excellent - that really helps. I will be using Kodi for the interface so to speak so I should be okay there. I am going to run 16 gigs of ram, ECC, and an i3 so it should be beefy enough. I have thought about a cache SSD drive as well - but I don't know enough to implement that - more reading need on that.
I used to be all wifi but I finally tool the plunge and wired my house - it was a royal PIA but it has been the best thing I have done IT wise. I showed my wife the file transfer rates and it was a "drop the mic," moment in our house lol.

With x6 4Tb harddrives that gives you ~12 odd Tb of usable space, FreeNAS 9.3 requires a minimum of 8Gb of RAM, and the rule of thumb is/was 1Gb of RAM per Tb, but that doesnt factor in plugins. If i were you i would start with 32Gb of RAM due to the amount of hdds you plan to have + the plugins.

Also make sure the i3 you choose supported ECC, and make sure which ever motherboard you select you look at the approved/texted RAM sheet that accompanies it.

As for the SSD cache, you more then likely wont need/want it.

I also wouldnt suggest RAIDz1 for that size of hdds due to the issues that could occur if a harddrives dies and you begin to resliver the new drive and another one starts to die, in RAIDz1 if you loose 2 drives youre hosed. RAIDz2 is highly recommended when using large drives such as 4Tb or 6Tb +.

 

[s1nemesis1s]

With x6 4Tb harddrives that gives you ~12 odd Tb of usable space, FreeNAS 9.3 requires a minimum of 8Gb of RAM, and the rule of thumb is/was 1Gb of RAM per Tb, but that doesnt factor in plugins. If i were you i would start with 32Gb of RAM due to the amount of hdds you plan to have + the plugins.

Also make sure the i3 you choose supported ECC, and make sure which ever motherboard you select you look at the approved/texted RAM sheet that accompanies it.

As for the SSD cache, you more then likely wont need/want it.

I also wouldnt suggest RAIDz1 for that size of hdds due to the issues that could occur if a harddrives dies and you begin to resliver the new drive and another one starts to die, in RAIDz1 if you loose 2 drives youre hosed. RAIDz2 is highly recommended when using large drives such as 4Tb or 6Tb +.

Hmm - Well in for a penny in for a pound. I went ahead and ordered two more sticks 8gig ECC taking me to the max of the board - 32 gigs. Thank you for the help. Also - why go for RAIDz1 again and not z2? I am not clear?

 

[Darren Myers]

Hmm - Well in for a penny in for a pound. I went ahead and ordered two more sticks 8gig ECC taking me to the max of the board - 32 gigs. Thank you for the help. Also - why go for RAIDz1 again and not z2? I am not clear?

I said wouldnt suggest RAIDz1, would not. Deff go for RAIDz2, that is the only option for such large drives.

RAIDz2 is highly recommended when using large drives such as 4Tb or 6Tb +

What motherboard and model i3 did you select?

 

[s1nemesis1s]

I went with:

ASRock C226 WS ATX Server Motherboard LGA 1150 Intel C226 DDR3 1600/1333

Intel Core i3-4160 Haswell Dual-Core 3.6 GHz LGA 1150 54W BX80646I34160 Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4400

x4 (now)-
Kingston 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Unbuffered DDR3 1600 Server Memory w/TS Model KVR16E11/8