BUILD My First FreeNAS Build (Parts are en route)

[WayneC1972]

Case: Lian Li PC-Q25B
Motherboard: ASRock E3C226D2I Mini ITX Server Motherboard LGA 1150 Intel C226 DDR3 1600/1333
CPU:1 x Intel Core i3-4170 3M Haswell Dual-Core 3.7 GHz LGA 1150 54W BX80646I34170 Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4400
Memory:Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Unbuffered DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Server Memory Model CT2KIT102472BD160B
Hard Drive(s):5 x WD Red 3TB NAS Hard Drive: 1 to 8-bay RAID Hard Drive: 3.5-inch SATA 6 Gb/s, IntelliPower, 64MB Cache WD30EFRX
OS Drive:SanDisk Ultra Fit USB 3.0 Flash Drive
Powersupply:Corsair RM Series 450-Watt ATX/EPS 80PLUS Gold-Certified Power Supply CP-9020066-NA
Battery Backup: APC Back-UPS XS 1500

I planning on adding an SSD for cache, I was advised that I probably wouldn't get any benefit
All parts listed above are purchased and en route or already sitting on my office floor.
This FreeNAS 9.3 build will be my first. This is a going to be a Home server for my family of 5. Server will replace my current Windows 2008 R2. This server will act as Media/File Server, FTP Server, Own Cloud, Torrent Downloading and Plex server for 1-2 streams and periodically some trans-coding.
Any HELPFUL thoughts, suggestions, caveats or "HELL NO DON'T DO THAT" are welcome..... within reason.

Also

I am migrating from a windows server with approx 4-5 TB of files. Whats the best way to move them to the FreeNAS system?

 

[Bidule0hm]

Forget about the cache SSD, with only 16 GB of RAM it'll just hurt the system.

As the PSU you put a USB stick, I guess it's a copy-paste error :)

What did you chose as your RAID type?

The best way to move files is over the network as that's what a NAS is designed for ;)

 

[WayneC1972]

Power Supply:Corsair RM Series 450-Watt ATX/EPS 80PLUS Gold-Certified Power Supply CP-9020066-NA

Plan to go with Raid Z1 - no deduplication.

I didn't know if it were possible or faster to use the USB 3.0 or last SATA port to transfer the files quicker?

 

[Bidule0hm]

RAID-Z1 with that many drives and that big drives isn't recommended, I assume you know that but I prefer to be sure.

It's possible, see the section about importing drives in the manual ;) prefer SATA over USB.

 

[diedrichg]

RAID-Z1 with that many drives and that big drives isn't recommended, I assume you know that but I prefer to be sure.

It's possible, see the section about importing drives in the manual ;) prefer SATA over USB.

RAID-Z1 (5) 3TB drives is too wide and too big? Sounds perfectly fine to me. Did you misread the OP?

 

[Bidule0hm]

Yep, it's not recommended with drives bigger than 1 TB (see the link in my signature for the details) and even less recommended with more than 3 drives.

I didn't say it's forbidden, if you know what you're doing then there's no problem.

 

[WayneC1972]

@Bidule0hm..Which link on your signature? Which Raid do you recommend? RAIDZ2?

 

[Bidule0hm]

This one: RAID-Z1/RAID5 isn't recommended

Yep, RAID-Z2 ;)

 

[WayneC1972]

OK so that should get me 9tb of storage space. If I added 3tb drive to get 12tb of storage, my system should be able to handle that..... correct?

 

[Bidule0hm]

Yep, you'll have 12 TB (10.9TiB) but because of the ZFS overhead and the 80% rule you'll have about 9.4 TB (8.6 TiB) usable.

 

[fullspeed]

+1 Raidz2 if you care about your data.

 

[WayneC1972]

@fullspeed & Bidule0hm, I understand what your saying regarding raidz2 over raidz1...What are your thoughts regarding this article http://blog.delphix.com/matt/2014/06/06/zfs-stripe-width/

 

[cyberjock]

Ugg... that link... again.

 

[Bidule0hm]

Short answer: if you use compression (and you likely use it since it's the default setting) then don't bother with block alignment ;)

 

[WayneC1972]

Short answer: if you use compression (and you likely use it since it's the default setting) then don't bother with block alignment ;)

ok so now I have 6 3tb drives with 16 gb of memory. plan is to do raidz2. All parts are in build begins tomorrow in the am.

 

[Fuganater]

ok so now I have 6 3tb drives with 16 gb of memory. plan is to do raidz2. All parts are in build begins tomorrow in the am.

You are waiting till morning? blaspheme

 

[Jailer]

You are waiting till morning?

No kidding! That's like a kid saying, "look Santa was here but I think we will wait until after we've had a good breakfast to open presents".

 

[WayneC1972]

Well last of the parts came in around 1:30am. .. but had to leave ....out with the wife for the night. So goto wait till the am..actually depends on how I feel when we get home tonight. Question. ...better to do 5 drives RAIDZ2 and keep one drive for hot spare or should I so 6 drives RAIDZ2? With only 16GB of mem?

 

[Bidule0hm]

Hot spares are useless (for home servers) because you wear out the drive but it's not used in the pool... It's better to do a 6 drives RAID-Z3 than a 5 drives RAID-Z2 + 1 hot spare, but then it's very overkill (even my 8 drives RAID-Z3 is more or less overkill) so a 6 drives RAID-Z2 sounds good ;)

 

[Fuganater]

Well last of the parts came in around 1:30am. .. but had to leave ....out with the wife for the night. So goto wait till the am..actually depends on how I feel when we get home tonight. Question. ...better to do 5 drives RAIDZ2 and keep one drive for hot spare or should I so 6 drives RAIDZ2? With only 16GB of mem?

I find your lack of dedication, disturbing...

Ok I'm done messing with you now ;)