My first FreeNAS build

[Warafreak]

Hi everybody,

I have been reading up a little bit on NAS solutions over the past few months, because I would like to build a NAS that can replace my current Synology NAS with 2x WD Red 3TB in RAID0. Yes I did make that error and it sometimes causes insomnia for me. That lead me to the FreeNAS community and I started saving up for a new NAS. Since I have never built a NAS myself, I would appreciate every help or advice/concern that you might have regarding my build.

My FreeNAS is supposed to mainly host my data and backups and make them available to me, family and friends(a total of maybe 5-10 people). But I would also like to have the possibility of streaming and storing my media collection, mostly movies and photos(maximum of 3 streams at the same time).
My goal is to create a NAS that can do these tasks at a reasonably low idle wattage with high reliability and longevity.

Upon reading the hardware recommendations guide I came with the following build:

CPU: Intel Pentium G4500
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Pure Rock Slim
Motherboard: Supermicro X11SSM-F
RAM: 2x16GB Samsung M391A2K43BB1
PSU: SeaSonic G-450
Case: Fractal Design Define Mini
Boot Drive: 120GB ADATA Premier SP550 (Probably overkill, but the price is reasonable)
Drives: 5x6TB
Networking: Chelsio S320E-SR (for a point to point 10GbE network with my computer and future expandability)

This puts my budget to about 2000€ (prices here in Germany)

My questions:

• Drives: What kind of drives would you recommend? Hitachi/HGST or Western Digital? I thought about mixing the two as they are about the same price. Could this lead to issues? And would you recommend buying the drives at different stores or can I buy them in a single order?
• Networking: I know the HDDs won't saturate the 10GbE, but would the CPU theoratically be able to handle these speeds? If not what CPU would I need?
• RAID-Z2: This is sufficient for such a build, right?
• A general sanity check of this build would be highly appreciated and any tips are welcome:)

 

[Dice]

What kind of drives would you recommend? Hitachi/HGST or Western Digital?

Mostly WD RED. Temperature and reliability is advantageous.

I thought about mixing the two as they are about the same price. Could this lead to issues? And would you recommend buying the drives at different stores or can I buy them in a single order?

Issues, only if drive speed differs enough to potentially give headaches.
You seem to have read up on ideas regarding hardware sourcing. Follow your gut.
A proper burn-in sequence is designed to iron out potential flaws which stems from bad bulks.
My raidz2 is sourced over a period of about 16 months. Unintentionally.
If I get another set of drives, I'd probably buy them all from the same store, and at least spanned over a period of 2 months.

RAID-Z2: This is sufficient for such a build, right?

It is a good call.

 

[nojohnny101]

Welcome @Warafreak
Looks like you did some solid research, we like you already :D

You won't need a aftermarket CPU cooler, the stock one should be good enough.

• Drives: What kind of drives would you recommend? Hitachi/HGST or Western Digital? I thought about mixing the two as they are about the same price. Could this lead to issues? And would you recommend buying the drives at different stores or can I buy them in a single order?

As @Dice alluded to, this is really a matter of personal opinion. I will share my experience (albeit limited). I bought all my drives at the same time as I was impatient and wanted to up and running (although I did do a proper burn-in!). Although in replacing drives in the future, it makes sense to buy drives over a period of time. Drives are fairly reliably made nowadays so I can definitely see it happen that they would all die around the same time. This would be problematic if you don't have a cold spare handy or are slow to replace failed drives in your vdev. Although it can be also said that the possibility of this happening is not much higher than buying drives at different times and being unlucky that they die around the same time. Most people like to minimize risk (and rightfully so), and so buying your drives at different times and from different vendors make sense in this regard. Having said that, I don't think as strong of case can be made for mixing drive types (HGST, WD, etc.). Don't complicate things, just stick with one brand (my opinion).

• Networking: I know the HDDs won't saturate the 10GbE, but would the CPU theoratically be able to handle these speeds? If not what CPU would I need?

Don't really know what you are asking here. If you are asking about shares (browsing folders of the NAS on your computer) then it depends on the type of share you are using. CIFS shares benefit from a CPU with higher clock speeds. From what you describe, I think your CPU would be fine as long as you are not doing a lot of transcoding (i.e. it is not likely that 2 people will be demanding a transcode from plex while others are trying to browse files on the machine through shares). Just an approximation though as there are so many variables and every situation is impossible to predict.

• RAID-Z2: This is sufficient for such a build, right?

Yes. This is my option though. Radiz2 is generally viewed as appropriate for most use cases where you don't need crazy speed read/writes (this is what mirrors are generally used for) or crazy redundancy (raidz3). Raidz2 is a good balance between the two.

Looks good though, you did your homework!

 

[Stux]

Raidz2 actually put performed mirrors on sequential writes.

Mirrors have good random access performance. Since random IOPS are limited by how many vdevs you have.

You should consider seagate NAS hds too. I've been very happy with mine.

And your backup? Turn the synology back into raid1 and store your most precious 3TB files?

 

[Warafreak]

First of all I would like to thank you all for this nice welcome and the quick responses.

• Drives:
  

  Mostly WD RED. Temperature and reliability is advantageous.

  Issues, only if drive speed differs enough to potentially give headaches.

  Don't complicate things, just stick with one brand (my opinion).

  
  Ok, thank you for the advice. I think I will stick with WD RED then. This also means slightly lower prices for me:).
  
  
• Networking:
  

  Don't really know what you are asking here. If you are asking about shares (browsing folders of the NAS on your computer) then it depends on the type of share you are using. CIFS shares benefit from a CPU with higher clock speeds. From what you describe, I think your CPU would be fine as long as you are not doing a lot of transcoding (i.e. it is not likely that 2 people will be demanding a transcode from plex while others are trying to browse files on the machine through shares). Just an approximation though as there are so many variables and every situation is impossible to predict.

  
  What I was trying to ask was whether the CPU could be a potential bottleneck regarding file transfers from the NAS to a client(both Windows and/or Linux). I don't think that there will often be the situation that more than one client is streaming a movie.
  
  
• RAID-Z2:
  

  Raidz2 is a good balance between the two.

  It is a good call.

  
  Ok, I will be using this RAID configuration than.:)
  
  

  Raidz2 actually put performed mirrors on sequential writes.
  Mirrors have good random access performance. Since random IOPS are limited by how many vdevs you have.

  
  I'm sorry @Stux , I don't quite understand what you are trying to tell me. Could you explain this further?
  
  
• General concepts of the build:
  

  You won't need a aftermarket CPU cooler, the stock one should be good enough.

  
  I mainly chose an aftermarket solution so that the system wouldn't be quite as loud(yes I know the HDDs will probably be the loudest thing).
  
  
• My old NAS/Backup:
  

  And your backup? Turn the synology back into raid1 and store your most precious 3TB files?

  
  That is actually exactly what I was planning to do. Get the FreeNAS built and transfer all the data. Afterwards convert my Synology NAS back into a RAID 1 and have this one be my backup. It will also in the long run become an offsite backup, because I will hand it over to my parents so that they can stream movies and such in their home.
  
  

Thank you all for the positive feedback!

 

[Stux]

Put = out