New build, need critique please

[Newton]

I am needing to build a small storage for our small office here. I've been using FreeNAS for quite a few years on the old machine and its starting to act glitchy.

So my needs are not great, and I have gone over all the stickys and such, but good grief there is a lot of stuff to choose from. So I kind of just started picking and choosing for the best small box I could make at the best price.

We are only talking a limited amount of file sharing, and at MOST 5-6 people on at a time. The system usually does not even see more than 2 people on at a time. Small files and such, not a video or music server. Just office paperwork. The current system has only two disks, under 10GB on each and probably will hover around that for many years to come.

Here is what I have picked out. Let me know if I am way over doing it, or if there is something really screaming it wont work if you would. I've built a few computers for us in the past, but times change pretty quickly and I get out of the loop.

Box - not sure if it even matters that much - Rosewill CHALLENGER
PS - Rosewill Valens-500, Valens Series 500W Power Supply, 80 PLUS Gold Certified
MB - SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SLL-F-O uATX Server Motherboard LGA 1150 DDR3 1600
CPU - Intel Core i3-4160 Haswell Dual-Core 3.6GHz LGA 1150 54W
Drives - WD Red NAS Hard Drive WD10EFRX 1TB IntelliPower 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s
RAM - Crucial 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Server Memory Model CT51272BD160B

Thoughts?

 

[Jailer]

8GB is the minimum RAM required to run freenas. Also you really should pick a better PSU than the one you selected.

 

[Darren Myers]

get 16Gb ECC RAM, approved for your mobo, deff a diff psu, a battery backup unit if you dont have one already, and how many drives and what RAIDz?

 

[Newton]

ok, what am I looking for in the PSU? I selected the 80 gold based on the stickies, but they don't go into much more detail. I can swing more RAM, but was not sure if it was needed due to lack of heavy usage. Where I am getting everything, they do not have either of the only two RAM listed on supermicro's website. I know its best to go with what they have tested, but I also know that they don't spend the time to test ALL RAM available. Is it going to be that detrimental? I have used "non" tested RAM on many previous computer builds. Not trying to discount your suggestions, just trying to understand is all.

Battery backup is already in place. Only using two drives, no need for more. No RAID.

This is not 'critical' file storage, just a central storage that everyone has access to so we don't have to pass thumbdrives and such between personal computers, if that makes sense.

 

[Darren Myers]

Well...i wouldnt recommend running just 2 disks with FreeNAS at least make it RAIDz1 which would give you 4Tb space, and roughly 3.149Tb usable. Even though it isnt heavy usage, having 16Gb of RAM still gives you alot of breathing room due to 8 being the flat minimum. Not having RAM approved from supermicro's page, its possible it will work 100% with no issues, i have non recommended branded RAM together in my 1 production HP server, but it works 100% with no issues what so ever.

Glad to hear battery backup is already in place, that is very critical to have.

 

[Newton]

Well...i wouldnt recommend running just 2 disks with FreeNAS at least make it RAIDz1 which would give you 4Tb space, and roughly 3.149Tb usable. Even though it isnt heavy usage, having 16Gb of RAM still gives you alot of breathing room due to 8 being the flat minimum. Not having RAM approved from supermicro's page, its possible it will work 100% with no issues, i have non recommended branded RAM together in my 1 production HP server, but it works 100% with no issues what so ever.

Glad to hear battery backup is already in place, that is very critical to have.

I see. Aside from those additions, looks good?

 

[Newton]

Honestly, I would love to go with a ASUS MB as I have always had good luck with them, plus they test a LOT more RAM than supermicro. But it was getting very difficult to figure out a MB that was not over the top of what I need but also supports ECC.

 

[Darren Myers]

Honestly, I would love to go with a ASUS MB as I have always had good luck with them, plus they test a LOT more RAM than supermicro. But it was getting very difficult to figure out a MB that was not over the top of what I need but also supports ECC.

i had 2 asus server boards that were ECC, but you may run into issues with FreeNAS.....pretty much supermicro and asrock seem to have the most support and testing, id hate to see you get a board that works great for a while and then craps out or causes a bunch of issues.

I am a huge fan of ASUS as well, but supermicro has grown on me for FreeNAS.

I see. Aside from those additions, looks good?

Aside from that, yes everything else looks good and you should decide what RAID level you want....having 2 drives without any kind of redundancy isnt recommended at all....mainly just for the peace of mind and not having to deal with it later lol, or have to deal with restoring of data.

 

[gpsguy]

For your use case, you might want to consider a budget server like a Lenovo TS140 or Dell T20. If you are in the US, you could buy one of the latter, for as low as $165 USD with 4GB RAM. Of course, you'd need to upgrade and/or replace the original RAM. See - http://www.provantage.com/dell-snp96mctc-8g~7DELL33Y.htm

I know you said the data wasn't critical, but at a minimum, I would mirror the drives.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

The current system has only two disks, under 10GB on each and probably will hover around that for many years to come.

For 20GB of data, I would seriously consider Dropbox Pro instead of building and maintaining a server.

 

[Newton]

For your use case, you might want to consider a budget server like a Lenovo TS140 or Dell T20. If you are in the US, you could buy one of the latter, for as low as $165 USD with 4GB RAM. Of course, you'd need to upgrade and/or replace the original RAM. See - http://www.provantage.com/dell-snp96mctc-8g~7DELL33Y.htm

I know you said the data wasn't critical, but at a minimum, I would mirror the drives.

That looks very doable. I am very comfortable with Dell computers, as most of our PC's are Dells and we have had good life/results out of them. I went to the Dell site but just could not find a good build that was customizable for anywhere close to what I could build one. I'll be looking at this provantage place though. For that price I can definitely see going that route.

I'm going to take your guys recommendation and do RAID. Honestly, we have a secondary backup storage(not file server) in another location that we put backups into. It runs a RAID system. I am not familiar with RAID, and remember the last time I was looking at it I got real confused real quick. Maybe I can revisit it and someone has simplified how it is.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Newton]

For 20GB of data, I would seriously consider Dropbox Pro instead of building and maintaining a server.

It has to be onsite for sure, that would be the only reason not to use a service like this. Also, forgot to mention, that we do have one person that needs to access this from FTP.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

I'll be looking at this provantage place though.

There's no way I know of that you can beat the current price of a T20 from ProVantage for a simple storage solution such as you've described.

I'm going to take your guys recommendation and do RAID.

If you go with FreeNAS you will be using the software RAID provided by its ZFS filesystem. Make sure you read this guide first. Do not set up any kind of RAID below FreeNAS, this will only lead to trouble.

we have a secondary backup storage(not file server) in another location that we put backups into

That's great. Since you're not expecting rapid growth of your data, probably all you need is some 1TB drives, configured in either a two-drive mirror or a three-drive RAIDZ1. If you end up with drives larger than 1TB, you should seriously consider RAIDZ2.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

we do have one person that needs to access this from FTP.

Please try to solve this with SFTP instead, using key-based authentication. Exposing an FTP connection to the world from a FreeNAS box is much more risky. SFTP is just as easy to use, arguably even easier to set up, and much more secure.

 

[Newton]

Thanks for the help guys. Getting two Dell boxes, disks, and memory for under a grand. Boss is gonna love me.

I have not looked into SFTP, but I will, thanks for brining it up. For now, once the new boxes are up, i'll leave the FTP on the old server with only the files they need. Which, in reality, are nothing special and the world could see them for all I care. It just makes it easier for them to grab them in this fashion than to try to email the file or send it on a thumbdrive/disk.

 

[ChriZ]

If this is the case, owncloud may be a better option - plus it is easier to access, even from mobile devices.
Just my 2c...

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

owncloud may be a better option

I think this is a good point, but personally I would be more confident in my ability to keep SSH secure than to keep ownCloud secure. That and the fact that ownCloud needs regular care and feeding (software updates). But if the OP isn't too concerned about the privacy of this dataset, ownCloud is worth a look.