New build

[NeghVar]

I will go FreeNAS now. The motherboard on the old system failed. Fortunately I was using RAID 10 btrfs. Recovery process was easy once I setup a temp system. New system is a Core i5-2400, 8GB DDR3, a PCIe 4x 8-port SATA controller (no RAID support), and 8 4TB HDDs in RAID-Z2. Satisfactory?

 

[wblock]

The i5 does not support ECC, but it will work. Some PCIe SATA controllers are questionable. Which one do you have?

 

[NeghVar]

HighPoint RocketRAID 2320 PCI-Express x4 SATA II
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIABZ04RM8229

I was incorrect it does support RAID, but I know it needs to be JBOD.

Like the previous one, this was assembled with spare parts around the warehouse.

 

[tvsjr]

Please read the Hardware Recommendations Guide:
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/hardware-recommendations-guide.12/

In general...
ECC isn't a requirement, but it probably should be.
8GB is the minimal amount of RAM required. If you're going to run a low-performance system with a handful of drives, sharing a few files via CIFS, it'll work. If you intend to run jails, NFS/iSCSI, etc., you're going to want more.
The HighPoint cards suck. The LSI and IBM cards are highly recommended for a reason... they work very well with a minimum of drama.

IMO, FreeNAS is not the product on which you want to skimp on hardware.

 

[SweetAndLow]

Get a new hba card and don't use that rocket raid one. What is the new motherboard you want to use?

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[NeghVar]

This is a video archive which at most will be accessed by no more than two or three computers at a time. Not a massive corporate server with thousands of people accessing it at any one time. Budget is zero $ and I'm not going overboard to meet the "suggested" specs when I won't need anywhere near that much power. As I said spare, non-inventoried, parts in the warehouse. Why have a super-sonic jet when you only need to travel 5 miles

 

[SweetAndLow]

This is a video archive which at most will be accessed by no more than two or three computers at a time. Not a massive corporate server with thousands of people accessing it at any one time. Budget is zero $ and I'm not going overboard to meet the "suggested" specs when I won't need anywhere near that much power. As I said spare, non-inventoried, parts in the warehouse. Why have a super-sonic jet when you only need to travel 5 miles

Lol because it won't work. Kind of like trying to fly 5mph using a stump.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[tvsjr]

Those specs aren't suggested, they're required.

You MUST have 8GB RAM to run FreeNAS. If you want space to run jails, have any appreciable ARC, etc. you MUST have more.
If you value data protection (and we assume you do if you're going to the effort of building a FreeNAS), ECC is HIGHLY recommended.
You SHOULD have an HBA that's well supported. The Highpoint crap isn't. It's crap, always has been. The drivers aren't well written, and many of their devices really don't have a way to turn RAID off. Can you make it work, sure. When you come crying, saying your pool has been lost? The first comment will be "we told you that RAID card was a bad idea".

There are thousands of people and many thousands of builds contained within these forums. The recommendations exists because they work, and work well. If a guide says "don't do X", it's probably not just someone's opinion. It's because someone has been down that road and learned the hard way.

 

[NeghVar]

Lol because it won't work.

Do you know that first hand? That FreeNAS will not function in ANY environment unless the minimum is met?

You are all replying as if I am making this for some mission critical corporate purpose. This is a tiny home network storing video for a Plex server. Not a competitor for Netflix or Hulu.

 

[SweetAndLow]

Do you know that first hand? That FreeNAS will not function in ANY environment unless the minimum is met?

You are all replying as if I am making this for some mission critical corporate purpose. This is a tiny home network storing video for a Plex server. Not a competitor for Netflix or Hulu.

Not a single person has replied as if this is a mission critical system built for a business. We are just trying to tell you what will work and what will not work.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[RodyMcAmp]

The recommended specs are great and make it easy to get support on the forums, but I have run with 4 gigs of ram on a Pentium 620... you will loose a little bit of speed but it will work. Unfortunately, there are a few very vocal members on these forums that would rather you use some other storage os rather than making what you have or what you can afford work. If that rocket raid card does not work in FreeNAS 9.x it may work just fine in FreeNAS 10 which is getting close to release.

All that being said, the recommended hardware has been tested and we know that it works, chances are if you have a problem someone here especially the vocal members I mentioned earlier will happily help out, with a link to the thread where the issue has been fixed or worked around.

If you are going to use this for anything else other than basic home file storage I would definitely go with the recomended hardware, Just because it will work doesent mean you wont run into some issue and loose your files. In any kind of work or corporate environment, you are going to want support, at a minimum the forums and probably a True nas.

ps:
I sometimes forget that I do this for fun and all my files are backed up multiple places and I can lose my server at any time and will enjoy building a new one. My FreeNas server is not critical, something to keep in mind. If you are just playing around and maybe learning that's great but if you need reliable storage and good performance really consider spending the money on supported hardware.

 

[Ericloewe]

but I have run with 4 gigs of ram on a Pentium 620... you will loose a little bit

And possibly your data.

If that rocket raid card does not work in FreeNAS 9.x it may work just fine in FreeNAS 10 which is getting close to release.

It won't. The driver is the exact same and so is the underlying OS. There are many years of people trying alternatives to LSI HBAs and none have been acceptable. In an odd twist, LSI RAID controllers started working (if they support the mrsas driver) before any of the HBA alternatives.

 

[wblock]

The HighPoint cards suck.

I don't doubt this, but generally some sort of reasoning behind the conclusion is helpful. Is it due to driver support, hardware quality, or some other factor?

 

[wblock]

The recommended specs are great and make it easy to get support on the forums, but I have run with 4 gigs of ram on a Pentium 620... you will loose a little bit of speed but it will work. Unfortunately, there are a few very vocal members on these forums that would rather you use some other storage os rather than making what you have or what you can afford work.

There is also a desire to avoid the situation where people try FreeNAS on inadequate hardware, find the performance or functionality is limited, and then blame FreeNAS rather than the hardware. For experimentation is one thing, for actual use storing data is another.

 

[Ericloewe]

I don't doubt this, but generally some sort of reasoning behind the conclusion is helpful. Is it due to driver support, hardware quality, or some other factor?

It's mostly on the software side. The latest example is the Rocket something-50 that is by all accounts a decent HBA, but the FreeBSD driver is unreliable.

Most RAID controllers suffer from requiring custom tools to do basic things such as getting the smart
SMART data, even if their RAID idiosyncrasies can be switched off.

That's what's cool about the new mrsas driver for LSI RAID controllers. It allows SAS3 and SAS2308 controllers in RAID mode to still provide direct-attach interfaces (presumably bypassing caches and similar RAID features, but that part needs to be investigated), making life easier for people stuck with controllers that won't support IT mode.