New to freenas - need a little hand

[Cptblue]

Hi,
As title suggests, new to freenas and need a little community guidance.
Read the documentation and sorry if this is in the wrong forum or it’s been posted before.

Goal - I would like to run a file server with maybe Plex installed as well (but not necessary) I have 6 hd’s From 500gb to 1tb in external enclosures but would like them in one machine to administer rather than all plugged in as they are separately.

Data - will be a mix of music, video and personal files, Plex would be advantageous but not essential.

Hardware - I’m afraid I’m at work (but burning to get started in some way) so don’t have all the specs to hand, I will post them all later. I have an old dell pc with 8gb of ram on a gigabyte MB and a intel core duo and running Windows 10. I will post all the specs later! I have an 4th gen i3 hanging around and am not adverse to just getting another MB and using the dell case but for cost reason would rather use what I’ve got.

Attempts so far - I’ve made the install usb using rufus but had real trouble getting the bios to boot it, from searching the forums it seems that my MB and bios is not compatible with usb booting or Dell have locked that feature down? USB works on my gaming pc so I know it’s ok. I’ve put a dvd drive in the tower so I can try using a disc, if this will make a difference.

So that’s kind of where I am, I appreciate I haven’t provided specs so any suggestions would be purely hypothetical but I will post a full list later. I guess I’m just wondering if I’m going down the right path or if I should maybe just give up and by a 4/6bay enclosure.

Thanks for looking

Cheers

 

[PhiloEpisteme]

Hi @Cptblue, welcome to the forums.

Goal - I would like to run a file server with maybe Plex installed as well (but not necessary) I have 6 hd’s From 500gb to 1tb in external enclosures but would like them in one machine to administer rather than all plugged in as they are separately.

Great use of FreeNAS. Your drives are a bit small but that won't affect anything except for your total storage capacity. You'll want to do some research into pool and vdev layout to decide how you'd like to use those drives.

I have an old dell pc with 8gb of ram on a gigabyte MB and a intel core duo and running Windows 10. I will post all the specs later! I have an 4th gen i3 hanging around and am not adverse to just getting another MB and using the dell case but for cost reason would rather use what I’ve got.

It is pretty common for folks to want to reuse old consumer grade hardware for their first build. It can save some money in a lot of cases but comes with caveats that I think are important to mention. First, using consumer grade hardware as a server may result in hardware failures slightly faster. I'm talking about the motherboard etc for the simple reason that they are not designed to be powered on 24/7 in the environment of a server. This isn't a huge deal, just means you may find yourself replacing parts slightly sooner than later.

Another drawback that folks run into is driver support. Realtek 1G NICs are not super well supported by FreeNAS and folks generally look for Intel NICs in the 1G speeds. Depending on your exact board you may run into speed or reliability issues with your NIC.

The final thing is support for ECC. ECC memory helps to ensure data integrity. FreeNAS uses ZFS which does an excellent job of ensuring that the data you put in is the data you get out. This is what protects your data in case your motherboard, boot drive, etc fail. Without ECC you run a slightly higher risk of the data coming in being corrupted by the memory, though that risk isn't any different with FreeNAS as it is with any other system. Lots of folks come to the forums and hear this argument and are okay with the risks and lots of folks decide to get a board that supports ECC. It is worth researching ECC vs not ECC just to get a sense of what you're risking and not so you can make the choice yourself.

I guess I’m just wondering if I’m going down the right path or if I should maybe just give up and by a 4/6bay enclosure.

Often the 4/6 bay enclosures seem like a great idea because they offer a simple all-in-one solution. You may be surprised though if you look around online at pre-built used sever builds on ebay. You can pick up fully built systems (except the HDDs) which support ECC with supermicro X9 boards for < 500 dollars, sometimes ~200-300. Subtract from that the cost of the bay you would've purchased and you've got your opportunity cost for upgrading to a FreeNAS build with all of the data integrity benefits of ZFS. If you've already got a case you can often find boards with memory and the cpu without the chassis, but I think the chassis builds are a bit more common. Keep in mind if you go with a server chassis that they can be a bit loud.

Ultimately whether you go with a FreeNAS build or an enclosure depends on whether you are very interested in data integrity, are willing to do a bit of system management, and have a slightly higher budget. If so, the FreeNAS build is a great option. It is an even bigger bonus if you enjoy building computers to begin with.

Anyway, hopefully this helps a bit. Feel free to post your specific parts and folks will be happy to chime in with thoughts.

 

[Inxsible]

Well said by @PhiloEpisteme. I'll just add that since you have some hardware lying around, it's worth it to try and run FreeNAS on it before investing too much money into buying new/used hardware. You may end up not liking FreeNAS and might want to switch over to some thing else.

Try it out first -- but also research more into what FreeNAS is all about and the advantages of ZFS, ECC, server grade hardware etc as pointed out. You can slowly move over to better supported hardware if you do intend to keep FreeNAS around