Newbie: How does it cope with power outages etc?

[dieselnutjob]

I am looking at a NAS solution to replace an ancient and problematic Windows server. This is for a local charity that I help out (my employer gives me paid time off to help them).

FreeNAS is attractive because I understand that I can put a jail on it and run a FreeBSD mail server in the jail which will be a useful stopgap until I get their mail onto some cloud solution.

I am wondering how well FreeNAS will cope (i.e. recover) if they have a power outage, and what impact that has on the jail. I am also wondering how it compares in this respect with commercial NAS boxes like the Netgear ReadyNAS etc.

Another option is to get some low power hardware such as a Soekris and put their mail onto it using nanobsd which is known to cope well with power outages.

We will have to buy new hardware whatever we do so this is about capability and stability rather than cost/recycling. As for the NAS piece it is just for simple file storage. Most of their critical functions are being migrated to standalone Windows 8.1 desktops and I want to use the Windows automatic backup thing to backup users files to NAS in case something goes wrong.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[danb35]

FreeNAS should cope relatively well due to the filesystem, but a UPS is inexpensive enough that there's no excuse to run without one, eliminating this potential problem.

 

[Rilo Ravestein]

By all means: do NOT run your own mail server. Get their mail onto some cloud solution first.

Other than that, get a supported UPS that will shut the machine down properly on a power outage, so nothing gets broken. You should do that for any NAS device anyway, because from your post i understand that power outages are bound to happen, since you mention it twice. And even though the device/appliance you mention SEEM to cope power outages "well" (whatever that might mean), you WILL eventually loose/corrupt data that way. Read a little bit about the ZFS file system. Not having a UPS can cause (massive) data loss on FreeNAS also.

That being said..... You should also gather some more requirements i guess. How many laptops have to backup to the NAS? How much data is that? How many users at the same time? How critical is the data really? Do the backups have to be performed remote? Alternative: connect the Windows laptops to SkyDrive, or something else like that.

Anyway, FreeNAS would be a very stable and more than capable solution for your storage/backup. Have you thought about backing up the NAS data too? In case somehow the NAS get broken (fire, water, damage, etc.)?

 

[dieselnutjob]

By all means: do NOT run your own mail server. Get their mail onto some cloud solution first.

I read that thread and to be honest I don't think that it applies to me. I am an experienced Unix admin and I already maintain a couple of Internet facing FreeBSD mail servers, so a jail is all that I would need not a plugin. I know that mail servers are complicated things to secure but I already know how to do that. Also their Windows mail server is not really Internet facing anyway. They appear to have a service provider who terminates their domain, does some antispam and then forwards on to their box. So I would only need to accept mail from one host and not the whole Internet.

get a supported UPS that will shut the machine down properly on a power outage

Point taken. I will look into that.

That being said..... You should also gather some more requirements i guess. How many laptops have to backup to the NAS? How much data is that? How many users at the same time? How critical is the data really? Do the backups have to be performed remote? Alternative: connect the Windows laptops to SkyDrive, or something else like that.

They seem a bit nervous of cloud storage. I suppose if someone forgets to pay a bill or something it can disappear. They have only four users and because they are not using multimedia the space requirements are not that great. The most critical data is their accounts because the charities commission here is really really strict about filing accounts; they seem to be stricter that the Inland Revenue. Currently they have accounts on a local machine, server and usb thumb drive. The server has been left to rot because they don't have the skills to maintain it. They never patch it, it overheats in the summer, it complains of parity errors every time they boot it, and the noise it makes is really too much.

 

[Rilo Ravestein]

I read that thread and to be honest I don't think that it applies to me. I am an experienced Unix admin and I already maintain a couple of Internet facing FreeBSD mail servers, so a jail is all that I would need not a plugin. I know that mail servers are complicated things to secure but I already know how to do that. Also their Windows mail server is not really Internet facing anyway. They appear to have a service provider who terminates their domain, does some antispam and then forwards on to their box. So I would only need to accept mail from one host and not the whole Internet.

OK, great, if you know what you are doing, you'll probably be fine. ;)
However... You also mention they seem a bit nervous of cloud storage. Then why are they not nervous using a service provider for email now (mentioning this as an agrument you could use to persuade them)? And why is the email forwarded to this Windows box? Let them connect to the servicce directly seems easier. Anyway, why wait with the cloud email solution? Easier for everyone! :D

They seem a bit nervous of cloud storage. I suppose if someone forgets to pay a bill or something it can disappear.

They could use a free cloud solution like Google Drive, Skydrive, there are a lot of choices.

They have only four users and because they are not using multimedia the space requirements are not that great. The most critical data is their accounts because the charities commission here is really really strict about filing accounts; they seem to be stricter that the Inland Revenue. Currently they have accounts on a local machine, server and usb thumb drive.

What do you mean with "accounts"? Especially "accounts on a USB thumb drive".

The server has been left to rot because they don't have the skills to maintain it.

This is why i mention all other alternatives, not because FreeNAS wouldn't be the solution you are looking for. Who will maintain the new NAS & mail server? Not only for the first few months, but also for the following years?

 

[dieselnutjob]

What do you mean with "accounts"? Especially "accounts on a USB thumb drive".

Sorry I meant financial accounting information not computer accounts. Their financial records are their crown jewels.

Who will maintain the new NAS & mail server? Not only for the first few months, but also for the following years?

That's why I would like to push their email to the cloud so that they just have to remember to renew their domain and that's it. Hopefully I won't have to run a mail server in a jail but it is really nice to know that I can do things like that in an emergency.

As for who will maintain it. Hmm, it's probably going to be me. Fortunately I get paid to help them 2 days a year so provided I can get something that's reliable enough to self recover from power or network outages, if it can cope with being only touched every six months or so then that's okay. I'm hoping that a freenas server will need a lot less maintenance than server 2008.

 

[Rilo Ravestein]

You can do it in a jail, sure. You know how to do it ;)
FreeNAS doesn't need much maintenance if you set it up correctly (maybe use automatic snapshots, autosave the config file, etc). You will receive emails when something goes wrong, also if the box has to shutdown because of the power outage. If you use a UPS, your NAS will shutdown nice and easy, just turn it back on when the power is up again or you could even use IPMI for that if you use a mobo that supports it. (Maybe there is also another way to boot automatically if the UPS reports that the power is back on, don't know if that is possible). Use the two days a year to update the NAS (which should be no pain what so ever), maybe check the backups, etc.)
I don't know how much maintenace your mail server will need, though.