Noobie here, planning 1st time build with existing parts

[Jason Taylor]

Hello

Noobie here, I've done some reading up on raid and FreeNAS and still have so many questions.

I'm an IT network engineer so considered a geek but I've never really dug into building raid before. My plan was to rebuild my unused Windows 10 home built desktop into a FreeNAS, as its only being used for storage as my laptop is more powerful and convenient. I then back this up to an external HD from time to time which is kept in a safe. So converting my desktop to a raided NAS would give me realtime failed hard drive redundudcy, and I would still keep my backup to external HD going (or possibly 2 so I can keep one connected to the NAS). I've got about 1TB of data currently, so 2 TB of useable raid storage should be ample for the time being.

I currently have 2 x 1TB Western Digital hard drives, and a single 1 x 2TB WD drive. Could I stripe across the 2 x 1TB, and then mirror onto the single 2 x TB? I think this would be called a hybrid raid z10 (if I could utilise ZFS). If I can't do this then I will just go and get another matching 2 x 1 TB HD's. Would anyone recommend a better raid setup?

AMD Phenom processor - from reading this is generally a bad idea as it does not support ECC which means I can't utilise ZFS? I suppose that would mean my current 8GB of ram is also non ECC? I need to do some more digging into this. I think I will give it a go either way, but if it won't work or I receive a load of don't even bothers, then I would rather go out and buy a Netgear ReadyNAS instead of buying a new intel processor and motherboard and the supported RAM!

Thanks, looking forward to reading your responses!

 

[Dice]

Unlike older blogposts and youtuber's projections - FreeNAS is not a suitable "convert your junk into Fileserver with software raid and all the cool ZFS features".

Browse to the Resource section and read the newbie primers as well as hardware guide.

 

[Jason Taylor]

Go out and buy a Netgear ReadyNAS it is then...

 

[Mirfster]

I think I will give it a go either way, but if it won't work or I receive a load of don't even bothers, then I would rather go out and buy a Netgear ReadyNAS instead of buying a new intel processor and motherboard and the supported RAM!

Guess I'll be the first to say "Don't even bother". Purely based off of two things:

1. You are not willing to use appropriate components. Not that FreeNAS will not work; but because you will have a false sense of security and if things go South the blame will be directed at FreeNAS
2. I don't think your "use case" really warrants the need for a NAS of any sort (FreeNAS, ReadyNAS, etc)

From what I gather you already are already storing the data on your Desktop, so why not simply add redundancy there and/or use something like CrashPlan? As well, you stated you are keeping an extra backup on an external drive as well.

IMHO a NAS is for:

1. Sharing data to multiple systems
2. Redundancy
3. Expansion
4. Bit Rot Protection
5. Hard Drive Health (SMART, Temp, Scrubs, etc)

*** Disclaimer: I haven't finished my morning coffee yet. ;)

 

[pro lamer]

Netgear ReadyNAS

Netgear with ECC cost >$1000 in my area half a year ago so buying a new CPU, mobo and RAM seemed better to me.

 

[kdragon75]

Well, if everyone is done crapping on your idea...

I agree that this should not be used in production and relied on for storing critical data BUT. If you want backups over the network and not to the internet and you want to learn more about storage, GO FOR IT!

ECC is strongly recommended but non-ECC will not eat your data... iXsystems know this and while they recommend ECC even they will tell you its not required. ZFS is still safer against bit rot than some janky USB hard drive that gets tossed around all the time. (assuming you don't constantly fiddle with it and blow up your pool) Also 8GB is plenty for a small backup server. I ran one without ECC and only 8GB of RAM for years with no issues.

As for drives, get all the same size and RPM. matchy matchy is best. You will be best off with striped mirrors (like RAID10) unless your going to keep a spare drive and familiarize yourself with the replacement process. If your willing to keep a spare unused and tested drive on hand, RAIDZ1 will give you more space.

Also keep in mind that ZFS has a LOT of overhead. It will be slower than most other options. If its primarily for backups, that should not matter much.

 

[joeinaz]

Let be the second to encourage you to use FreeNAS. As long as you faithfully backup your system, you should be in good shape. In terms of planning, go with the four 1TB disks. 8TB should be good to get you started unless you decide to virtualize your solution. The best part of FreeNAS is you will ultimately have more control over your system versus a NAS solution designed for a home/small office environment.

 

[Jason Taylor]

Wow I was going to completely scrap the idea but I've seen a glimmer of hope!

Seems silly buying new hardware when I already have this 'junk' which may or may not do the job. I suppose there is only one way to find out! And I wouldn't be stupid enough to blame FreeNAS if it didn't work as I fully understand I am not using the minimum hardware requirements!

Just the thought of non ECC / non ZFS raid with the possibility of bit rot copying corrupted data to my external backup would give be me nightmares so I will need to look deeper into that. I'm still pondering!

Thanks for your thoughts guys

 

[kdragon75]

Just do yourself one favor... keep an eye on your power bill with that old clunker. Still a good place to learn and get familiar before you invest in better hardware. The ECC thing... forget about it for now. Just run a memtest overnight and as long as it all passes forget about it. That said ANY memory errors are unexceptable.

 

[Inxsible]

I'd say if you were buying new/used hardware for building a FreeNAS solution, you should spend a bit extra and go with ECC for peace of mind if not for anything else. Since you already have hardware, I say, use it and see how it works out. Just keep an eye out for abnormal things and definitely keep clean backups.