Old new guy with a couple of questions.

[SSCR]

Hello, I am interested in creating a new NAS that would have some sort of redundancy. I currently have an old Dlink 321 2 bay NAS with 2 2TB (4tb total) Seagate Baracude drive for the past 5 years (no RAID configuration) filled with ISO movie files that I stream via XBMC/Kodi to an old Boxee Box and a Amazon Fire TV. The NAS is now completely full along with a 1tb drive on my desk top and a 1tb external WD drive all with movies. Also a couple of weeks ago I had a scare that one of my drives in my NAS was failing, time to build/buy a larger NAS with some kind of RAID configuration.

My original plan was to just buy a RAID enclosure but at a price point I decided to buy a Netgear ReadyNAS 4 bay for around $220 from Amazon. I liked that it was strong enough to let me stream from more than one tv at a time, but what I especially liked was that it had a system (X-RAID) that allows me to continue to add drives as needed. I put two drives in it, it mirrors them (RAID 2?) if I put 3-4 drives in it (RAID 5) I think. Either way it allows me to not drop all my cash at once and to make sure I buy drives from different batches to ensure that they all don't fail at the same time. Although with this system I believe I could never take all the drives out and put them into another NAS unit if the actual NAS unit fails.

A buddy at work looked up the hardware on the ReadyNAS and convinced me to return it and build my own server NAS type computer, Ill not bore you guys and go into the hardware he recommended just yet;) But before I do return the NAS I did have a couple of questions that I think I know the answer to but wanted to ask them on here.

1) FreeNAS needs to be set up at initial boot with all the drives I intend to use right?? I cant add drives down the road when I need more space like UNRAID without reformatting the drives and losing all the data?

2) If the computer I build fails or I decide to upgrade the computer at a latter time, I cannot remove the drives and plug them into another FreeNAS machine and it will automatically recognize the files?

Thanks guys, I appreciate any help you could throw me.

 

[BigDave]

FreeNAS needs to be set up at initial boot with all the drives I intend to use right??

Based on initial usable space requirements, yes

I cant add drives down the road when I need more space like UNRAID without reformatting the drives and losing all the data?

False, there are approved methods for expansion, but it's a bit more complicated than just adding a disk.

If the computer I build fails or I decide to upgrade the computer at a latter time,
I cannot remove the drives and plug them into another FreeNAS machine and it will automatically recognize the files?

False, if the pool version/OS remains the same, the drives can be imported to different hardware without issue.
Search forum for cyberjock's guide on ZFS, this will be of great value when it comes to understanding more regarding ZFS and FreeNAS.

 

[Ericloewe]

False, if the pool version/OS remains the same, the drives can be imported to different hardware without issue.

I'll add that newer OS versions will almost certainly work fine, too. Point releases too (9.3 uses a single pool version, for instance). You can also mount the pools in FreeBSD with the same feature flags or on a different OS (Linux, most likely) once they catch up with the feature flags.

 

[SSCR]

Fantastic new, thanks BigDave!

So if I build it with say 3 4TB drives in it and fill that, I CAN add another 4TB drive down the road but it is a little complicated, I can live with that.

And as long as I use the same operating system as the initial build, I can pull all the drives and plug them into another FreeNAS computer with no problems.

I know I'm just reiterating what you said, but wanted to make sure;)

What I would like to do is initially use 3 4tb drives in a kind of RAID 5 configuration so I would have about 8tb worth of space (I know its will be a bit less) and once I fill that be able to throw another drive in it to get roughly 12tb worth of space. Can you recommend what RAID configuration I should be looking at? Once again this will be used solely for movie ISO files, none of which are blueray or 1080P quality, but a bunch of old Marx Brother, Bogart,Whayne movies ect..

 

[SSCR]

Great thanks Ericloewe!

I just hate the idea of buying a new NAS each time I need additional room, and would like to be able to just expand on what I already have.

This forum probably isn't the right place to post what I want to use for hardware is it? This would be considered a home use machine only.

 

[Ericloewe]

So if I build it with say 3 4TB drives in it and fill that, I CAN add another 4TB drive down the road but it is a little complicated, I can live with that.

I'd rather put it as "add several additional 4TB drives". You can't maintain redundancy by adding single drives.

What I would like to do is initially use 3 4tb drives in a kind of RAID 5 configuration so I would have about 8tb worth of space (I know its will be a bit less) and once I fill that be able to throw another drive in it to get roughly 12tb worth of space. Can you recommend what RAID configuration I should be looking at? Once again this will be used solely for movie ISO files, none of which are blueray or 1080P quality, but a bunch of old Marx Brother, Bogart,Whayne movies ect..

This doesn't work like that.

I recommend you read Cyberjock's guide, to understand how ZFS works and how you can expand existing pools.

 

[gpsguy]

No, you can't add a future drive into an existing vdev. You could add a new RAIDz1 vdev with a minimum of 3 drives. Or build your server with mirrored vdevs striped together. Yes, there's a lot of overhead for parity, but in the future you can add two drives.


Sent from my phone

 

[SSCR]

Sounds good, I'm going to look up Cyberjocks guide and do a little reading. Thanks

 

[BigDave]

This forum probably isn't the right place to post what I want to use for hardware is it? This would be considered a home use machine only.

Read the recommended guide AND the other stickies here in the forums, tons of answers lie in wait for you there.
When you have a list of possible hardware purchases together, post the list in the hardware forum and members will give feedback.
To be perfectly honest, we like to see newbies who are self starters and show some initiative.

 

[SSCR]

Thanks guys I did read the PowerPoint by Cyberjock, very informative. Unfortunately I think this might be beyond my capabilities and comfort zone. Slide 5 pretty much summed it up for me, thanks for pointing me to that.