bjurewicz21
Dabbler
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2015
- Messages
- 24
Background:
I'm new to FreeNAS but have spent just over a month reading through all of the information and trying to educate myself, this means I will probably still have some pretty stupid questions and maybe enough knowledge to do damage to my system.
Reasoning:
The reason behind this is that I currently have an external HDD that I use to store my movie/tv series collection. Initially this was a great setup for my college years where I was the only one using it, and I would just run an HDMI cable from my computer to the TV. Then I moved into a house and found out about PLEX and started using that. However in order for PLEX to be effective I needed to leave my laptop on all the time, and my laptop was tending to overheat when multiple streams were required (my laptop already runs pretty hot). So I started researching about a solution and in my brief search decided that FreeNAS would be a good solution, as it could not only be my PLEX server but also used as a back-up storage for all the stuff my parents and wife want saved (great cost justification to the wife). Parents don’t trust technology, they want all of their pictures printed on good old 4x6 prints and put into giant photo books.
Current Purpose:
1- Plex Media Server
2- Local Back-up of pictures & files
3- Offsite back-up of pictures & files for parents
Future Purpose Possibilities:
1- Couch Potato
2- Sick Beard
3- SABnzbd
Build:
MOTHERBOARD: ASRock C2750D4I Mini ITX Server Motherboard FCBGA1283
CPU: Intel Atom C2750 (Passmark 3929)
MEMORY: Whichever approved ECC memory goes on sale when the purchase is made
(Unless someone has a specific recommendation)
HDD: Seagate NAS or WD Red 3TB or 4TB (whichever goes on sale at purchase date)
CASE: TBD based on HDD configuration (question 2)
PSU: TBD based on case (open to recommendations to keep in mind, I know seasonic is the recommended brand from the community)
Questions/Concerns:
1- In terms of use as a Plex server, how many transcodes can this handle? My current minimum is 2 but would like to future proof this to when I start to allow others to use it as well. The Plex documentation stated between 1800-2000 passmark per 1080p transcode, which would only put this at 2 concurrent transcodes. But other posts have said that they are capable of 4 or more on this atom cpu. Based on this should I be ok with the Atom C2750 or will I need to upgrade to a Xeon E3 processor?
2- HDD size, I have seen the Blackblaze report about the 3TB drives being the least reliable, but those seem to always be the size that goes on sale. Is it still recommended to avoid the 3TB drive size and step up to the 4TB size or will the benefit of a quicker resilver time and sale prices be worth the added risk? I have been tracking the prices for about a month and the 3tb drive always seem to have the better price/tb unless you consider the Seagate desktop 4tb drive (ST4000DM000).
3- For HDD and vdev setup, I am aiming to future proof this as I am unsure as to how much information will end up being put on here. Currently I have 3TB of movies and tv shows which has lasted me 5years, but if more space is available everyone knows that somehow it will get filled. Would I be better aiming to set up one 6 drive raidz2 vdev for my current use and then when the time comes add a second 6 drive raidz2 vdev, or should I just opt to put in one 12 drive raid z2 vdev and upgrade the hdds when the time arises? I was leaning towards the 2 separate 6 drive vdevs since that is less money upfront and provides more redundancy when I start to expand. I also considered a 8 drive raidz2 vdev (theoretically a happy medium between the two options), but am unsure since it wasn’t a recommended amount of disks in cyberjocks guide.
4- Security wise do I need to be concerned about using the plex plugin? Also what is the most secure way to give access to my parents in order to allow automated back-ups of particular folders from their computer?
5- Would I see any benefit of using a cheap ssd for plugins? I have seen people say that their hdd won’t spin down unless they moved their jail, and since this wouldn’t be used all that often I would save quite a bit by spinning down the disks. I also remember reading that plex performance increases if it’s on a ssd since it can use the free space as a cache.
THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR ANY RESPONSES!
I'm new to FreeNAS but have spent just over a month reading through all of the information and trying to educate myself, this means I will probably still have some pretty stupid questions and maybe enough knowledge to do damage to my system.
Reasoning:
The reason behind this is that I currently have an external HDD that I use to store my movie/tv series collection. Initially this was a great setup for my college years where I was the only one using it, and I would just run an HDMI cable from my computer to the TV. Then I moved into a house and found out about PLEX and started using that. However in order for PLEX to be effective I needed to leave my laptop on all the time, and my laptop was tending to overheat when multiple streams were required (my laptop already runs pretty hot). So I started researching about a solution and in my brief search decided that FreeNAS would be a good solution, as it could not only be my PLEX server but also used as a back-up storage for all the stuff my parents and wife want saved (great cost justification to the wife). Parents don’t trust technology, they want all of their pictures printed on good old 4x6 prints and put into giant photo books.
Current Purpose:
1- Plex Media Server
2- Local Back-up of pictures & files
3- Offsite back-up of pictures & files for parents
Future Purpose Possibilities:
1- Couch Potato
2- Sick Beard
3- SABnzbd
Build:
MOTHERBOARD: ASRock C2750D4I Mini ITX Server Motherboard FCBGA1283
CPU: Intel Atom C2750 (Passmark 3929)
MEMORY: Whichever approved ECC memory goes on sale when the purchase is made
(Unless someone has a specific recommendation)
HDD: Seagate NAS or WD Red 3TB or 4TB (whichever goes on sale at purchase date)
CASE: TBD based on HDD configuration (question 2)
PSU: TBD based on case (open to recommendations to keep in mind, I know seasonic is the recommended brand from the community)
Questions/Concerns:
1- In terms of use as a Plex server, how many transcodes can this handle? My current minimum is 2 but would like to future proof this to when I start to allow others to use it as well. The Plex documentation stated between 1800-2000 passmark per 1080p transcode, which would only put this at 2 concurrent transcodes. But other posts have said that they are capable of 4 or more on this atom cpu. Based on this should I be ok with the Atom C2750 or will I need to upgrade to a Xeon E3 processor?
2- HDD size, I have seen the Blackblaze report about the 3TB drives being the least reliable, but those seem to always be the size that goes on sale. Is it still recommended to avoid the 3TB drive size and step up to the 4TB size or will the benefit of a quicker resilver time and sale prices be worth the added risk? I have been tracking the prices for about a month and the 3tb drive always seem to have the better price/tb unless you consider the Seagate desktop 4tb drive (ST4000DM000).
3- For HDD and vdev setup, I am aiming to future proof this as I am unsure as to how much information will end up being put on here. Currently I have 3TB of movies and tv shows which has lasted me 5years, but if more space is available everyone knows that somehow it will get filled. Would I be better aiming to set up one 6 drive raidz2 vdev for my current use and then when the time comes add a second 6 drive raidz2 vdev, or should I just opt to put in one 12 drive raid z2 vdev and upgrade the hdds when the time arises? I was leaning towards the 2 separate 6 drive vdevs since that is less money upfront and provides more redundancy when I start to expand. I also considered a 8 drive raidz2 vdev (theoretically a happy medium between the two options), but am unsure since it wasn’t a recommended amount of disks in cyberjocks guide.
4- Security wise do I need to be concerned about using the plex plugin? Also what is the most secure way to give access to my parents in order to allow automated back-ups of particular folders from their computer?
5- Would I see any benefit of using a cheap ssd for plugins? I have seen people say that their hdd won’t spin down unless they moved their jail, and since this wouldn’t be used all that often I would save quite a bit by spinning down the disks. I also remember reading that plex performance increases if it’s on a ssd since it can use the free space as a cache.
THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR ANY RESPONSES!