QNAP forums left a bad taste

[gerardokosonoy07]

Hello FreeNAS enthusiasts i just bought a QNAP ts-453be last week and have since been frustrated right out of the box, the software is slow and clunky, the connection software was not intuitive and overall i felt as if i could get something way better for the price i spent. I am in the mindset of
returning it back and am wondering if freeNAS is the way to go.

would anyone kindly be able to assist in answering a couple of questions before i make my decision.
1. what can i get for $500
2. what do i need to run a plex server with 3TB of movies and some roms
3. how long do people with no experience take from building a nas to getting it up and running?
4. what's the best place to look to get some ideas on how to get me started.
5. anything i should know beforehand about freenas?

thanks everyone for the assistance.

 

[Ericloewe]

1. what can i get for $500

And you'll be buying in Japan? Or elsewhere? This is fairly important to know at your price point, as you're in pre-built server territory and deals vary quite a bit.

 

[gerardokosonoy07]

And you'll be buying in Japan? Or elsewhere? This is fairly important to know at your price point, as you're in pre-built server territory and deals vary quite a bit.

amazon prime most likely im noot so good at japanese

 

[Chris Moore]

The problem is, for $500, you are going to need to get used comments to do this. I am not aware of any compatible hardware at this time, at this price point.

 

[gerardokosonoy07]

Well thanks for pointing me in the stay with Qnap direction

 

[Chris Moore]

Well thanks for pointing me in the stay with Qnap direction

I did some searching and this is the best value, for FreeNAS, that I was able to find. It comes with a 1TB drive, and you would need to add some drives, but it is otherwise good the way it is.
https://www.amazon.com/Newest-Dell-PowerEdge-Server-E3-1225/dp/B0722J7NNX
You could also use a pair of these USB drives (USB 2.0 on purpose) as boot media:
https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Cruzer-Low-Profile-Drive-SDCZ33-016G-B35/dp/B005FYNSZA

 

[gerardokosonoy07]

That seems interesting, i still got the 8gb ddr3 I bought to upgrade the Qnap and my 4 bay 4TB HDD, can i see what type of nas u got going on

 

[Chris Moore]

can i see what type of nas u got going on

The description of my NAS is under the button in my signature, but I understand that some client software does not present that data. Do you see the buttons in the signature space?

 

[Chris Moore]

My hardware:

Case: Chenbro 4U 48 bay Chassis NR40700
- new old stock - http://www.chenbro.com/en-global/products/RackmountChassis/4U_Chassis/NR40700
System board: SuperMicro Motherboard X9SRL-F, LGA 2011/Socket R, IPMI
- new old stock - http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C600/X9SRL-F.cfm
Processor: Intel Xeon E5-2650 V2, 2.6GHz 8 Core (16 thread)
- https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Xeon+E5-2650+v2+@+2.60GHz&id=2042
Memory: 64 GB of 8GB sticks Samsung brand PC3-12800R, DDR3 Registered ECC
HBA: LSI/Broadcom SAS9207-8i, 6Gbps SAS PCI-E 3.0 HBA - flashed to IT Firmware: 20.00.07.00
- https://www.broadcom.com/products/storage/host-bus-adapters/sas-9207-8i
Connected to: two 6Gb/s 24-port 3.5" mini-SAS expander backplanes (80H10024001A0)
Storage pool: 2 vdevs
vdev-0 = 6 x 4 TB drives in RAID-z2 (6 Seagate Desktop drives - ST4000DM000-1F2168)
vdev-1 = 6 x 4 TB drives in RAID-z2 (6 Seagate Desktop drives - ST4000DM000-1F2168)
- running 1 jail (Plex)
Backup pool: 1 vdev with 4 x 6 TB drives in RAID-z1 (4 WD Gold drives - WD6002FRYZ)
iSCSI pool: 8 vdevs with 2 x 1 TB drives each mirrored (16 Seagate Barracuda drives - ST1000DX001-1NS162)
Boot pool: 1 vdev with 2 x 40 GB notebook drives in mirror (2 drives total - FUJITSU MHW2040BS)
Additional NIC: MELLANOX 10GB CONNECTX2 - MNPA19-XTR

 

[gerardokosonoy07]

Oh wow that’s very nice maybe too much for what I need, appreciate the help, I’ll try and see if I can figure this FreeNAS thing out

 

[NASbox]

Oh wow that’s very nice maybe too much for what I need, appreciate the help, I’ll try and see if I can figure this FreeNAS thing out

I know this is not the party line and you "could" use decent consumer grade hardware.

See this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6rUHSUe_PU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxFNBZIAClc

I have personally had similar experience. I personally have run nothing but consumer grade hardware since 2012, and have even been luck enough to survive a memory error with no apparent issues. My current build was as used Gigabyte motherboard with an i7-3770 (2nd Gen/8 Core) and 32GB of ram, but I intend to run a VM or two eventually. For home use my original system was a G620 with 16GB - was fine performance wise for everything that I was doing. Certainly better than a consumer NAS box. Even with consumer Hardware, I think that my freeNAS box is the most reliable system I own. ZFS has proved to be very solid.

Just make sure that you use an SSD for your boot drive - avoid flash drives like the plage. You should be able to just build the system and install. Unless you want to do a lot of fancy stuff, it's pretty easy.

Good luck.

P.S.: Make sure you get a GOOD power supply, and once you build your hardware run Memtest86 on it for about a week to make sure your hardware is solid. The G620 (Asus MB) had a problem that I would get one or two errors that would show up after several days of testing. I discovered it by "weirdness" in the nightly logs (something was dying-don't remember what). If weird stuff should happen, then take your system down ASAP and run extensive diagnostics. My initial build used STX000DM000 drives, but they are only rated to be on 8 Hr/day 300 days/year, and they weren't the greatest, but back in 2012 when I bought them they were the best I could afford.

 

[Chris Moore]

I know this is not the party line and you "could" use decent consumer grade hardware.

There is a big difference between what you can do and what you should recommend to others. That is the difference here. You can drive without a seat-belt, but I wouldn't suggest doing it. You can ride a motorcycle without a helmet, and in some states it is even legal, but I still would not suggest doing it. The list goes on as to the things you absolutely CAN do, but should you do them, and would you tell someone else to do it?
When you tell someone else to drink and drive, sure they can, but you take some liability for their action. That is the principle at work here. You can do what you like, but does that make it the right thing for someone else? If you are making recommendations, they should be for what will definitely work and work reliably. If you cant be reasonably certain that it is the safe answer, you should listen instead of talk.

 

[NASbox]

There is a big difference between what you can do and what you should recommend to others. That is the difference here. You can drive without a seat-belt, but I wouldn't suggest doing it. You can ride a motorcycle without a helmet, and in some states it is even legal, but I still would not suggest doing it. The list goes on as to the things you absolutely CAN do, but should you do them, and would you tell someone else to do it?
When you tell someone else to drink and drive, sure they can, but you take some liability for their action. That is the principle at work here. You can do what you like, but does that make it the right thing for someone else? If you are making recommendations, they should be for what will definitely work and work reliably. If you can't be reasonably certain that it is the safe answer, you should listen instead of talk.

No disrespect Chris, but I'd say it's a risk/reward situation-I think the metaphor is better described as the difference between riding around in Toyota/Ford (consumer grade car) vs a Mercedes/Volvo (higher class higher safety rating). Under many circumstances your survival changes during an accident would likely be better in the Mercedes/Volvo. Driving defensively will go a long way to avoiding an accident in the first place (backups!). I've been fine (even with memory error), and based on what Tom Lawerence has and a couple of others (can't remember the names) have put out on YouTube, I feel pretty comfortable with good consumer equipment.

I'd say your metaphor is like running FreeNAS on a low end no-name motherboard/memory/power supply.

Given the choice of the crap that passes for consumer grade NAS appliances and a FreeNAS box with decent consumer hardware (got to pick one because that's all you can afford or reasonably obtain - i.e. not in the US) which would you pick?

Please pick one - forced choice.

I 100% agree with you regarding enterprise use, but for the average consumer on a budget GOOD QUALITY / WELL TESTED / ADEQUATELY POWERED / SUFFICIENT MEMORY / GOOD QUALITY POWER SUPPLY is OK. Avoiding a USB boot drive in favour of an SSD will go a long way to avoiding problems. Of course if you can, server grade equipment is the best way to go-absoulutely no argument.

 

[gerardokosonoy07]

okay do you guys have in terms of suggestions what's the best bang for my buck i would be able to get in a small form factor size btw what is the pricepoint recommened someone should spend on average

 

[gerardokosonoy07]

btw i'm just an average guy who wants to save all his movie and music files and be able to stream plex and sometimes run his retro roms, am i asking for too much here

 

[Yorick]

I'd say @Chris Moore steered you right with that PowerEdge. Add two WD Red 4TB drives from eBay as a mirror and you're set. If you don't care whether the data dies on you, start with one drive, add a mirror later. WD Red 4TB go for as low as 85 bucks on eBay; with some diligence you may find them for even less.

It's not all-singing all-dancing but a LOT more powerful than that QNAP.

 

[gerardokosonoy07]

I'd say @Chris Moore steered you right with that PowerEdge. Add two WD Red 4TB drives from eBay as a mirror and you're set. If you don't care whether the data dies on you, start with one drive, add a mirror later. WD Red 4TB go for as low as 85 bucks on eBay; with some diligence you may find them for even less.

It's not all-singing all-dancing but a LOT more powerful than that QNAP.

I saw the case but I thought it was pretty big but maybe my eyesight isn’t what it used to be, how reliable is booting from usb stick also I saw that was recommended, I have 4 4TB sésgate hdd right now, and 2 4gb ddr3 ram and when I return the Qnap I’m planning on using that money for the build

 

[gerardokosonoy07]

what are your guys thoughts on the u-nas 410?

 

[Yorick]

The Seagate drives will work. You could raidz1 them for more capacity if you are okay with the risk, or raidz2 for better resilience. Your memory won’t work, it’ll be another 8gb ECC udimm in that dell. 8gb to start is fine though, do that and expand to 16 later if you want.

Booting from usb stick is as reliable as the stick. Kingston used to be pretty good; that in a mirror should be fine. Edit: Let's go with C. Moore's suggestion here as well and not burn out any USB 3.0 sticks - SanDisk USB 2.0 it is. They’re 8 6 bucks a piece: if or when the scrub tells you one is bad, replace it. And take configuration backups just in case. It’s not as good as booting from a pair of SSDs, but it leaves you the 4 sata ports. Worth it for this use case I think.

For a 4-drive mini tower that dell looks to be well sized. Take a look at the pics on the dell site where it’s open. I don’t see a lot of wasted space.

 

[Yorick]

The u-nas are great chassis and the vendor is very responsive. But now you’re well past your 500 bucks budget. If your budget allows it, go for c. Moore’s eBay scrounger Xeon v2 build in that. Overkill for 4 drives but a very nice system. Question is, what would you be doing that needs the extra extensibility of that build, in a 4 drive case?

As a hobby and you don’t mind the money, yes. A lot of people on this forum over engineered for fun. Guilty as charged.

To have a system for streaming and file sharing with 4 drives, key desired features are cost and reliability and enough power to do what you want and then some: the dell.