Saying 'no' to Server 2012-R2 and saying 'yes' to FreeNAS

[CSP-on-FN]

Hello FreeNAS folks,

A few weeks ago I finished building the hardware for a new server to replace my soon-to-be-retired Microsoft Windows Home Server (WHS) (a self-built, Server 2003 OEM edition).

I'm here because I've chosen to install FreeNAS as my new server OS instead of my original plan, which was to buy and install a Microsoft Server 2012-R2 Standard license.

When I was making those original plans for another Windows server I was fairly sure I could quickly "get to grips with" a Windows Server 2012-R2 setup, because I'd spent years managing Windows desktops and servers on Novell NetWare systems (yes, *that* long ago!). But I was unsure about spending that significant sum of money on a new Microsoft Server license (although money wasn't my main issue).

If I bought a Server 2012-R2 license I was mainly aware that - just like Adobe Photoshop in the days when we would install a whole suite of Photoshop tools on our computers but would only ever use a few of the features - there would be 'features' of Server 2012-R2 that I would never use or need but which I would nevertheless want to get to know (to some depth) before I would be comfortable nudging them 'intelligently' out of the way - to focus this new box on being primarily a backup server/file server. I also knew that that amount of money could buy some nice new hard drives instead?!

Now coming back to FreeNAS (and to keep this story short!) - I had already seen glowing references to FreeBSD and FreeNAS on the Synology Forums when, in early 2013, I installed my still happily humming Synology DS412+ NAS box with four WD RE WD2003FYYS 2TB Drives as my (then) "backup backup" server. So I did some more research.

I liked the "slow but sure" development philosophy in FreeBSD, and I even looked (again) at openSUSE (because openSUSE's 'Novell' connection appealed to me ) but it was soon obvious that FreeNAS, with its finely honed, non-bloated functionality and its GUI front-end, was the almost perfect OS for my new box!

FreeNAS was only "almost" perfect because (a) I've never warmed to the Linux/BSD Command Line Interface, and (b) FreeNAS was "almost" perfect because I had already bought the hardware that best suited my 'Plan A' Windows server idea. But then - on the positive side - the FreeNAS GUI would rescue me from almost all of those BSD CLI keyboard conundrums; and for the hardware, except for my brand new 240GB SSD drive which would be redundant on a FreeNAS box, my new motherboard ticked the other boxes for FreeNAS because it had six SATA ports, and I'd bought 16GB of ECC RAM.

So finally, I found this Forum (which is a major 'plus' in my opinion) and it really tipped the 'FreeNAS' scales for me. I read CuberJock's ZFS 'noob' guide plus some other Forum stickies, and I already know the wisdom of studying new technologies in depth before making big investments in them.

By now I've spent over a month checking out ZFS's nuances and charms, and although our research never really ends; and although I'll want to make more changes to my new FreeNAS server in the future, I've already moved it from "trial mode" to "live mode", and it's working superbly.

So bye bye Microsoft and (very soon) bye bye WHS ... and hello FreeNAS

Colin P.

 

[Ericloewe]

Ah, another fellow WHS convert. Welcome! Be sure to connect that UPS to the server ASAP.

 

[CSP-on-FN]

[....] Be sure to connect that UPS to the server ASAP.

Thank you Eric.
Yes ... or I might just replace that UPS altogether because it's now three years into its third battery (second replacement-swap)! They're superbly long-lasting devices, but there comes a time when even these need to be 'retired', eh?!

Colin P.