Solved:New to FreeNAS trying to help a friend

[Shifty Tomato]

EDIT: He's abandoning the project, not willing to research to build/administrate a server. I, on the other hand, have decided to dive in and research something I can set up in my home. Sorry to waste your time.

So my friend is currently in a situation in which his access to the internet is limited. He's asked for my help to relay him information so him, and his coworkers, can set up a local network media streaming server. They're looking into being able to stream 1080p to 8 people simultaneously, but also said he had 20 people who were interested.

He said once he installs the server that it's not allowed to connect to the internet at any point afterward. It would be restricted to local network for it's foreseeable future.

The build they presented to me:
Intel - Xeon E5-2665 2.4 GHz 8-Core Processor x2
Asus - Z9PE-D8 WS SSI EEB Dual-CPU LGA2011 Motherboard
G.Skill - Ripjaws X Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR3-1600 Memory x2
Western Digital - Red 10 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive x7
Western Digital - Green 120 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Rosewill - ARMOR-EVO ATX Mid Tower Case
EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
Noctua - NH-U12S 55 CFM CPU Cooler x2
Noctua - NF-F12 industrialPPC-2000 PWM 71.69 CFM 120 mm Fan
Noctua - NF-F12 industrialPPC-2000 71.69 CFM 120 mm Fan

I've already expressed concern for the non ECC ram and the WS motherboard as well as the dual cpu setup. He expressed concern for administrator functionality in the software, being able to set up user accounts he can manage. With that, I figured he would also be interested in IPMI functionality.

I would very much appreciate some help, as I am just jumping into this kind of application, other than a FTP server I used to run Counter strike 11 years ago.

 

[sretalla]

stream 1080p to 8 people simultaneously,

Depending on transcode requirements... if it's direct play in plex, certainly no issues. If you need to transcode all 8 streams from 4K source, you could be in trouble.
I had issues running a WD green as my boot drive, so watch that one. (I used a cheap kingston instead).

If you don't need the streams to be transcoded, then change to a single socket MB and add more RAM for better performance. (maybe do that anyway as 1 core per transcode should work in any case)

 

[Chris Moore]

The build they presented to me:
Intel - Xeon E5-2665 2.4 GHz 8-Core Processor x2
Asus - Z9PE-D8 WS SSI EEB Dual-CPU LGA2011 Motherboard
G.Skill - Ripjaws X Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR3-1600 Memory x2
Western Digital - Red 10 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive x7
Western Digital - Green 120 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Rosewill - ARMOR-EVO ATX Mid Tower Case
EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
Noctua - NH-U12S 55 CFM CPU Cooler x2
Noctua - NF-F12 industrialPPC-2000 PWM 71.69 CFM 120 mm Fan
Noctua - NF-F12 industrialPPC-2000 71.69 CFM 120 mm Fan

Is this hardware that is already in hand or something that would be purchased? That really makes a big difference.

 

[Chris Moore]

He said once he installs the server that it's not allowed to connect to the internet at any point afterward. It would be restricted to local network for it's foreseeable future.

Plex does not work without internet connectivity because it validates logins through their website, not locally.

 

[Snow]

You could use Plex local only but it would need to connect to the internet one time, then after that it will work with out the internet. Only thing is you will not be able to uses user's & any one will have full assess to the server to delete, add & remove library's, Pretty much full admin.

 

[Inxsible]

In addition to what @Snow said, Plex also requires internet connectivity to download metadata about your media each time you add/update/delete content. You can use it without internet connectivity, provided 1 of the following cases apply:

1. All the media is put on the Plex the same time with no updates to the content.
2. You are ok with not having metadata on your media --(which in my opinion defeats the purpose of a media server. Might as well serve everything via a file server at that point.)
3. All your media is private and so, no metadata exists for it in the public domain anyway

Definitely tell your friend about a server board with IPMI and ECC RAM if the hardware has not been purchased already. IPMI is very useful in such scenarios.

 

[Snow]

IPMI Is a must have I mean yes you can live with out it, But for a quick look at what's going on it shows many errors.
There is a IPMI Mod for some of Asus's mother boards its called IKVM and cost about 20-30 bucks Its a add on card, Not all mother boards support it. Also you want a board at min that supports ECC UDIMM, that means un buffer ECC. For most low to mid end workstations boards do not support this as most are made for windows thin clients.

This is why Supermicro is pushed so hard on this forums it just works. If the Equipment has not yet been purchased take a look at the X9 & X10 builds there are many of them posted on here.

 

[pro lamer]

Z9PE-D8

board at min that supports ECC UDIMM

This board seems to support both udimm and rdimm... https://www.asus.com/pl/Motherboards/Z9PED8_WS/

Sent from my phone

 

[Snow]

Yeah I mean I just try to Push people away from stuff other then Supermicro, It just works do not have to worry if the Nic driver will have problems.
Or getting some strange error every 15 seconds.

Is this hardware that is already in hand or something that would be purchased? That really makes a big difference.

Yeah we never heard back from the OP ??

 

[Shifty Tomato]

Sorry for the late reply, been super busy. No hardware has been purchased yet. This is just a list they came up with, only having access to pcpartpicker and retailers. They don't have access to forums like this at all.

My friend is in the navy, so this system will be used by him and his naval buddies, and will not be able to connect to the internet once it's installed. I assume he'll be able to connect at least once to load software.

The end users will be streaming to Xbox one, ps4, ios, PC, and possibly android (didn't specify this one).

What software would you recommend?
I'm trying to come up with a shopping list for him.
He hasn't replied to me in a few days, and from his last message I assume he expects I'll be assembling it.

He also said no one will be streaming 4k only 1080p

 

[Chris Moore]

What software would you recommend?
I'm trying to come up with a shopping list for him.
He hasn't replied to me in a few days, and from his last message I assume he expects I'll be assembling it.

Do they need something small and portable or is something larger an option? How much storage capacity do they need?
Will you need to populate it with videos before shipping it or will they be adding videos after receiving the system?

Depending on how they expect to use this, a FreeNAS system may not be the answer to the question, especially since the question is still not fully defined.

 

[Shifty Tomato]

Do they need something small and portable or is something larger an option? How much storage capacity do they need?
Will you need to populate it with videos before shipping it or will they be adding videos after receiving the system?

Depending on how they expect to use this, a FreeNAS system may not be the answer to the question, especially since the question is still not fully defined.

All good questions,
They'll be adding the videos
he was looking at supermicro chassis so I larger is an option I would assume. Now it needs to be semi-portable
I'm not sure they have a clue how much storage they need, the build they came up with had the 7 10tb hard drives so that's what I'm going with They currently have 10TB worth of movies and would like to be able to expand. They want to start with 2 of the WD 10TB NAS drives

 

[Inxsible]

Now it needs to be semi-portable

That would limit you to mATX. Anything bigger might result in a huge case etc. Still lots of choices in the mATX sphere. Try not to go with mini-ITX because it limits the expandability.

 

[Shifty Tomato]

He's abandoning the project, not willing to research to build/administrate a server. I, on the other hand, have decided to dive in and research something I can set up in my home. Sorry to waste your time.
/thread

 

[Chris Moore]

He's abandoning the project, not willing to research to build/administrate a server. I, on the other hand, have decided to dive in and research something I can set up in my home. Sorry to waste your time.
/thread

Not a waste if you end up being able to use any information gained for your own build.