Hi All,
I've been playing with FreeNAS in Virtualbox and is about to install it on the an old pc that I have (i7-930, 24gb ram, 3x2TB, 1 120gb ssd). I will be using this freenas instance to serve media files and general storage for home use. These media files are disposable, I could care less if I lose them. Now, I do have family photos that are well not replacable and need a redundant backup. My current backup plan w/o freenas right now
1. photos on a dedicated drive on the pc
2. drive in #1 is sync to an external hd on a weekly basis
3. backblaze to backup the photos on the drive
with freenas, I will have to cancel backblaze and go with crashplan. So, with this my plan is as follows;
1. get another external hd
2. move all the media to external hd
3. setup freenas using RAIDZ1 2x1
4. use the SSD as a cache drive
5. move the data from external back
6. setup crash plan and everything else that i want
Now, there are a few concerns, the quality of the drive and the amount of drive that I currently have. Since, I am on a budget (read wife doesn't let me buy more stuff :P ) I want to replace them in a few months to expand the pool. My questions are;
1. it should be easy to get another 3x?TB and create "pool2" correct? then copy the photos to this pool and repoint crashplan here
2. in the event that i want to grow/replace "pool1", i can replace 1 at a time with a larger size (but I won't see the new size until all 3 have been replaced) is this safe?
Ultimately, I will have 6x?TB, what is the safest way of getting there. Any tips/suggestions? Anything that I am missing?
Thanks!
I've been playing with FreeNAS in Virtualbox and is about to install it on the an old pc that I have (i7-930, 24gb ram, 3x2TB, 1 120gb ssd). I will be using this freenas instance to serve media files and general storage for home use. These media files are disposable, I could care less if I lose them. Now, I do have family photos that are well not replacable and need a redundant backup. My current backup plan w/o freenas right now
1. photos on a dedicated drive on the pc
2. drive in #1 is sync to an external hd on a weekly basis
3. backblaze to backup the photos on the drive
with freenas, I will have to cancel backblaze and go with crashplan. So, with this my plan is as follows;
1. get another external hd
2. move all the media to external hd
3. setup freenas using RAIDZ1 2x1
4. use the SSD as a cache drive
5. move the data from external back
6. setup crash plan and everything else that i want
Now, there are a few concerns, the quality of the drive and the amount of drive that I currently have. Since, I am on a budget (read wife doesn't let me buy more stuff :P ) I want to replace them in a few months to expand the pool. My questions are;
1. it should be easy to get another 3x?TB and create "pool2" correct? then copy the photos to this pool and repoint crashplan here
2. in the event that i want to grow/replace "pool1", i can replace 1 at a time with a larger size (but I won't see the new size until all 3 have been replaced) is this safe?
Ultimately, I will have 6x?TB, what is the safest way of getting there. Any tips/suggestions? Anything that I am missing?
Thanks!