using a usb multi hdd enclosure with freenas

[itai berman]

hi,
i was thinking of building a mini pc with 8GB of memory (at least) for the use of freenas. this is for minimizing the physical space of the nas. i found that there is a multibay (5 drives) usb 3 external enclosure and thought about using it as the drives for the nas

is anybody used this config? what do you guys think about that, can it be manageable? is the performance will suffer drastically? is it possible at all?

thank in advance for helping.

 

[HoneyBadger]

USB3 is not well supported at all under FreeNAS, and you would be putting all of your drives through a single externally connected cable.

Performance and reliability will suffer drastically.

If space is a concern consider a miniITX build on something like the Fractal Design Node 304.

 

[Ericloewe]

hi,
i was thinking of building a mini pc with 8GB of memory (at least) for the use of freenas. this is for minimizing the physical space of the nas. i found that there is a multibay (5 drives) usb 3 external enclosure and thought about using it as the drives for the nas

is anybody used this config? what do you guys think about that, can it be manageable? is the performance will suffer drastically? is it possible at all?

thank in advance for helping.

Bad or very bad idea.

If it's just presenting individual drives, it's just a plain bad idea (USB isn't terribly reliant, USB 3.0 is not properly supported at the moment). If it's RAIDing them together, it's a highway to the great bit bucket in the sky.

 

[itai berman]

thanks for the replies. i will find some other way to minimized the nas. maybe something with embed thecnology and sata ports for HDD (mayeb esata).

 

[SweetAndLow]

The best small form factor build for freenas is a node 304 build with asrock or supermicro board.

 

[esamett]

You are better adding an additional disk controller (HBA) and using 1 meter cables to another case with its own power supply. I am running 22 drives this way and although not as good as a proper server case it suits my needs on the cheap.