Which direction to go? Pre-Built or Self-Build?

[Samuel Matthews]

Good evening FreeNAS community!

I've been searching around the last few weeks in regards to having a on-site NAS solution for myself and the house. There would only really ever be two streams of data to come from this NAS box and currently it wouldn't have to do any sort of decoding for media. All of my media devices are running Kodi around the house, all the encoding/decoding are done at the end point device. I'm pretty much looking for just a storage solution as I never have really been one for backing my data up to a safe location. This has all came around due to me starting my University degree this week, and would like some peace of mind about my data being in a relatively safe zone. Now, this is not to say that I won't need any features such a Plex servers running at a later date as 4k becomes ever more popular. I plan on going onto developing a full home network as I embark on my CISCO qualifications and start to fill out my server rack. I do currently also have a Dell PowerEdge server running VMware ESXi environment. So I can pretty much run anything that i personally would need within the next 3-4 years in my scope of knowledge. I will be purchasing hardware to pursue my Cisco qualifications so again, the needs of media trans-coding and everything else will more than likely never be put onto this box.

So, for a while I was learning more towards the style of a pre-built solution such as Netgear, Synology or even a PowerNAS. Then I went onto the solution of building my own solution, looking around at standalone hardware, using your Hardware Recommendation list as a go to for help. After ringing around a few local stockists of server hardware I have come to the conclusion that this specific hardware is turning out to be very hard so source.

The question I have came here to ask is, if you was in my situation would you go for a pre-built solution or a build my own version. Just a quick outline of what is needed again save you re-reading:
- Maximum 2/3 people reading/writing to/from the NAS.
- Around 4TB of effective storage (I was thinking of going for 3x2TB in RAIDz1.
- Lowish power usage, I will turn it off through the night to conserve power consumption, I don't wait to be paying excessive power bills right now as a student.
- Just a storage server, no need for any bells and whistles. Just save my file or give me my file, documents, movies or music.

If you need any other information from me, please just ask. If I have stated something incorrectly please tell me. I'm here to learn, just as much as to find a solution.

Also, if I have posted this in the incorrect position, please do not hesitate to either move to the correct location or inform me how to do so.

Many thanks,
Sam.

 

[Mirfster]

Welcome, there is a similar thread over here as well: "Is FreeNAS right for me? (A short story)". Not re-directing you or anything, just providing some input.

Wondering if any of the admins would be interested in perhaps a sticky on this matter? Might prove to be pretty useful...

 

[jgreco]

mod note: moved to new user forum.

The Dell T20 and Lenovo TS140 options are popular with those looking for an inexpensive prebuilt option.

If you need 4TB of actual storage, shoot for closer to 6TB. Four 3TB drives in RAIDZ2 is a nice, safe configuration.

 

[Samuel Matthews]

Firstly, thank you for providing that link @Mirfster. I had a brief read of that post earlier and then decided to make my own as I felt my situation was slightly different to that of the poster of the thread. I would also agree about making a sticky for this kind of situation, for the guy that is sitting in between a custom built one and a pre-built option. Would probably take a lot of time and work off of the helpful members here ;)

Well for now I can pretty much confirm that I will only be running 1 parity disk due to costing issues. Also, when I specified 4TB of usable storage, that was taking into account of movement for myself, I currently only have around 2TB of data and have done for the last 2/3 years, never really grown out much. I know the size of content will be increasing with time but I feel that 4TB will server me well for a fair amount of time as it is right now. I will not scrimp on the rest of the system purely because I have first hand experience of 'cheap' hardware failing all over the place. The amount of cheap systems i have pass through my hands for repairs is unbelievable. However, I will only purchase 3 HDD's for now since I have other things to spend my money on regarding my network and becoming a university student.

If I'm perfectly honest, I would prefer to build my own system but if the pre-built options are much cheaper for the same amount of performance then I will go that route (Maybe I could then purchase 4 HDD's for 2 parity drives). Using the recommended hardware list, tomorrow I will put together a 'basic system' and post my findings here and see what people opinions are regarding my chosen hardware. If its coming out too much compared to the pre-built options I may just chose one of those.

If I go the route of 3 drives, is it much hassle to add another parity disk at a later stage? Would I need to essentially start over (transfer the data to other hardware, re-do the RAID array to RAIDZ2 then transfer the data back over)?

Thank you for moving the thread and your response @jgreco!

 

[jgreco]

It is not possible to add another parity disk without rebuilding the pool (i.e move data off, destroy and recreate pool, move data back on). We know it sucks.

 

[Samuel Matthews]

It is not possible to add another parity disk without rebuilding the pool (i.e move data off, destroy and recreate pool, move data back on). We know it sucks.

Just as i thought then. Okay, well that isn't the end of the world when we're talking below 4TB of data. Anything over 4TB it would be a huge hassle.

 

[mattbbpl]

It is not possible to add another parity disk without rebuilding the pool (i.e move data off, destroy and recreate pool, move data back on). We know it sucks.

Reportedly that's one of the strong suits of BtrFS. Unfortunately, it also reportedly has stability issues....

 

[jgreco]

Reportedly that's one of the strong suits of BtrFS. Unfortunately, it also reportedly has stability issues....

Always a choice between two unhappy solutions.

 

[Bidule0hm]

if the pre-built options are much cheaper for the same amount of performance

Same perf? maybe... Same reliability? I don't think so.

 

[anodos]

Always a choice between two unhappy solutions.

If the wiki is to be trusted, btrfs actually suffers from the write-hole problem: https://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/RAID56 So there's that as well.

 

[depasseg]

As a person who had a drobo and 2 ReadyNAS's, I hated the expandabliity options. Yes, they make it easy to make use of the extra space by inserting a larger drive, but you are limited to the number of drive bays and there isn't an cost reasonable way to expand beyond that.

My vote is for build you own.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

Around 4TB of effective storage (I was thinking of going for 3x2TB in RAIDz1.

To go to all this time and trouble and expense, then scrimp on one additional hard drive, seems like a mistake to me.

 

[anodos]

To go to all this time and trouble and expense, then scrimp on one additional hard drive, seems like a mistake to me.

For that matter a 4-disk raidz2 vdev is less than ideal. He should get three more hard drives and make a 6-disk raidz2 zpool. :)

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

For that matter a 4-disk raidz2 vdev is less than ideal.

:p

 

[Samuel Matthews]

Right okay, well considering I don't really have a budget in my head, that coupled with the fact I became a student again this week I'm just trying to be careful with my expenditure of cash. I'm happy with having to rebuilt my array if I decide to add another HDD at a later date (which will probably happen as my funds start to replenish). I know its not perfectly ideal to you guys but I'm very tempted to go the route of refurbished server equipment to build a DIY build that packs a decent amount of punch for its cost, thanks to using referb gear. Is there any reason you would stay well away from used gear when it comes to this area? My Dell Poweredge was a refurb from a local business, it was the best <£80 I've ever spent.

Also, are we allowed to link to selling sites such as eBay on this thread to get opinions on certain hardware?

 

[Mirfster]

Right okay, well considering I don't really have a budget in my head, that coupled with the fact I became a student again this week I'm just trying to be careful with my expenditure of cash. I'm happy with having to rebuilt my array if I decide to add another HDD at a later date (which will probably happen as my funds start to replenish). I know its not perfectly ideal to you guys but I'm very tempted to go the route of refurbished server equipment to build a DIY build that packs a decent amount of punch for its cost, thanks to using referb gear. Is there any reason you would stay well away from used gear when it comes to this area? My Dell Poweredge was a refurb from a local business, it was the best <£80 I've ever spent.

Also, are we allowed to link to selling sites such as eBay on this thread to get opinions on certain hardware?

Pretty much all of my equipment is used and purchased off eBay. Nothing wrong with going that route at all. Just have to be willing to take the risk, check out the seller and make sure you test the hardware fully before depending on it fully.

Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk

 

[anodos]

Used is fine, but I wouldn't go with anything older than westmere.

 

[jgreco]

Try to stay this side of Nehalem. Sandy and beyond are awesome.

 

[Mirfster]

All my servers are using Intel Xeon 5500/5600 product family, which I believe is Westmere... Guess that just makes me "old school"... :(

 

[mattbbpl]

All my servers are using Intel Xeon 5500/5600 product family, which I believe is Westmere... Guess that just makes me "old school"... :(

It just means you're a "power user" :P