FreeNAS Server Build Help.
#1
I would like to build a server running FreeNas, run raid5, and have the capability to add drives to my server if I would like. Also if someone could shed light on what ZFS is and why i would use it?

Here is the part list I have so far
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6811112243
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6822136514
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813131619
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6817815008
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6819103698
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6820220253

I am thinking about holding off on the RAID card until I actually need it for expansion.

The questions I have is, will these computer parts run with FreeNAS? And will I be able to add HD's later on with out reformatting?

Thanks for the help, i know i should prolly be asking these questions on the FreeNAS forums, but I have gotten excelent help on the hardware forums here at xbmc.

If anyone can shed any light id appreciate it. Thanks for your time guys.
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#2
The freeNAS forums would be an excellent place to start.
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#3
Just a head's up but I believe the WD Green hard drive line is not the best choice for a raid setup.

Quote:The WD Greenpower series runs "5400-7200RPM" and each drive apparently has been tuned to its own unique RPM to minimize noise and vibrations.

Quote:Tech ARP's review of the 2TB Caviar Green drive cleared up a few details. First, the spindle speed isn't variable; WD locks it somewhere between 5400 and 7200 RPM (more likely on the lower end of the scale) and won't tell you what it is. If each drive has a different rotation speed, I don't think I'd want to use them in a RAID environment.
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#4
First off, buy the older WD20EADS drives if you can find them. They're 512byte sectors instead of the 4k WD20EARS you quoted.

I think this case is a better value:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6811129066

You'll need one of these for 10 drive capacity:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6817993002


I'm not sure if that board has enough clearance around the internal USB headers, but I much prefer using these eUSB SSDs over flash drives:

http://www.logicsupply.com/products/uh254si1_2g

They use SLC NAND and have wear leveling. Even with a bunch of extra stuff installed my FreeNAS installation is still under 500MB, so you could easily get away with the 1GB drive.

You should plan on using ZFS instead of raid 5 hardware or the Freebsd GEOM (this is the best reason to use FreeNAS IMO). raidz1 ~= raid5 in zfs (single parity).
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#5
ingeo Wrote:Just a head's up but I believe the WD Green hard drive line is not the best choice for a raid setup.

They are not fast, but more than fast enough to stream multiple blu-ray images at the same time (especially from a zfs based system). The green drives generate much less heat, which is really nice when you have a small case with a bunch of drives stuffed in a closet.
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#6
There are known issues with WD's non RAID edition drives, avoid them like the plague. Its a firmware "enhancement" that allows WD to force you to use their more expensive drives.
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#7
Tbtf Wrote:And will I be able to add HD's later on with out reformatting?

Yes you can with a couple of caveats. The best way to do this is by adding drives 3 or 4 at a time as a new raidz1 vdev. You can just keep expanding your storage pool this way.. You can also do this with mirror vdevs, but you'll be wasting half your disk space instead of ~30% for redundancy. It is possible to add single drive stripes to a zfs pool, but this is unwise. A single drive failure and you would lose all your data.

If you want to be able to add single drives at a time, you might want to look at unraid.
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#8
PANiCnz Wrote:There are known issues with WD's non RAID edition drives, avoid them like the plague. Its a firmware "enhancement" that allows WD to force you to use their more expensive drives.

My experience does not match your opinion.
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#9
One more thing I would change; that power supply in your list has a very poor rating on newegg. I would choose one of these instead:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6817151074

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6817371035
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#10
jvdb Wrote:One more thing I would change; that power supply in your list has a very poor rating on newegg. I would choose one of these instead:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6817151074

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6817371035

No, both of those have multiple rails. That is bad for a server. This is better:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6817139018

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#11
poofyhairguy Wrote:No, both of those have multiple rails. That is bad for a server. This is better:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6817139018

I've heard people make this argument before, but never personally experienced a problem. I also have a couple of Corsair PSUs that I'm very happy with, but I heard they recently switched manufacturers (was previously Seasonic), and their build quality and components aren't as good as they used to be..
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#12
First of all, save money on the case! Lian-Li makes some of the best cases around, but I personally think they can be overkill for a NAS. Your FreeNAS will most likely be stashed away somewhere. The Antec 300 case works perfectly for a FreeNAS (this is what I use for my FreeNAS).

This case offers 6x3.5" drive bays and then you can use the 5.25" bays for drives if you purchase adapters. The Antec 300 is also great for cooling and cable management. Highly recommended.

If you plan to put multiple disks into a RAIDZ (which I highly recommend over the SoftRAID in FreeNAS) then you will probably want 4Gb RAM (cheap) and a dual-core CPU. This will help when streaming 1080p from your FreeNAS. I am currently running a single-core AMD with 2Gb of RAM and do not have problems streaming 1080p from my 3x1TB RAIDZ but I may need to upgrade my CPU/RAM this year when I expand my storage. (generally, with ZFS and RAIDZ... the more storage you have, the more power is needed since ZFS is software based and does not use dedicated hardware for parity checking, etc.)

Good luck with your FreeNAS build! I recommend checking out their forums as well.
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#13
jvdb Wrote:I've heard people make this argument before, but never personally experienced a problem. I also have a couple of Corsair PSUs that I'm very happy with, but I heard they recently switched manufacturers (was previously Seasonic), and their build quality and components aren't as good as they used to be..

Single rail CERTAINLY makes a difference, its just math. A multiple rail PSU dedicates a whole rail (or more) to the GPU. Since a server will not have a powerful GPU that entire rail is wasted.

A 600w multiple rail PSU usually means that only about 350w are available for the HDs. That is a waste.

If you want a single rail, made by Seasonic PSU I can recommend this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...-_-Product

I don't have that exact model, but the 400w Antec Neo and the 620w Antec Neo powers my two servers, and I can confirm Seasonic made them.

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#14
bmcclure937 Wrote:First of all, save money on the case! Lian-Li makes some of the best cases around, but I personally think they can be overkill for a NAS. Your FreeNAS will most likely be stashed away somewhere. The Antec 300 case works perfectly for a FreeNAS (this is what I use for my FreeNAS).

I have an Antec 300 based server and its great, but the equivalent to that Lian Li case is the great 1200:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...-_-Product

Best media server case ever.

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#15
poofyhairguy Wrote:only about 350w are available for the HDs

This really isn't a problem, especially using green hard drives that draw around 5w each.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ener...44-10.html
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