Home server OS

[DarrinS]

I'm building a NAS/server to store all my media and perform backups. There are a load of options for the OS.

Ubuntu
FreeNAS
NAS4Free
Amahi
OpenMediaVault
Windows 8 or 10


My highest priority is scalable storage that protects my data. I don't mind running the occasional Linux command, but I don't want to be hacking on this box 24/7.

Any recommendations?

[ElNono]

You're gonna have to play with the different options.

- FreeNAS is likely the most well-known and supported, but the interface can be bersome at times. It does have a ton of docs and tutorial videos online.
- NAS4FREE is an old fork of FreeNAS, which is faster, but not as well supported and you'll need some command line access. Might not support newer hardware.
- OpenMediaVault has been highly recommended, both on usability and speed. The only drawback I know about is that you can't store it on your storage drives. So basically, you do need a very small HDD or SSD just to hold OMV, then you can have your data drives.
- Amahi is probably the most user friendly, but it really has no data protection built-in, IIRC.

A note on data protection: If you're going to store data that you really can't afford to lose there, then you should go for RAID 6. FreeNAS and NAS4Free call it RAID-Z2, and OMV also does support it (as RAID 6). That gives you 2-drive redundancy (that is, more than two of your drives need to go bad before you lose data). Otherwise, you can use RAID 5 (RAID-Z1 on FreeNAS/NAS4Free), which gives you 1 drive redundancy.

[DarrinS]

Thanks Elnono


The reason I listed Windows 8 and 10 is because they both have "storage spaces".

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/w...e-spaces-pools

This seems really interesting to me, but I have no experience with it.

[ElNono]

From what I read, it's just drive pooling, with RAID, similar to what FreeNAS/NAS4Free do, but instead of ZFS, native to Windows.

If you're more familiar with Windows or have a Windows ecosystem, and don't mind paying the single license fee for Windows, then that might be the way to go for you.

You could even drop in something like Tonido for Windows, and have your own webcloud, and access to the files from tablets/pads, including movie/music streaming.

There are really many options, you have to play with them. Either on the hardware itself or a VM.

[baseline bum]

A note on data protection: If you're going to store data that you really can't afford to lose there, then you should go for RAID 6. FreeNAS and NAS4Free call it RAID-Z2, and OMV also does support it (as RAID 6). That gives you 2-drive redundancy (that is, more than two of your drives need to go bad before you lose data). Otherwise, you can use RAID 5 (RAID-Z1 on FreeNAS/NAS4Free), which gives you 1 drive redundancy.

Hey Nono man, what drives do you like for a RAIDZ2 array? I was going to build a FreeNAS with WD Reds, but like DarrinS was saying in the other thread, after doing some research they look like garbage drives. HGST or bust?

[ElNono]

Hey Nono man, what drives do you like for a RAIDZ2 array? I was going to build a FreeNAS with WD Reds, but like DarrinS was saying in the other thread, after doing some research they look like garbage drives. HGST or bust?

If you're doing Raid 6, you shouldn't worry that much about drive failing, tbh... just go cheap

[baseline bum]

If you're doing Raid 6, you shouldn't worry that much about drive failing, tbh... just go cheap

The cheap WD Greens' sleep mode is actually known to cause them to drop out of RAID arrays and cause rebuilding.

[DarrinS]

I think I'm going to go with Windows 10. It appears that the storage pooling has some tolerance for drive failures. I'm going to drop in those cheap HGST drives I bought, as well as a WD green 2TB and a WD blue 1TB.

Some of the other options are probably better, but I just have more comfort with Windows.

[ElNono]

The cheap WD Greens' sleep mode is actually known to cause them to drop out of RAID arrays and cause rebuilding.

You can turn that off, but unless you're on Windows, it's bersome...

for future reference, here's a guide how to do it:
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/tips/Disa...eadParking.htm

[ElNono]

I think I'm going to go with Windows 10. It appears that the storage pooling has some tolerance for drive failures. I'm going to drop in those cheap HGST drives I bought, as well as a WD green 2TB and a WD blue 1TB.

Some of the other options are probably better, but I just have more comfort with Windows.

If you want RAID 6 on storage spaces, select 3-way mirror. That will allow two drives to fail and you can still recover the data. Two-way = RAID 5, you can only have one failing drive.

[DarrinS]

You can turn that off, but unless you're on Windows, it's bersome...

for future reference, here's a guide how to do it:
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/tips/Disa...eadParking.htm

Thanks. I didn't even know this was an issue.

[DarrinS]

If you want RAID 6 on storage spaces, select 3-way mirror. That will allow two drives to fail and you can still recover the data. Two-way = RAID 5, you can only have one failing drive.

I only have 4 drives, so I'll have to either settle for RAID5 or buy one more drive.

[ElNono]

I only have 4 drives, so I'll have to either settle for RAID5 or buy one more drive.

If you go Raid 5, I would still recommend you picking up a HDD later on and hooking it up as a hot-spare. It will be basically be used automatically if a drive fails. Or you can get the extra drive now and go Raid 6.

Again, it's entirely dependent on how much data protection you want.

[DarrinS]

Hey Nono man, what drives do you like for a RAIDZ2 array? I was going to build a FreeNAS with WD Reds, but like DarrinS was saying in the other thread, after doing some research they look like garbage drives. HGST or bust?

If you are doing a mini ITX build, I can recommend this case.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811352027


I got mine for $69. Looks like it is no longer on sale.

[DarrinS]

If you go Raid 5, I would still recommend you picking up a HDD later on and hooking it up as a hot-spare. It will be basically be used automatically if a drive fails. Or you can get the extra drive now and go Raid 6.

Again, it's entirely dependent on how much data protection you want.

I'll start with Raid 5 and add more drives later. I still have a 3rd external backup, so I should be good.

[baseline bum]

If you are doing a mini ITX build, I can recommend this case.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811352027


I got mine for $69. Looks like it is no longer on sale.

Yeah the Node 304 is an amazing NAS case, I think it can hold 8 drives. Now to just find a mini-ITX motherboard that has 8 SATA ports.

[DarrinS]

Yeah the Node 304 is an amazing NAS case, I think it can hold 8 drives. Now to just find a mini-ITX motherboard that has 8 SATA ports.

Damn dude, 8?

There's an ASROCK that has 16, but it's expensive.

[DarrinS]

Oh, here's one with 8

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...w&gclsrc=aw.ds

[baseline bum]

Oh, here's one with 8

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...w&gclsrc=aw.ds

Not sure a 220W FX-9590 would make sense as a NAS tbh.

[baseline bum]

Damn dude, 8?

There's an ASROCK that has 16, but it's expensive.

LOL, you really need an Avaton board for a proper mini-ITX FreeNAS PLEX media server with RAIDZ2.

Yeah, I'm not paying for that either.

[ElNono]

If you're looking for a NAS board in Mini-ITX, this is pretty good:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157419

You get 8 SATA3 + 4 SATA 2, built in quad core 2.4/2.6 Intel Atom CPU, 2x Intel gigabit LAN, cheapo built-in video with VGA plug, and built-in IPMI (which is great for server management, look it up).

The only drawback is you need unbuffered ECC RAM, which is a little more expensive than regular RAM.

But at $300, it's great value.

[baseline bum]

If you're looking for a NAS board in Mini-ITX, this is pretty good:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157419

You get 8 SATA3 + 4 SATA 2, built in quad core 2.4/2.6 Intel Atom CPU, 2x Intel gigabit LAN, cheapo built-in video with VGA plug, and built-in IPMI (which is great for server management, look it up).

The only drawback is you need unbuffered ECC RAM, which is a little more expensive than regular RAM.

But at $300, it's great value.

That's a really weak CPU for a PLEX server though, and I'd hate to convert all my video media to H.264 just to be able to stream to mobile devices without transcoding. I guess it would be reasonable using HTPCs on the TVs though instead of say a Roku that probably only supports a couple of video formats.

I have a lot of Spurs games in all sorts of crazy formats. Old school ASF, H.264, lots of DiVX and XVid, some MPEG1, straight DVD format, even some early 2000s in real video.

[ElNono]

That's a really weak CPU for a PLEX server though, and I'd hate to convert all my video media to H.264 just to be able to stream to mobile devices without transcoding. I guess it would be reasonable using HTPCs on the TVs though instead of say a Roku that probably only supports a couple of video formats.

I have a lot of Spurs games in all sorts of crazy formats. Old school ASF, H.264, lots of DiVX and XVid, some MPEG1, straight DVD format, even some early 2000s in real video.

It really depends on how many clients you plan to serve and what video formats, tbh. Plex reccommends 2.0Ghz Core2Duo for a single 720p transcoded stream, and 2.4Ghz for a single 1080p transcoded stream.

The thing with old formats is that while some of the older codecs might not be SSE3 optimized, you're normally dealing with smaller resolutions, so it's not that intensive.

Now, if you're going to have a lot of simultaneous clients, there's an octa-core board for an extra $90:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157475

Supposedly, the C2550 can do up to 2 1080p transcoded streams no sweat, while the octa-core C2750 can do up to 4 1080p transcoded streams without a problem. This is what I gathered from here:
http://forums.openmediavault.org/ind...2nd-NAS-build/

[ElNono]

Obviously, if you're doing 4k transcoding, none of those are an option

[baseline bum]

It really depends on how many clients you plan to serve and what video formats, tbh. Plex reccommends 2.0Ghz Core2Duo for a single 720p transcoded stream, and 2.4Ghz for a single 1080p transcoded stream.

The thing with old formats is that while some of the older codecs might not be SSE3 optimized, you're normally dealing with smaller resolutions, so it's not that intensive.

Now, if you're going to have a lot of simultaneous clients, there's an octa-core board for an extra $90:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157475

Supposedly, the C2550 can do up to 2 1080p transcoded streams no sweat, while the octa-core C2750 can do up to 4 1080p transcoded streams without a problem. This is what I gathered from here:
http://forums.openmediavault.org/ind...2nd-NAS-build/

PLEX recommends a 2000 Passmark per 1080p stream, and the C2550 is only at 2329.