Need some suggestions for NAS

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balzac said:
I can connect all my External HDD to the NUC and it could do that automatic mapping and access right?
Click to expand...
Technically you can. If your files are on an NTFS file system, it's better to move them to a ZFS based file system. It has its own advantages.

Additional Read:-

NTFS vs ZFS and ECC dilemma

Currently have 6 drives in 3 pairs of RAID 1 on a Z87 board. Thinking of building a NAS box so exploring FreeNAS etc. I read some confusing posts about RAM curropting files and such when NOT using RAID. Since i am using RAID, i wanted to know if there's an advantage going with FreeNAS and ZFS...
www.truenas.com www.truenas.com
 
I would suggest getting an atom board or any AMD low power board , a server network adapter and a Raid card . You can get them used as well .
1. Server network in PCI-E format would be future proof . Server NIC have their own processor and will not slow down the PC .
2. Raid card would be a better investment instead of the onboard raid and the raid offered by most NAS boxes out there . Raid cards also will have their own processing and are not dependent on the processor . Raid cards also have SSD caching features which allow faster data transfers. A 4 port card allows 32 drives .
3 . Free NAS software .
4. A multi bay cabinet case .
I am not affiliated with the vendor , but have used their products for commercial VFX/animation solutions . I have done boxes with 100 HDD of 4GB a few years back .

 
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I am currently researching on ZFS, will be building NAS ( Ubuntu OS with ZFS RAIDz2 with 6 disk, each disk 2 TB )

Is regular desktop sata drive (western digital blue/green) enough for ZFS ?
Or should we invest in sata drive (western digital red NAS)for NAS.

Price difference between two are very high.
My thought is since I will be running RAIDz2, which known to be able to cope with 2 disk failures, No need to put more money in disk for home purpose.

NAS will be used for data storage, Logitech Media Server and Plex.
 
jigarpatel said:
I am currently researching on ZFS, will be building NAS ( Ubuntu OS with ZFS RAIDz2 with 6 disk, each disk 2 TB )

Is regular desktop sata drive (western digital blue/green) enough for ZFS ?
Or should we invest in sata drive (western digital red NAS)for NAS.

Price difference between two are very high.
My thought is since I will be running RAIDz2, which known to be able to cope with 2 disk failures, No need to put more money in disk for home purpose.

NAS will be used for data storage, Logitech Media Server and Plex.
Click to expand...
Go with Red drives if you have a dedicated hardware-based raid controller.
 
If you're looking for something higher end and budget is not restricted, i have a Melco Audio Music Server with 6 TB.
www.melco-audio.com

Home - Melco Audio

Handmade in Japan, Melco’s digital music libraries are designed to store and playback music collections in the best possible sound quality.
www.melco-audio.com www.melco-audio.com
 
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jigarpatel said:
ZFS is software based raid, it does not require hardware-based raid controller.
Click to expand...
I am talking about the WD RED drives, not the file system. RED drives don't have the data correction inbuilt, unlike Green/Blue drives, and rely on the Raid hardware for error correction. That said, if you put Red drives on a system without RAID hardware, you will end up losing data in case of corruption.
 
Software based raid the biggest disadvantage is the use of processing power from the CPU . Sometimes makes the system hang up .
 
You definitely dont want a hardware raid card if you are planning to use ZFS. Instead you need a HBA (host bus adapter). The most common one is from LSI2008 chipset which can be flashed into IT mode.

You can buy used cards from ebay.com.
 
Using onboard Sata ports is absolutely fine.

Personally, I started off with Freenas but i wanted more than a Nas so changed to native FreeBSD + jails on their vlans. The virtual machine support in FreeBSD is not as robust as linux for instance passing a gpu to a vm is challenging. So i have migrated to linux with lxd containers.

Lastly, with ZFS you dont want any raid either software or hardware. The disks should be directly presented to ZFS as it is. There is lot of confusion created in this thread about raid.
 
I've used a Pi based NAS and am currently using Synology based NAS. The Pi based NAS was not a dedicated NAS. Hence it simply worked with Raspbian + Samba, nothing fancy, just one external powered HDD connected to it.

If you have the budget, I'd recommend going with Synology NAS. It's easy to setup. The 220+ version allows you to install docker. This allows you to run quite a few packages which may not directly be available for DSM. I have 220+. I have tried quite a few applications on Docker, though not directly using any of those right now. Synology has two types of drives, one which allow expansion ports and ones which don't. It's a completely arbitrary and artificial limitation and nothing to do with the underlying hardware. For instance, my NAS has a USB 3.0 port which can very well support expansion hardware, but they don't add support for it on this model. They use eSATA ports for those. Keep in mind though that you can share a hard drive connected to the USB Port over the network. You just can't put it on RAID or monitor its health and all.

If your budget is limited, you can also look at Asustor drives. They are pretty much half the price of Synology and have decent reviews.

Regardless of what you buy, I'd recommend not getting tied up with their applications. Use open source applications like Plex/Jellyfin for streaming videos and Ampache based application for music streaming or just host your files on the NAS and play it natively on the device your devices. For instance, I use Kodi on Raspberry Pi 4 for video content and I also have Volumio on a Pi Zero for music streaming. the NAS just acts as a host for the files and backup solution.

Would, if going for Synology, I would also recommend going for a 4-bay NAS, as that gives you more flexibility in terms of RAID configurations supported.
 
trumee said:
I dont prefer these commercial solutions. Instead, i went with Fractal Design Case which can house multiple drives clubbed with a Supermicro motherboard.
Click to expand...
@trumee Hi, I'm considering a similar setup. Current server config is OMV on Odroid N2 - USB3 to 3.5" HDD enclosure - no RAID. Also runs Plex and Docker. System has been stable for over a year - want to go SATA though. Could you share your config?

@OP, don't mean to hijack the thread - posted here since it is relevant.
 
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@pasha My system is used as a Nas + Server. It has a Supermicro X11SAT-F motherboard with Xeon E3-1275 v6 cpu. The filesystem is ZFS and the OS is ArchLinux. The disks are connected to onboard sata and LSI SAS2308 HBA.
 
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log21 said:
I would suggest getting an atom board or any AMD low power board , a server network adapter and a Raid card . You can get them used as well .
1. Server network in PCI-E format would be future proof . Server NIC have their own processor and will not slow down the PC .
2. Raid card would be a better investment instead of the onboard raid and the raid offered by most NAS boxes out there . Raid cards also will have their own processing and are not dependent on the processor . Raid cards also have SSD caching features which allow faster data transfers. A 4 port card allows 32 drives .
3 . Free NAS software .
4. A multi bay cabinet case .
I am not affiliated with the vendor , but have used their products for commercial VFX/animation solutions . I have done boxes with 100 HDD of 4GB a few years back .

Click to expand...

I am not aware of any 100 bay enclosure, if you made one please link to the 100 bay enclosure.
 
hi,
if nas is for just media consumption just go for budget ones if u still need to use for other work/pc related functions combined as many suggested u can go for truenas/zfs storage route but keep in mind under power consumption consideration , iam using a basic wd 2tbay nas its just setup and forget, i occasionally use its transmission app for download and using it as a media library for my plex server which is running on a shield pro
 
Decadent_Spectre said:
I am not aware of any 100 bay enclosure, if you made one please link to the 100 bay enclosure.
Click to expand...
You need to get from Primesource . As far as I know they are the ones one who have NAS enclosures for the DIY professionals . If needed PM for their contact details . They had 16,24 bay systems the last time I checked . One box is built as the main one and then the rest are daisy chained slaves . The slave boxes have a power supply and extender card built into them . . The rocket raid cards from Prime source I haven't used them . If you are going that route I have a spare LSI card for sale .
 
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