[SOLVED] Understand FreeNAS System

[Hazard93]

I believe this would be an appropriate sub-forum, please do let me know if not.

I'm looking at building a FreeNAS system for my Plex server, to keep running 24/7 so that Friends & Family can access at all times.

I'm looking down the route of a refurbished office system, an Intel system, but I may still just build my own. The refurbishment I'm looking at [HERE]. I'd simply install a WD Red, or Purple. Potentially upgrade the PSU too.

The question I have is, how would I transfer files to that system from my main PC? Anything I download or want to send, would it be a matter of the FreeNAS system appearing in MY Computer under storage, or is there another way?

I can't seem to find an answer online. Any help appreciated as always.

Thanks.

 

[derekullo]

I use NAS4FREE/Xigmanas at home which is also a ZFS based system.

After you setup your vdevs and pool and create a dataset you need to create a share using NFS or CIFS.

At that point you would goto the IP address of the ZFS computer from the computer you want to transfer files from and look for the share you just created.

And so mine looks similar to this.

/mnt/Pool01/Music (Dataset)

In CIFS I have the Music Dataset shared as Music

And so it should look similar to this for you.

https://discourse-cdn-sjc1.com/wd/uploads/default/original/2X/2/2499a97bba1a4aaa61d118a3ec233e5f68cb61f4.png

 

[Hazard93]

I use NAS4FREE/Xigmanas at home which is also a ZFS based system.

After you setup your vdevs and pool and create a dataset you need to create a share using NFS or CIFS.

At that point you would goto the IP address of the ZFS computer from the computer you want to transfer files from and look for the share you just created.

And so mine looks similar to this.

/mnt/Pool01/Music (Dataset)

In CIFS I have the Music Dataset shared as Music

And so it should look similar to this for you.

https://discourse-cdn-sjc1.com/wd/uploads/default/original/2X/2/2499a97bba1a4aaa61d118a3ec233e5f68cb61f4.png

I won't lie, you've confused the hell out of me!

Right, time to do some research. At least I know there's a way around it. I didn't really think about this when contemplating doing a NAS system, so before I take the plunge I want to make sure I know what I'm doing. At first, I would have thought a NAS system would appear as a drive to download directly onto..

Are there any video demonstrations online that you know of? I'll also check out XigmaNAS. Any reason you went against FreeNAS?

Thanks for the reply!

 

[Alabalcho]

When you (properly) install and configure your FreeNAS, you'll see it on your network, with name and shares as configured. If your media is currently on removable drives, you'd be able to connect that media to the server, and transfer it directly as well.

 

[Hazard93]

When you (properly) install and configure your FreeNAS, you'll see it on your network, with name and shares as configured. If your media is currently on removable drives, you'd be able to connect that media to the server, and transfer it directly as well.

Ok, so if I have all my Movies, TV shows, Music etc on this PC, there'd be a way I could access the NAS storage via My PC? That's what I seem to be struggling to understand, whether you can literally drag and drop the files straight through.

Or when download, changing the download destination straight to my NAS setup from my main PC?

 

[derekullo]

I use NAS4FREE/Xigmanas at home which is also a ZFS based system.

After you setup your vdevs and pool and create a dataset you need to create a share using NFS or CIFS.

At that point you would goto the IP address of the ZFS computer from the computer you want to transfer files from and look for the share you just created.

And so mine looks similar to this.

/mnt/Pool01/Music (Dataset)

In CIFS I have the Music Dataset shared as Music

And so it should look similar to this for you.

https://discourse-cdn-sjc1.com/wd/uploads/default/original/2X/2/2499a97bba1a4aaa61d118a3ec233e5f68cb61f4.png

I won't lie, you've confused the hell out of me!

Right, time to do some research. At least I know there's a way around it. I didn't really think about this when contemplating doing a NAS system, so before I take the plunge I want to make sure I know what I'm doing. At first, I would have thought a NAS system would appear as a drive to download directly onto..

Are there any video demonstrations online that you know of? I'll also check out XigmaNAS. Any reason you went against FreeNAS?

Thanks for the reply!

XigmaNAS/NAS4FREE looked easier to setup at the time and so it was just the one I choose when I first started and the choice stuck.

There are a few things you are doing incorrectly with your setup.

For one you should be using a system with ECC RAM.

It isn't a requirement but it is highly advised.

I have a XigmaNAS at home configured as an ftp server with normal ram installed.

This server is backed up to my main NAS which does have ECC ram so I am not worried about it dying.

To be fair even the server without the ECC ram has been running great for about 2 years straight now (since i created it), but I'm required to say you should use ECC ram.

The next thing is you should make note of is installing 2 drives into that computer and not just one.

HP's site shows it has 2 internal drive bays which is good
https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-compaq-8200-elite-small-form-factor-pc/5037931/document/c02781693

This way you can set them up in a mirror and if one drive dies you can replace it with a new drive and let it rebuild and not lose any data.

 

[derekullo]

The reason ECC ram is so important is that with ZFS the ram is understood to be never wrong.

Most all other data locations are checksummed to look for and correct errors, but data coming from ram is not checked for errors.

A single ram error can crash an entire ZFS system and corrupt all the data.

 

[derekullo]

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/06/the-ars-nas-distribution-shootout-freenas-vs-nas4free/

Has an interesting article on the differences between Freenas and NAS4FREE/XigmaNAS

To sum it up;

FreeNas wants to be good at everything and

XigmaNAS/NAS4FREE dispenses with the fancy stuff and sticks with a more down-to-earth and focused "I am a NAS and I am good at it" game plan. You don't get newsgroup readers or bittorrent clients or owncloud servers, and you can't make your own domain controller with it, but NAS4Free has a much cleaner, more usable interface

 

[Hazard93]

I use NAS4FREE/Xigmanas at home which is also a ZFS based system.

After you setup your vdevs and pool and create a dataset you need to create a share using NFS or CIFS.

At that point you would goto the IP address of the ZFS computer from the computer you want to transfer files from and look for the share you just created.

And so mine looks similar to this.

/mnt/Pool01/Music (Dataset)

In CIFS I have the Music Dataset shared as Music

And so it should look similar to this for you.

https://discourse-cdn-sjc1.com/wd/uploads/default/original/2X/2/2499a97bba1a4aaa61d118a3ec233e5f68cb61f4.png

I won't lie, you've confused the hell out of me!

Right, time to do some research. At least I know there's a way around it. I didn't really think about this when contemplating doing a NAS system, so before I take the plunge I want to make sure I know what I'm doing. At first, I would have thought a NAS system would appear as a drive to download directly onto..

Are there any video demonstrations online that you know of? I'll also check out XigmaNAS. Any reason you went against FreeNAS?

Thanks for the reply!

XigmaNAS/NAS4FREE looked easier to setup at the time and so it was just the one I choose when I first started and the choice stuck.

There are a few things you are doing incorrectly with your setup.

For one you should be using a system with ECC RAM.

It isn't a requirement but it is highly advised.

I have a XigmaNAS at home configured as an ftp server with normal ram installed.

This server is backed up to my main NAS which does have ECC ram so I am not worried about it dying.

To be fair even the server without the ECC ram has been running great for about 2 years straight now (since i created it), but I'm required to say you should use ECC ram.

The next thing is you should make note of is installing 2 drives into that computer and not just one.

HP's site shows it has 2 internal drive bays which is good
https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-compaq-8200-elite-small-form-factor-pc/5037931/document/c02781693

This way you can set them up in a mirror and if one drive dies you can replace it with a new drive and let it rebuild and not lose any data.

I'll take a look at XigmaNAS now, I'm all for an easier route, if it does the same thing!

I did read about ECC RAM a while back, and totally forgot. I remembered the HDD's, and not the ram!

The storage recommendation was exactly as I had planned.

 

[failboat]

ZFS + ECC is great protection against data corruption.

It doesn't mean that if you decide ECC isn't worth the increased cost that you shouldn't use ZFS or a similar data healing. They aren't prerequisites to each other. Both add value by them selves, but you need both for complete protection. 4-8TB mirror won't use a ton of ram in ZFS. raid5 uses more than a mirror.

ECC will add $250+ to your NAS and the low power ECC builds have a very steep premium.

intel i3 8100 + supermicro C246 + 8GB (with room to go to 16) ECC DDR4 unbuffered + mirrored ironwolfs total system should idle around 50W
If your upload speeds are > 20Mbs then you have options that will cut your costs down quite a bit. intel J4105 can do quite a bit and it's inexpensive.

It's going to save you a lot of money to only run one system 24/7. You can move everything you need to the server. VM servers and/or docker open your options up quite a bit.

A noteable used system is E3 1260L. You can get mobo+cpu for around $100 on ebay. DDR3 unbuffered is $50 for 8G. There are some older E5 single CPU setups that idle around 80W and will allow you to get even more ram @ $20 per 8G. I had one of these older systems die on me this year. I don't highly recommend going this direction. You can't get close to those prices on ECC with new builds.