Server Build - FreeNAS (1 Viewer)

eetaylog

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Can anyone give me any pointers on a new server i want to build. I recently networked our house with Cat5e cable as i want to build a solid media network, but im still in two minds which direction to take with my server build.

The issue is the TV server side of things, which obviously requires windows for the MP install. This puts a bit of a spanner in the works in that i cant just buy a straight forward NAS and dump it on our network without the need for a 2nd unit to run the TV server (which is still an option, but will be more expensive in the long run).

The way i see it, i have two options:

1. Dedicated TV server build plus seperate NAS unit hooked up to the network

Pro's - Much more simple management as the NAS will take care of all my media for me without much setting up etc.

Con's - Much more expensive to build given the cost of 4 bay NAS units, plus the additional long run electricity costs of running two seperate machines.

2. All in one DAS build with TV server and FreeNAS install to handle the media file disks in a RAID setup.

Pro's - Cheaper option and much neater in terms of network handling as everything is in one place.

Con's - I dont imagine the RAID side of things to be as robust or reliable as a proper Synology unit.



Im leaning towards the 2nd option by building my own all in one TV server and NAS (DAS) unit, however im still a bit unsure how compatable FreeNAS is going to be with the windows MP install. I dont really want to have to have two seperate boot options when starting the server (windows or FreeNAS OS), i just want to have the server sitting in sleep mode (s3) on the network, and then just have it boot into windows whenever its needed, along with the option of handling the NAS side of things by going to the relevant IP address in my web browser. Is this possible?

Sorry for the long post, hopefully someone can help!

TIA :)
 

Owlsroost

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    No real knowledge about if it's possible or not in practice, but have you though about hosting one of the OS's as a virtual machine (VM) on the other ?
     

    eetaylog

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    No real knowledge about if it's possible or not in practice, but have you though about hosting one of the OS's as a virtual machine (VM) on the other ?

    Hi, thanks for the reply,

    Not really sure if thats necessary as if its possible to do as i described in my post then that would be ideal. As far as i can tell, you can setup FreeNAS one time using a usb key and boot from that. After this you can leave the usb key plugged in and set your bios to boot from HDD again so that the machine boots to windows and you can then manage FreeNAS from a web browser page.

    Just need confirmation that this is possible, or whether anyone else has had experience with running FreeNAS and MP TV server in one machine.
     

    Lehmden

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    Hi.
    Any chance to put the TV Server inside the main HTPC? For this you most of the time only need the Client up and running while watching TV. Then you can use any NAS you like for storage and probably backups...

    I've gone a step further than that. I've integrated one of my 3 NAS systems into my HTPC too, aside the HTPC client and the TV Server (in my case it's the MP2 Server including TVEngine) so while watching TV or Series (I have about 30TB series stored locally) there only is a single PC (a power saving Intel Core i5 system) up and running. To get this "monster" out of sight in the living room I've build it into a drawer of an IKEA drawer chest. So it's invisible, nearly inaudible and has lots of power for all kind of things I like to do... If you are interested, a link is in my signature...

    My second NAS is a Banana Pi, a 40$ all in one PC that is working with a smartphone charger as power supply. This is up and running 24/7 and is holding all my music on an attached 2.5" HDD so I can play music directly to my AVR without the need to switch on TV and/or a full blown PC at all. And it is doing my downloads too.. This I have build inside a bird feeding house looking like an old farm house, my "Server Farm". The third NAS I have is is holding all my movies. It's an old but power efficient Celeron 847 system, build from spare hardware laying around here and it's hidden downstairs beneath a curtain...

    So, if you think about which data you need what often you can build an individual network by yourself fitting perfectly to your needs with as little money (for building and operating) as possible...
     

    Lehmden

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    Hi.
    Ok, so sadly this is no option...

    If I were you I would prefer to build an "all in one" in the garage... For this, two points are worth thinking of. First, how much storage space do you want (need) today and in some years? And second, do you want to use Tablets, Smartphones, Smart- TV and so on together with your MediaPortal setup? Both points are influencing the needed hardware the most. The more storage you need the more SATA and/or USB3.0 connections need to be on the mainboard. And if you want to use DLNA/UPnP streaming with "on the fly transcoding" you need much more CPU (and probably GPU) power than for simple storage and TV Server functions...
     

    eetaylog

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    Hi.
    Ok, so sadly this is no option...

    If I were you I would prefer to build an "all in one" in the garage... For this, two points are worth thinking of. First, how much storage space do you want (need) today and in some years? And second, do you want to use Tablets, Smartphones, Smart- TV and so on together with your MediaPortal setup? Both points are influencing the needed hardware the most. The more storage you need the more SATA and/or USB3.0 connections need to be on the mainboard. And if you want to use DLNA/UPnP streaming with "on the fly transcoding" you need much more CPU (and probably GPU) power than for simple storage and TV Server functions...

    Hi,

    So i cant access FreeNAS management from within another bootable windows? I guess this makes sense as the FreeNAS OS would need to be online to track my disks.

    In that case ill have to take another route. Transcoding would be a bonus as my wife likes to stream media to her android phone, but i would plan for the server to be half decent anway, with something in the region of an ivybridge i3 or i5 cpu with plenty of RAM, so hopefully this would be enough guts to handle transcoding for 1 or 2 streams?

    I have 2x2Tb disks in my current server which i manually backup every now and then to 4x1Tb backup disks that i use as insurance (i guess you'd call this manual mirroring, lol :)). Id like to move away from this caveman approach of having to back up my stuff manually, hence the questions about how best to integrate my TV server into a NAS. Id ideally like to look at RAID5 for my storage, though despite the huge disk redundancy im hearing good things about RAIDZ2. My main questions in this area are how i would set up a RAID array in windows, and whether there would be any issues with different sized disks in the array, as i would add for example a few 4Tb disks to the existing 2Tb's.

    So to sum up, my shopping list would be an all in one server with these attributes:

    • Able to handle and stream high density media files over gigabit LAN
    • Able to reliably WOL when it is called by any clients on the network (cant emphasise this enough!)
    • Able to transcode 1 or 2 streams to android devices over wifi
    • Able to manage (and notify me of failures to) an array of HDD's in RAID 5 or Z2, probably in the region of 6 to 8Tb usable storage.
    • Able to have MP TV server integrated into the build for handing TV streams/recordings/timeshifting etc.
    The server will be located in the garage, so noise isnt an issue for cooling fans etc. Im also not too worried about GPU power as the server wont really be used for running as an MP client.

    Thanks again, all good stuff (y)
     
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    CyberSimian

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    I'd like to move away from this caveman approach of having to back up my stuff manually, ... and whether there would be any issues with different sized disks in the array,
    Earlier this year a purchased a Synology NAS. I was in two minds before purchasing it, and I am still in two minds after purchasing it. The Synology provides a massive amount of storage, is compact, and is quiet (but not necessarily quiet enough for a listening/viewing room). The problem is what happens when something goes wrong.

    I opted for two-disk redundancy (RAID 6). If a disk fails, it can take days to rebuild the array, during which the NAS has limited or zero availability for other purposes. And this is assuming things go as expected. From following the Synology fora for a month or two, it seems that the NAS can fail in a way that cannot be repaired, and then one is buggered in an unfortunate position. Part of the problem here is the complexity of extracting your data from a broken RAID setup, with possibly proprietary features. Note: I am not criticising Synology here -- these concerns apply to all makers of NAS systems.

    If I were in the market again for a mass-storage system, I am not sure that I would buy a NAS, The appealing alternative is a drive pool, and I would probably opt for the "Stablebit" drive pool software (they are very responsive to users on their forum). The advantages that I see are:

    (1) Provides a single "view" of the pooled disks, i.e. a single drive letter in Windows.
    (2) Can use disks of different size.
    (3) Can use SATA, PATA, or USB disks.
    (4) Uses a bog-standard file-system (e.g. NTFS, possibly others).
    (5) Can unplug a pool disk and access it as a simple NTFS disk (so not tied to proprietary data structures on the disk).
    (6) Can retain two (or more!) copies of files, either the whole pool, or selected directories; duplication is done automatically by the software.
    (7) Has disk-fitness monitoring software (separate product) that monitors disk status, and automatically copies files off failing disks onto other disks in the pool at the first sign of impending failure.
    (8) Can expand the pool at any time by simply plugging in another disk and adding it to the pool.

    I have never used drive pool software, so I may be seeing only the advantages, and not the disadvantages. However, I have so many odd disks laying around unused that I might set one up, to act as a backup for the NAS.

    -- from CyberSimian in the UK
     
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    eetaylog

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    Interesting post, thanks. So you would use Drivepool on top of a standard TV server build? This would tick the boxes as it would be one all-in-one soltution.

    Ive just taken a look on their website and it seems reasonably priced. Is it a one off cost or is it an annual license? What sort of data recovery/protection do they offer, as it doesnt seem to follow the traditional RAID format?

    TIA
     

    eetaylog

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    Im also wondering whether it might be an option to pay for a cloud service rather than worrying about building my own backup and storage setup?

    Backblaze and Justcloud do unlimited storage for about £32 per year! You can also buy 5 year services and get it even cheaper in the long run. This way i could just use my disks in a JBOD setup and run the cloud service as a scheduled backup and never have to worry about disk failure.

    What are peoples opinions on this method?
     

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