OOB Nas vs DIY NAS vs DIY multi function home server

[adam_m]

Mornin' all,

For centralized home storage (mostly media) I have an Apple AEBS hooked into a 2 bay USB2.0 caddy that contains 2x1.5Tb HDDs - mirrored.

The setup works OK but it's pretty slow, inflexible and when I run out of space fairly soon it's going to be expensive and wasteful if all I can do is swap out the drives for 2 larger ones.

So I'm looking at NAS solutions .. which inevitably snowballed into something larger

For the NAS I'm looking at a Synology DS411j or 413j .. around £250 mark. I can re-use my current disks and then stack a couple of extra ones in there (they dont have to match which is nice) as and when I need them. Job done.

The tinkerer in me got thinking about building my own one though using something like FreeNAS. I installed FreeNAS on a VM last night and had a play, immediately hit a bug which wouldn't allow me to create AFP share users and to be honest it put me off a little. I'm UNIX savvy (work with AIX every day) and it should have just worked, turns out it's a bug. The words 'bug' and 'NAS' do not sit well with me. Perhaps I've been unlucky.

This thought snowballed into much bigger ideas of building a full on home server box that could run a couple of VMs. One VM would run the NAS side of things, one could be a Win7 install running iTunes which could act as the media server for the house...everything is Apple so needs iTunes running somewhere - currently it's on my Mac Mini which is on 24/7 but it'd be nice to ditch it and get a more powerful Mac, I just didn't want to leave anything too beefy on all the time.

Some things I need to be aware of:

- Power consumption not to crazy (I'm paying the bills unlike some people on here looking at the setups )
- Not too massive, but it's going under the stairs so not wildly interested in looks.

Comments on the above? Anyone else done similar things?
Cheers!
Adam

 

[leezer3]

Server all the way
I'm running a Linux based server, and it does so much more than a NAS does.

In your case, I'd probably look into a WHS installation, and simply use Samba for your shares. This way, you only need one machine, no virtualisation. (I'm not sure from your post exactly what level of share restriction you actually need. I haven't really tried WHS in terms of restricted access, I'll admit I prefer running a single user on the server with all shares 755 to them )
If you're set on the virtualisation idea, then remember to check the HVL lists- A lot of consumer grade gear simply isn't supported with virtualisation.

Power consumption, I'd guess at about a tenner or so a month, depending on your exact components and the load on the box as a whole.

As a final thought, dare I suggest a hackintosh based server
Never forget it's Unix underneath there, and you can compile pretty much anything you need.

-Leezer-

 

[AbsenceJam]

It's called an HP Microserver.

You can just run Windows, don't even need to run a server edition for home use, and WHS is pointless without Windows clients.

 

[deuse]

I like my synology because the DS os is great and gets updated often and they have great mobile apps.

 

[adam_m]

It's called an HP Microserver.

You can just run Windows, don't even need to run a server edition for home use, and WHS is pointless without Windows clients.

I think I'm limited to MacOS for my media options .. movies are fine from a Windows based iTunes server but for photos it'd need to talk to my iPhoto/Aperture library and I do not believe Windows iTunes can do that. That aside the N40L looks perfect .. such a shame. I read a little into Hackintoshing the N40L .. not plain sailing and if there's one thing the iTunes box needs to be it's reliable!

Cheers
M

 

[adam_m]

Server all the way
I'm running a Linux based server, and it does so much more than a NAS does.

In your case, I'd probably look into a WHS installation, and simply use Samba for your shares. This way, you only need one machine, no virtualisation. (I'm not sure from your post exactly what level of share restriction you actually need. I haven't really tried WHS in terms of restricted access, I'll admit I prefer running a single user on the server with all shares 755 to them )
If you're set on the virtualisation idea, then remember to check the HVL lists- A lot of consumer grade gear simply isn't supported with virtualisation.

Power consumption, I'd guess at about a tenner or so a month, depending on your exact components and the load on the box as a whole.

As a final thought, dare I suggest a hackintosh based server
Never forget it's Unix underneath there, and you can compile pretty much anything you need.

-Leezer-

I'm open to Hackintosh .. in fact I'm planning a Mac Pro esque hackintosh build as soon as I sort out my iTunes media server.

Cheers,
Adam

 

[adam_m]

I like my synology because the DS os is great and gets updated often and they have great mobile apps.

Thanks for the input!

..right now I'm leaning towards repurposing the Mac Mini as my media server (worth installing Mac OSX Server or not?) and bolting it to the NAS. Not as nice as a one box solution but not sure I have another option given my choice of ecosystem :-/

Cheers,
Adam

 

[Martynt74]

My home server draws about 40w which was a huge amount less than i expected it to.

The specs are
Asus E45M1-PRO
4gb Ram
1x 240gb SSD drive holding the OS
4 x 2tb HD's
Pico PSU
Lian Li PC008 case

Its virtually silent and works great. Probably a little more expensive than needed due to the motherboard but it was one of the few ITX boards with lots of SATA ports as well as the fact i needlessly use an SSD i picked up cheap.

To build your own would be pretty cheap though. Especially if you picked up used parts

 

[adam_m]

My home server draws about 40w which was a huge amount less than i expected it to.

The specs are
Asus E45M1-PRO
4gb Ram
1x 240gb SSD drive holding the OS
4 x 2tb HD's
Pico PSU
Lian Li PC008 case

Its virtually silent and works great. Probably a little more expensive than needed due to the motherboard but it was one of the few ITX boards with lots of SATA ports as well as the fact i needlessly use an SSD i picked up cheap.

To build your own would be pretty cheap though. Especially if you picked up used parts

Nice spec .. how do you power all those drives with the Pico? I thought they were limited connection wise?
Cheers,
Adam

 

[Martynt74]

I've got the 150w Pico which has an extra connection which helps and then i use 1 x Sata to 2x Sata cables to make it up.

Like i say it only pulls about 40w-45w measured using a plug in power measuring thingy and i've never had any issues with crashing or anything

 

[AbsenceJam]

I think I'm limited to MacOS for my media options .. movies are fine from a Windows based iTunes server but for photos it'd need to talk to my iPhoto/Aperture library and I do not believe Windows iTunes can do that. That aside the N40L looks perfect .. such a shame. I read a little into Hackintoshing the N40L .. not plain sailing and if there's one thing the iTunes box needs to be it's reliable!

Cheers
M

iPhoto is fine stored on an SMB share. Never tried Aperture. I don't see what iTunes has to do with either though?

Either way if you need AFP shares or something it's the easiest thing to run a VM on top or just use ESXI in the frist place.

 

[adam_m]

iPhoto is fine stored on an SMB share. Never tried Aperture. I don't see what iTunes has to do with either though?

Either way if you need AFP shares or something it's the easiest thing to run a VM on top or just use ESXI in the frist place.

Apple TV talks to iPhoto library via iTunes ... OSX iTunes has to be running somewhere regardless of where the media actually resides. Sucks, but true.

Adam

 

[adam_m]

Thanks for the opinions everyone, in the end I decided against a new server as the Mac Mini everything better really and I still get to use it as a desktop at the same time.

I did however just pull the trigger on a Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ v2, the Synology was over £100 extra which I couldn't really justify. I read that the netgear can run a VPN server, BT downloader etc.. too which is nice.

Cheers,
Adam