FreeNas questions/alternatives

implosiveturnip · 27 Apr 2015 at 21:01

Hi all

I am intending to throw together a little freenas box, and upon going to download freenas, I see that it requires 8gb RAM to function, which is a bit more than I was expecting. And more than I can give it: The board I'm going to use only has 2 slots, and I only have 2gb sticks spare. Bummer.

Are there any alternatives to freenas that provide the same functionality? Or is it safe to run the older 32 bit version that is no longer supported, but will run with 4gb RAM?

implosiveturnip · 27 Apr 2015 at 21:28

And while we are at it, spec me a cpu/board/ram for freenas, so I can compare what I already have, and have a good idea of what I need.

My needs are really quite low. The box will be serving files to two desktops and a laptop, and a few andriod/ios devices. There will be no transcoding or VMs required, absolutely nothing other than file serving, and maybe a bittorrent client too.

implosiveturnip · 28 Apr 2015 at 13:57

Thanks for that. I found nas4free (the continuation of freenas after someone bought it from what I can tell) which will run fine on my (limited) hardware. I had a play with it in a VM last night and It's definitely something I can work with. I'll give openmediavault a shout tonight, as if it's that quick to get setup then that would be ideal.

implosiveturnip · 28 Apr 2015 at 16:13

linux cli isn't my strong point... however i suppose it would be a useful tool to have in my repertoire, so i'll give it a bash :cool:

implosiveturnip · 29 Apr 2015 at 00:52

!bluetonic! said:
It may not be your strong point, but you've given a good Linux joke in your last post.

Glad you noticed

I'm not afriad of CLI or anything, I'm just lazy :/

As for how much storage I'm putting in, well, that all depends on what I can and can't do with freenas and ZFS to be honest.

I currently have 2 3tb drives in RAID 1 on an intel rapid storage thingymabob in my htpc. But I want the drives out and in a nas along with a pair of 360gb drives so all my main storage is on the network and always accessible.

I'd be happy to continue the RAID setup, but this isn't recommended. so I was thinking to re-format all the drives as zfs and pool together and create separate volumes/datasets for all my various bits and bobs and then just transfer everything to the new structure. I need to look into the pros & cons of ZFS though, as my knowledge is quite limited. I think I heard something along the lines of you need 1gb RAM for every 1TB storage you have under ZFS, not sure how true this is.

implosiveturnip · 29 Apr 2015 at 10:35

that's good to know. Although I have manged to source x2 8gb sticks now, but I likely won't have them forever. Did a switcheroo with the missus' PC. It's only a metter of time before she realises

All being well the motherboard comes today,I have the case and all the other bits prepped and wired up so I should be up and running quite quickly and can have a proper play. I'm going to just faff around with all my spare drives and not put in my x2 3tb drives until i'm happy with everything. Don't want to inadvertently destroy all my data.

implosiveturnip · 3 May 2015 at 01:30

Just a quick update for anyone who was interested, I haven't abandoned the thread, I'm still waiting on a motherboard as the one I picked up from fleabay turned up with damaged pins in the CPU socket, so quite miffed about that. Never again!

I've ordered a board from a competeitior, but it turns out that it wasn't in stock so I'm stuck waiting for a delivery. If I'd have known that to begin with I would have found another board/supplier :mad:

So yeah, hurdles and all that jazz