Help me choose a storage file system to use

Frank Jeagar · 20 Aug 2017 at 11:54

Soon I will be building a home server that will basically be used as a Plex server, for network storage, routine back up of PCs on the network and possibly as a router as well. It will be running on pretty pedestrian hardware, just some stuff I've collected over time since they were good deals.

One thing I need to iron out though is the way in which I store all of the data. My original idea was to use a RAID card and run RAID 6, but that introduces extra cost and failure points. Also recovery might be more complex should the card die, and I think there might be more effective ways to store my data. The problem is that I have pretty limited knowledge of all the file systems there are now, and was hoping someone could help me choose the right one.

What I really want is for at least 2 parity disks that errs on safety rather than performance, originally I wanted to use windows for ease of use since I can easily remote into it (not needing peripherals for the system) and I can run all my normal programs, but I am starting to accept that that will not be happening

I will likely be running a dual core Pentium (I happen to have one, can be upgraded if needs be), a Gigabyte Z87X-UD5H motherboard, 8Gb of RAM and will likely boot off of a small SSD (might run a couple in RAID 1 using the motherboard RAID controller).

Thanks to anyone who helps out, this isn't an imminent problem, I don't even have the hard drives yet, I just want to get this down before I go much further

lude1962 · 21 Aug 2017 at 20:26

unraid ?

Frank Jeagar · 23 Aug 2017 at 10:28

lude1962 said:
unraid ?

I don't really want to pay for the software when there are very good free options out there. I was thinking of going with ZFS/BTRFS.

I'm leaning towards ZFS running on FreeNAS, but now I'm wondering if it will run in a HyperV virtal machine on Windows 10

pc-guy · 23 Aug 2017 at 10:52

unraid is an advantage if you are looking to expand your raid by adding disks etc.

freenas with zfs should be your default choice in all honesty - especially with that hardware.

VM is no good with the hardware you have.

Frank Jeagar · 23 Aug 2017 at 11:02

pc-guy said:
VM is no good with the hardware you have.

I figured I could use HyperV in Windows 10, it worked well enough to setup pfsense, but from what I have found running multiple drives on FreeNAS That way is problematic.

Frank Jeagar · 23 Aug 2017 at 11:05

So I guess if I wanted to do this I would be using a machine with FreeNAS only, and if I wanted to run pfsense as well I'd be looking to run a couple of dedicated VMs with a quad core CPU?

pc-guy · 23 Aug 2017 at 11:11

Frank Jeagar said:
So I guess if I wanted to do this I would be using a machine with FreeNAS only, and if I wanted to run pfsense as well I'd be looking to run a couple of dedicated VMs with a quad core CPU?

Pretty much. But you need CPU that supports virtualization.

skyripper · 23 Aug 2017 at 11:12

Look at NAS4FREE (FreeNas offshoot before it was sold to new developers). That will let you run VirtualBox Virtual Machines on it so you could host pfSense in one of those.

Considering I'm running NAS4FREE, on top of ESXi on a lowly HP Microserver N54 which has some low power AMD processor, a dual-core pentium on a Z87 platform would probably breeze with the minimal load you're putting on it.

skyripper · 23 Aug 2017 at 11:14

pc-guy said:
Pretty much. But you need CPU that supports virtualization.

You don't NEED, it helps.
Depends entirely on your load and requirements. For the home, with spare parts hardware, its worth trying.

skyripper · 23 Aug 2017 at 11:16

Where you will need some decent CPU power, is if this Plex server is also Transcoding on the fly, especially if its to 4K resolution. Then you need to think carefully about hardware.

pc-guy · 23 Aug 2017 at 11:18

skyripper said:
You don't NEED, it helps.
Depends entirely on your load and requirements. For the home, with spare parts hardware, its worth trying.

It helps a lot

But in any case, CPUs from sandy bridge onwards support virtualization.

Also if you run pfsense then those CPU also supports AES so it means your openvpn connection will be closer to line speed. You have to hunt for the right CPU for that capability of your going outside that.

Anyway the more you want from the box the more you need to consider in terms of hardware capabilities.

If you want just a big Nas box then freenas is the way to go. Freenas and nas4free are very similar with the former having a more polished UI and probably better support and ecosystem. I have not used nas4free so only going by what I have read.

Frank Jeagar · 23 Aug 2017 at 11:25

It supports virtualisation, so that is a bonus.

So virtualbox will run from within Nas4Free? Very interesting...

Frank Jeagar · 23 Aug 2017 at 11:26

Also, my plex library maxes out at 1080p. It isn't an extensive library haha

skyripper · 23 Aug 2017 at 11:27

Frank Jeagar said:
I don't really want to pay for the software when there are very good free options out there. I was thinking of going with ZFS/BTRFS.

I'm leaning towards ZFS running on FreeNAS, but now I'm wondering if it will run in a HyperV virtal machine on Windows 10

Recommendation for ZFS is to have 1GB of memory per TB of disk. Whether that's required for a simple ZFS mirror - no idea.
It is for any sort of Parity ZFS array though.

skyripper · 23 Aug 2017 at 11:29

Frank Jeagar said:
It supports virtualisation, so that is a bonus.

So virtualbox will run from within Nas4Free? Very interesting...

I haven't tried it - still on the old version. I expect you need to build your VMs on a machine running actual VirtualBox (which is free anyway), then shove them over to the NAS4FREE machine and do a bit of reconfiguring, mapping network interfaces etc.

pc-guy · 23 Aug 2017 at 11:31

Frank Jeagar said:
Also, my plex library maxes out at 1080p. It isn't an extensive library haha

Plex is a funny thing. My content are mostly 1080p with varying bitrates. The Plex players have default setting to play all content at 20mb. So when it comes across any content it will try to transcode by upscaling. It is utterly stupid. Whilst it is fine for codec transcoding but upscaling is daft. I got expensive AV receiver and 4K TV that can do a better job of it. So I don't know why they just don't bother to make everything transmit at the content's native bitrate. Also I can understand if you want to watch stuff outside you home network so the server has to do a bit of work to downgrade the bitrate. But definitely shouldn't be upscaling. Anyway my rant over.

So in short, your Plex server will likely to be doing some levels of transcoding.

Frank Jeagar · 23 Aug 2017 at 11:39

I can see how it goes, I don't use plex too much, but was looking to use it more.

Frank Jeagar · 23 Aug 2017 at 11:40

skyripper said:
Look at NAS4FREE (FreeNas offshoot before it was sold to new developers). That will let you run VirtualBox Virtual Machines on it so you could host pfSense in one of those.

Considering I'm running NAS4FREE, on top of ESXi on a lowly HP Microserver N54 which has some low power AMD processor, a dual-core pentium on a Z87 platform would probably breeze with the minimal load you're putting on it.

Would it not be easier for me to just use ESXi to run separate VMs for each?

pc-guy · 23 Aug 2017 at 11:54

Frank Jeagar said:
Would it not be easier for me to just use ESXi to run separate VMs for each?

That is probably the suggestion I was going to make.
1 VM for Nas
1 VM for pfsense.

1 CPU each VM should be decent provided you don't end up with multiple streams on Plex.

skyripper · 23 Aug 2017 at 12:26

Frank Jeagar said:
Would it not be easier for me to just use ESXi to run separate VMs for each?

Just means you have a
VM platform with
NAS in a VM
Plex in a VM
potentially pfSense in a VM

If you run NAS in a VM, then find out if you can access the disks natively, which will depend on the hardware controller being supported. Otherwise you will have to present Virtual Disks to your NAS VM, then use redundancy inside the VM.

Which does work, because that's how my server works and I wanted to play with ESXi.
If I was building it now though, I'd look at decluttering it, or using hardware passthru of the drives in the server to the NAS VM.