Homeserver/FreeNAS build Build advice

David Koh

David Koh

David Koh

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Joined
12 Feb 2009
Posts
137
Hey all I'll try to keep it short and sweet

The premise

Three Users with gaming desktops who use voip, play online and also have their own content creation and AV libraries. We currently have no working backup solution, are all running out of storage space and my rig the most powerful and defacto hosts servers depending on needs (Mumble, SpaceEngineers, minecraft, read any dedicated multiplayer popular game we want to play)

The Use Case

Primary reason is for storage, I want to have

A) Full system backups for our desktops with snapshots/shadowcopy for individual point in time backup

B) External backed up storage - shift the collections of AV from family and three users to one central location for streaming to tv/tab/ect
Redundancy is not an issue as all are tech enough swap the drives in software or hardware but potential for accidental virus is there (ahem sister) so a BACKUP solution for the AV data

C) Potential to host a mumble serve, space engineers server, mine craft server, these kinds of things in the less than 8 user department.

I stress that if C wildly changes the solutions that fit A and B nicely (aka changing to full new OS instead of freenas/similar) then forget C, after this...NAS/FTP/PLEX server thing is built next upgrade is... my rig, so old rig becomes new server/capture box

The Brass Tax

I have no idea what CPU + MOBO + RAM to get, power req ect. I know I will need many many Drives (think I can get 9 in this case using 5.25 bay adpators and ditching the dvd drive) since my experience is building Gaming rigs with OC components for performance just want guidance on the build.

Ideally two kinda price ranges, one lower cost that I imagine can do the basic file storage and backup, the disks will out weigh the cost of the system no doubt, one higher that could potentially host the kinda servers I mentioned,

Budget for system can be up to £1000 but think thats beyond requirements
If you want a aim say £600 for the data solution that can stream to 3 devices 1080p

TL: DR Spec me a home FreeNAS build that can stream 1080p
Spec me a home server that can host mumble, space engineers, dedicated game servers £1000
 
A lot in there I don't know much about. But I run my own server with FreeNas, so here are three suggestions for the FreeNas server:

Supermicro MBD-X9SCM-F-O. Supermicro are pretty damn fine, proper server boards. There are X10 models which you may prefer, but I still opted for X9, even though the X10 were out based on my research. These boards have IMPI with dedicated NIC, dual NIC and support basic Pentium chips (I went for a G2130) and Xeons too, also they are built to run 24x7 for EVER.

16GB ECC RAM minimum. I only have 8GB, but I only use mine for a 1TB mirror of ZFS storage, Plex and my basic personal website. If you plan to do anymore on this server get more than 8GB…I'm going to get more next year.

Make sure you get proper NAS drives designed to run and run and run. I'm using just some Desktop 1TB desktop drives, but will likely swop them out in the next 2 years. Something I'm not looking forward too.

Hope this helps.

Oh if you get the RAM and the XEON, there is no reason why FreeNAS couldn't run a mumble server, seems like there are people doing this.
 
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Ok I like the look of the supermicro boards, the websites I am looking at give me a headache though :P. Sounds like I should get ECC ram, no idea what is good, is xeon required for ECC? If so which should I go for or can I get a 1150 from OCuk and use the server board and ECC ram?
 
David Koh said:
Ok I like the look of the supermicro boards, the websites I am looking at give me a headache though :P. Sounds like I should get ECC ram, no idea what is good, is xeon required for ECC? If so which should I go for or can I get a 1150 from OCuk and use the server board and ECC ram?
Click to expand...

The chip has to support ECC for ECC to work. I believe that if it doesn't, everything still works...but ECC is disabled. Running FreeNAS without ECC is not generally advisable because you'll miss the reliability of ensuring data doesn't get corrupted. Of course, you perhaps have lasted this long with out ECC so does it matter that much? Only you can decide. But if you really want someone to decide for you, then get ECC ram with a chip that supports ECC. It really doesn't cost much more. I think the board I have is one of the most recommended, maybe it is the x10 equiv now. The socket is an 1155.

A Xeon isnt required ECC, my G2130 supports ECC for example.
 
I havent run any gaming servers for a while.. but back in the day they didnt use to be very resource intensive at all. If I'm now wrong on this then just ignore the rest of this message :D.

But in which case, a little HP Microserver N54L would tick the boxes for everything your saying.. Stick a few drives in it and a new GFX card and more ram with Server 2012 all for around £3-500 brand new dependant on drives.

Will it be as powerful as a separate component box for a grand, no. But it would do the job nicely.
 
ChocolateStarfishRammer said:
I havent run any gaming servers for a while.. but back in the day they didnt use to be very resource intensive at all. If I'm now wrong on this then just ignore the rest of this message :D.

But in which case, a little HP Microserver N54L would tick the boxes for everything your saying.. Stick a few drives in it and a new GFX card and more ram with Server 2012 all for around £3-500 brand new dependant on drives.

Will it be as powerful as a separate component box for a grand, no. But it would do the job nicely.
Click to expand...

I would recommend this but instead stick Vmware Hypervisor on it (its free) and run some VM's for everything you need. I currently do this for my TS3 server.
 
Another vote for HP Microserver, a few drives and VMWare ESXi.

My one runs NAS4Free (a FreeNas alternative) and is serving up 12TB of disks, plus a bunch of low utilization VMs.

Theres a massive thread about them here.
 
HP microserver until you said about hosting games.
Freenas is OK but you need a minimum of 8GB to run it with ZFS and the "recommended" is 16GB

A headless linux with samba and plex media server would be ideal for most of your needs. A VOIP server (mumble) would run very well also (I do this myself).

Possibly a newer Gen8 HP microserver with the i3 upgrade would suit you best if you want to dip the toe in the world of games hosting.
 
I think he was looking for two separate builds.

No experience of the HP stuff, but I've heard good things too. Whatever you do I'd get something that supports ZFS though. It is a seriously clever file system. 16GB is recommended, but so what? RAM is cheap.

Someone mentioned windows?!? Ok. Perhaps, but a linux/unix flavour is the only thing really to consider. You can download WS2012 for free and trail it for 180 days though...
 
C2750D4I Intel Asrock Mini ITX Motherboard by ASRock


2 * Crucial CT102472BD160B 8GB DDR3 PC3-12800 Unbuffered ECC 1.35V 1024Meg x 72


Silverstone SST-DS380B - SST-DS380B External 8x 3.5" SAT Hot-Swap ; 4x 2.5" - Black

Will remove link from Board if needed, it's not a seller so its ok? Others I only have rainforest based links for and so are not suitable

Im reading through the threads, it sounds like it is possible to do most of what I want to do with FreeNAS (system backup with shadow copy, large file storage and voip server hosting). Right now I have struggled to get RAM and HDD on the approved list on that website, wondering how set in stone those QVLs are.
 
It's mainly about if the HDD and the RAM work with the mobo and not with FreeNAS. But saying that if I can get RAM on their website compatibility I will but If I can save £60 per HDD getting normal ones and not enterprise ones I will
 
Honestly it's fine.
The freenas site is geared towards selling it as a production system, for home server use you can use consumer level hardware, the amount you save will probably pay for a replacement in X years time if it fails.

It's nothing to get tied up worrying about. You can run it from an atom itx board up to multi xeon servers. It's not fussy as it's Linux based.
 
@Steveocee thanks for the replies, I know freenas works with lots of things. Its if this MoBo+cpu will work with the ram/HDD, I see some tech sheets saying WD RED work on linux, mac and windows but only enterprise ones list BSD ect
 
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