Moving from a synology NAS to a diy server questions.

.:SAmSuNG:.

.:SAmSuNG:.

.:SAmSuNG:.

Soldato
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So I feel my synology ds411j is getting a bit long in the tooth and I don't really want to spend what a new version of it will cost me.

I have a x58 board with i7 920 and 6GB of ram plus a 120GB ssd.

My idea is to build a server out of this along with a bunch of storage drives.

I want to use it as

Atomatic back up for my desktop.
Central storage for all my media.
Hold the database for my Rpi's.
Be able to remote desktop into it to control downloads.

Question is will this hardware be fine for the job?

What would be the best OS? I'm thinking windows server just for me been familiar with Windows in general.

I would like to be able to expand storage in future so is this a option without having any effect on the data stored on the array?

Tia
 
I once thought exactly the same, get a server it can do abc etc etc but your basically cutting corners. IF the server was the fail, you have no RAID card, and you will spend ages getting it all back up. data is at risk etc.

Yes what you have is up to spec and it can run windows, and many other distro etc.

HOWEVER...

I think your better of selling the x58 i7 etc and just go for another NAS, keep things simple as your requirements are extremely basic.

If the NAS fails you can get another pop disks in and it all works. OS is taken care off and you dont need to mess around.
 
I am in agreement with the poster above. I completely understand why you want to do what you want to do, however the end result is always disappointing - a lot of time and effort for something that will be beaten by a cheap Chinese knock off. A NAS is not simply an everyday computer you happen to just store data on. The whole device is highly optimised for its purpose, hardware and software, which is to say nothing of whatever your in house network infrastructure is like.
 
Well I wasn't really expecting that. Should I just be able to pull my drives out my current nas and stick them in a newer synology NAS and just let it sort it's self out and not lose data?
 
You'll also save a lot on the electric bill. The power consumption between a Synology NAS and a full power computer will be a fair chunk different.
 
.:SAmSuNG:. said:
Well I wasn't really expecting that. Should I just be able to pull my drives out my current nas and stick them in a newer synology NAS and just let it sort it's self out and not lose data?
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Unlikely. NAS units tend to use proprietary disk formats. An X57/i920 is also spectacularly power inefficient compared to a NAS appliance.

If you want to roll your own NAS look at the HP ProLiant MicroServer and FreeNAS.

Whats wrong with your DS411J? With storage I'm of the opinion that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Being bored is a bad excuse to potentially lose all your data by shifting it.
 
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MagicBoy said:
Unlikely. NAS units tend to use proprietary disk formats.
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The greater problem is the raid controller. You can pull out the disks of a system and attach them to another simular (same manufacturer) raid controller and it should pick up the raidset just fine, however there are no guarantees. Even then, a raidset built on an older controller should be picked up by newer, but probably not the other way around. The lack of standardisation is a headache and raid controllers are all proprietary implementations.
 
MagicBoy said:
Whats wrong with your DS411J? With storage I'm of the opinion that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Being bored is a bad excuse to potentially lose all your data by shifting it.
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There are two great reasons to get a new NAS, capacity and performance. It actually comes down to a simple calculation of requirement.

.:SAmSuNG:. said:
Well I wasn't really expecting that
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Its entirely up to you, it depends what you want. The process of building something from scratch is incredibly rewarding and thrilling. If you want to have fun and learn something along the way, go for it!
 
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I was lumping the RAID controller in under the proprietary heading.

That, performance and unreliable proprietary PSUs is why I installed FreeNAS on the older model HP Microserver using ZFS. So far it's not missed a beat. If the hardware dies I can move the disks into another PC and import the config.
 
For software you could always use Xpenology? They've currently got it running the DSM 5.1 update 5 and are working on the boot loaders for 5.2. Has the same functionality (apart from the cloud based synology stuff that needs a proper mac and serial from the hardware) as a normal dsm and as configured is the 8 drive version.. As you've just come from a sinology box that might be easy?
 
Well, I recently went from old, slow synology NAS to a DIY server build and I'm very happy. I built the following -

i7 2600
24GB Ram non-ecc
Adaptec raid controller 6405e
2 x 1.5tb, 2 x 3gb mirrored
RM750 PSU

I have ESXi running and under that I run Ubuntu (for the NAS, teamspeak and some other bits) - backups via Syncback free & timemachine, Windows domain LAB (DC, exchange, Lync) and use it for staging working for Lync EV installs.

The NAS is a whole lot faster that my 1st / 2nd gen synology (to be expected, but I am using the same drives) but I totally agree with the power consumption issues
 
Caged said:
Except that's not true is it. You can lose the entire pool if bad data gets checksummed instead of just files.

This is what one of the developers has to say - http://www.freenas.org/whats-new/20...design-part-i-purpose-and-best-practices.html

TL;DR - Do you plan on maintaining a full backup of your NAS? It sounds like the OP is using it as a backup destination, so ECC would be my recommendation.
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Recommending ECC RAM for mission-critical applications is not the same as saying "don't use ZFS without ECC RAM." And yes, I would expect anyone with a NAS to keep a backup of all their essential data.

Even Matthew Ahrens, co-founder of ZFS, says that ZFS doesn't require ECC RAM to a greater degree than any other file system.

ECC RAM is a good recommendation, but it's a bit extreme warning not to run ZFS without it, IMO.
 
A custom build out of the bits you have would be a little power hungry but would perform brilliantly.

Freenas is brilliant as a NAS utility but when I tried it I felt that it was just a NAS OS which is fine if thats what you want. I wanted a bit more so went for a Linux OS with Linux software RAID. Gives me a bit more flexibility with what I can do as I run some Ubiquiti software for home monitoring, DNS services and hosted my own Mumble server as well.
 
Buffalo2102 said:
ECC RAM is a good recommendation, but it's a bit extreme warning not to run ZFS without it, IMO.
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Not in the OPs case where the NAS is being built to store backups on. It's something that people need to be aware of before they (possibly even without realising it) go down the route of ZFS.

I would always recommend pairing it with something like Amazon Glacier or Google Nearline cloud storage (or similar - linking to OneDrive if you have a huge plan etc.), but not everyone has the internet connections that allow that to be an option.
 
That's an interesting point, how would you link it to OneDrive? I've got fibre coming next week which makes cloud backup a possibility now.
 
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