Want to build a NAS

DogsBody

DogsBody

DogsBody

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Rather than pay out for a new NAS enclosure, i would like to make use of my current redundant hardware.

I bought a few yars ago an AMD XP based shuttle system that has onboard gfx.
I am pretty sure it WONT boot from a USB stick, maybe a bios update but I dont think It will, (SN41G2 V3)
It has space for a single 3.5" drive and a 5.25" drive, I think I could squeeze a 3rd drive in there as well underneath the hdd cage, if I underlock the xp2500 I am hoping I can run it either passive or with a VERY low speed fan so that it is near silent.

I already have pretty much all my data ona single 1.5tb hdd (about 60 - 70% full) my initial intention was to get 2 x 2TB drives and RAID them one way or another, but I am now wanting to not waste money (dont mind spending it if needed though) so is there some way I can get a RAID setup and still make use of the spare 500gb that will be spare on a new 2tb drive ?

uses for the NAS will be as follows
network media server
download box
network back for laptop and 2 desktops (not huge installs 100Gb each at most)
main pc will be running a 500gb drive alongside a 64gb SSD hopefully and 2nd desktop is running a 500gb hdd also.

Another thing I wanted to consider is an external 1 - 2 TB HDD to backup the NAS (certain files not all)

none of this is set in stone but my thoughts were a 3.5TB RAID drive to store everything on (currently less than 1TB of files to store on it however) and back all that up to the external drive, then just backup all the computers on network to the NAS also and those backup files would need to be backed up again to an external.


limitations of the shuttle box I have
2 sticks of ram
3 hard drives absolute max
onboard LAN is 10/100
2 SATA ports

I can upgrade to an SATA PCI card BUT, then i would be stuck with 10/100 LAN not sure if I need 10/100/1000 for what I am using it for, I dont think I do I just think it will make backups take longer, and if that is all it is going to do then I am not really bothered as they will be run overnight normally anyway.


Thanks for listening, let me hear your thoughts ?
 
Have you researched raid sufficiently to understand why you might want to use it, and why you probably dont want to use it, in a home environment?

Until recently I was using an amd 7750BE for pretty much exactly what you've described. After a bios update it would boot from usb, so I put a debian install on a 4gb stick. Otherwise I'd have put it on one of the hard drives, which is a bit less convenient but still beats needing an optical drive. I've now changed to an off the shelf model to get rid if the noise and wasted electricity. If you're happy with linux and the command line it's simple enough to set up, if you want to administer it using a browser I'm sure someone here knows how to. I think samba / ssh / rtorrent / rsnapshot / mediatomb would probably cover everything you've listed.
 
not necessarily RAID 0 though, RAID 1 could be an option but I dont know if it is needed, I suupose if I have an external HDD to backup non backed up files then I wouldn't need RAID1

Reason for RAID0 would mainly be so that i only see one drive on the network, perhaps that isnt needed I am not sure at this stage.

Have never messed with Linux before, command line for me is shaky at best, so any heavy command line usage i am starting to go out of my depth.
Also worth mentioning I dont have a great deal of time to spend configuring loads of settings. If I could get the OS (whatever I might use) installed and setup in a couple of hours that would be ideal.

I don't have a working floppy drive to update the bios, so I'll have to try and do it via CD-ROM, is there a basic bootable CD ROM I can use and put the files on the cd rom to update the bios with it ?
 
Raid zero means that if one drive fails, all your data is gone. That's a high price for seeing a single drive across the network. Lvm will let you see a single volume with various numbers of drives, but that's in conflict with spending little time on the set up.

FreeNAS is probably the OS of choice.

I can't help with the bios update part. Dos-on-usb has always been a bit shaky for me, and if it wont boot from usb stick now that's not going to help. I've hung onto my floppy drive to avoid such problems. The bios may have an upgrade utility built in, otherwise there's the nerve-racking option of trying to do it through windows.

FreeNAS is probably available in cdrom form, you may be able to boot from a cd, take the cd out, unplug the optical drive. Or boot (to ram) over the network, the latter is a very tidy solution but does require considerable time.

If you've only got a couple of hours going spare, perhaps off the shelf is worth the saving in terms of hassle. It does seem a bit wasteful.
 
right that rules out RAID0 then (wasn't thinking logically about it if I'm honest)
I would rather spend 2 hours extra setting it up than spending £200 on a ready-built (and less flexible) box.

I suppose I could jump on everyone's favourite auction site and find a cheap floppy drive to do this, as you say they always come in handy anyway.

What are your thoughts on gigabit LAN, I am thinking it probably wouldnt be required for my usage ?
 
I would say that unless you're comfortable configuring and setting up Linux, to go with a pre-built NAS bundle and run Windows Server on it. Something like the HP Proliant Microserver would suit your needs perfectly. There's a thread about that particular server here. Though I think you'll miss the cash back offer, it's still a good price and a useful first NAS.
 
On a difficulty level how difficult are we talking in all honesty ?
How much configuring can there be to a NAS, it isnt like its doing a complicated job is it ?

I wouldnt say I can't use linux, just that I never have.
To be fair that statement isnt entirely true, I have briefly used linux in the past but not extensively. It just looked like a crap version of windows if I am honest lol.
 
DogsBody said:
What are your thoughts on gigabit LAN, I am thinking it probably wouldnt be required for my usage ?
Click to expand...

I'm writing to my 100mbit at around 12mbytes per second. To transfer 2tb of data, i.e. to fill it, would take two days. On the other hand, I left it overnight for the first load of data, and have kept it up to date using rsync since. I want a gigabit switch, but not enough to have bought one yet.

DogsBody said:
I wouldnt say I can't use linux, just that I never have.

It just looked like a crap version of windows if I am honest lol.
Click to expand...

Grrr. That's not the most tactful thing to say when asking anything about linux. Windows is a pos compared to linux. In my opinion. Still, windows has a "server" version. I wouldn't go near it with a stick, but some people seem to like it.

Installing programs is trivial with most popular distributions, for example 'apt-get install mediatomb' will install mediatomb. Changing how the program behaves normally means editing a text file. This isn't difficult either, provided you're willing to read the comments in the file, the man page for the program and possibly google a few confusing parts. If you're unwilling to read anything (e.g. a basic introduction to bash, which is the thing you type into), it wont go well.

edit: I would say that linux is very straightforward if you're willing to read lots of information. If you're unlucky some of the information will be written in c, but that's rare these days. Setting up a server in two hours with no previous experience is unlikely to happen, even with ubuntu.
 
tested freenas on the above system with a couple of spare ide harddrives I had lying around, seems to work fine.
Also have a gigabit network card I have installed which also works with Freenas.

Had to 5v all of the fans to get a decent acoustic level out of it (still noisy with current harddrives)
Have ordered a gigabit switch and 2 x 2TB hdds from ocuk will run them in RAID1, and stick the existing 1.5Tb hdd on and IDE>SATA converter and use the onboard IDE port. (only thought of doing this yesterday never thought about this before)

With a little bit of modification this case may even house 4 x 3.5" drives as well, if not would defo house 3 x 3.5" = 1 x 2.5" drive.
My only concern then would be heat, not sure if the single case/cpu fan ran at 5v would deal with all the heat.

CPU is an athlon XP2500+, not sure of default voltage but I have undervolted it to 1.6v.
If I underclock it as well this would surely help case temps ?
What kind of underclock could I get away with and still run Freenas without any issue (ie at what point does CPU clock speed start becoming a bottleneck for a NAS box ?)


James.
 
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