freenas/zfsguru build

[lbonnell]

browsed these forums for the last few weeks trying to find out some information about building a data storage system.

i have currently decided on using freenas or zfsguru as the os
other then storage it will be used to stream content to other pcs (laptop and desktop) and also wdtv live plus and patriot box office

end result is that i am hoping to have a storage device that is comparable but likely better then the nas devices currently on the market (qnap/synology/thecus)

plans are as follows with some questions along the way

hdd : 6 x hitachi 2tb 5k3000
sysboard : undecided
sata controller : use ports on systemboard or standalone card?
nic : find a systemboard with intel nic or use onboard (likely realtek)
cpu : intel pentium g620
memory : 8gb ddr3 (seems that zfs requires decent amount of memory)
usb key (for booting os) : undecided
usb header adapter (avoid usb key being unplugged by anyone) : http://ca.startech.com/Cables/USB-2...ale-to-Motherboard-Header-Adapter~USBMBADAPT2
case: reusing a coolermaster wavemaster to save $

questions other than those already posted above would be

1. freenas or zfsguru or something else?
2. likely going to use zfs and raid-z2 which i believe will give me 8tb of storage - any issues with this plan?

thanks for your time

 

[danswartz]

For what you want, I'd recommend zfsguru over freenas. Use the onboard mobo sata ports. Zfsguru lets you install the OS (freebsd based) on the data pool and boot from it. Mobo probably doesn't matter much. Note: you don't really need tons of ram for zfs - whatever you give it it will use for caching, but if you're serving up streaming media and such, a cache isn't that useful. 4GB would be fine...

 

[lbonnell]

For what you want, I'd recommend zfsguru over freenas. Use the onboard mobo sata ports. Zfsguru lets you install the OS (freebsd based) on the data pool and boot from it. Mobo probably doesn't matter much. Note: you don't really need tons of ram for zfs - whatever you give it it will use for caching, but if you're serving up streaming media and such, a cache isn't that useful. 4GB would be fine...

thanks for memory tip...

i was pretty much decided on freenas till you suggested zfsguru. after doing some reading it seems as tho the dev for zfsguru is mia? the website lists 0.2 as early 2011 yet we are basically q4 now..... while to the best of my knowledge freenas is still being actively developed.

 

[saranya]

i dunno, i'd go with openindiana but between your 2, freenas over zfsguru

 

[dashpuppy]

i dunno, i'd go with openindiana but between your 2, freenas over zfsguru

freenas is easy to setup and works awesome.

 

[lbonnell]

i dunno, i'd go with openindiana but between your 2, freenas over zfsguru

im not against possibly using something else i am just looking for something simple and easy to use. ive used linux before and while i understand nix systems can be very powerful i just dont have the time or experience to commit to learning all the commands and looking for individual packages and setting up each service.

i was looking for something that will provide the functionality and ease of use of qnap/synology products but without the limited upgrade-ability and cost (4bay for close to $1000 for something like the ts-459 pro)

 

[bleomycin]

thanks for memory tip...

i was pretty much decided on freenas till you suggested zfsguru. after doing some reading it seems as tho the dev for zfsguru is mia? the website lists 0.2 as early 2011 yet we are basically q4 now..... while to the best of my knowledge freenas is still being actively developed.

I just wanted to add that while i have not used zfsguru i have followed the project with great interest and the developer is far from MIA (on paper it seems like a better solution than freenas). The website is very outdated in some places but development on the application itself is progressing quite rapidly: http://zfsguru.com/forum/zfsgurudevelopment/212

 

[lbonnell]

I just wanted to add that while i have not used zfsguru myself i have followed the project with great interested and the developer is far from MIA (on paper it seems like a better solution than freenas). The website is very outdated in some places but development on the application itself is progressing quite rapidly: http://zfsguru.com/forum/zfsgurudevelopment/212

thanks for pointing this out. guess its back to comparing the to. having boot drive part of the zfs pool would eliminate an expense...

 

[tdg]

I would test drive either OS out and see which you prefer. I have used FreeNAS and it's a pretty mature product, ZFSguru is nice as well and feature rich, but a little further behind in terms of maturity and support. Personally I prefer to keep the OS off of the data pool, ZFS works fine with the disk partitioned, however it's not one of the best practices to do so. My ZFS server is plain FreeBSD 8.2 with a separate boot drive so that the pool is more flexible in terms of moving to other OS's just in case.