Request for advice: Building a NAS

M

mohamed

n00b
Joined
May 28, 2011
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Hi all,

I plan to build a NAS for home usage. I am thinking of using the following configuration:
- Processor: Intel Atom D525 (dual-core, 64-bit)
- Motherboard: Intel Desktop Board D525MW
- Memory: Kingston 4GB 1333MHz DDR3 Non-ECC CL9 DIMM
- HDD: 2x Western Digital 1.0TB SATA II 7200rpm 16MB
- RAID: RAID 1
- Case: Mini-ITX case

I have the following questions for the HardForum community:
- Do you have any comments about the configuration in general?
- Should I implement the RAID using software or hardware? I read several articles which say that implementing RAID 0 or 1 in SW doesn't incur a high performance penalty. The main advantage of SW RAID is avoiding vendor lock-in.
- Which OS you would suggest? I am thinking of using FreeNAS. However, if someone has another suggestion, I would be grateful.

Thanks in advance.

Mohamed
 
Since you have not listed your performance goals, it's hard to comment on the hardware selection, although if you are intending to create a low-power (consuming) storage system, you seem to be on the right track.

I must say though, for only 1TB of usable storage (in RAID 1), that's an awful lot of expense for what's effectively a mirrored 1TB hdd, without much expansion capability.

Personally, from my experience with NAS solutions, the most important issue to consider is expansion capability. How easy is it to add more drives? How easy is it to migrate your data to those drives and replace your then defunct 1TB drives?

If you're going to the trouble of building a stand-alone machine to store data, consider the future and think how you're going to maximize your investment in hardware.

If you reply to this, let us know:

1. Your storage needs - performance, capacity etc. - What is your goal? Backup? File sharing?
2. Your budget
3. Your experience with Linux
 
Dear styx0r,

Thanks for your reply. Here is the answer to your questions:
1) Storage needs:
- 200 GB of school/work data (I am doing a PhD in CS)
- 100 GB personal photos/video/files
So in total, I have around 300 GB of data. I decided to go for 3x my current storage needs and have a 1 TB HDD.

2) Budget: I want to keep the total cost below 300 Euros (~428 $).

3) Experience with Linux: I am quite familiar with Linux and system administration on Linux.

Regarding the expansion capabilities, the D525MW motherboard has 2 SATA interfaces, one PCI and one PCI-Express interfaces. As a result, I think it shouldn't be a major issue to add more HDD to the setup. Moreover, the cost of the motherboard is low (~80 $) such that a future upgrade can replace the whole motherboard (including the processor) with newer models.

Mohamed
 
FreeNAS is fine. If you don't mind dabbling in solaris, OpenIndiana is nice, since you get an up to date version of ZFS, which blows the doors off any Linux FS. They have a GUI install if you want (so you have a gnome desktop). Install napp-it (from napp-it.org) on top to manage the filesystem/pools/snapshots/etc and you're rockin' :)
 
For that little data, why not consider a premade NAS? I'm thinking a 2 bay D Link DNS 32X (e.g., 320, 323, etc...) since they can be found for well below your budget. Add in your 1 TB HD's and you are well below $300 USD since they can be found for roughly $100 on sale or less on eBay. You can probably even replace the hard drives with 2 TB since they can be found for $70 USD. Not sure on shipping and taxes in Europe, but $100 NAS + $70 HD + $70 HD = $240 USD which is roughly $168 Euros; not sure on whether there is an OS included though. I should note, it's not the fastest, but it should be able to even 720p stream decently so it isn't crawling either. You shoot your foot in terms of expandability, but if you are putting this all in an ITX case, it's not like you can shove more hard drives in.
 
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I tend to agree with FrostBite:

It seems like your storage needs don't justify the NAS hardware you're interested in. The fact that you chose such a small case and motherboard suggested to me that you wouldn't need to spend so much money.

Considering that you could simply buy an external drive and backup all your information to that, the only way to justify a NAS / fileserver is if you must have this information available independent of your primary machine. (if you want to access this information remotely, for example, or you want to run something like subsonic.org)

Basically you're talking about building a machine that is overkill for your needs, especially if you don't intend on needing more storage in the future, or file serving capabilities that you have not mentioned so far.

If you intend this machine simply to backup your data, I wouldn't bother with the expense of this hardware. If, on the other hand you intend to use this machine as a 24/7 fileserver, the hardware looks great, and I agree with danswartz - FreeNAS will work fine, but napp-it is even more powerful.

In general with storage, the simpler the better. Unless you need some capability you have not yet mentioned, keep it simple.
 
One neat trick you can do with zfs on the NAS. Every day (or week?) you can take a snapshot of the filesystem that is backing your smb or nfs share. This has the advantage that if you decide you need to get a specific file from, say, 5 days ago, it's right there...
 
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