I thought I knew what I wanted in a home file server until I read Anand's recent file server "guide" if you can call it that.
I had decided on FreeNAS. I use it now and like it. I will probably stick with FreeNAS. The Anand article leans heavily in favor of WHS...
My current file server contains 2x 500GB HDDs in hardware RAID 1. I currently am using 400GBs of that space. The server mostly contains music and photos and some MKV videos. I am not the type who rips his DVD/BR collection but I do shoot with a Canon 5DII and download TOP GEAR: UK in 720p, etc.
What do I want in a home file server?
-Read/write speed. (I know this also comes with having ideal NICs, cabling, routers, switches, etc.)
-Redundancy/safety. The file server should contain its own degree of fail-safe.
-Ability to stay up for months on end.
-Ability for local Windows7 machines to connect automatically without extra logins. -Ability to use file server directories as library directories in Win7.
-Prefer not to have an insane level of complexity.
So with these factors in mind, my thought was to just build another RAID 1 file server using 2x SAMSUNG EcoGreen F4 HD204UI 2TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drives. Instead of hardware RAID via a PCI card, the HDDs would be connected to the motherboard and FreeNAS would do the rest. I guess this is called software RAID?
I guess my questions now involve RAID 1 vs. RAID 5. The latter seems quite "in" these days. What would be the benefits of RAID 5 over 1? What would you recommend for my situation?
Another question I have is in regards to ZFS. What benefits with this file system give me over say NTFS or even FAT32? What is the difference between RAIDZ and ZFS?
Finally, SAMBA vs. NFS? What are the pros and cons of using NFS over SAMBA? I am aware that Win7 Ultimate supports NFS; I do have access to (legit) copies of Win7U.
Thanks for your help!
I had decided on FreeNAS. I use it now and like it. I will probably stick with FreeNAS. The Anand article leans heavily in favor of WHS...
My current file server contains 2x 500GB HDDs in hardware RAID 1. I currently am using 400GBs of that space. The server mostly contains music and photos and some MKV videos. I am not the type who rips his DVD/BR collection but I do shoot with a Canon 5DII and download TOP GEAR: UK in 720p, etc.
What do I want in a home file server?
-Read/write speed. (I know this also comes with having ideal NICs, cabling, routers, switches, etc.)
-Redundancy/safety. The file server should contain its own degree of fail-safe.
-Ability to stay up for months on end.
-Ability for local Windows7 machines to connect automatically without extra logins. -Ability to use file server directories as library directories in Win7.
-Prefer not to have an insane level of complexity.
So with these factors in mind, my thought was to just build another RAID 1 file server using 2x SAMSUNG EcoGreen F4 HD204UI 2TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drives. Instead of hardware RAID via a PCI card, the HDDs would be connected to the motherboard and FreeNAS would do the rest. I guess this is called software RAID?
I guess my questions now involve RAID 1 vs. RAID 5. The latter seems quite "in" these days. What would be the benefits of RAID 5 over 1? What would you recommend for my situation?
Another question I have is in regards to ZFS. What benefits with this file system give me over say NTFS or even FAT32? What is the difference between RAIDZ and ZFS?
Finally, SAMBA vs. NFS? What are the pros and cons of using NFS over SAMBA? I am aware that Win7 Ultimate supports NFS; I do have access to (legit) copies of Win7U.
Thanks for your help!