Comments on: Build your own NAS using FreeNAS http://geekyprojects.com/nas/build-your-own-nas-using-freenas/ Sat, 19 Nov 2011 10:51:46 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Leandro http://geekyprojects.com/nas/build-your-own-nas-using-freenas/comment-page-2/#comment-36096 Leandro Thu, 03 Nov 2011 13:11:11 +0000 http://geekyprojects.com/nas/build-your-own-nas-using-freenas/#comment-36096 Hi, When I try to run Freenas 8.01 it appears the following "error" message. Anyone knows to fix it? http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/202/20111103105823.jpg/ My network adapter is Intel gigabyte 100/1000 MBits/s ( Gibabyte Ethernet Intel 82579V ) and mb Intel DH61WW. Thanks in advance Hi,

When I try to run Freenas 8.01 it appears the following “error” message. Anyone knows to fix it?

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/202/20111103105823.jpg/

My network adapter is Intel gigabyte 100/1000 MBits/s ( Gibabyte Ethernet Intel 82579V ) and mb Intel DH61WW.

Thanks in advance

]]> By: Pablo Garcia http://geekyprojects.com/nas/build-your-own-nas-using-freenas/comment-page-2/#comment-26748 Pablo Garcia Fri, 15 Jul 2011 01:46:34 +0000 http://geekyprojects.com/nas/build-your-own-nas-using-freenas/#comment-26748 Hi Steve: RAID5 is definitely not recommended on a software raid, you can do it but performance is going to definitely suffer. Software raid is more for RAID0 and RAID1.... As we know, with RAID0... good luck if you loose one of the drives and RAID1 the space is limited. When I built this project I had this running on a P3 motherboard which died on me. I just swapped it with a P4 motherboard, reloaded freenas on my CF card, inserted the RAID card and mounted my RAID with absolutely no configuring, since all the configuration was stored inside the card. Hardware RAID does have its disadvantages 1) Costly 2) Closed source firmware, so you are at the mercy of the company for firmware updates. But I'll take it over software RAID any time. I respect your opinion but I do not agree with it. Hi Steve:
RAID5 is definitely not recommended on a software raid, you can do it but performance is going to definitely suffer. Software raid is more for RAID0 and RAID1…. As we know, with RAID0… good luck if you loose one of the drives and RAID1 the space is limited. When I built this project I had this running on a P3 motherboard which died on me. I just swapped it with a P4 motherboard, reloaded freenas on my CF card, inserted the RAID card and mounted my RAID with absolutely no configuring, since all the configuration was stored inside the card. Hardware RAID does have its disadvantages 1) Costly 2) Closed source firmware, so you are at the mercy of the company for firmware updates. But I’ll take it over software RAID any time. I respect your opinion but I do not agree with it.

]]> By: Steve http://geekyprojects.com/nas/build-your-own-nas-using-freenas/comment-page-2/#comment-26728 Steve Thu, 14 Jul 2011 15:30:00 +0000 http://geekyprojects.com/nas/build-your-own-nas-using-freenas/#comment-26728 Anyone thinking of building something like this, I can't urge you enough to use software RAID in Linux. It's really not any more difficult to set up and you might have to follow a howto to replace a failed drive but everyone I've spoken with (3 other guys) that has had a hardware array has had problems rebuilding the array after a failure that resulted in data loss. We're all using Linux software RAID now (8TB array, two 6TB arrays, and a 4TB array). We've all had to replace at least one drive (I've swapped four over time). That last bit is a point about hard drives that I can't underscore enough, and also re-enforces using software RAID. Hard drives are junk now, even with good cooling (sub 30 C) expect to replace a drive every couple of years at least. Be proactive and use SMART. It's easy to do but many hardware RAID controllers don't give you access to the SMART data from the drives whereas with software RAID it's always available. Use SMART for two purposes: check the drive temperature and see if the drive has started to fail. Make sure the drive temps are udner 35 C and if possible get them under 30 C. Ignore the "health status" of the drive, instead check the Reallocated Sector Count, Pending Sectors, and Offline Uncorrectable sectors. These counts should always be zero. When they start to increase it's time to order that new drive because while the drive might have a year left in it, it probably has a month left in it at most. Be safe and just swap that drive out ASAP. Also, if that controller fails, you'll need to find another one of the same brand/type to use your array. With the Linux software solution you can slap those drives in any computer and boot a Linux CD and your data is accessible. And it works the same for everyone so you can get tons of info and help off the internet. Think all this is a problem with "cheap" hardware raid controllers? I watched a corporate system on which no expense was spared lose TBs of data thanks to a hardware raid controller. Not a cheap component in that system. Was SMART monitored correctly? No, not supported. Did they receive array failure alerts early? No, system was too confusing so it turned out it was improperly configured. $20K of a hard drive recovery facility and a week later and some of the data was back, but I can't afford that at home. Go with something that is well understood and has a huge user base. Something that has email alerts for both SMART and RAID status. Something were those alerts are easy to test to make sure they go through. Something that has tons of support. Something where you can check drive temps or generally easily check up on the array anytime. And script it as well. Also, is software RAID slow? I can max the ethernet port and only busy one of my cores. I almost never post on random places on the internet but I hate to see people lose their data. It's always tragic. Good luck. Anyone thinking of building something like this, I can’t urge you enough to use software RAID in Linux. It’s really not any more difficult to set up and you might have to follow a howto to replace a failed drive but everyone I’ve spoken with (3 other guys) that has had a hardware array has had problems rebuilding the array after a failure that resulted in data loss. We’re all using Linux software RAID now (8TB array, two 6TB arrays, and a 4TB array). We’ve all had to replace at least one drive (I’ve swapped four over time).

That last bit is a point about hard drives that I can’t underscore enough, and also re-enforces using software RAID. Hard drives are junk now, even with good cooling (sub 30 C) expect to replace a drive every couple of years at least. Be proactive and use SMART. It’s easy to do but many hardware RAID controllers don’t give you access to the SMART data from the drives whereas with software RAID it’s always available. Use SMART for two purposes: check the drive temperature and see if the drive has started to fail. Make sure the drive temps are udner 35 C and if possible get them under 30 C. Ignore the “health status” of the drive, instead check the Reallocated Sector Count, Pending Sectors, and Offline Uncorrectable sectors. These counts should always be zero. When they start to increase it’s time to order that new drive because while the drive might have a year left in it, it probably has a month left in it at most. Be safe and just swap that drive out ASAP.

Also, if that controller fails, you’ll need to find another one of the same brand/type to use your array. With the Linux software solution you can slap those drives in any computer and boot a Linux CD and your data is accessible. And it works the same for everyone so you can get tons of info and help off the internet.

Think all this is a problem with “cheap” hardware raid controllers? I watched a corporate system on which no expense was spared lose TBs of data thanks to a hardware raid controller. Not a cheap component in that system. Was SMART monitored correctly? No, not supported. Did they receive array failure alerts early? No, system was too confusing so it turned out it was improperly configured. $20K of a hard drive recovery facility and a week later and some of the data was back, but I can’t afford that at home.

Go with something that is well understood and has a huge user base. Something that has email alerts for both SMART and RAID status. Something were those alerts are easy to test to make sure they go through. Something that has tons of support. Something where you can check drive temps or generally easily check up on the array anytime. And script it as well.

Also, is software RAID slow? I can max the ethernet port and only busy one of my cores.

I almost never post on random places on the internet but I hate to see people lose their data. It’s always tragic. Good luck.

]]> By: Pablo Garcia http://geekyprojects.com/nas/build-your-own-nas-using-freenas/comment-page-2/#comment-26549 Pablo Garcia Sat, 09 Jul 2011 16:46:23 +0000 http://geekyprojects.com/nas/build-your-own-nas-using-freenas/#comment-26549 Moggsie31 Thanks for finding that, I've always wondered myself what was the biggest drive the card would support. According the the thread its 750GB and you need to upgrade the firmware on the card. Now, the thread is from 2009, those were the biggest hard drives back then, there might be a newer firmware. Moggsie31
Thanks for finding that, I’ve always wondered myself what was the biggest drive the card would support. According the the thread its 750GB and you need to upgrade the firmware on the card. Now, the thread is from 2009, those were the biggest hard drives back then, there might be a newer firmware.

]]> By: Pablo Garcia http://geekyprojects.com/nas/build-your-own-nas-using-freenas/comment-page-2/#comment-26547 Pablo Garcia Sat, 09 Jul 2011 16:36:20 +0000 http://geekyprojects.com/nas/build-your-own-nas-using-freenas/#comment-26547 Hi Moggsie31 "Limited Success"?? let me know where are you getting stuck. You can actually build the raid 5 with 3 drives, but 4 will give you more space. Hi Moggsie31
“Limited Success”?? let me know where are you getting stuck. You can actually build the raid 5 with 3 drives, but 4 will give you more space.

]]> By: Moggsie31 http://geekyprojects.com/nas/build-your-own-nas-using-freenas/comment-page-2/#comment-26478 Moggsie31 Thu, 07 Jul 2011 16:57:23 +0000 http://geekyprojects.com/nas/build-your-own-nas-using-freenas/#comment-26478 Update.... Anyone thinking of using large drives with the Dell 2610, please refer to this first..... http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/servers/f/956/t/19264487.aspx Let The Buyer Beware ! ...Of course I'm open to ideas here Update….

Anyone thinking of using large drives with the Dell 2610, please refer to this first…..

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/servers/f/956/t/19264487.aspx

Let The Buyer Beware !

…Of course I’m open to ideas here

]]> By: Moggsie31 http://geekyprojects.com/nas/build-your-own-nas-using-freenas/comment-page-2/#comment-26477 Moggsie31 Thu, 07 Jul 2011 15:37:13 +0000 http://geekyprojects.com/nas/build-your-own-nas-using-freenas/#comment-26477 Well, I bit the bullet at last and tried my hand at this project. Limited success so far ( trying to build the "array" with one drive before I commit to buying any more !) , but others might find help here.... http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/storage/RAID/CERCbest.pdf Thanks for the great article anyways Pablo ! Well, I bit the bullet at last and tried my hand at this project.

Limited success so far ( trying to build the “array” with one drive before I commit to buying any more !) , but others might find help here….

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/storage/RAID/CERCbest.pdf

Thanks for the great article anyways Pablo !

]]> By: Pablo Garcia http://geekyprojects.com/nas/build-your-own-nas-using-freenas/comment-page-2/#comment-22587 Pablo Garcia Sat, 09 Apr 2011 14:42:32 +0000 http://geekyprojects.com/nas/build-your-own-nas-using-freenas/#comment-22587 Hi Max: I totally differ from your opinion. Let me give you an example: When you buy a 600W power supply that means this PSU can deliver a maximum of 600W. So if your motherboard plus hard drives consume 100W then your power supply will get 100W (plus a negligible cost of transformation ~10%) from the power plug. 1) Summarizing what I just said, the computer draws the most amount of power when it needs it. 2) This is running on an old single core PIII wich draws very little power compared to today's computers. An old PIII which cost me $0 and which otherwise would go to waste. 3) The main hard drive is a CF-Card which draws negligible power. 4) Most of the power is being taken by the hard drives but that will also be the case with any standalone RAID unit. 5) When it is not being used it is asleep, freenas has pretty decent power settings. 6) And last... you do not have to have this running all the time, I certainly do not. I just turn it on to backup my computer. Hi Max:
I totally differ from your opinion. Let me give you an example: When you buy a 600W power supply that means this PSU can deliver a maximum of 600W. So if your motherboard plus hard drives consume 100W then your power supply will get 100W (plus a negligible cost of transformation ~10%) from the power plug.

1) Summarizing what I just said, the computer draws the most amount of power when it needs it.

2) This is running on an old single core PIII wich draws very little power compared to today’s computers. An old PIII which cost me $0 and which otherwise would go to waste.

3) The main hard drive is a CF-Card which draws negligible power.

4) Most of the power is being taken by the hard drives but that will also be the case with any standalone RAID unit.

5) When it is not being used it is asleep, freenas has pretty decent power settings.

6) And last… you do not have to have this running all the time, I certainly do not. I just turn it on to backup my computer.

]]> By: Max http://geekyprojects.com/nas/build-your-own-nas-using-freenas/comment-page-2/#comment-22579 Max Sat, 09 Apr 2011 10:18:30 +0000 http://geekyprojects.com/nas/build-your-own-nas-using-freenas/#comment-22579 Why waste the power consumption and processing power of a full box on simple NAS tasks. Think about the running cost abefore falling into a project like this. A simple dedicated NAS drive might well be a better solution. If you really must use a full box then let it work for you and get something out of its running cost. A simple XP server on a home network is much more exciting. There are limitless opportunities to let the server handle download work and take load off the other PC's on the network. Why waste the power consumption and processing power of a full box on simple NAS tasks. Think about the running cost abefore falling into a project like this. A simple dedicated NAS drive might well be a better solution.

If you really must use a full box then let it work for you and get something out of its running cost. A simple XP server on a home network is much more exciting. There are limitless opportunities to let the server handle download work and take load off the other PC’s on the network.

]]> By: Brian16 http://geekyprojects.com/nas/build-your-own-nas-using-freenas/comment-page-2/#comment-21295 Brian16 Tue, 08 Mar 2011 18:52:52 +0000 http://geekyprojects.com/nas/build-your-own-nas-using-freenas/#comment-21295 Can anyone suggest a reasonably priced SATA RAID 5 controller that can break the 1TB barrier? In this day and age 1TB isn't that great an amount of disk. Can anyone suggest a reasonably priced SATA RAID 5 controller that can break the 1TB barrier? In this day and age 1TB isn’t that great an amount of disk.

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