Acer Aspire easyStore H340 & FreeNAS

[digitl]

I'm running an Acer Aspire easyStore H340 with Windows Home Server 2003 and am fed up with WHS's quirks. Can I install FreeNAS on it instead?

 

[madmax]

I don't see why not. Given it a try, if you haven't yet. Post any problems in the forum. Good luck!

 

[cyberjock]

If you are using server 2003 you may not have enough RAM for ZFS... per the manual you need 6GB of RAM. Don't be like alot of other people that try to get by with less than wonder why their system is unreliable and/or slow.

 

[madmax]

noob makes a good point. I used to have the ACER H340, I think I always ran into problems with 2003 and memory. The max memory I believe for that chipset is 2 GB according to Intel. The body is great, I love the look and hot swappable bays, if you can find a form factor to replace it with and upgrade that's what I would do.

http://ark.intel.com/products/34505/Intel-82945GC-Graphics-and-Memory-Controller

 

[CAlbertson]

Yes you can install FeeNAS on it. But you may find that you need to use UFS and not ZFS. ZFS would require a lot more RAM.

But not to worry UFS is not worse then what you have.

 

[digitl]

Thanks. I'll probably have a go once I have plucked up enough courage!

 

[CAlbertson]

Installation is easy and takes all of about 15 minutes. But if you want a dry run, install FreeNAS on a virtual machine. I keep a FreeNAS installation on my Apple iMac so I can try stuff out and experiment. It holds no real data so I can delete the virtual drives and recreate them.

One advantage of using UFS is that is is 100% conventional and is like whatever else youhave use, no new concepts to learn. But on the other hand ZFS is the biggest reason to go with FreeNAS. If you can't use ZFS then you might think about a Linux based NAS. But if you need ZFS then it is either FreeNAS or nas4free.

 

[digitl]

I have FreeNAS installed on a Proliant Microserver so that's not an issue. It's whether or not I can repeat it on the Acer without 'big problems'.

 

[Zivier]

Hi All,

I tried to install Freenas without display, not using the special cable..
It sounds like the H340 is booting on the USB Freenas but I can't access Freenas, not network connection, I read somwhere that Freenas is not "compliant" with the MARVELL 88E8071 eth controler ?

I'm totally newbie with Freenas and not fully operational with linux, is there a way to include the Marvell drivers into the Freenas image onto my USB stick ?

thanks for your help

Ziv

 

[Zivier]

Hi All,

I read another topic and tried to force the Eth link to 100Mb/s instead of 1000Mb/s and it's working now,
I'm a bit disapointed cause I intend to fully use the Eth Link,

gonna try to change some parameters to have full speed Eth connection ..

let see..

Ziv