Advice on hardware, disk and backup configuration.

[pnas4444]

I am looking for some advice on my current situation and plans for a FreeNAS server.
If you would prefer not to read all I wrote then just skip to the questions.


I currently have a Synology DS214+ (2x 4TB in RAID 1) and I ran out of space a couple of days ago.

I just ordered two 8TB Seagate Ironwolf NAS. (They were priced at 255 EUR vs 330 EUR for the 8TB WD RED)

Then I decided I want to upgrade to an AES-NI cable CPU for encryption and in the process I dug deeper into the limitations of both QNAP and Synology offerings realizing they do not offer much in terms of data integrity verification and correction. Looks like even the Synology BTRFS implementation isn't actually going to correct corruption if it finds one.

Then I found out about FreeNAS / ZFS and I started reading about building a machine for FreeNAS.


Currently the system and usage I envision is as follows:
Take the two 8TB NAS drives and run them in ZFS mirror mode. I would run data integrity checks regularly. Then purchase another 8TB HDD which would be kept as a separate volume. I would create a backup of the mirror every few days to the separate 8TB volume.
In case I loose a drive I would have to buy a new drive to either rebuild the mirror drive or recreate the backup drive.


Then I would like to take the DS214+ (with the two 4TB HDDs as a single Volume) and setup something like rsync server on it. Then I would use the DS214+ as a backup location for the ZFS Mirror using rsync. I plan to store the DS214+ in a remote location.

I am still undecided about the case, so there are two in the list at the moment.
How would I go about keeping the parts I have chosen similar to what is in the list at the moment, but make the system upgradable to 32 GB of RAM?

Few questions:
1. How does all sound so far? I plan to have everything encrypted in all locations.
2. What would be the best way to backup the FreeNAS ZFS Mirror to the DS214+? The DS will be in a remote connection, so speeds would be slow. I still have to research snapshots / rsync etc.
3. Can I spin down an HDD which is not in use (meaning the backup HDD, but keep the mirror always spinning)?
4. Does FreeNAS support formatting and encrypting an external HDD attached to the server via USB? Are there limitations of devices supported (like on Synology) or is it more like a regular PC and I would be able to connect any storage drive / HDD.
5. Is there a way to read an encrypted ZFS HDD on a Windows 7 Machine?
6. Is it possible to run FreeNAS and a VMware machine at the same time?

Thank you!

 

[FreeNASftw]

High end QNAP NAS use ZFS if that's all you are worries about.

I checked your parts picker.
1. You've basically built my NAS
2. You may want to double check your memory selection... that appears to be non ECC.

Your questions
1. You seem to be focusing a LOT on encryption, unsure why, but doesn't matter.
2. RSYNC is best
3. I'm not sure about actually spinning it down
4. I've never used a USB drive on my NAS so I'm not sure, you should be able to mount it etc fine though
5. I'm going to guess not, well not directly attached if that's what you mean . It can be encrypted and either shared or mounted with iSCSI etc
6. No, if I'm reading your question right. You can however run VirtualBox in a FreeNAS jail and import your VHD or create a new VM.

 

[pnas4444]

Thanks for taking the time to read and answer!

High end QNAP NAS use ZFS if that's all you are worries about.

I checked QNAP products and under Home > Product overview > SMB none of the 4 - 6 bay NASes use ZFS. Only the top of the enterprise seems to use it.

I checked your parts picker.
1. You've basically built my NAS
2. You may want to double check your memory selection... that appears to be non ECC.

I believe just the photo is not correct on the partpicker website (Here is the same part number: http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/ct2kit102472bd160b)

Which case do you have? I have difficulties choosing one or the other.

How much RAM do you have, vs the raw TB space in your NAS? I read that more RAM is better so considering this motherboard:
http://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=E3C236D2I#Specifications
or
http://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=C2750D4I#Specifications

What do you think?

Your questions
1. You seem to be focusing a LOT on encryption, unsure why, but doesn't matter.
2. RSYNC is best
3. I'm not sure about actually spinning it down
4. I've never used a USB drive on my NAS so I'm not sure, you should be able to mount it etc fine though
5. I'm going to guess not, well not directly attached if that's what you mean . It can be encrypted and either shared or mounted with iSCSI etc
6. No, if I'm reading your question right. You can however run VirtualBox in a FreeNAS jail and import your VHD or create a new VM.

3. Would be helpful to hear from somebody that has experience with this. Also curious if there is a possibility to spin down external HDD.
6. Would that mean I will have both FreeNAS running and another VM (Lets say Windows 7) simultaneously?

Thanks!

 

[pnas4444]

3. Okay, read some more and it seems like this is not easy to be implemented and so to say works only halfway. Better to leave the HDDs on 24 / 7.

 

[FreeNASftw]

Hi,
Yeah that RAM is ECC sorry, my internet here is abysmally slow and the full details hadn't loaded when I looked at it last night.
6. Yes, you can use FreeNAS as a quasi host, running Virtual Box as a type two hypervisor and pretty much whatever VM you want running under VB.
The gurus here have made this fairly complex task incredibly easy and you can have it up and running in just a couple of minutes.

In terms of the motherboard, I have to assume you're really just streaming media, file sharing, backing up stuff and only have a few clients connected? If that is the case then any of the boards will be fine, it's really up to your budget... Personally, at this stage, I'd be looking at one of the DDR4 boards if I were building new.

I have nearly that exact build you made in your first list, the same ASRock board, my CPU is a 4170 not 4370, I have 2 x 8GB ECC. I run 4 x 3TB and 4 x 4TB WD Red's in a single RAIDZ2 pool. I will eventually pull the 3TB's and replace them with 4TB's to expand the pool.

The RAM issue is... completely dependent on the use case, assuming you have the minimum requirement (8GB) then any extra is for caching, and making available to VM's, all other functions really (Domain Controller, plugins, essentially any extra load you put on it), so the total amount is really up to you. If you are in a situation where your random access is small then your random access memory requirement is also small/smaller than say a business running large databases and transaction servers.