An introduction / a few lessons learned

[anodos]

I just finished setting up my third FreeNAS server.

The first one was quite a few years ago (I think 5-6). It was before ZFS and I was running it on a Pentium III with a 160GB IDE Hard Drive. Performance was okay for what it was. It was also a first intro into the world of samba, networking, etc.

I built my second server about 3 years ago. I think I broke pretty much every hardware rule. The server had a single realtek nic, 8 GB non-ecc RAM, core i3 processor, and 4x low-quality 1TB hard drives. Performance ended up being less than stellar in a multi-user environment.

I just recently built my third server using lessons learned from the last build. Supermicro server motherboard, proper HBA (one verified to work well), 32GB ECC RAM, xeon processor, 7200RPM SAS drives (I know these aren't required, but I felt the price difference was close enough to justify the extra expense), redundant PSUs to connect to two separate UPS.

Some important lessons I've learned through the above:

• FreeNAS isn't cheap. You need to shop for good-quality parts, lots of RAM, and be prepared to read documentation.
• It's easier to spend money up front to get the right equipment than it is to try to troubleshoot stuff that isn't working properly
• Read the handbook, release-notes for the version you are getting ready to install, and the bug-fixes in the pipe for the next version (to make sure there are no show-stoppers in the current version - lesson learned regarding Samba 4).
• When you have problems, don't assume it is FreeNAS misbehaving. Take time to write down the problem, diagram, thing of possible solutions, and do lots of testing. I once spent lots of time beating my head against the wall because I was only getting 10MB/s transfers regardless of protocol before realizing the workstation I was testing from only had a 10/100 NIC. Ugh. Iperf is your friend.

 

[DrKK]

Indeed.

Also: use the free VMWare "player" software to create a VIRTUAL FreeNAS, *BEFORE* you make a *REAL* FreeNAS, so you can learn about configuring, setting up services and shares, simulating a bad drive (and replacement), simulating a wrecked pool, all that stuff. I messed around as a play VM for 3-4 weeks before I put it on real hardware.

I have had precisely **ZERO** problems with EVERYTHING because I knew what I was doing before I made a real FreeNAS, and I read every piece of documentation Cyberjock, Dru, and everyone else, wrote before I even thought about it for keeps.

Good. Easy. Free.

Pick two.

FreeNAS picks "good" and "free".