Is there some way to set up FreeNAS server with two or more big hard drives and a SSD, using the SSD to transparently cache newly-created files, recently-modified files, recently-read files, and all the filesystem metadata from the rotating drives, so that the rotating drives can be allowed to spin down (and remain spun down) until there's some concrete need to either read a file that isn't cached to the SSD, or to periodically dump all the new/recent writes cached to the SSD to their final destinations on the spinning drives?
My main concern is noise. The last time I tried setting up a file server using Linux, the drives literally never spun down, and they collectively made enough noise to keep me awake at night unless I physically shut it down.
This isn't a server that will have multiple people using it around the clock. Its main purpose is to allow me to have a convenient place to back up my laptop to, and allow Windows & Linux to share files without mangling each other's local NTFS metadata without subjecting myself to FAT32's 4-gig limit. The general expectation is that unless I've actively opened a non-cached file within the past 5-10 minutes, the drives should be spun down, and the CPU should be throttled down to low speed & running fanless.
Can this be done? Or is this still something that's on the horizon, but not quite *here* yet?
My main concern is noise. The last time I tried setting up a file server using Linux, the drives literally never spun down, and they collectively made enough noise to keep me awake at night unless I physically shut it down.
This isn't a server that will have multiple people using it around the clock. Its main purpose is to allow me to have a convenient place to back up my laptop to, and allow Windows & Linux to share files without mangling each other's local NTFS metadata without subjecting myself to FAT32's 4-gig limit. The general expectation is that unless I've actively opened a non-cached file within the past 5-10 minutes, the drives should be spun down, and the CPU should be throttled down to low speed & running fanless.
Can this be done? Or is this still something that's on the horizon, but not quite *here* yet?