Does FreeNAS do what I want it to? Is it even possible?

[Myranda]

Until next week some time I'm in a phone so apologies is autocorrect makes this unintelligible.

I have a pentium 860 system sat in a corner which I hardly use so I thought it would make a great little NAS.

Currently it has just a single ssd in it but I'd like it to have 6 1.5 to 2 tb drives (budget permitting). Alas it's only got 2 spare sata ports.

So looking online I can find many add in PCIe cards but the all say they support RAID 1 and 0 which seems rather wasteful with 6 drives (though no doubt very very fast).

So the question is, will FreeNAS be able to work with all 6 drives and do RAID 5? Also I'm unsure if the 2 free ports are SATA 3gb or 6gb (moved a couple of weeks ago, hence the lack of interwebs and inability to locate the manual for the little motherboard) while this would obviously adversely affect the speed of the unit if they're slower ports will the OS still be able to spread a RAID array across these ports?

Obviously I'm still at a planning stage, but as I only need to purchase drives and card I'm primed to rush out with money in my sweaty little hands, so should probably check it will work first.

Thanks
M

 

[krikboh]

http://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/so-you-want-some-hardware-suggestions.12276/

 

[Myranda]

So... all I need do is replace every single component first, at greater cost than a dedicated NAS unit... because the file system is tempremental? Which would make it cheapest to use, not the free Linux based OS, but to purchase a copy of Windows Server which will do it.

Really?

 

[cyberjock]

First: It's about the right tool for the right job. Would you complain because your hammer won't work as a wrench? Didn't think so. So don't complain that your ill-advised tool is... well.. ill-advised.

Second: The file system isn't tempermental. It's a new technology that relies on other technology to be reliable. Not really a shocker in this day an age for there to be high-tech solutions that require high-tech parts.

Third: This is NOT Linux based! Don't offend us with Linux comments!

Fourth: Feel free to buy Windows Server. It doesn't have ZFS, and that's what brings most people to FreeNAS and away from Windows.

Really? Yes really. Clearly you are experienced with Windows. Feel free to keep using it. FreeNAS isn't for everyone. Those that want the amazing benefits and performance ZFS offers will gladly jump on the bandwagon and accept FreeNAS with open arms. The rest of the world that either doesn't care, feels they are too good for ZFS, or feels it's too hard will stick with the 20th century file systems.

 

[hungarianhc]

+1 to Cyberjock's somewhat harsh, yet relevant, comments :).

I just built my first FreeNAS box this past weekend, and I'm loving it so far.

I can tell you this, though... FreeNAS is not simple... Far from it... I spent way more time configuring volumes, datasets, permissions, etc, than I expected this weekend, but it's freaking sweet.

You told us about the hardware you have laying around, but you didn't tell us about what your actual goals are. If you're just looking to have network accessible storage, then I'd recommend getting an off the shelf product. They're not very expensive. I just came from a Synology device, and it worked quite well. FreeNAS is built on the foundation of ZFS, which has a lot of great features, but things like ECC RAM, a large amount of RAM, etc are all necessary features to make sure it works properly.

If you want to just toss some software on your current config, check out OpenMediaVault. It's a linux based NAS that is pretty good.