First time user, ? upgrade now or later

[Migit]

Hey everyone,
Sorry if the wrong section, but not certain where to post

I'm building my first NAS with the intention of it being a Plex Media Server, but using FreeNAS as the OS.

Currently own the following components;
CPU: Intel Core i3-6100
MoBo: ASRock H110M-DGS/D3
RAM: Kingston 8GB DDR3 (8GBx1)
HDD: WD Red 4TB
PSU: Corsair Builder 430w 80+ Bronze
Case: Fractal Design Node 804
And a 16GB USB 3.0 for FreeNAS

Just wondering how easy it is to add more drives to FreeNAS later, or should I spend money on them now and not worry about it.
I was thinking this build will end up with probably 4x4TB WD Reds, but at $232 each, wasn't sure if I should get them all now, or just get more as I need them.

Also if anyone has experience with Plex and FreeNAS would you recommend a SSD? I've been seeing mixed reports on them being beneficial or not

 

[Ericloewe]

Sounds like you'd benefit from cyberjock's guide. It's linked in my sig.

 

[SweetAndLow]

What country are you in? 4TB HDD are not that expensive.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EHBERSE/?tag=ozlp-20

 

[Migit]

What country are you in? 4TB HDD are not that expensive.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EHBERSE/?tag=ozlp-20

I'm in Australia, everything is far more expensive here. I looked at them, once converted to AUD and add shipping theyre $219.50 so only $12.50 cheaper than in stores here

 

[PhilZJ81]

I'm guessing you'll be running a RaidZ or some sort. If that's the case, I think you need to destroy / re-create your pool if you add drives one by one. I'm still really new to this, so someone please correct me if this is wrong.

But my understanding was that if say you have a 3x4TB RaidZ1, and you want 1 more drive, you can't just plug 1 drive in and endup with a 4x4TB RaidZ1 and hope the raid sorts itself out, it won't. What you can do, is if you start with a 3x4TB RaidZ1, you can add another Raid array to it (just as example 4x2TB drives RaidZ1) and you can add that to your ZFS volume, if you add just 1 disk, it won't be part of the RaidZ1 redundancy, so if that 1 drive fails, you're done. If you look in FreeNAS documentation Section 8.1 it talks about extending ZFS volumes.

Anyways, I opted to bite the bullet and get all my drives now.

It's a shame about your disk pricing, that's almost what I paid for my 6TB HGST 7200 rpm drives :(

 

[Ericloewe]

But my understanding was that if say you have a 3x4TB RaidZ1, and you want 1 more drive, you can't just plug 1 drive in and endup with a 4x4TB RaidZ1 and hope the raid sorts itself out, it won't. What you can do, is if you start with a 3x4TB RaidZ1, you can add another Raid array to it (just as example 4x2TB drives RaidZ1) and you can add that to your ZFS volume, if you add just 1 disk, it won't be part of the RaidZ1 redundancy, so if that 1 drive fails, you're done. If you look in FreeNAS documentation Section 8.1 it talks about extending ZFS volumes.

Yup.

 

[Migit]

I'm guessing you'll be running a RaidZ or some sort. If that's the case, I think you need to destroy / re-create your pool if you add drives one by one. I'm still really new to this, so someone please correct me if this is wrong.

But my understanding was that if say you have a 3x4TB RaidZ1, and you want 1 more drive, you can't just plug 1 drive in and endup with a 4x4TB RaidZ1 and hope the raid sorts itself out, it won't. What you can do, is if you start with a 3x4TB RaidZ1, you can add another Raid array to it (just as example 4x2TB drives RaidZ1) and you can add that to your ZFS volume, if you add just 1 disk, it won't be part of the RaidZ1 redundancy, so if that 1 drive fails, you're done. If you look in FreeNAS documentation Section 8.1 it talks about extending ZFS volumes.

Anyways, I opted to bite the bullet and get all my drives now.

It's a shame about your disk pricing, that's almost what I paid for my 6TB HGST 7200 rpm drives :(

Yup.

Thanks for the advice and that link.
Getting 2 more WD Reds. Even though it's outdated I'm going to try a RaidZ1 arrangement, so i'll have around 8TB of usable space, im not super worried about the redundancy as its just a media server, but a little bit doesn't hurt especially as I fill it up. (Only have something like 2TB ripped from my DVD collection currently),
And getting another 8GB stick of RAM, cause that guide was pretty heavy on "Buy all the RAM".

Just one more thing as I wasn't certain from that guide, he suggested not to install anything other than FreeNAS on the USB, is that including plugins etc, as I'll need the Plex Plugin, should I just mount that too the Raid array? or should I get a cheap SSD and run it off that (what I'm currently thinking of), but if I get the SSD could I also just install FreeNAS on that rather than a USB? would have a longer lifespan.

 

[PhilZJ81]

Thanks for the advice and that link.
Getting 2 more WD Reds. Even though it's outdated I'm going to try a RaidZ1 arrangement, so i'll have around 8TB of usable space, im not super worried about the redundancy as its just a media server, but a little bit doesn't hurt especially as I fill it up. (Only have something like 2TB ripped from my DVD collection currently),
And getting another 8GB stick of RAM, cause that guide was pretty heavy on "Buy all the RAM".

Just one more thing as I wasn't certain from that guide, he suggested not to install anything other than FreeNAS on the USB, is that including plugins etc, as I'll need the Plex Plugin, should I just mount that too the Raid array? or should I get a cheap SSD and run it off that (what I'm currently thinking of), but if I get the SSD could I also just install FreeNAS on that rather than a USB? would have a longer lifespan.

I think someone else with more knowledge can chime in, but I think mounting jails on a USB would wear out the media prematurely. In my case, I happened to have a Seagate 6TB that I was planning on putting my my desktop that I never got to, and I'm using that as my storage for jails, as well as a CIFS network share that's open to everyone.
If you have a 1TB or something laying around, I'd consider using that. I don't think there's any point in using SSD, I'd vote for space over performance. Additionally, you could have your system logs go to this extra drive and leave your RaidZ1 array strictly for network share purposes.

I think FreeNAS install itself is designed to just read and load in to memory

Incase it helps, here is how I'm setup:
16GB USB stick -> FreeNAS install

1x6TB Seagate : One high level DataSet for open network CIFS share ('nobody' used as owner) In this dataset I store all my movies. Then another dataset used for Jails. Then I setup my Plex Jail added Read-Only access to the dataset where my movies are.

6x6TB HGST NAS drives; RaidZ2 where I have backups of my computers and other documents I hope to not lose.

Hope this helps. If you have more questions let me know, but I'll warn you, I'm super noob here. I wanted to upgrade to 9.10, (currently on 9.3) that was before I even had any jails setup and the update via the webGUI failed and I'm too noob to figure out, and now that I've got plex setup, I don't really want to delete my dataset and start over...