FreeNAS for home replacing old hardware

[Jussie]

I've been reading a lot of threads and guides on here and I think I've got most of it sorted out.

I’m replacing 2 Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ boxes. One had 4x1TB Greens, the other had 4x2TB Reds. They are very old but worked well for a long time. Recently one of them has died (logic board issue) and the other still works but is slow. One was storing Plex media files, the other was storing documents and photo backups. All the data is also backed up in other places.

There’s also a 3TB TimeCapsule that currently backs up the 4 Macs in the house. I may move those backups to FreeNAS in future but it’s working right now so for the time being I’ll leave it where it is.

My Plex media server is running on a old Mac Mini, It’s not fast but it works. Running a dual-core i5 2415M, I stream to 2 AppleTVs and 4 iPads. Never more than 2 users at a time and never higher than 1080P (I’m not a fan of 4K and have no plans to upgrade). The plan would be to retire the Mac Mini and run Plex on the FreeNAS box.

I originally wanted to go with a Xeon E3-1220, but considering the box I run Plex on now is quite modest and works fine, and also the cost difference ($280 vs $140), I’m currently thinking the G4620 will do the job.

Here’s my planned build:
Motherboard: SuperMicro X11SSM-F-O
Case: Fractal Design Define R6
CPU: Intel Pentium G4620 3.7Ghz
PSU: Seasonic Focus SSR-550FM 80+ Gold
RAM: (2x) MICRON MTA18ASF2G72AZ-2G3 16GB DDR4-2400 ECC Unbuffered
Boot: Kingston A400 120GB TLC SSD
HDD: (6x) WD RED 6TB
UPS: APC BN1500M2 1500 VA/900 Watt

Regarding the drive size, I know I want RAIDz2 for redundancy. I took my 4TB of Media and 3TB of backups and doubled it, that give me 14TB as a goal. Add an extra 20% free space for performance, that makes 4TB drives too small and 6TB drives just about right.

Questions:
I've read conflicting reports, do I need a separate drive for plugins or jails? (Just Plex so far and maybe a cloud backup later)
If so would a second A400 120GB SSD do the trick?

Does this APC UPS support monitoring with FreeNAS? If not what would work better?

Anything I’m missing?

 

[JohnK]

I've been reading a lot of threads and guides on here and I think I've got most of it sorted out.

I’m replacing 2 Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ boxes. One had 4x1TB Greens, the other had 4x2TB Reds. They are very old but worked well for a long time. Recently one of them has died (logic board issue) and the other still works but is slow. One was storing Plex media files, the other was storing documents and photo backups. All the data is also backed up in other places.

There’s also a 3TB TimeCapsule that currently backs up the 4 Macs in the house. I may move those backups to FreeNAS in future but it’s working right now so for the time being I’ll leave it where it is.

My Plex media server is running on a old Mac Mini, It’s not fast but it works. Running a dual-core i5 2415M, I stream to 2 AppleTVs and 4 iPads. Never more than 2 users at a time and never higher than 1080P (I’m not a fan of 4K and have no plans to upgrade). The plan would be to retire the Mac Mini and run Plex on the FreeNAS box.

I originally wanted to go with a Xeon E3-1220, but considering the box I run Plex on now is quite modest and works fine, and also the cost difference ($280 vs $140), I’m currently thinking the G4620 will do the job.

Here’s my planned build:
Motherboard: SuperMicro X11SSM-F-O
Case: Fractal Design Define R6
CPU: Intel Pentium G4620 3.7Ghz
PSU: Seasonic Focus SSR-550FM 80+ Gold
RAM: (2x) MICRON MTA18ASF2G72AZ-2G3 16GB DDR4-2400 ECC Unbuffered
Boot: Kingston A400 120GB TLC SSD
HDD: (6x) WD RED 6TB
UPS: APC BN1500M2 1500 VA/900 Watt

Regarding the drive size, I know I want RAIDz2 for redundancy. I took my 4TB of Media and 3TB of backups and doubled it, that give me 14TB as a goal. Add an extra 20% free space for performance, that makes 4TB drives too small and 6TB drives just about right.

Questions:
I've read conflicting reports, do I need a separate drive for plugins or jails? (Just Plex so far and maybe a cloud backup later)
If so would a second A400 120GB SSD do the trick?

Does this APC UPS support monitoring with FreeNAS? If not what would work better?

Anything I’m missing?

1. You don't need a separate drive for your jails. Personally I have ran both Plex and NextCloud in jails in the past. Now, I personally prefer using ESXI, with a separate drive for datastores.
2. I'm not familiar with that UPS and APC tends not to work nicely with free ESXI... There are work arounds and scripts that will allow graceful shutdowns.

I think you will be fine with that Pentium, though I preferred the Xeon. Currently running Plex, FreeNas, Minecraft and two Win 7 VMs

 

[Jussie]

Thanks for the feedback.
Obviously I'd prefer the Xeon as well, but sadly funds are limited and I was hoping the G4620 would give me what I need for less money. $140 G4620 vs $400 E3-1230v6 is a big spend right now.
At least I have an upgrade path in the future, I could go to the Xeon and reuse the Pentium in another build.

I've ordered everything but the Hard Drives and the UPS right now. I will do an update on the build once everything arrives and let people know how the CPU is working out.

If the APC UPS isn't a good fit what would be better? I can basically get APC and CyberPower near me. I know some people recommend Eaton but I've had less luck finding that locally.

 

[JohnK]

Thanks for the feedback.
Obviously I'd prefer the Xeon as well, but sadly funds are limited and I was hoping the G4620 would give me what I need for less money. $140 G4620 vs $400 E3-1230v6 is a big spend right now.
At least I have an upgrade path in the future, I could go to the Xeon and reuse the Pentium in another build.

I've ordered everything but the Hard Drives and the UPS right now. I will do an update on the build once everything arrives and let people know how the CPU is working out.

If the APC UPS isn't a good fit what would be better? I can basically get APC and CyberPower near me. I know some people recommend Eaton but I've had less luck finding that locally.

I also started with a Pentium processor and was more than happy with it. (Now it lives inside my backup server) I moved to Xeon for more virtual machines.

You should be fine with the APC. The problem is really the integration of APC's PowerChute with the Free version of ESXI. There are many work around though.

 

[giveyouup]

Have planned a build using Pentium processor please update how it performs

 

[adrianwi]

Not sure how the conversation turned to UPS integration with ESXI, but if this is your first venture into FreeNAS I'd recommend keeping it simple and just installing FreeNAS! Plex will work perfectly fine using the pool for the jails.

Hardware choices all look fine and I'm sure you'll be more than happy coming from the performance of the Netgear NV+. I retired mine about 6 years ago so you'd done well to keep going this long :D

 

[Inxsible]

I have a Pentium G3240 and I have never had a single issue with running Plex. I did switch over to Emby -- but it's all the same. I don't think you need a Xeon unless you plan to do a lot of CPU intensive tasks in the future.

As long as you are not transcoding multiple streams on Plex, a Pentium is more than sufficient.

 

[Jussie]

Yes, I did keep the 2 NV+ going for longer than I planned. They were slow but rock solid for years and years so it was hard to justify replacing them until one died. I'm sure the Pentium + 32GB RAM will be a huge step up!

An update, I had time to put together the build minus the hard drives this weekend. Got the CPU, RAM, Motherboard and PSU installed in the R6 case.

I LOVE IPMI so far, wish I had it on all my boxes. I was able to update the firmware from 1.41 to 1.48 and the IPMI BIOS from 2.1a to 2.2, all without needing to hook up a keyboard, monitor, or even use a USB stick. So convenient.

At the moment it's running though loops of MemTest86+. So far so good.

 

[Inxsible]

I LOVE IPMI

It's the bee's knees !!

But be aware of it's pitfalls like exposing it out to the web etc. It's not the most secure protocol.