FreeNAS work?

[nothere]

Hi all. Thanks for the help and information. I want to share my current build and want to know if FreeNAS will work on it. However, the main reason I wanted to come here was to ask if FreeNAS is even for me.

Right now I am on UnRaid and it is super hard to set up anything there. It is not like my previous NAS that I installed an application and settings were super easy and DONE. With UnRaid there are configurations of PATHs, sometimes you need to add paths you have no clue you had to, and it seems not a lot of people making tutorials on how to do the most common apps, like PLEX.

So, is FreeNAS easy to install plugins/apps like Plex and torrent downloaders and VPNs with little setup and easy to understand options like my Western Digital NAS or Synology? Or is it like UnRaid that just has a lot of options that you need to know and research to get it working?

Thanks for the help.

My Specs:

CPU	Intel Core i7-6700K 4 GHz Quad-Core OEM/Tray Processor
CPU Cooler	Corsair H80i v2 70.69 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
Motherboard	Asus ROG MAXIMUS VIII HERO ALPHA ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-2666 Memory
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-2666 Memory
Storage	Western Digital Black NVMe 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive
Video Card	Asus GeForce GTX 1080 8 GB ROG STRIX Video Card
Case	Fractal Design Vector RS ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply	Cooler Master V850 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply

 

[sretalla]

Western Digital Black NVMe 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive

Watch the TBW, it's only 600, so if you're using it for temp files, it may be a limiting factor to the long life of the system. Better option might be the Samsung 970 PRO (1TB) which has 1200TBW.

G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-2666 Memory

No ECC... do some reading about that.

Intel Core i7-6700K 4 GHz Quad-Core OEM/Tray Processor

Possibly the reason you're not using ECC memory... after you do the reading, consider changing that too.

Asus ROG MAXIMUS VIII HERO ALPHA ATX LGA1151 Motherboard

Gamer boards are not usually the best option for FreeNAS, although it can work, perhaps the most concerning will be the NIC, which may not be Intel.

Asus GeForce GTX 1080 8 GB ROG STRIX Video Card

You'll be wasting that here. Server boards usually have video onboard and that's enough for FreeNAS.

So, is FreeNAS easy to install plugins/apps like Plex and torrent downloaders and VPNs with little setup and easy to understand options like my Western Digital NAS or Synology? Or is it like UnRaid that just has a lot of options that you need to know and research to get it working?

I would place it closer (or maybe even further down the road) to UnRaid.

 

[Yorick]

There is a learning curve with FreeNAS and ZFS. As for plugins, Plex for example is easy enough to set up, and, you need to understand how to mount your media directory into it. But then: If you want to use hardware transcoding, suddenly you are deep on a BSD command line, creating your own jail, running pkg commands, and setting up a script to run on boot. Not easy-peasy-UI, particularly if you've had zero exposure to *ix command line.

The plugins work and work well; when you want something that's not covered by the standard install, you'll be on command line. There are community scripts to make that easier and, with all this flexibility comes a learning curve. Choose carefully and well.

 

[Arwen]

@nothere, Read up on *nix in general & FreeBSD in specific. Then read up on OpenZFS, (similar to, but not Oracle ZFS). If you have not read for perhaps a hour or 2, then please do so. There are some Resources, (at the top of the forums), that have information. Plus, stickie forum posts in the various categoies.

Some people new to using FreeNAS get annoyed, (or outright mad), when they had set up something less than ideal for ZFS, then it bites them. For exampe;

• Filling up the storage beyond 80%, (or even to 100%)
• Using non-redundant, RAID-Z1 or very wide sized RAID-Zx vDevs
• Not running, (or maybe not checking results of), scrubs
• Enabling pool encryption without backups, or recovery methods
• Considering their FreeNAS as backup device, (without it having any backups)

The above are some of the pitfalls that people can experience without a bit of knowledge. We can guide you around those pitfalls. But some people make a specific item mandatory and don't do the proper reading & work to make it reliable.

Overall, most of us in the FreeNAS forums are conservative in regards to our FreeNAS. We generally want reliability over some other things, like extreme low cost. (People have actually asked us if they can run FreeNAS on a RaspberryPi.)

 

[nothere]

@Arwen @Yorick @sretalla Thanks so so much for the information. I have realized that these communities always have such amazing people, it's crazy sometimes. Thanks so much.

Sadly, after seeing your posts, this is definitely not for me. I am not looking to learn anything other than click-click and maybe add a directory with a dropdown menu. I just want plug and play more or less. I did not want to spend money on a Synology, but I guess that is what I have to do :(. I will, however, look into some youtube tutorials see if maybe I am just being silly and this is the way to go.

Thanks again, everyone.

 

[Arwen]

@nothere, You are welcome.

In some ways, FreeNAS is the top of the free NAS software, in features and reliability. That comes with a bit of learning curve for that reliability.

I'd rather give someone information, and then have that person choose not to use FreeNAS. Then to use FreeNAS and not be happy with it.