Home NAS Using HP xw4400 Workstation

[Nirvana]

For the past 5 years I have been using a FreeNAS 0.7.1 on a 3GHz Pentium 4 desktop with 2TB with UFS volumes for my home file storage. I've diligently kept backups of my most important data on external USB drives and burned to DVDs since the NAS data is vulnerable. This system has been serving me well, but is getting old and I'm in need of more storage.

I would like to make use of a legacy HP xw4400 workstation to build a new FreeNAS server. The server will be used to backup desktop and laptop files, but the main use would be as a media server for music (MP3 and uncompressed) and for movies (BDs and DVDs). Usage would be mostly media reads (by at most two clients at one time) and backup writes would occur in the middle of the night.

I'm planning on a three, 7200 rpm, 3TB HDDs in a RAID5 array for a usable 6TB. I would like to stick with a configuration that would give me good media read speeds.

The HP xw4400 has the following specs:
2.13 GHz Core 2 Duo E6430
4M Cache 1066 MHz FSB 64-bit
2 GB ECC memory

I know that current memory is somewhat low and I can increase it to 4GB or 8GB of non-ECC memory. However, memory for this motherboard seems to be somewhat difficult to find and is expensive. I don't want to spend a whole lot adding memory thus defeating the purpose of puting this legacy system to use.

Could this configuration produce a NAS that would suit my intended purpose?

Thanks for any feedback.

 

[DrKK]

3x3TB hdd's (assuming something like RAIDZ1 will give you like 5.5TB or so in your pool) with 2GB of RAM is a total non-starter with ZFS. ZFS, in any configuration, with *NON*-ECC RAM is a non-starter. These are simply facts that the most experienced guys on this forum do not debate.

Given the limitations you have already stated (i.e., you can only increase your RAM with non-ECC RAM), you cannot make a FreeNAS system (with ZFS) that any of the forum moderators or subject matter experts here would think met a minimum acceptable standard.

You need 8GB of ECC RAM. Period.

I can't speak for UFS, if you were thinking about using that.

 

[Nirvana]

I found out that FreeNAS branched from the original FreeNAS a couple years ago. It seems that the original FreeNAS is now NAS4Free and that is what I really need. I won't have to do any mods to my legacy system to have ZFS supported storage. The only thing I'll be missing is the Plex server plugin.

If the latest and greatest hardware is needed to build a FreeNAS system, it seems to be defeating the benefit of using open source software to repurpose legacy hardware for less demanding tasks, especially for a home environment.

 

[DrKK]

Well, have a good day then.

FreeNAS is not billed as a home user system, nor a legacy hardware repurposer, and is not a particularly good choice for non-demanding, home-user tasks on subpar hardware.

 

[jgreco]

well that might be a BIT extreme ... but the reality is that there are plenty of NAS packages targeting small hardware platforms. FreeNAS is targeted more at mid- to large platforms. We will not think less of you for recycling old hardware or using a different package as a result of such recycling. Everything has its place.

 

[Nirvana]

I'm not new to servers for the home or the enterprise, having worked for a major computer manufacturer's server organization in the past. I'm also not new to FreeNAS, having used one in my home for numerous years and recommending and building systems for friends and family. I just wasn't aware of the relatively recent changes to the product. It would have been nice if the link to the "For Home" page would have started out by saying "8GB ECC memory ante" ;)

 

[jgreco]

They're not "changes" - it's effectively an entirely different product, rewritten from the ground up. This is not designed to be a stupid attempt to crowbar ZFS into working on a dinky system. This is designed to be done the way Sun intended, except using FreeBSD instead of Solaris. Big server, lots of resources, total awesomeness.