Looking at FreeNAS on the SS4200 - What are my options?

[encryptedbytes]

While rebuilding my Intel Entry Storage System SS4200-E NAS Server, I've decided to take the opportunity to try out some alternates to the stock storage system software by EMC. There's nothing particularly wrong with it, but it is limited in it's feature set and configuration options and is no longer actively maintained or developed. Also, the underlying Linux operating system is pared down and limited.

FreeNAS has been on my radar for a while and, after playing with it in VMware for a couple days I've taken the plunge and have it running from a 4GB MicroSD card plugged into a small USB adapter in the back of the SS4200.

Here's a bit of detail on the SS4200's hardware:

CPU: Upgraded to a Core 2 Duo E4700 at 2.6GHz
RAM: Upgraded to 2GB DDR2
Disks: 4x 2TB Western Digital WD20EADS SATA2 3.5" "Green" drives

To the best of my knowledge, these components are the maximum supported by the device.

I use the SS4200 as a file server on my home network. I store my personal files, photos, movies, music, and a variety of other data on the machine. I stream audio and video to a Western Digital WDTV Live, an Archos 101IT Android tablet, and the occasional guest device such an iPhone or iPod. Typically I am the only one using the SS4200, but another user periodically downloads video for viewing locally. It is a rare occasion that there is more than two users accessing the box.

I've been using the disks in a RAID5 configuration with the original software. As I understand, the equivalent in FreeNAS would be to use the ZFS file system and RAID-Z.

Based on what I've been reading in the FreeNAS documentation and in various forum posts, I likely don't have enough RAM to use the ZFS file system, let alone RAID-Z. This is a bit disappointing as I am very interested in FreeNAS.

If I am not able to use RAID-Z due to insufficient memory, I may be still interested in using the 4 disks in a UFS or ZFS stripe set. Fault tolerance is not a major concern, I'd just have make sure every thing is sufficiently backed up to other disks. I'd most likely do this with shell scripts using rsync to copy data to disks attached to the eSATA ports on the back of the SS4200.

I'm still reading up on all of this to get a sense of what it going to be realistically possible and practical, but I'd appreciate your input on what my options are with FreeNAS.

Can I make a usable RAID-Z from my disks?
Is a ZFS stripe set a possibility?
If not ZFS, is a USF stripe set a possibility?
What features would I lose using UFS instead of ZFS?
Should I give up on FreeNAS for the SS4200 and look at NAS4Free or some other software?

 

[joeschmuck]

Glad you posted you system setup as it's important to know this.

In my opinion your limitation is the 2GB RAM as you mentioned. I'm sure you could setup a ZFS however it will be ultra slow in my opinion, likely making heavy use of the swap partitions on the drives. I would recommend you use UFS and you can configure the drives any way you like. You do not lose any real functionality of the NAS, you still have all the basic services. I don't know how well a jail (Plugin) would run or how much it would slow down your entire system. Not that I'm trying to steer you away from FreeNAS 8.3.1, but you should look at the NAS4Free project due to your limitations. It generally runs on less RAM and I don't believe it has jails so the features are easily added/removed without a huge hit to the overall system.

 

[encryptedbytes]

From what I've been reading, I've figured that RAM will be the sticking point, but I'd like to push ahead and see how bad it is or isn't. As I mentioned, this machine won't have a lot of demand on it most of the time, so if I can find a configuration that doesn't beat my hardware to smithereens and still offers a decent feature set I'd like to give FreeNAS a shot. I like that it is actively developed and has an active community!

I've gone ahead and created a ZFS formatted RAID-Z to play with and am copying a combination of small and large files to the volume via a CFS share. I'm not familiar with FreeBSD, but I have the very basic Linux skills. Could you point me to the things I should be looking at to tell how well FreeNAS is handling what I am throwing at it?

I'd like to get a sense of where the bottleneck(s) are, make some good notes, then repeat the process with a ZFS stripe set, a UFS stripe set and a UFS RAID5 (if I can figure out how, I don't see options for that in the web GUI).

I'm also going to download NAS4Free and get that going in VMware to get a sense of what it has to offer and possibly get it running on the SS4200 too.

 

[joeschmuck]

Well the big bottleneck you will face will be your 2GB of RAM on a ZFS system. The recommended RAM size for a minimal ZFS system is 6GB although 4 will do fine for a small system (4x2TB drives) so long as speed isn't a major concern. NAS4Free is an active organization and it's constantly updated so don't sell it short. NAS4Free was originally FreeNAS .7 but then a group came in and started redeveloping FreeNAS, called it 8.0 and after a while, likely due to the confusion of two products having the same name, the original FreeNAS group changed the product name to NAS4Free so don't sell it short. I used it for a while before I jumped ship.

 

[cyberjock]

Just wondering.. why did you jump ship on NAS4Free? I think if I had started with NAS4Free instead of FreeNAS I might still be using them right now. The features of FreeNAS make it stand out(the jail, the wonderful GUI, and encryption) but I don't(or can't) use any of those....yet.

 

[joeschmuck]

I jumped ship once I saw a new project to play with to be honest. I think NAS4Free is a great piece of software but I actually do like the idea of the features FreeNAS 8 has in play. It's only a personal preference right now and NAS4Free is well established so if someone only wanted a NAS and didn't want to mess with it again, has low system requirements, I'd point that person to NAS4Free. I feel FreeNAS 8 is stable and yes you can set it up and leave it alone but some significant features are being added or improved all the time and I don't think we will see a slow down until we get the next three releases out (9.x, 9.x.1, 9.x.2) or similar. That could be another year or more as the process isn't fast. Now if I could only get a handle on Django and dojo then I could be creating some add-on stuff that I feel would improve the usability of the project.

 

[strangel]

While rebuilding my Intel Entry Storage System SS4200-E NAS Server, I've decided to take the opportunity to try out some alternates to the stock storage system software by EMC. There's nothing particularly wrong with it, but it is limited in it's feature set and configuration options and is no longer actively maintained or developed. Also, the underlying Linux operating system is pared down and limited.

FreeNAS has been on my radar for a while and, after playing with it in VMware for a couple days I've taken the plunge and have it running from a 4GB MicroSD card plugged into a small USB adapter in the back of the SS4200.

Here's a bit of detail on the SS4200's hardware:

CPU: Upgraded to a Core 2 Duo E4700 at 2.6GHz
RAM: Upgraded to 2GB DDR2
Disks: 4x 2TB Western Digital WD20EADS SATA2 3.5" "Green" drives

To the best of my knowledge, these components are the maximum supported by the device.

I use the SS4200 as a file server on my home network. I store my personal files, photos, movies, music, and a variety of other data on the machine. I stream audio and video to a Western Digital WDTV Live, an Archos 101IT Android tablet, and the occasional guest device such an iPhone or iPod. Typically I am the only one using the SS4200, but another user periodically downloads video for viewing locally. It is a rare occasion that there is more than two users accessing the box.

I've been using the disks in a RAID5 configuration with the original software. As I understand, the equivalent in FreeNAS would be to use the ZFS file system and RAID-Z.

Based on what I've been reading in the FreeNAS documentation and in various forum posts, I likely don't have enough RAM to use the ZFS file system, let alone RAID-Z. This is a bit disappointing as I am very interested in FreeNAS.

If I am not able to use RAID-Z due to insufficient memory, I may be still interested in using the 4 disks in a UFS or ZFS stripe set. Fault tolerance is not a major concern, I'd just have make sure every thing is sufficiently backed up to other disks. I'd most likely do this with shell scripts using rsync to copy data to disks attached to the eSATA ports on the back of the SS4200.

I'm still reading up on all of this to get a sense of what it going to be realistically possible and practical, but I'd appreciate your input on what my options are with FreeNAS.

Can I make a usable RAID-Z from my disks?
Is a ZFS stripe set a possibility?
If not ZFS, is a USF stripe set a possibility?
What features would I lose using UFS instead of ZFS?
Should I give up on FreeNAS for the SS4200 and look at NAS4Free or some other software?

Hi :)
I saw this old post you wrote in 2011. It was very interesting.

I own a scaleo home server SS 4200-E. I love it and it does the job flawlessly. I also plan to aquire one more. That one will be for experimenting.

I have long term plans to upgrade the hardware in one, maybe both. I'm talking CPU (if it's possible), RAM (default 512MB, max 2 GB, right?) and a much bigger DOM.
Then i will add a few spare HDD's and run it for a while to see how it performs.
If everything works fine, i will transfer the data from the first homeserver (currently running WHS 2003v1 with SPP2) to the one running FreeNAS with upgraded hardware.

The reason why i am writing to you is that i need your help.
I have questions; where did you buy the hardware? Do you have model number on the components you KNOW will fit my home server? Is the HW necessary still available?
You understand my situation :) Since you have successfully done the upgrade, i want to learn.

But it is 5 years since you wrote this post. I fear that you will not get this message (maybe you changed email or something)
However, there IS a chance that you will still read my message. I will hope for the best.




--------- If there are others that have successfully upgraded the hardware of the Scaleo SS 4200-E, feel free to send me a message -----------------