I've read around, and it seems like the answers to a lot of the questions I have tend to include the phrase "it depends on your requirements." I thought starting my own thread would be the best way to get some help. I'm still reading through resources, but I feel like it would take me weeks to understand everything I would need to in order to make informed decisions.
I'm setting up my first FreeNAS (or any NAS for that matter) server for home use. The machine is built for the most part, the components are below:
Motherboard: ASRock C2750D4I (8 core, supports AES-NI)
RAM: Crucial ECC RAM, 32 GB Total
Drives: 6x Seagate 4TB NAS Drives
Case, Power Supply, fans, and USB drive didn't seem terribly relevant, but I can provide them if it would help.
What I intend to use it for:
Pool Configuration
From what I've read, and with 6 storage disks, I seem to have three options:
Left on my own, I would choose RAIDZ2, which also seems to be the documentation's recommendation. However, I don't know if one of the other options would provide better performance with a negligible loss of protection.
Encryption
Another consideration that informs the Pool configuration is the use of Encryption.
Generally, Encryption is better than no encryption in my mind. I assume that with AES-NI support, the performance impact is not significant. However, I don't know how that could impact streaming on Plex, or backups with Crashplan.
The only data I really would want to encrypt is the "important" data. Since Encryption is set at the Pool level, though, if I went with RAIDZ2 and chose to encrypt, everything would be subject to it. I could choose another Pool configuration, which would allow slightly more granular selection of what is encrypted.
Is encryption worth it in my case for home use? Would it significantly impact performance for Plex or Crashplan? Is it worth using a different Pool Configuration to Encrypt less of the data that doesn't really need it?
Performance
I think this is a concern for everyone. The only drives I have in this server are my storage drives, and the USB drive that holds my FreeNAS partition.
Do I have the hardware I need to run the plugins I have listed without my NAS falling over or slowing to a crawl? "I don't know, test and see" is the most likely answer, but I was hoping to at least get a ballpark answer about whether I should worry about CPU or memory constraints. I don't know how heavy FreeNAS or these plugins are.
Initially I (incorrectly) understood that the Jails and Plugins would use the FreeNAS partition on the USB key, not require storage of their own. Is it acceptable to store that data on the NAS storage drives? I think in the best-case I would have a small SSD or something to use for them, but I don't know if that would provide a significant benefit, or if it is just a nice to have.
Do I need an additional drive for anything? Running Jails/Plugins? Logging? Swap? Caching?
This ran a lot longer than I had hoped, so if you've made it this far thank you. Any advice or direction for any of these questions would be incredibly helpful.
I'm setting up my first FreeNAS (or any NAS for that matter) server for home use. The machine is built for the most part, the components are below:
Motherboard: ASRock C2750D4I (8 core, supports AES-NI)
RAM: Crucial ECC RAM, 32 GB Total
Drives: 6x Seagate 4TB NAS Drives
Case, Power Supply, fans, and USB drive didn't seem terribly relevant, but I can provide them if it would help.
What I intend to use it for:
- Storage of important data - documents, family photos, etc.
- Storage of media
- Storage of system backups
- SabNZBD (Plugin available - Each of these will be done through the GUI. I'm more of a Windows guy and lack the Linux knowledge at this point to set up one Jail to run them all.)
- Sonarr (Plugin available)
- Couchpotato (Plugin available)
- Plex (Plugin available. The media that it manages/streams will live on the NAS)
- Crashplan backups of important data from the NAS (Future state, for now they are backed up via CIFS shares to an external HDD)
Pool Configuration
From what I've read, and with 6 storage disks, I seem to have three options:
- RAIDZ2
- 2x RAIDZ1
- 3x RAID 1 (Mirror)
Left on my own, I would choose RAIDZ2, which also seems to be the documentation's recommendation. However, I don't know if one of the other options would provide better performance with a negligible loss of protection.
Encryption
Another consideration that informs the Pool configuration is the use of Encryption.
Generally, Encryption is better than no encryption in my mind. I assume that with AES-NI support, the performance impact is not significant. However, I don't know how that could impact streaming on Plex, or backups with Crashplan.
The only data I really would want to encrypt is the "important" data. Since Encryption is set at the Pool level, though, if I went with RAIDZ2 and chose to encrypt, everything would be subject to it. I could choose another Pool configuration, which would allow slightly more granular selection of what is encrypted.
Is encryption worth it in my case for home use? Would it significantly impact performance for Plex or Crashplan? Is it worth using a different Pool Configuration to Encrypt less of the data that doesn't really need it?
Performance
I think this is a concern for everyone. The only drives I have in this server are my storage drives, and the USB drive that holds my FreeNAS partition.
Do I have the hardware I need to run the plugins I have listed without my NAS falling over or slowing to a crawl? "I don't know, test and see" is the most likely answer, but I was hoping to at least get a ballpark answer about whether I should worry about CPU or memory constraints. I don't know how heavy FreeNAS or these plugins are.
Initially I (incorrectly) understood that the Jails and Plugins would use the FreeNAS partition on the USB key, not require storage of their own. Is it acceptable to store that data on the NAS storage drives? I think in the best-case I would have a small SSD or something to use for them, but I don't know if that would provide a significant benefit, or if it is just a nice to have.
Do I need an additional drive for anything? Running Jails/Plugins? Logging? Swap? Caching?
This ran a lot longer than I had hoped, so if you've made it this far thank you. Any advice or direction for any of these questions would be incredibly helpful.