New to NAS

[xAVx]

Hi,

I am intending to turn an old laptop to a NAS, however the laptop itself is working fine with the exception of the keyboard, and the screen. I was wondering if it was possible to still pull out the motherboard and ram, slap a new case onto it and use it for making my own NAS?

I intend to use the NAS for streaming and backup of my documents mostly, maybe about 4-5 users max.

The computer is a Fujistu S6520 with about 8GB of ram, and intel core 2 duo p8400. Would this be enough to run it?

More importantly is whether I can install FreeNAS without a keyboard? I am able probably able to hook up the laptop to my TV via a VGA port which could act as a screen for the installation process. Would this work?

Kind regards,
xAVx

 

[pirateghost]

No. This hardware is inadequate for freenas

 

[danb35]

Your hardware is unlikely to be suitable for FreeNAS--it isn't, and has never been, designed to repurpose castoff hardware as a NAS. You may be thinking of NAS4Free or one of the many Linux distributions. Although the amount of RAM is (barely) adequate, the CPU isn't, it won't support ECC, and it isn't going to have a place to connect enough drives to be worthwhile.

You can't install FreeNAS without a keyboard, but you don't have to install it on the machine you're going to run it on. You install it to a USB stick, and you could then plug that in to your machine. You don't need a keyboard for the day-to-day operation of the server.

 

[xAVx]

Hi,

I'm not too sure but I was told that it would be possible to do it because lifehacker and what not (which i was referred to here from) had said that an intel atom was possible to run this.

I'm just intending to use this as a simple media streaming/file backup option that's not too heavy duty is it really impossible? Or would that be something better for my goals? (Not doing anything heavy like virtualization or anything)

 

[xAVx]

Hi,

I'm not too sure but I was told that it would be possible to do it because lifehacker and what not (which i was referred to here from) had said that an intel atom was possible to run this.
(And was even told on http://aaroneiche.com/2009/03/31/my-diy-nas/ that 64mb of ram was the req! - not too sure because it HAS been 6 years from that post and i'd understand if it was off, - further research told me it was roughly 1gb of ram/tb, which as I'm aiming for roughly 2-4 TB of storage only should be possible?)

I'm just intending to use this as a simple media streaming/file backup option that's not too heavy duty is it really impossible? Or would that be something better for my goals? (Not doing anything heavy like virtualization or anything)

 

[INCSlayer]

Hi,

I'm not too sure but I was told that it would be possible to do it because lifehacker and what not (which i was referred to here from) had said that an intel atom was possible to run this.

I'm just intending to use this as a simple media streaming/file backup option that's not too heavy duty is it really impossible? Or would that be something better for my goals? (Not doing anything heavy like virtualization or anything)

Look the problem here is less the power although that will be an issue if your transcoding those video streams if you have more than 1 user concurrent BUT the bigger issue is that it wont be able to use ECC ram which very important for the ZFS filesystem that Freenas uses.
BUT if you just want to install freenas on it to experiment and get a feel for it before taking the plunge and spending the money required to actually setup a Freenas Server then it should be adequate for that. just dont store anything that you don't want to lose on it.

a good place to start is to read:
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/hardware-recommendations-read-this-first.23069/
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ning-vdev-zpool-zil-and-l2arc-for-noobs.7775/

But we have an entire subforum dedicated to new people like you:
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?forums/new-to-freenas.5/

 

[gpsguy]

The lifehacker article you read, was an old article that talked about FreeNAS 0.7. Support for that product can be found at www.nas4free.org

A few years ago, iXsystems bought the FreeNAS name and started with version 8 of this product. It's requirements are much higher than those of NAS4free.

I'm not too sure but I was told that it would be possible to do it because lifehacker and what not (which i was referred to here from) had said that an intel atom was possible to run this.

Edit: nas4free URL, edit again on 8/29.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

lifehacker and what not (which i was referred to here from) had said that an intel atom was possible

If you think of lifehacker as an entertainment channel, rather than as a source of technical advice, you'll be in better shape.

 

[xAVx]

If you think of lifehacker as an entertainment channel, rather than as a source of technical advice, you'll be in better shape.

I do :p But one can't help but think they'd have certain information like basic requirements right, which was why it was pretty confusing for the uninitiated :)

@gpsguy: your link redirects back to freenas!

But thanks all for the help! I'd hop around then! Might look at running a Linux OS/Ubuntu on it instead and a media server with FTP or some sort instead!

 

[danb35]

The correct link is actually nas4free.org, not nas4free.com. No idea why the .com site redirects to freenas; that won't do anything to reduce the confusion.

 

[gpsguy]

Sorry about the incorrect URL, I hadn't gotten my morning coffee yet.

 

[Ericloewe]

Sorry about the incorrect URL, I hadn't gotten my morning coffee yet. :)

Link still directs to .com, despite reading .org

@jkh - any insight as to why on Earth nas4free.com redirects to freenas.org?

 

[gpsguy]

Stupid forum software. It created the hyperlink. I Just typed the URL. My link works now.

I'll try to remember that in the future, should I have to edit a link.

Link still directs to .com, despite reading .org