setting up freenas

[dave58701]

Hello,

I'm new here, been fascinated with NAS ever since I saw my first one at a graphics shop 5 years ago. I've finally come across a couple extra dollars, picked up an 8gb usb flash drive, 3 2tb hard drives and this old server case,

View: http://www.ebay.com/itm/361069187371?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
,

everything appeared to install fine with the latest download, but when it boots, I don't have the option in bios to select the usb flash drive as the primary boot device.

is there an update for the bios for this computer?

or is there an alternative boot option like a small ssd?

 

[BigDave]

have no comments on your hardware, but yes, you could boot a SATA connected drive
instead of the USB. The 9.2.1 manual will be a good place to start reading about what
is required. Also check out the sticky posts regarding hardware recommendations.
Welcome to the forum!

 

[Ericloewe]

Regarding BIOS updates, this really isn't the place where you'll probably find someone who knows. Maybe you'll have more luck directly at Dell's website, or from whoever sold you the server.

 

[dave58701]

I ended up ordering an 8gb ssd, a caddy and a pci-sata adapter. That should all be here early next week.

I'm anxious to get this all up and going. Thanks for the responses.

Dave

 

[Ericloewe]

I ended up ordering an 8gb ssd, a caddy and a pci-sata adapter. That should all be here early next week.

I'm anxious to get this all up and going. Thanks for the responses.

Dave

PCI-SATA adapter? That won't end well.

 

[cyberjock]

Yep... someone who is likely to find out how easy it is to buy hardware that won't work or doesn't work reliably. Major fun headed your way!

 

[dave58701]

Yep... someone who is likely to find out how easy it is to buy hardware that won't work or doesn't work reliably. Major fun headed your way!

driver issues?

 

[cyberjock]

That's one possibility. ;)

 

[Ericloewe]

driver issues?

They also tend to be dodgy.

The problem is that the only good SATA controllers are Intel's, and you'll only find them in Intel chipsets. Unfortunately, this means that you typically end up being limited to SAS controllers, which are overkill in many situations.

Also, if it really is PCI and not PCI-e, it's most likely either too old to be supported, too dodgy to be supported or even both.

 

[Dragonfoe]

They also tend to be dodgy.

The problem is that the only good SATA controllers are Intel's, and you'll only find them in Intel chipsets. Unfortunately, this means that you typically end up being limited to SAS controllers, which are overkill in many situations.

Also, if it really is PCI and not PCI-e, it's most likely either too old to be supported, too dodgy to be supported or even both.

I could easily have put a Ditto on dave58701's post. I have never built one of these units and am in the hardware buying stage. I know enough to inventory my needs prior to making a purchase so I wanted to read a few articles before I make the commitment. I see you have an Core i3 4330 as your CPU, is that the CPU you are currently using for your NAS unit?

 

[dave58701]

dragonfoe,

the i3 is on my laptop, my nasbox is in the ebay description, two individual 2.8 processors with 8gb of ram.

I finally got to putting everything together. after pulling my ibm server case out and giving it a thorough lookover, I did find a sata port in the oddest of places. It worked, I'm running my 10gb ssd off that port and running my 3 2tb 7200 toshiba drives off the raid card via raidz. I can map a network drive right to it no problem, other than the x-box not being able to find it but i'm not concerned about that right now.

so with everything set up, I'm not even 4mb/s for transfer speed. my setup is 500gb wd drive via usb2.0 to my i3 dell laptop with 4gb running win7 (fresh install) via wireless n with a full signal from my laptop, to a new 4port wireless n netgear router 10' away hardlined to my nas box (latest stable version), ibm server with 8gb of ram. where is my bottleneck? I'm leaning to the usb2.0 or the 8gb on the ibm. or possibly encryption of the wifi wpa2-psk or the decryption of truecrypted 500gb wd to the encrypting truecrypt 500g file on the nas.

I always say this when someone else is trying to describe something to me, it's a lot like giving a haircut over the phone.

I've got another server I'm willing to try this on, a poweredge 2950 II /w 32g of ram, but I want to know what's up with my other server first.

Dave

 

[Dragonfoe]

dragonfoe,

the i3 is on my laptop, my nasbox is in the ebay description, two individual 2.8 processors with 8gb of ram.

I finally got to putting everything together. after pulling my ibm server case out and giving it a thorough lookover, I did find a sata port in the oddest of places. It worked, I'm running my 10gb ssd off that port and running my 3 2tb 7200 toshiba drives off the raid card via raidz. I can map a network drive right to it no problem, other than the x-box not being able to find it but i'm not concerned about that right now.

so with everything set up, I'm not even 4mb/s for transfer speed. my setup is 500gb wd drive via usb2.0 to my i3 dell laptop with 4gb running win7 (fresh install) via wireless n with a full signal from my laptop, to a new 4port wireless n netgear router 10' away hardlined to my nas box (latest stable version), ibm server with 8gb of ram. where is my bottleneck? I'm leaning to the usb2.0 or the 8gb on the ibm. or possibly encryption of the wifi wpa2-psk or the decryption of truecrypted 500gb wd to the encrypting truecrypt 500g file on the nas.

I always say this when someone else is trying to describe something to me, it's a lot like giving a haircut over the phone.

I've got another server I'm willing to try this on, a poweredge 2950 II /w 32g of ram, but I want to know what's up with my other server first.

Dave

Actually, the Core i3 question was for Ericloewe FreeNAS Gur he lists an i3 as well. I figured it was just the forum posting what system you were posting from. So it is true, you really do need a beefy rig to adequately run this package with extreme amounts of storage space. I have 2 two TB WD red drives, I was looking to build something simple to make this work on my in-house network and share out to my main TV and perhaps a few other wireless devices. I would have Apple TV shows and some other iTunes items that I would want to be able to show when the family comes over. (home movies and such) I guess I need to up my sights for the processor as it seems to be important, how important is having more than 16gb of RAM or is just that you need fast RAM?

 

[Ericloewe]

Actually, the Core i3 question was for Ericloewe FreeNAS Gur he lists an i3 as well. I figured it was just the forum posting what system you were posting from. So it is true, you really do need a beefy rig to adequately run this package with extreme amounts of storage space. I have 2 two TB WD red drives, I was looking to build something simple to make this work on my in-house network and share out to my main TV and perhaps a few other wireless devices. I would have Apple TV shows and some other iTunes items that I would want to be able to show when the family comes over. (home movies and such) I guess I need to up my sights for the processor as it seems to be important, how important is having more than 16gb of RAM or is just that you need fast RAM?

Yes, the i3 is the CPU in my FreeNAS server. For transcoding, a Xeon is probably a better idea.
16GB of RAM is enough for most home users, speed is mostly irrelevant (1600 is the standard, but that's because it's the default option for high-density ECC DDR3 these days.

 

[solarisguy]

@dave58701, you really should be testing your speed when having your FreeNAS and client machines connected using CAT-5e or better network cables directly into a switch or router with Gigabit Ethernet ports.

Also, for measuring the throughput, you should be reading/writing a single obscenely large file, otherwise your measurements include file creation/protocol/initialization/etc. overhead.