Hi There.
As this is my first time using FreeNAS and I’m currently waiting for RAM to arrive for my Proliant before setting everything up. I was hoping some of the experienced FreeNAS people may be able to take a quick look at what I’m setting out to achieve here and offer any tips. For example, if it’s clear based on what I’m trying to achieve that Jails is the way to go over plugins then that’s great to know from the start. I just want to avoid any pitfalls.
Background (skip if you want): I’ve recently purchased a HP Proliant G8 Microserver. Currently, I have a Buffalo NAS and a separate HTPC. My goal with the Proliant was to consolidate the two physical devices into one nice package and reduce clutter/heat/etc. Unfortunately, soon after spinning up the device I discovered the RAID controller doesn’t have on-board memory so I can’t run RAID 5 using the installed RAID controller. I’m already stretched for storage so losing two disks of usable space wasn’t an option. So coupled with the unfriendly HP UI and need to buy a licence just to access the device remotely from m phone I started looking for an alternative - that’s where I stumbled across FreeNAS and it looks great.
OLD Setup:
-Sonarrr, uTorrent, SABNZBD+
-MySQL is running on the Buffalo NAS (Runs a central Kodi database to synchronise playlists across all my TVs/Devices)
-The existing NAS isn’t raided. I have 4 separate drives mapped to the PC over the network. The major annoyance with this is whenever I try to delete many GB of files now it takes quite a while to complete; when the drives, were in the PC it took a few seconds in most cases it was almost instant.
-I use a number of RasberryPi’s running Kodi to view the content on my TVs. They all use a shared database so that TV show completion and pause data is synced across all my devices.
-I have a number of Shares mapped to an entire drive or folders within a drive. The problem in having 4 separate drives is that they fill up and I’m having to shuffle files around which then causes problems with Sonarr and some of the other media related apps. I’d rather have one huge raid and not have to shuffle files around.
-I’m Currently using SMB for the shares which isn’t ideal. The buffalo doesn’t support NFS.
NEW setup goals:
-FreeNAS
-All 4 drives in RAID5
-Sonarrr (I don’t want to use Sickbeard)
--Sonarrr will need to access the RAID storage (all of it potentially). It will also need to be able to communicate with the NZB client and Torrent clients (and Rasberry Pis) and various other things as future needs require. This is where I’m not sure the plugin approach would be ideal. But maybe I misread it.
--MySQL – I need a central location the Kodi installs on the RasberryPi’s can hit for their Database.
--Sonarr supported Torrent client (currently using uTorrent but don’t really have a preference)
--SABNZBD+
--Still need to share specific directories on the LAN with different permissions. Preferably use NFS instead of SMB as it’s apparently much better streaming with Kodi.
--Also want to be able to retain remote access to everything
Some key questions:
-Jails vs Plugins. If I were to use plugins will the integration still work? I don’t mind using the CLI but if there really isn’t any major advantage then it would be good to keep things simple.
-How to go about setting up the RAID and Partitions – any recommendations would be great. An option I have is that I can add a 5th drive to the Proliant with a bit of hacking which isn’t part of the RAID and install the FreeNAS and any jails on that leaving the 4 drives in the RAID purely for storage. If there is an advantage in doing this please let me know. The drive I was planning to use is a WD Blue 2.5” I have spare. The RAID drives are all WD Reds.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
As this is my first time using FreeNAS and I’m currently waiting for RAM to arrive for my Proliant before setting everything up. I was hoping some of the experienced FreeNAS people may be able to take a quick look at what I’m setting out to achieve here and offer any tips. For example, if it’s clear based on what I’m trying to achieve that Jails is the way to go over plugins then that’s great to know from the start. I just want to avoid any pitfalls.
Background (skip if you want): I’ve recently purchased a HP Proliant G8 Microserver. Currently, I have a Buffalo NAS and a separate HTPC. My goal with the Proliant was to consolidate the two physical devices into one nice package and reduce clutter/heat/etc. Unfortunately, soon after spinning up the device I discovered the RAID controller doesn’t have on-board memory so I can’t run RAID 5 using the installed RAID controller. I’m already stretched for storage so losing two disks of usable space wasn’t an option. So coupled with the unfriendly HP UI and need to buy a licence just to access the device remotely from m phone I started looking for an alternative - that’s where I stumbled across FreeNAS and it looks great.
OLD Setup:
-Sonarrr, uTorrent, SABNZBD+
-MySQL is running on the Buffalo NAS (Runs a central Kodi database to synchronise playlists across all my TVs/Devices)
-The existing NAS isn’t raided. I have 4 separate drives mapped to the PC over the network. The major annoyance with this is whenever I try to delete many GB of files now it takes quite a while to complete; when the drives, were in the PC it took a few seconds in most cases it was almost instant.
-I use a number of RasberryPi’s running Kodi to view the content on my TVs. They all use a shared database so that TV show completion and pause data is synced across all my devices.
-I have a number of Shares mapped to an entire drive or folders within a drive. The problem in having 4 separate drives is that they fill up and I’m having to shuffle files around which then causes problems with Sonarr and some of the other media related apps. I’d rather have one huge raid and not have to shuffle files around.
-I’m Currently using SMB for the shares which isn’t ideal. The buffalo doesn’t support NFS.
NEW setup goals:
-FreeNAS
-All 4 drives in RAID5
-Sonarrr (I don’t want to use Sickbeard)
--Sonarrr will need to access the RAID storage (all of it potentially). It will also need to be able to communicate with the NZB client and Torrent clients (and Rasberry Pis) and various other things as future needs require. This is where I’m not sure the plugin approach would be ideal. But maybe I misread it.
--MySQL – I need a central location the Kodi installs on the RasberryPi’s can hit for their Database.
--Sonarr supported Torrent client (currently using uTorrent but don’t really have a preference)
--SABNZBD+
--Still need to share specific directories on the LAN with different permissions. Preferably use NFS instead of SMB as it’s apparently much better streaming with Kodi.
--Also want to be able to retain remote access to everything
Some key questions:
-Jails vs Plugins. If I were to use plugins will the integration still work? I don’t mind using the CLI but if there really isn’t any major advantage then it would be good to keep things simple.
-How to go about setting up the RAID and Partitions – any recommendations would be great. An option I have is that I can add a 5th drive to the Proliant with a bit of hacking which isn’t part of the RAID and install the FreeNAS and any jails on that leaving the 4 drives in the RAID purely for storage. If there is an advantage in doing this please let me know. The drive I was planning to use is a WD Blue 2.5” I have spare. The RAID drives are all WD Reds.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
