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Ditching my old NAS and getting a new one.


HHawk

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(this is my first post, so please be gentle with me ty)

 

First off; thanks for reading my post. I already appreciate you guys (and gals?) taking the time to read it.

Since I don't want to *bore* people, I will try to make it as short as possible... :wink:

 

I currently own a custom build NAS with an AMD processor and running FreeNAS. Given the problems I had in the past, I was going for a more simple approach. Therefor I was looking into DS412+ which is a very good solution in terms of design and power usage, but pricey when it comes down to hardware specifications imho. Anyways I really like the GUI (DSM 5.0) on it, so I thought I was going for this route, until I saw a post somewhere from someone on a different forum who was using DSM 4.2 (?) on his custom build NAS. And that's how I came here...

 

In the meantime I did some research and lotsa reading and also read it's possible to get DSM 5.x even working. I am still deciding on what I should do (kinda). Go for the DS412+ or build again my own NAS with DSM 4/5. The price of my build is a bit more expensive than the DS412+, but it will be more powerful and has more expanding options.

 

I am currently looking at the following hardware for my custom build NAS:

 

Case: Fractal Design Node 304

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590S 3 Ghz

Cooler: Corsair Hydro H90

Motherboard: ASRock Z87E-ITX

Memory: 2x Corsair Vengeance 8GB RAM

PSU: be quiet! Straight Power E9 480W CM

Storage: undecided yet, but will be RAID 10, so 4x or 6x 3TB

 

I still have a spare Dual Intel NIC laying around and some other hardware also.

 

The reason for going with the ASRock Z87E-ITX motherboard is because it's compatible with the Corsair Hydro H90 without issues (unlike the Asus H87I-PLUS).

Also this motherboard is getting some very good reviews.

 

I will be using my NAS for (mostly) 24/7 usage, storage and will also install applications like Sabnzbd, Couchpotato, Sickbeard, etc...

 

Though I did some extensive reading, I just want to make sure the above hardware setup will be compatible with NanoBoot 5.0.3.1 + DSM 5.0-4493

Can someone check and "confirm" this, if possible. Also if you have any recommendations, comments, whatsoever, please share them. I appreciate your effort and time.

 

Thank you in advance one more time!

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Totally an overkill.

Go for a smaller CPU and 4GB RAM MAX!!

DSM isn't that power hungry as FreeNAS.

Use a m-ITX architecture and mobo. The CPU should be an x86_64 one with low TDP.

Look at my configuration in the signature. It's still overkill. :wink:

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Agree with Schnapps; I just built the server in my sig and it's very responsive, even with a 1.1Ghz, passively cooled Celeron in it. Plex runs much faster than on my old HP Microserver running WHS2011, although that's not saying too much as it's an N36L.

 

BTW, the MSI C847MS-E33 was originally in a Home Theatre PC running PlexHT. I put a Gigabyte GA-J1800N-D2H motherboard in the HTPC moved the old one to the server. This saved me from buying a more expensive J1800/1900 board with 4x SATA ports at a relatively small sacrifice in performance and overall power draw (17W vs 10W TDP for the CPUs).

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Oh I do have one more question, when I decide to order everything...

 

What steps should I take to create the RAID 10 array?

 

a) I create the RAID 10 array from the onboard Intel Raid controller

or

b) I create the RAID 10 array from within DSM 5.0?

 

What is better? Probably through DSM, right?

 

Please confirm when you have the time, so I make the correct decision.

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I will have 5 or 6 PC's connected to the NAS for various reasons including an HTPC for streaming. Two of those PC's will send a full backup (~50GB and ~80GB) every 4 hours.

Therefor I am going for RAID 10.

 

So do I create the RAID 10 array from the Bios / Intel RAID, or through DSM?

 

//edit

 

Nevermind the link answers my question, I think. I have to configure the RAID 10 setup through DSM I guess.

Thank you!

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Fair enough, but I still don't see much point making the array that resilient without the rest of the system to match - have you considered other high availability technologies like ECC RAM, teamed NICs, redundant PSUs and HA clusters in your solution? RAID 10 isn't going to give you five 9's uptime on it's own you know.

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I have a spare dual intel nic and also a quad port (from my FreeNAS system).

I will purchase a UPS after I have sold my old (Free)NAS system.

 

Also it isn't for professional use, just some advanced "home"-usage. :wink:

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There are some how-tos on this forum but also on zpenology.nl helping you to create an xpenology virtual environment on Hyper-v or ESX.

The general recommendation is to use HDD pass through (RDM) to pass the HDDs to the NAS VM.

From DSM, you should create a RAID5/10 or SHR1/2 volume.

This because theoretically you could take those HDDs and move them to another host and VM or to another physical xpenology whitebox.

 

Good luck and come with feedback after here! :smile:

Cheers!

 

Victor

 

 

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The means of Xpenology is advanced home use or better said, "geek use".

 

Low knowledge users will just buy the original Syno and small business should do the same as they'll get support and stable solutions.

 

We geeks prefer to get our hands dirty and to admire ourselves after getting dirty but successful [emoji56]

 

 

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The irony for me is that Microsoft drove me to look at alternatives to Windows Server, like Xpenology by cancelling their Technet subscription service. Thank you Mr. Ballmer! :smile:

 

I hope Synology realize that by giving lots of techies the opportunity to play wtih DSM for free, they're going to get a lot more sales when those techies recommend Synology to their friends and families.

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