MannishBoy wrote:Rezzy wrote:How much are WHS licenses?
$50 :)
Tempting, but OEM. I'm not tied to this motherboard so that's a no-go for now.
Since the suggested solution to my user-creation issue involved script hacking and potential reinstall of the entire system I've said f*ck it and downloaded Ubuntu Server 11.04. If I'm going to be digging into code anyway I may as well get a full system out of it. Also mediatomb sounds interesting.
Currently installing.
You might look at the whs site. The used to let you download a version for trial. That was awhile back with the previous version.
That's GPT partitioning, which is used by all operating systems for new/big drives. It's a pain in the ass, but get used to it, because it's not going away. It's part of the EFI standard, so blame Intel, not the guy who wrote gdisk. It can work with regular BIOS systems, but it's hard to boot from -- there's a 'shadow' MBR partition scheme on the drive so that old software can find its way around, but it's not supposed to be modified.
Once everything is switched over, GPT won't cause any inherent pain. It works fine, but it'll be awkward for a few years yet.
If you're going to use FreeNAS you should investigate ZFS. You don't need to use RAID if you're using ZFS, it's all done in software and it protects against errors creeping into your data, it's pretty damn efficient but it is more complicated to configure and use than just plain RAID.
So I'm considering building a Home NAS for use as a more robust backup solution and to act as a media server for a Jailbroken Apple TV.
I don't want to use WHS 2011 as I have Linux & iOS devices that don't play well with WHS - not to mention the problems with how WHS 2011 no longer aggregates storage.
I had almost made up my mind to go with FreeNAS, but discovered just a while back that FreeNAS 8 does not have any media server support (that's listed for 8.1) and FreeNAS 7 no longer works with newer versions of iTunes. I've looked at Amahi and unRAID and of the two I'd prefer unRAID since it doesn't try to dumb down everything like Amahi does, but the cost and hardware-lock licensing makes me pause.
So what does GWJ recommend as an OS with good NAS & Media server support?
Anyone have any experience w/ Synology NAS units? I bought their base home model, a 2tb drive, and an external dock for a SATA drive today. I've been planning on something like this for a while, but dithered until I had some extra cash.
My plan is to use the nas to back up local machines and act as a media server. It also allows streaming my music as internet radio and has ios/android apps as well. I'll back up the nas to a local drive and keep a copy of the backup in my office drawer. If it all works as planned, I think I'll be able to drop AWS/Jungledisk as my backup/webstorage option and save myself the monthly fee.
According to this review, the Synology NAS uses the ext2 file system. So if there's ever a problem, you should be able to take the drive out and recover it from any machine running Linux as long as it doesn't do anything weird to your data.
I wonder why they chose ext2 instead of ext3 though.
Also, the tech specs are strange, they suggest that the unit is only compatible with two hard drives, but I'm sure that's not the case.
Also here's an odd quirk of the system:
Multiple computers can simultaneously access the server, however it cannot access the same folder simultaneously. Meaning that Computer A and Computer B can be logged into Account A and be using Folder A and Folder B (one computer each), but it will not actively share folders between two or more computers at the same time. Meaning that Computer A and Computer B cannot be accessing the Folder A at the same time.
Still loving the heck out of my unRaid install, FWIW. Now at 7TB, 12 drives and counting.
I'm looking into an easier way to keep some stuff backed up. To those with experience with the Drobo hardware, is there a big reason to go with the Drobo FS (5 Drives) vs the older Drobo with only four drives other than the extra storage? It's a fraction of the price and seems to accomplish the same thing and I don't actually need tons of storage. I can't even fill one 3TB drive right now. Throwing four in one of those things will be more than enough to keep me going for ages.
I'm looking into an easier way to keep some stuff backed up. To those with experience with the Drobo hardware, is there a big reason to go with the Drobo FS (5 Drives) vs the older Drobo with only four drives other than the extra storage? It's a fraction of the price and seems to accomplish the same thing and I don't actually need tons of storage. I can't even fill one 3TB drive right now. Throwing four in one of those things will be more than enough to keep me going for ages.
Isn't the FS model their NAS? The S model connects directly to a computer, while the FS model lives on the network. If you don't need network storage and just want to connect to a single PC, the S looks great. If you require access from multiple machines, want to stream media, or need other server-y services, the FS can do that.
There is a nice chart at the bottom of this amazon page that details their offerings.
Anyone have any experience w/ Synology NAS units? I bought their base home model, a 2tb drive, and an external dock for a SATA drive today. I've been planning on something like this for a while, but dithered until I had some extra cash.
My plan is to use the nas to back up local machines and act as a media server. It also allows streaming my music as internet radio and has ios/android apps as well. I'll back up the nas to a local drive and keep a copy of the backup in my office drawer. If it all works as planned, I think I'll be able to drop AWS/Jungledisk as my backup/webstorage option and save myself the monthly fee.
I've had a Synology unit , a 207, it's been working well for over 3 years now. I'm doing pretty much what you describe. I still use jungledisk for offsite backup of photos, though.
So if I put a bunch of video files on the Drobo S I can't just point PS3 Media Server to it and stream over the network from it through the PC it's connected to? I have to have the FS (and another $400) for that?
That works too, but the price premium for the S is because of the eSATA/FW800/USB3.0 interfaces. It also requires your host machine to be on whenever you want to stream from the Drobo as well, so there's that.
I'm honestly thinking about selling off my Drobo S and picking up an FS or a similar NAS just because it seems to make more sense for my own setup.
Still loving the heck out of my unRaid install, FWIW. Now at 7TB, 12 drives and counting. :-)
unRaid looks interesting. So you trade speed for data reliability basically?
That works too, but the price premium for the S is because of the eSATA/FW800/USB3.0 interfaces. It also requires your host machine to be on whenever you want to stream from the Drobo as well, so there's that.
I'm honestly thinking about selling off my Drobo S and picking up an FS or a similar NAS just because it seems to make more sense for my own setup.
My machine's always on anyway when I'm home. Cool that it'll work fine that way though. Time to save some money for one. Thanks
Minarchist wrote:Still loving the heck out of my unRaid install, FWIW. Now at 7TB, 12 drives and counting. :-)
unRaid looks interesting. So you trade speed for data reliability basically?
It's certainly very reliable, but I dunno about trading speed. Writing happens at a relatively low 11MB/sec or so, but I get reads in excess of 80MB/s, more than enough to stream a 40GB blu-ray without needing buffering. I've further sped up writing by adding a cache drive, which will store your writes until a set time each night (default is 3 AM) and then write them to the array. They're obviously unprotected during this time, so if you have a documents folder or something you really want to skip the cache drive you can set that up.
The big selling points for me were (a) I could build it from parts I had laying around, (b) I could mix and match drive capacities and manufacturers all the way up to 16 drives (!), and (c) it has a decent front-end so I don't need to learn linux. So far it's been rock-solid, and the guys on the forum give great support for troubleshooting and further customization.
Did you consider Amahi? I'm strongly considering this as an alternative to FreeNAS. It runs on top of a Fedora (or Red Hat?) installation, but there is also an alpha for Ubuntu.
I am considering Amahi pretty strongly as well. I'm not too happy with their "buy space-bucks to get apps" approach and since Fedora is the preferred distro, I would have to give up on my plan of using ZFS and stick with EXT4. Apart from those nits, it's seems like a great fit.
The other option I'm thinking of is to use Ubuntu Server - I would lose some of the plug & play that comes with Amahi (esp. for storage management) but I'm familiar administering Linux servers so it shouldn't be too difficult, plus I'll get to use ZFS.
Did you consider Amahi? I'm strongly considering this as an alternative to FreeNAS. It runs on top of a Fedora (or Red Hat?) installation, but there is also an alpha for Ubuntu.
So I was looking at the Amahi FAQ and it turns out that all folder sharing is done via Samba, which is uniformly panned as a bad choice for large file transfers (The Amahi FAQ itself mentions that transfers will top out at 10 MB/sec on a GigE network, which sounds terrible).
PS: NFS is supported, but UI level support is at Alpha level and reading forum threads suggests it's not a priority for the developers just yet.
I'm still going back and forth on the Ubuntu Server Ed. vs Amahi decision. Here's what I know so far:
Ubuntu Server Edition
- DHCP needs conf file editing
- DNS needs conf file editing (part of DHCP)
- RAID Array will be using the Gnome Disk Utility (ZFS can be added via a repo)
- Folder sharing can use NFS, but needs conf file editing
- Music Streaming - for better features, use forked-daapd but it needs to be built from tarball
- Movies/TV - Use Plex on the NAS and AppleTV
- Backup - Amanda on the NAS, Windows PC's & Linux PC's. Mac's are limited to SMB shares
Amahi
- DHCP is done via Web UI
- DNS is via Web UI (part of DHCP)
- RAID Array will be using the Gnome Disk Utility (ZFS can be added via a repo). There's also a kludgy Amahi-only solution called Grayhole that can work with different-sized disks.
- Folder sharing is SMB-only, but comes with a UI
- Music Streaming - AmahiTunes is reskinned mt-daapd, which has zero support.
- Movies/TV - XBMC Install at Fedora level and XBMC Client on AppleTV
- Backup - Amanda on the NAS, Windows PC's & Linux PC's. Mac's are limited to SMB shares
Anyone want to help me make up my mind?
avggeek wrote:I'm still going back and forth on the Ubuntu Server Ed. vs Amahi decision. Here's what I know so far:/
I installed WebMin on my Ubuntu Server to give me remote GUI access to pretty much all the important configurations. Made things a lot easier.
I can't believe I forgot about WebMin! That takes care of the GUI for things like DHCP & NFS plus I don't need to worry about security since the server is behind a gateway. Ubuntu Server it is then!
So you're still using Ubuntu to drive it, you just changed the storage mechanism? Or is it a standalone unit of some kind?
Oh, sure. Local storage is usually going to be much faster than networked storage, especially if it's RAIDed. Network wires are pretty skinny pipes compared to multiple SATA channels.
And you can share it from within Windows, so you get at least the basic filesharing that Ubuntu offers... the numerous other services are harder to set up, but filesharing is easy. It's much faster locally, and about the same speed as on any server for everyone else.
What you primarily lose is the ability to move your storage into another room for quiet. You also lose some ability to abstract your storage away from your main workstation; a rebuild on that machine means no file services on the network until you get it restored. It's much less common to rebuild a Linux box.
Anyone have experience with this?
I don't have an in-home NAS at the moment, but I realized with 3 pcs and several mobile devices now I'd really like to centrally back up video, photos, and OS images.
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