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Installing FreeNAS on my QNAP TS-459

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Re: Installing FreeNAS on my QNAP TS-459

#11

Post by pmiller2 »

nicolaslem wrote: post #2

I was surprised that there are very few PC cases made for small NAS. So this solution of buying a consumer product and installing FreeNAS on it makes sense.

This wasn't really a case of buying the hardware with the intention of installing another OS on it, though. The author had the QNAP for 4 years, running their OS on it, and decided to install FreeNAS when rebuilding.

That said, I'm surprised that they explicitly support installing Linux -- the post links a QNAP wiki page that explicitly uses the phrase "supported hardware" when describing which machines their guide to installing Debian works for. The case itself is pretty high quality for the purpose (no surprise), but I don't think I'd buy one just to wipe the custom OS and install my own on it. If it were me, I'd probably hop on over to r/DataHoarder, search there, and maybe make a "recommend me a case" post if I didn't find anything interesting.

I'd really love to do a NAS project with a Raspberry Pi, but the lack of SATA support really does it in as a base for a NAS system, IMO. If you're just going to connect everything over USB anyway, what's even the point of the Pi? Just buy one of those dumb external enclosures that holds 4+ drives.

Re: Installing FreeNAS on my QNAP TS-459

#12

Post by rufius »

Interesting.

I have a TVS-471 that I run the default QNAP OS on. That said, I only use it for typical NAS workloads like:

- serving media - file storage - device backup - off-site backup

I recently started using the Hybrid Backup Station app and have been pretty impressed. I’ve got three jobs - Multimedia, Photos, and Archive backup. They all go to BackBlaze B2 on slightly different schedules.

Been really pleased with it. That said, I do find the UI a little clunky so I can see why the author chose an alternative for their use case.

I’ve got a cheap $150 NUC I use for more typical *nix server stuff that sits next to the NAS. It mostly runs an unbound DNS Forwarder for now but I plan to expand its usage further.

Re: Installing FreeNAS on my QNAP TS-459

#14

Post by funkaster »

pmiller2 wrote: post #11
nicolaslem wrote: post #2

I was surprised that there are very few PC cases made for small NAS. So this solution of buying a consumer product and installing FreeNAS on it makes sense.

This wasn't really a case of buying the hardware with the intention of installing another OS on it, though. The author had the QNAP for 4 years, running their OS on it, and decided to install FreeNAS when rebuilding. That said, I'm surprised that they explicitly support installing Linux -- the post links a QNAP wiki page that explicitly uses the phrase "supported hardware" when describing which machines their guide t…

I used a rockpro64[0] with an off the shelf PCIe SATA card for my home NAS (4x4TB disks). So far I'm extremely happy with it (using it for almost 8 months). The rockpro is running debian/ZFS.

[0]: https://www.pine64.org/rockpro64/

Re: Installing FreeNAS on my QNAP TS-459

#15

Post by teejmya »

vetinari wrote: post #9
rjsw wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An HP microServer has a fairly small case.

HP microserver doesn't have drive hotswap. The first time you find out your drive is dying, you really want it.

You're correct that it doesn't support hotswappable drives out of the box. But there is a BIOS firmware floating around for the AMD generation microservers that lets you hotswap drives. (I've been running FreeNAS on an AMD microserver for a few years now.)

Re: Installing FreeNAS on my QNAP TS-459

#16

Post by FullyFunctional »

ksec wrote: post #13

Qnap actually has a new OS called Hero Edition that uses ZFS by default, coming in Q3. https://www.qnap.com/quts-hero/en/

Why not support the company that actually supports the development of ZFS instead? I don't know anything about Qnap but FreeNAS has a wealth of robust functionality. I'd be curious as to why people would prefer Qnap?

Re: Installing FreeNAS on my QNAP TS-459

#17

Post by tra3 »

funkaster wrote: post #14
pmiller2 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This wasn't really a case of buying the hardware with the intention of installing another OS on it, though. The author had the QNAP for 4 years, running their OS on it, and decided to install FreeNAS when rebuilding. That said, I'm surprised that they explicitly support installing Linux -- the post links a QNAP wiki page that explicitly uses the phrase "supported hardware" when describing which machines their guide t…

I used a rockpro64[0] with an off the shelf PCIe SATA card for my home NAS (4x4TB disks). So far I'm extremely happy with it (using it for almost 8 months). The rockpro is running debian/ZFS. [0]: https://www.pine64.org/rockpro64/

Cool!

Does it require a custom kernel?

Re: Installing FreeNAS on my QNAP TS-459

#18

Post by amenod »

vetinari wrote: post #9
rjsw wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An HP microServer has a fairly small case.

HP microserver doesn't have drive hotswap. The first time you find out your drive is dying, you really want it.

Curious: why? Can't you simply shut down the NAS^wmicroserver and replace the failing drive then? (assuming the downtime is not a problem, which is probably the case with most home NAS installations)

Re: Installing FreeNAS on my QNAP TS-459

#19

Post by zenonu »

FullyFunctional wrote: post #16
ksec wrote: post #13

Qnap actually has a new OS called Hero Edition that uses ZFS by default, coming in Q3. https://www.qnap.com/quts-hero/en/

Why not support the company that actually supports the development of ZFS instead? I don't know anything about Qnap but FreeNAS has a wealth of robust functionality. I'd be curious as to why people would prefer Qnap?

Looking at FreeNAS's page, it's all "Get Quote" nonsense for anything rack mounted. Needs a system configuration page with prices to play around with.

Re: Installing FreeNAS on my QNAP TS-459

#20

Post by linsomniac »

RAID drive fails, "I regretted installing ClamAV".

Don't regret it! It allowed you to find a drive failure before a second drive failed, and allowed you to recover your data while it was still recoverable! This is a good thing!

Archival data is a tricky problem. If you don't regularly read it, you may find that when you do need to read it, that the sector has suffered some bit rot. What's one of the most likely cases where you have to read archived data? When a hard drive fails and RAID is doing a rebuild...

So, by all means, run a ClamAV scan! Or better yet, run a ZFS scrub monthly or so. I've been a huge fan of ZFS for my archive data, mostly historic photos and Google takeout data now, because it can detect silent corruption and can do scrubs to verify and repair any hard drives sectors that have problems.

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