If you are looking for something like this, try unraid.net. you can run docker templates and plugins, easily add storage and has a friendly community.
FreeNAS
41–48 of 48 posts
Re: FreeNAS
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm very happy with Synology aswell. If you still want to use your own hardware there is stuff like this https://xpenology.org/ I have rarely seen such a feature rich software. And all of it works pretty solid aswell.
I don't think any product has consistently paralyzed my brain as the Synology. Every time i think about buying one i get stuck in a loop on which device to pick and eventually just give up.
I understand your experience. It was only after time spent comparing models that I found that a slightly easier way (which may not work for you or anyone else) is to figure out three things:
- start with the number of drive bays you’d like to have (Synology has a good calculator page you can use to figure out different configurations, if you wish to go that deep).
- the model year you’d prefer (newer, older, etc.). This is part of the model (like DSx17 is from 2017, DSy18 is from 2018).
- and if you prefer an Intel CPU or a non-x86/ARM CPU (this decides what kind of additional software you can find or run easily).
This is still a lot of work, but breaking it down helps.
Re: FreeNAS
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
Somewhat depends. Scrubbing is about detecting bit rot. You need to make sure that all of your data is periodically accessed so that zfs can check for errors. You can accomplish this either by having a workload which touches all of your data on a regular basis or by scrubbing. Depends on your setup.
Scrubbing is still preferable though, as normal reads won't cause every copy of the metadata to be read. Likewise, on a mirrored pair of disks, a given block of file content will only be read from one disk. (That is, since the file content is verified using checksums contained in the metadata, we don't need to read the file data back from both disks, so they can be used to service read requests independently of one a…
All good points, especially about mirrors.
Re: FreeNAS
#44If you are looking for something like this, try unraid.net. you can run docker templates and plugins, easily add storage and has a friendly community.
not the same, as it isn't free :)
Re: FreeNAS
#45I looked at running FreeNAS, but it didn't make any sense to me. I can put as many hard drives as I want in a cheap PC with a ryzen cpu and run samba. It takes maybe 5 minutes to set up, and then you also have a distro of your choosing to use as a server. FreeNAS probably makes sense if you're an industry IT person and you want to make sure anyone in the future can figure out how to admin the thing. That's probably g…
I don't get this comment. You can use a cheap PC with ryzen and run samba on FreeNas. It seems to me you are mixing up what 'FreeNas mini' and 'FreeNAS Freebsd-based OS'.
What I'm saying is that the cost of being on a non-standard distro is greater than the benefit the freenas UI provides. Even if you want to run RAID, it's one or two commands with mdadm. FreeBSD and ZFS makes everything more complicated than it needs to be.
Re: FreeNAS
#46I looked at running FreeNAS, but it didn't make any sense to me. I can put as many hard drives as I want in a cheap PC with a ryzen cpu and run samba. It takes maybe 5 minutes to set up, and then you also have a distro of your choosing to use as a server. FreeNAS probably makes sense if you're an industry IT person and you want to make sure anyone in the future can figure out how to admin the thing. That's probably g…
I also looked at it a few years ago when I last rebuilt my media server, and ultimately decided the same. I now run SnapRAID [1] with mergerfs [2] and for my use, it's got many benefits over zfs and normal raid setups: I could start from my existing volumes, without having to move any files. I can use my random bunch of varying size disks purchased over several years, and add as needed. I tend to buy a new drive ever…
I actually use RAID6 with mdadm, and it's also portable to different machines. I was kind of surprised the first time I moved the array to a new machine and it all just worked.
Re: FreeNAS
#47I ran FreeNAS for a while. After spending a fair bit time learning about it and asking questions, it was explained to me that ZFS required a lot of regular maintenance, care and feeding. It was about this time that I decided to move over to a more consumer solution and bought a Synology. I liked the ideal of open source, self managed systems, but I got tired of being my own network admin, and IT.
Same here, I ran FreeNAS for 3+ years ZFS and all that. After having a drive die, replacing the wrong drive, trying to recover and loosing all the data (I had a 2month old drive in a Bank safe so was able to recover) but after that I switch to Synology that provides a nice blinking light for the failed drive, auto updating OS, surveillance, plex, etc I never looked back. Since then I've bought at least 10 more for work and family. Sure a drive dies every few years but w/ RAID6 and Amazon a swap is 2 days away click repair move on. Coupled w/ B2 cloud backup I never worry about data loss anymore. Synology is an appliance, FreeNAS was a pet, at this point in my life I don't have time for Pets.
Re: FreeNAS
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wait, ZFS requires maintenance? I’ve been running freenas for years and have deployed/ran ZFS solutions as part of my job for a decade- this is the first I’m learning about that, it’s usually set and forget. Am I just a bad admin?
Somewhat depends. Scrubbing is about detecting bit rot. You need to make sure that all of your data is periodically accessed so that zfs can check for errors. You can accomplish this either by having a workload which touches all of your data on a regular basis or by scrubbing. Depends on your setup.
I added `zpool scrub tank` to cron once a week.