tri_94 Posted October 3, 2012 Author Posted October 3, 2012 Does that server have onboard raid ? or does freenas do software raid?
Guest Guest Posted October 3, 2012 Posted October 3, 2012 and i assume that i stream to ps3 and ipad etc from freenas ? How? PS3 is assume uses DLNA so that's no issue (most OS's support it) but what do you mean stream to ipad? What protocol? Power wise I'd guestemate a prebuilt NAS and the microserver will be very similar - theres plenty of info on the net. The main thing thing here will be the hard drives, their power consumption and how you set up sleep policies.
Arthur Posted October 3, 2012 Posted October 3, 2012 Does that server have onboard raid? The HP Microserver doesn't have a proper hardware RAID controller. RAID-Z in FreeNAS would be a much better choice, but make sure you buy plenty of RAM (ECC is recommended for ZFS-based NAS's).
tri_94 Posted October 3, 2012 Author Posted October 3, 2012 How? PS3 is assume uses DNLA so that's no issue but what do you mean stream to ipad? What protocol? Power wise I'd guestemate a prebuilt NAS and the microserver will be very similar - theres plenty of info on the net. The main thing thing here will be the hard drives, their power consumption and how you set up sleep policies. As for the Ipad not sure what protocol? i know its possible to stream music via itunes on a pc. so i assume that must be simlar for videos and pictures. if not i guess if i was to stick itunes on the server if could wireless sync. can you suggest how to setup sleep policies? thanks
tri_94 Posted October 3, 2012 Author Posted October 3, 2012 The HP Microserver doesn't have a proper hardware RAID controller. RAID-Z in FreeNAS would be a much better choice, but make sure you buy plenty of RAM (ECC is recommended for ZFS-based NAS's). sorry whats raid-z ?
Arthur Posted October 3, 2012 Posted October 3, 2012 (edited) sorry what's raid-z? Software RAID that uses the ZFS file-system. ZFS is designed to be extremely reliable (much more so than RAID-5). Edited October 3, 2012 by Arthur
Guest Guest Posted October 3, 2012 Posted October 3, 2012 (edited) As for the Ipad not sure what protocol? i know its possible to stream music via itunes on a pc. so i assume that must be simlar for videos and pictures. if not i guess if i was to stick itunes on the server if could wireless sync. can you suggest how to setup sleep policies? thanks Sleep - when do you want the HD to sleep? After 10 minutes of inactivity, never... Probably 10 minutes will be a sweet spot but then that will depend on how you use it. http://lagesse.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/fn22.png You could also look at sleeping the server when you are not in the house/in bed. Theres plenty of ways to use android/ios to send a WOL command to the server triggered by connection to your home WIFI. Therefore when you come home from work the server will be waking up ready for use. QNAP looks like it has a nice IOS app which will probably be hard to beat for ease of use and setup. Is your ipad jailbroken? Get a SMB/NFS client (Does it need to be jailbroken to install a SMB/NFS client?) If you get a microserver just stick windows on and install itunes... But for rock solid stability personally I always go linux/BSD (freenas is BSD). I would trust linux RAID but windows... probably not. Edited October 3, 2012 by Guest
Guest Guest Posted October 3, 2012 Posted October 3, 2012 Software RAID that uses the ZFS file-system. ZFS is designed to be extremely reliable (much more so than RAID-5). Second this. ZFS is by far the best filesystem imo. Compression alone makes it worth learning. Basically the filesystem is compressed which, given that hard drives are by far the biggest bottleneck, means you get better IO and more space too.
Geoff Posted October 3, 2012 Posted October 3, 2012 You can stream from FreeNAS 8.2 and up (via a plugin) using DAAP to iphones/ipods/ipads etc. FreeNAS - Browse /FreeNAS-8.2.0/RELEASE/x64/plugins at SourceForge.net
sted Posted October 3, 2012 Posted October 3, 2012 sorry whats raid-z ? linux software raid the microserver does have raid but its software raid 0/1 (web page setup allows 10 but dont use it it disappears after a reboot)
tri_94 Posted October 3, 2012 Author Posted October 3, 2012 is the Hewlett Packard ProLiant N40L Microserver - 658553-421 64bit ?
mavhc Posted October 4, 2012 Posted October 4, 2012 RAID Z is RAID Z1, which is ZFS's version of RAID 5, RAID Z2 being RAID 6. Is ZFS's recommendation for ECC ram because it needs it more than for any other server system?
Nick_Parker Posted October 4, 2012 Posted October 4, 2012 We've been using an 8TB Buffalo Terastation and truth me told, not that impressed
SYNACK Posted October 4, 2012 Posted October 4, 2012 Use a qnap unit or if building your own go for an atom or other low power CPU with high efficiency cpu. Building your own is easy enough but can burn many times the power at idle let alone when they are doing something. Seagate is really good for limited operation NAS boxes and can be really cheap with included drives, netgear, dlink etc are all low level consumer grade stuff that is likely to let you down.
3s-gtech Posted October 4, 2012 Posted October 4, 2012 We've been using an 8TB Buffalo Terastation and truth me told, not that impressed Don't think I've ever heard anyone impressed with Buffalo stuff! We have a few Terastations around the place for various backups. Most okay, though HDD death seems to occur too frequently, and they can be properly slow. Tried an Iomega instead (4 bay) which I like. Hoping to get an N40L soon as the cashback offer is on again, to try as an all-rounder (may give it a shot as a virtual host).
tmcd35 Posted October 5, 2012 Posted October 5, 2012 Second this. ZFS is by far the best filesystem imo. Compression alone makes it worth learning. Basically the filesystem is compressed which, given that hard drives are by far the biggest bottleneck, means you get better IO and more space too. That's an interesting statement. I thought HD sizes had stopped being a bottleneck/problem years ago. 1Tb drives aren't exactly expensive, and if we are talking 4 disk RAID arrays then 3-6Tb of storage space is not out of this world. Even with movie files - that's a lot of storage. Also, if your primary purpose is movie streaming I would have thought additional compression is the last thing you'd want in a file system? And better IO while the CPU has to decompress the files? Admittedly I've not looked too deeply into ZFS, but that does sound counter-intuitive to me.
Guest Guest Posted October 5, 2012 Posted October 5, 2012 That's an interesting statement. I thought HD sizes had stopped being a bottleneck/problem years ago. 1Tb drives aren't exactly expensive, and if we are talking 4 disk RAID arrays then 3-6Tb of storage space is not out of this world. Even with movie files - that's a lot of storage. Also, if your primary purpose is movie streaming I would have thought additional compression is the last thing you'd want in a file system? And better IO while the CPU has to decompress the files? Admittedly I've not looked too deeply into ZFS, but that does sound counter-intuitive to me. No no, the bottle neck is in the IO paths from platter to CPU. With modern CPUs being infinitely more powerful than what is required 99% of the time the idea is to maximize the amount of data which is travelling on the IO paths ie compressed, and then let the CPU open it back up. I agree at first glance it doesn't make sense but it works, and works well. If data compression (LZJB) is enabled, variable block sizes are used. If a block can be compressed to fit into a smaller block size, the smaller size is used on the disk to use less storage and improve IO throughput (though at the cost of increased CPU use for the compression and decompression operations). Theres plenty of info out there. You do have to make sure your CPU is up to it but any server CPU will be. Atom, probably not.
tmcd35 Posted October 5, 2012 Posted October 5, 2012 Theres plenty of info out there. You do have to make sure your CPU is up to it but any server CPU will be. Atom, probably not. Mmm, I see, makes sense now. But it does mean, as you say, spending more on CPU and RAM to support the compression/decompression. Still not sure it'd be my first choice for a streaming movie server. Personnally I'd use FAT32 (I know, I know), guaranteed to open up on any OS, no compression, fairly basic, and reasonably fast. I think, on a NAS box, I'd prefer the RAID to be in hardware but again that adds to cost over software RAID.
Guest Guest Posted October 5, 2012 Posted October 5, 2012 Mmm, I see, makes sense now. But it does mean, as you say, spending more on CPU and RAM to support the compression/decompression. Still not sure it'd be my first choice for a streaming movie server. Personnally I'd use FAT32 (I know, I know), guaranteed to open up on any OS, no compression, fairly basic, and reasonably fast. I think, on a NAS box, I'd prefer the RAID to be in hardware but again that adds to cost over software RAID. TBF my comment wasn't really aimed at the home use, just a general comment on why I like ZFS. FAT32 would be no good unless you have no files over 4gb and the volume size is under 2TB, both of which I go well over. Hardware vs Software RAID is a funny one. Your instinct is to go for hardware but what about if the controller dies? Can you still buy the same controller years later? If not you may lose all your data. Software raid doesn't care what controller its on. In fact the server at my parents house has just died, haven't had a chance to look at why (probably PSU) but it really doesn't matter as all I have to do is pop the HDs in a different PC and they should be recognised as a RAID array.
tri_94 Posted October 5, 2012 Author Posted October 5, 2012 Hi there again, right if i'm looking at a build my own using the HP micro sever, anything i need to know / do. and what is the best platform fat32 ntfs etc ? Freenas? and anything else ?
Guest Guest Posted October 5, 2012 Posted October 5, 2012 All the info is in this thread. If it's all going over your head just use windows. Losing years worth of photos etc because you don't understand the OS/FS/etc would be a killer.
tmcd35 Posted October 5, 2012 Posted October 5, 2012 FAT32 would be no good unless you have no files over 4gb and the volume size is under 2TB, both of which I go well over. This is true, and certainly an issue if you are looking to store 3D movies, or some HD Blu-Ray stuff. Problem is I've yet to find a universal alternative to FAT32. NTFS is close but the drivers on Mac/Linux are not the best. I suppose, if you are sharing directly from the NAS either as standard block level file sharing or DLNA uPNP Media Server, then the file format on the drives shouldn't matter.
Guest Guest Posted October 5, 2012 Posted October 5, 2012 This is true, and certainly an issue if you are looking to store 3D movies, or some HD Blu-Ray stuff. Problem is I've yet to find a universal alternative to FAT32. NTFS is close but the drivers on Mac/Linux are not the best. I suppose, if you are sharing directly from the NAS either as standard block level file sharing or DLNA uPNP Media Server, then the file format on the drives shouldn't matter. Yep, that's one of the reasons to use linux; good support for smb and NFS which gets you windows, mac and linux access. Then DLNA etc for your TVs etc (although I personally hate DLNA as it doesn't honour folder structures)
tri_94 Posted October 5, 2012 Author Posted October 5, 2012 Software RAID that uses the ZFS file-system. ZFS is designed to be extremely reliable (much more so than RAID-5). so if i use ZFS can i not have raid 5?
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