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psipsyOnce again I'm making yet another attempt at a server. The previous version was just a Windows desktop with a pile of hard drives stuffed in it and set to Shared. This time, I'm working with FreeNAS. What makes that different is that it's really stripped down and tuned to do one thing: Be a server. In fact, once it's setup and running, it doesn't need a mouse/keyboard/monitor attached. Power, ethernet, that's it.
My current method for storing files or moving them around between computers is either by external hard drives, or setting folders to Shared, or depositing files on a USB stick that I have plugged into the router. And that kinda works, with some risks and limitations. Such as it requires all of the computers involved to be on and have their own pile of hard drives at the ready, and the router limits how big of a volume it will see in its USB ports. Also, when it comes to moving data via external drives, I've found that the diciest points are when initially connecting it and when disconnecting it, because sometimes the host computer will not see the connected drive, or decides it's still using that hard drive and won't let it eject without a messy fight. (Both Windows and OSX are guilty of this.) There's also the requirement for each destination computer to have a rat's nest of assorted cables and power adapters for externals to be of value. So yeah, plenty of room for improvement.
Where did I put this thing? Currently it's sitting on a shelf in the basement. That's a valid idea, because it was easier than I thought to run an ethernet cable from my router through the wall and down into the basement, and from there, have it go wherever it needs to. Flooding is not a concern, as I live on a slope at the top of a hill, and the garage is a few inches below basement level, so any water that would get in the basement would flow right back out. By the time a water level would reach where the server sits, I would have far bigger concerns on my hands and all of my efforts and priorities would be focused on my own self-preservation.
Anyway. The local MicroCenter had some computer parts on closeout sale, as they often do. One of the items was a SuperMicro motherboard for $50. As a bonus, when buying a motherboard and CPU as a bundle from there, they often take $30 off the motherboard, even when it's already heavily discounted. So I ended up getting it for $20. The CPU was one generation newer, but it uses the same socket, so it should work, right?
Wrong! The board I picked had firmware from two years ago and wouldn't recognize the CPU. I ended up borrowing a similar-but-slightly-older CPU from another computer in order to get the thing running just enough to update the firmware. See, if I had plunked down a few extra pesos, I could have either gotten a newer board or an Asus board (what I usually get) which can do its own updates, even if there's no CPU or RAM installed. Or a newer Asus board. But! This board I chose did eventually work, after playing 3-card monte with the CPUs. And it does support up to 64GB of RAM, which is important for a FreeNAS system. The current version won't install if it doesn't see at least 8GB, which puts many of my older systems out of reach.
Then I had to face the fact that in the face of the cost of the hard drives, the cost of the host hardware is negligible and my frugality may have been in vain. 6TB hard drives are going for about $200-240 each, 8-10TB drives are going for between $300-400, SAS drives tend to cost more than their SATA brethren, and the HBA card can directly handle 8 drives by itself, so yeah, it can add up fast. Oh, and many consumer hard drives were designed to work with only one or two other drives in the same enclosure, and not clustered with half a dozen others in a RAID colony. See also: CCTL and TLER.
I'm planning on a mirrored array, even if it means I lose half the total space to redundancy. And that's ok. Another benefit is that having mirrored drives simplifies things now and later on. I don't need all 8 drives installed at the start, instead I can add mirrored pairs as I go and add them to the pool. The question becomes: How much is the data worth in comparison to the cost of the hard drives? Granted, much of the data is simply downloaded anime, but a lot of it is fairly old and no longer obtainable, by either legal means or otherwise. The pictures I've taken over the years? That takes up more room than I thought. My music library? That's getting close to 1TB by itself. How about backup images of the desktops and laptops? Those have saved my ass more than a couple times, and would be better on a proper server instead of an external drive that I may or may not find.
So now, I have FreeNAS running from an M.2 SSD and a mirrored pair of 4TB drives. Everything seems to see the folder and any files I put on it so far. So far so good. I initially tried it with a USB stick, made sure the whole thing would work, and thought going to the M.2 would make it boot faster. It does but not by much. Oh well. The plus side of that is SSD memory is generally more reliable than what's in USB sticks, it frees up a port (not like I was going to use the M.2 slot for anything else), and config transfers are a breeze.
FreeNAS works with the HBA card. And it should, given what the software is designed for. If it didn't work with that, I'd be back to square one. Then again I'm not surprised that it did work; every Linux distro I've worked with saw that card natively, and Windows 7 sees it after installing the driver for it.
So what do I gain from having a server at all? It centralizes my files, gives them some redundancy and error correction, it takes storage load off of the desktops and laptops, I won't have to search through a bunch of older hard drives (I lost count of how many I have) to look for files, and there are likely more benefits that will become apparent.
This probably won't be the final form. Aside from the HBA card and the planned mix of hard drives, it's still using primarily consumer-grade hardware. If/when there's a Version 3, it will use almost all enterprise-grade hardware.
I'll see how this goes.
My current method for storing files or moving them around between computers is either by external hard drives, or setting folders to Shared, or depositing files on a USB stick that I have plugged into the router. And that kinda works, with some risks and limitations. Such as it requires all of the computers involved to be on and have their own pile of hard drives at the ready, and the router limits how big of a volume it will see in its USB ports. Also, when it comes to moving data via external drives, I've found that the diciest points are when initially connecting it and when disconnecting it, because sometimes the host computer will not see the connected drive, or decides it's still using that hard drive and won't let it eject without a messy fight. (Both Windows and OSX are guilty of this.) There's also the requirement for each destination computer to have a rat's nest of assorted cables and power adapters for externals to be of value. So yeah, plenty of room for improvement.
Where did I put this thing? Currently it's sitting on a shelf in the basement. That's a valid idea, because it was easier than I thought to run an ethernet cable from my router through the wall and down into the basement, and from there, have it go wherever it needs to. Flooding is not a concern, as I live on a slope at the top of a hill, and the garage is a few inches below basement level, so any water that would get in the basement would flow right back out. By the time a water level would reach where the server sits, I would have far bigger concerns on my hands and all of my efforts and priorities would be focused on my own self-preservation.
Anyway. The local MicroCenter had some computer parts on closeout sale, as they often do. One of the items was a SuperMicro motherboard for $50. As a bonus, when buying a motherboard and CPU as a bundle from there, they often take $30 off the motherboard, even when it's already heavily discounted. So I ended up getting it for $20. The CPU was one generation newer, but it uses the same socket, so it should work, right?
Wrong! The board I picked had firmware from two years ago and wouldn't recognize the CPU. I ended up borrowing a similar-but-slightly-older CPU from another computer in order to get the thing running just enough to update the firmware. See, if I had plunked down a few extra pesos, I could have either gotten a newer board or an Asus board (what I usually get) which can do its own updates, even if there's no CPU or RAM installed. Or a newer Asus board. But! This board I chose did eventually work, after playing 3-card monte with the CPUs. And it does support up to 64GB of RAM, which is important for a FreeNAS system. The current version won't install if it doesn't see at least 8GB, which puts many of my older systems out of reach.
Then I had to face the fact that in the face of the cost of the hard drives, the cost of the host hardware is negligible and my frugality may have been in vain. 6TB hard drives are going for about $200-240 each, 8-10TB drives are going for between $300-400, SAS drives tend to cost more than their SATA brethren, and the HBA card can directly handle 8 drives by itself, so yeah, it can add up fast. Oh, and many consumer hard drives were designed to work with only one or two other drives in the same enclosure, and not clustered with half a dozen others in a RAID colony. See also: CCTL and TLER.
I'm planning on a mirrored array, even if it means I lose half the total space to redundancy. And that's ok. Another benefit is that having mirrored drives simplifies things now and later on. I don't need all 8 drives installed at the start, instead I can add mirrored pairs as I go and add them to the pool. The question becomes: How much is the data worth in comparison to the cost of the hard drives? Granted, much of the data is simply downloaded anime, but a lot of it is fairly old and no longer obtainable, by either legal means or otherwise. The pictures I've taken over the years? That takes up more room than I thought. My music library? That's getting close to 1TB by itself. How about backup images of the desktops and laptops? Those have saved my ass more than a couple times, and would be better on a proper server instead of an external drive that I may or may not find.
So now, I have FreeNAS running from an M.2 SSD and a mirrored pair of 4TB drives. Everything seems to see the folder and any files I put on it so far. So far so good. I initially tried it with a USB stick, made sure the whole thing would work, and thought going to the M.2 would make it boot faster. It does but not by much. Oh well. The plus side of that is SSD memory is generally more reliable than what's in USB sticks, it frees up a port (not like I was going to use the M.2 slot for anything else), and config transfers are a breeze.
FreeNAS works with the HBA card. And it should, given what the software is designed for. If it didn't work with that, I'd be back to square one. Then again I'm not surprised that it did work; every Linux distro I've worked with saw that card natively, and Windows 7 sees it after installing the driver for it.
So what do I gain from having a server at all? It centralizes my files, gives them some redundancy and error correction, it takes storage load off of the desktops and laptops, I won't have to search through a bunch of older hard drives (I lost count of how many I have) to look for files, and there are likely more benefits that will become apparent.
This probably won't be the final form. Aside from the HBA card and the planned mix of hard drives, it's still using primarily consumer-grade hardware. If/when there's a Version 3, it will use almost all enterprise-grade hardware.
I'll see how this goes.
