ZFS NAS Homeserver Part 1: Hardware build

Part2!! • ZFS NAS Homeserver Par...
this is my new fileserver build. I choose cheap quality desktop hardware for the build. The FD ARC midi case has good cooling with large fans and dust filters. The asus motherboard has support upto 64gb memory. And the motherboard has pci-e 4x for the HP quad nic and pci-e 16x for later upgrades like a IBM M1015 8 port controller. The triple core was only 15 euro more then the dual core amd cpu and it has video chip in the cpu so its called APU. The 5x seagate hardisk will be in ZFS RaidZ2 so 2 harddisk can fail before i loose my array.(like raid6). And the ssd will be ZFS L2ARC cache.
With this build i have enough possibilities for future upgrades. Most likely more harddisks and an extra disk controller.
Why didn't u use a second hand system? The only older system i have with sata is a Q6600 with 8gb of memory. Which use a lot more power and only supports upto 8gb of memory. Which is the minimum for a large ZFS build.
The OS will be ZFSGURU which is based on Freebsd 9.1
www.zfsguru.com
Case: Fractal Design ARC midi 77 euro
Motherboard: Asus F1A75-M 67 euro
APU: AMD A6 3500 2.1ghz triple core 60 euro
Memory: Corsair 16gb kit 2x8gb 1333mhz 87 euro
Powersupply: Corsair GS500 57 euro
SSD: Samsung 830 128gb 95 euro
Storage: 5x 3TB Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 143 euro
Nic: HP NC364T Quad port gbit 100 euro used
348 euro for the base system
100 euro for the network card
810 euro for the storage
Total 1258 euro
I like to hear feedback on my configuration. So please place a comment what do you think about this setup! :-)
Music by: Graphiqs Groove
Deep Sky Blue
Reed Gray
website graphiqsgroove:
graphiqsgroove.blog46.fc2.com/
album:
freemusicarchive.org/music/Gra...

[@Derwood5555]

Nice setup. I built my own fileserver a few years ago using an AMD 720 board with 6 SATA ports, a dual core Athlon running FreeBSD. Today, the same machine is still running, and has a SansDigital 8 bay enclosure added to it. I've got about 14TB in disk. I'm running FreeBSD 9-STABLE. ZFS is great.

[@maxboostedsupra]

Awesome build video. Nice call on Graphiqs.

[@jeremyhle]

Is 16gb of ram too much for a file server? Or is it a good amount if I'm going to be streaming HD video too

[@victorbart]

What kind of file system is on the 2tb disks?

[@victorbart]

Good tip! i will put it in part2. I started to film a bit for parts2 and also gonna do some work on it this weekend. But i can't say when its up.

[@George-zm4iu]

What kind of speed do you get on this over gigabit Ethernet?do you use link aggregation. And also would say to build a server like this over buying a nas/server like the: synology ds-415+, also what software are you running and plugins e.c.t, thanks

[@CrazyTacky]

Very clean build, great job.

[@Deleted_Goodbye]

ECC RAM essential if your using ZFS filesystem. Minimum: 8gb but aim for the recommended amount: 16gb.

[@oscifer]

Do you need a switch that supports LACP to make use of all four ports on your NIC?

Hello! thank you for the good video. If you would increse the number of disks how do you determine the size of the powersupply?

[@EciOwnsYou]

Awesome video. Thank you for sharing your build! I am trying to build almost the EXACT same thing.

[@JoseMoya]

How much power is your system using when disks are running? And when in stand by? Is hibernate function active for less power usage?

[@Ghostpalace]

What software do you have to install in order to let it work properly? On prebuild Nas drives is the software already installed.

[@soggybottomboys2792]

with a nas could I put a program on it and use it on more than one computer

[@OlafMarzocchi]

Hello, I thought about something similar, but based on OpenIndiana. I would use ECC memory but I would follow your idea of APU processor. Question: can you transcode 2 streams 1080p down to 720p? How noisy is it?

[@erezsolan]

This is a great video. When will you upload part 2?

[@mitchelleppich]

very very clean system. Thumbs up for cable management.

[@o.00.o74]

I bought an old HP proLiant ml110 server. It is very basic but I think it is going to do the job. I need to upgrade the RAM to 8 GB though since I am going to use ZFS file system. I want to use freenas.

[@_rakkim]

very good set up ! i like it ! can you broadcast radio with this server ? what do i need for that ? same software ?

[@gerardoenmibarrio]

Really like your file server build. I want to build my own file server. Just got an AMD A10-5800K for my HTPC build. Never thought of using an APU for a file server build before. After seeing your video will look at building one in the new year. Will send you pictures when done.

[@victorbart]

What is your setup for now? and which OS do you use? I hope continue filming parts2 this weekend :)

[@henryxstopx6973]

I wanted to building one but I have a question, if I physically move the drive out of the nas and put it into my personal pc, would it work. If the nas was in raid 1

[@Stejin]

If you are using a Windows File System (or a suported one) -> yes. But you normaly don't do this in Linux.

[@henryxstopx6973]

Ty.

[@jimlanigan7298]

Great video and music. But what OS did you use? Thanks again.

[@jasonbest653]

Hi victor Great set of videos. I'm planning to build one myself but have no experience and wanted to know and understand more about each component and its purpose. i.e. SSD, SAS controller. Do you have any documentation on your build with basic explanations and how to go about it? Thanks again.

[@victorbart]

Nice what parts do you use? do you have a picture of it?

[@gerardoenmibarrio]

Will be trying FreeNAS. Hope to be using a FD R4 Case along with an AMD APU, 16GB Ram and WD Red Drives. May even buy a raid card if my budget allows. Will let you know how I get on. Thanks for your time

[@thingyee1118]

Amazing video and music mate.

[@traderalex81]

Looking to build NAS similar to yours, I was wondering if this motherboard and CPU has enough processing power for a NAS, I will have 16gb of ram and about 12TB of storage using ZFS

[@satish890]

what kind of Read/Write performance do you get on the Raidz2 ??

[@tushararora3501]

where you have use the pendrive and for

[@PeterFiddes]

Hey this is very similar to a build I started and tested with just one drive. I have one of those 3TB 7200rpm Seagate drives. Was there any reason you chose these 7200rpm drives over the NAS specific drives which run at 5900rpm i think? Have you had any problems with your drives?? as I plan to buy more very soon and your advice would be very useful given similar builds!

[@victorbart]

All drives are running fine. I choose 7200 rpm because hdd's are so slow in compare to all other parts of a system. I just wanted faster drives.

[@educatedwarrior]

Yo vic, no ECC memory?

[@krist0sh]

How is the non-ECC memory working for you? I have bought drives (6x2TB Reds) for my build, but still haven't figured out what to go with hardware wise still yet. I have a i3 2120 which I will use, but it must have a C202/204/206 chipset to work with ECC, and ECC memory is expensive. By the forums I was told to use ECC and stay away from l2arc, how is the SSD cache working for you too? Thanks.

[@victorbart]

I have no problems running without ECC. Why stay away from L2ARC cache? What was the reason?

[@krist0sh]

The admin told me to fill up my board (probably with RAM?) before even going to L2ARC. I already have my drives, but still miss my motherboard and RAM; all variables depending on if I should buy ECC or not. ECC is really expensive, so it depends on if I should go for it or not, to have a secure solution for my data.

[@Xuriouss]

TheComputerNerd0101 ECC is not that much more expensive; it's a lot cheaper than your data blowing up and you attempting to recover it. L2ARC works great *IF* your dataset is large enough that it doesn't all fit into ram. Use arcstat to find out if l2arc would actually be beneficial to you.

[@krist0sh]

That was what I thought. The thing was that I already have a 16GB non-ECC kit laying around, but if ECC is prefered, I'll just sell the one I have.

[@thomask5218]

can you do a video on how to install and configure freenas also

[@asphixmx]

Have you measured the power consumption of your system? Thanks.

[@xbradx11]

Why'd you get so many failgate hard drives???

[@victorbart]

ZFS loves memory. Its a high end Filesystem made for highend machines. And memory is so cheap!

[@Arai503]

The SSD is for the L2ARC, a second level of block caching beyond what ZFS does in main memory. This is akin to the hybrid drive solutions that are floating around on the market. Google L2ARC if you're curious.

[@victorbart]

I allways put my psu with the fan on top. It can be done both ways. I prefer this way because it helps with airflow in the case.

[@danielskelton3286]

Nice video! Where did you get the USB header adapter?

[@mrekko1]

Is part 2 coming id like to see how you can use this from your other computer?

[@canoncola]

Which do you think consumes less resources... FreeNAS 9.2 or current ZFSguru? I have a Q6700 quad-core 2.66GHz 8MB cache, 16GB 800MHz, 4x 500GB drives Running plex media server, transmission and owncloud... runs like a boss. Does ZFSguru have plugins? Have you used NAS4Free?

[@izzetolgun6582]

U

[@dbdrummer88]

Quick question (more or less confirming info haha), I assume when you have a multiport NIC that you can plug in all ports to a router to increase performance?

[@Blunder1248]

why didn't you get a raid controller? Also i hope you have upgraded the firmware on those disks.

[@klapskates]

very nice setup and the music is awesome too. I was wondering, there is also a RAIDZ3 configuration apparently have you tried that? Or is it in development still?

[@victorbart]

Fractal Design Arc Midi R2! The new version with even better dustfilters!

[@ryanjboss88]

what sort of file transfer speeds u getting ?

[@moh050]

Did those shops having online order or their web site

[@ZiemsRyan]

Only curious, why did you use 16gb of RAM? I thought if a person used 3 or 4 gb of RAM for a NAS or server that was a great plently??? Thank you!

[@ukaszr9923]

Stanley screwdriver?

[@victorbart]

Good Question! In Part3 of this video serie i show "In depth power consumption" Where you can see that adding a 3tb 7200rpm disk is 6watt. My total idle consumption is 110watt and under load 140watt. So 200watt PSU for this config is more then enough. So if i add 6 extra disk in the future it will be around 146 idle and 185 load. I might change the 2x 500gb samsung in my config because they use to much power.

[@victorbart]

Yeah but it is in The Netherlands only. Don't know where you are located?

[@victorbart]

In the description of the video is the link to the artist of the music. Music by: Graphiqs Groove Deep Sky Blue Reed Gray

[@Schmich87]

What's the main point of the SSD? I assume your OS is on the USB stick?

[@LittleRhubarb]

Seagate drives? Oh dear, good luck!

[@chrisg4069]

Little_Rhubarb I have 5 Seagate drives that work great

[@gerardoenmibarrio]

Hi victorbart. Will now not be using a raid card so the 232 EUR I save will be put towards hard drives. Thanks for everything. Hoping to get the parts and build started/finished in January. Will send you some pics/plans.

[@victorbart]

Good idea! You can allways share your plans here :) Which OS do you gonna use?

[@victorbart]

In part3 i have a good power consumption chapter where is measure all the parts. Its around 110 idle and 130 140 while copying.

[@moh050]

From which company you bought the parts, i like it because its been shipped to one time, because many companies shipped as separate parts

[@HongKong880]

why not use ECC ram?

[@NorthWolfe]

Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you...Just don't like informative videos with music. Your guide is great, I do appreciate all your hard work, and great info. Cheers.

[@Schmich87]

For those who want ECC Memory you can always go for an AM3+ motherboard with the older chipset as they still have an IGP. Currently I'm using the M4A89GTD /USB3. It's AM3 and does AM3+ with a BIOS update. It's got ECC support (don't mind the max 16GB, it's old and 8GB sticks didn't exist at the time. I'm running 2x8GB ECC), IGP and even an IDE so I can run off a CF card. ECC is nice to have so that a flipped bit doesn't falsely claim one of your HDD is failing.

[@victorbart]

Thanx! There are FM2 motherboard with 8x sata600! :)

[@Pervypriest]

As I am pondering about building my own freenas ZFs server. I Wonder about did you use Memmory With ECC capabilities? As I have heard that you have to use ECC memory With ZFs. If not then how has Your system worked through this time, any problems related to corrupted data or crashes? Great vid btw

[@riowhitehouse5077]

Pony up for ECC memory if you have the budget for it and the data is critical. If you're using it for backups, ECC is a must. Start with 16GB for a ZFS pool, use an even number of disks and run them in a striped-mirror config. I built a couple of systems with non-ECC memory and one runs production VMs, a few weeks in the machine crashed due to memory decay, which is a result of not having error correcting RAM. It took some adjustment of clock speeds and voltage settings to get some stable Memtest results, but ECC memory takes care of that right out of the gate.

[@Pervypriest]

Thanks, now I am saving up for ecc ram:)

[@TheBlooRayChannel]

Great build. I'm guessing its high on electric bills too?

[@victorbart]

ZFS is a high end filesystem developed for high end machines. So you need 1gb of ram for 1tb of storage.

[@victorbart]

a SAS controller is used to provide lots of fast extra sata ports. On normal board you find 6 to 8 sata ports. If you need more you can use cheap sata cards which are very slow. or a cheap Ibm M1015 with 8 high speed sas/sata ports. And i have flashed it into IT mode. (dumb mode) So its just a basic storage controller without fucntions.

[@AndreVautour]

Nice work

[@victorbart]

The server is managed by the webmenu or ssh or the text console. Not really need for a video card. But a loose card is 30 euro's and is also getting warm. And most cheap consumer motherboards doesn't work without videocard. So i choose onboard graphics because its cheap and is reliable. And the apu is running cold.

[@victorbart]

Yes! But i don't know when :) I bought a cheap power cosumption meter today. So in the part2 will be shown how much power it will use idle and with a file transfer etc. And offcourse some benchmarks its pretty fast. Read throughput : 386.4 MB/s Write throughput: 289.6 MB/s (Just a quick zfsguru buildin benchmark)

[@Decebal825]

o-oh i think you used non ECC ram as i think that motherboard does not support ECC ram, how successful is your ZFS without ECC ram as i hear it is recommended so the Dataset does not get corrupted and lost altogether.?

[@victorbart]

On the dutch forum we discuss also ecc or not. And the answer was ecc is not really neccesery for home builds. I really like the setup only with raidz2 is 6 disk betters then 5 so you can use 4k sectors (future upgrade plans more disks in the good amount for 4k sectors) The performance is good and noicelevel is very good you don't hear the system running. I allready filmed some stuff for part2 and the idle consumtion is 90 watt. The AMD apu has 1 downside it is not very low power :(

[@mgstrickland97]

overall price?

[@victorbart]

Yes you do. You need support for IEEE 802.3ad

[@Ghostpalace]

Its defenitely more effective when you have a powerfull computer instead of a compact NAS with weak CPU inside. Thanks, I will do this rather than a small NAS. But how am i going to put it near my router?? its too big

[@thekingmen3]

Ram in a file server is used to cache file. If you have 4gb of ram, then 4gb of data from your disk will be in the ram and they will be served to your computer very fast. However, if you request data outside of that 4gb, the file server will need to read from the disk, and that is slow. With more ram, 16gb, you have more data in cache and that can increate your read performance if you request often used file frequently.

[@raavoluhaaar]

nice job mate :D

[@DigisDen]

Victor, I eventually got around to building my first real ZFS storage box, I just posted you the link as a video response, what do you think?

[@cyleph]

Nice series, but i think you put the PSU in upside down (unless the PSU has fans on both sides) so the Airflow inside the case is from front to back and is not disturbed by the PSU, plus the PSU gets it's own "cool" air and not some pre-warmed air.

[@victorbart]

No this software is pure for filesharing + some services around filesharing like torrents. I don't know what kind of software you need for radio broadcast so i can't help you with a direction to go.

[@victorbart]

Look on the Nas4Free forum and they have also a good chat where you can ask anything. The SSD is for chaching the pool (the raid set) It stores your frequenty used files + the file list of the whole pool. Its calles L2arc. arc is your main memory. So its level2 cache mem. Your main mem also stores some cache from the pool. But with a ssd is cheaper to get 128gb of cache instead of 16gb with ddr3. Look up L2ARC + ZFS for more info about ssd caching in a zfs build.

[@Rudde47]

SSD for a ZFS NAS? Why?

[@victorbart]

No you must have a high end switch with 802.3ad support Youa dd more "lanes" not more speed you go from a 1lane road to a 4lane road with the same speed.

[@jasonsmart4916]

Love the vibe of this song whats the name?

[@cimimonsti]

Great video, serious overkill though.

[@victorbart]

You can do raidz3 but my build is small so I don't need Raidz3

[@jammytv]

Nice hardware - but for OS I wouldn't use ZFSGuru anymore - I like it's interface, ease of setup and way of displaying info but development/progress is unpredictable from the one-man team (credit due to the highly-talented and knowledgeable guy that he is). The wonders of OpenSource, you can swap your system to NAS4free or FreeNAS as they both support ZFSguru's zpool version (and higher). I swapped mine to NAS4free as I use it for general file storage and more (bittorrents/web dev etc).

[@victorbart]

Did you check out part2 and part3. I have there some overview of the usage. It uses more power then your synology. The apu was the second slowest option for only 60 euro :) We have real fast HW nowadays. As MrBalfrat says you need lost of memory for zfs.

[@ryanjboss88]

with that apu could potentially use it as a HTPC/file server think the ram is over kill but its cheap :) power wise would like to see idle + access pw consumption. i would be surprised if it uses less than a Nas with same storage options (around 8 HDD when fully stocked i would imagine) for example Synology DS1812+ paired with 5 wd red 3tb drives(potential 8 drives + more with expansion unit) 71.5W (Access); 28.6W (HDD Hibernation) about same €. nice setup though dude nice idea with cache ssd :)

[@victorbart]

Can I borrow it longer to make more nice builds? :D

[@dhowser2008]

Seems to be a bit much for a ZFS server when you pickup a real SAN for less if you shop around. :)

[@loozhengyuan]

nice video !

[@SnipE_mS]

not trying to troll but why an APU?

[@GodofLegacy]

16gb ram? overkill for this system it think?

[@byQuagmire]

No, if you use ZFS on FreeNAS / Nas4Free etc, you need lots of ram, 16GB is ideal in this case, not overkill!

[@ironhidecybertron6786]

hi ! i followed your tuto but after severl hours of use, the system writes me : can't exec /bin/sh for /etc/rc : not a directory and alos : da0 : media size does not match label ... i'm afraid i've lost all my datas ....... =((

[@victorbart]

+Ironhide Cybertron which OS did you use?

[@ironhidecybertron6786]

Nas4free v9 I guess

[@victorbart]

+Ironhide Cybertron Ask on their forum or IRC channel :)

[@ironhidecybertron6786]

I found some one who helps me a lot! I did a fresh install and hopefully I had a config save on another synology nas. (à fil aller... Config.xml) I loaded it and yeaaaahhhhh it works

[@victorbart]

I didn't removed it :) It's doing a great job and the system is pretty dust free. I filmed on a festival and had 130gb in 1 day of filming. So I need the space :D it is 5minutes 1gb.

[@soth3d]

i think u should use pro version of samsung ssd

[@victorbart]

Local webshop just serch for usb internel header. Hard to find it on shops. Maybe email you local shop and ask :-)

[@BirdOfParadise777]

What is 1258 euro in US dollars? Thanks:)

[@victorbart]

The USB stick was for Nas4Free. It runs of a usb stick.