First File/Media Server

[Halo3Addict]

Hello!

I've recently been interested in building a file/media server for home use. It's not necessarily something I need but it is something I want to try. I've built plenty of home desktops, but not sure of any hurdles for servers that I should be aware of.

The file system I planned to go with is FreeNAS with Plex plugin. Never worked with this and not sure how the ZFS file systems works, so any advice much appreciated.

Investing in ECC RAM seems like smart decision, never experienced file corruption myself but it pops up in our IT Dept from time to time.

Not too keen on installing FreeNAS on a USB stick, so if there is a specially small SSD or some other piece of hardware that is built with this system in mind, I'd like to know.

Will mostly be hosting documents, music, and movies. It's the movies I'm not sure about, they vary from 720p H.264 to 1440p H.265 and various other codecs/formats.

Budget is not really a problem, but I don't want it to be overkill. A stable and reliable system is what I'm looking for.

Any help is much appreciated. Thank you!

 

[cdawall]

This is what I run for mine. It has had a couple iterations due to speed issues.

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/nas.222096/

Current specs are
Xeon 2650v4 ES
Asrock EPC612D4l
32GB (4x8GB@2400) DDR4 SODIMM
10x2TB Seagate raid50 (adaptec 51645 raid card)
120GB OCZ OS drive
Antec TPQ-85
Lian Li PC-Q26

That has been able to handle anything and everything I can throw at it.

I don't run ECC/REG RAM in it, nor did I really see a reason to. I still store the data in multiple locations so if there was a corruption issue I would just resend the file. It also just has W10P on it. Minus every once in a blue moon it decides it needs to reboot for updates it works well enough. I just use RDP to manage the system. Power consumption is mostly HDD unless running plex with a video transcoding, 120-140@idle and 200 or so under load at the wall through an 80+ bronze.

 

[Kursah]

For a home-use server that is mostly for media streaming, I don't see the need for ECC RAM. If you're doing mission critical work, backup, lab work, etc...then consider ECC.

ZFS likes RAM so make sure you have plenty of it...I think the going rate is still 1+GB RAM per TB of storage to account for file system overhead.

I would also suggest a small SSD. Also keep in mind you don't need to use FreeNAS. You can use Ubuntu or Ubuntu Server, Debian, Mint, Windows 7, 8, 10, Windows Server 2008, 2012, etc. FreeNAS is lightweight and has lots of plugins, I am not a fan of the community expecting all new folks to cough up $$$ for top-end gear for home-grade services, especially media streaming. But there's a ton of great knowledge over there worth sifting through.

I run my home server (see my system specs) and have about 8 virtual machines running. One of them is my virtual file server, also running 2012 R2. It runs the Plex service (and modified to run as a service too), and I'm able to handle various formats, streaming LAN and WAN-side, to various devices. My system isn't as beefy as Cdawall's though, and my VM surely isn't even close! But that's the point, you can really do a lot of different builds and do quite well. I run Plex on my mom's PC, which is a Pentium 3220, 4GB DDR3, 500GB HDD with Windows 7 Pro installed, and it does great for her needs, though most of her movies don't need heavy transcoding when streaming to her Roku device.

But really a NAS is just a system with a lot of storage connected to the network with share permissions to access the storage and sometimes streaming software like Kodi or Plex. Kodi also just came out with a Plex plugin if you want to have both but primarily run one.

The VM I run Plex on uses 4 CPU threads, .5-4.0GB RAM (dynamic config), has access to 4.5TB storage which my media is stored on, and runs a Teamspeak 3 server, file and print services, and a test OpenVPN server as well. No issues. I'm running a gaming PC with a RAID and using the Intel iGPU instead of a dedicated graphics card...power consumption is pretty damn decent overall.

I would recommend you spend money on a decent UPS around 1000-1500VA to keep your server hooked into no matter what you choose.

NASes are a good project for sure, you can go a variety of ways. If you plan to use the NAS as a true server, maybe have a virtual machine that actually runs the NAS-side. You could also run VMWare, Xen, ProxMox, etc. Depends on how far down the rabbit hole you want to go!

 

[Halo3Addict]

Thank you for all the advice.

This is a small project I want to do to see if it's something that I'll keep in the future, so I'm not looking to pay for a Windows license. I will look into Ubuntu to see what their offerings are. You are correct in FreeNAS having some above normal requirements to function properly.

You're probably right about ECC RAM. I'll go with regular DRAM and save some $$$

I will start with this for now and update this thread with anymore questions

 

[Static~Charge]

You might find this article to be helpful:

The Hunt For the Ultimate Free Open Source NAS Distro
http://www.mondaiji.com/blog/other/it/10210-the-hunt-for-the-ultimate-free-open-source-nas-distro

 

[verycharbroiled]

Hello!


Not too keen on installing FreeNAS on a USB stick, so if there is a specially small SSD or some other piece of hardware that is built with this system in mind, I'd like to know.

with freenas you can RAID the usb sticks. i use 2 16 gb sticks in RAID 1 for boot.

running 2 years and no problems.

 

[Kursah]

I'd rather use a cheap SSD that's meant for the writes. Seeing that a cheap 120GB SSD can be had for around the $30-40 range, I'd rather pay a little extra to have the piece of mind. I've seen too many USB flash drives fail...I realize it is a good "budget" solution... but a cheap SSD is a better budget solution IMHO.