Thinking about switching my media server to FreeNAS. Anything I should know?

[sam_86314]

So I currently run plain old Windows 10 Pro (not server) on my media server (Xeon X3470, 4GB memory). It has five 3TB WD Red drives in a "parity storage space" (so effectively RAID 5, but not officially), with the capacity currently set to 10TB. I have it set up so I can easily access the server from any computer on my network. The only problem is that I don't know if I can run the server headless. I'd like to have the server's single PCIe slot available for something like a better wired NIC or an SAS drive controller.

From what I understand, FreeNAS lets you control everything about the server through a web browser on another device. I probably won't have any need to SSH into the server to mess around with the shell. Are there any easy ways to migrate a Windows storage space to FreeNAS' RAID implementation, or do I have to copy my 5TB of data to another drive to move over? How easy is it to upgrade the array or replace failed drives?

I use Plex to serve media from my server, and the server handles crunching video down to lower bitrates for streaming. Does the Plex plugin for FreeNAS also support that?

 

[TxGrin]

I played around with FreeNas and yes you can control everything from a web browser i think you will have to copy everything over once you have it set up. I ended up getting a Synology DiskStation DS718+ and added 16 gig of ram to it and use Emby for my media server i like it better than plex. Synology web interface was easier to learn.

 

[silkstone]

I've run a windows 10 server headless, no problems, just using remote desktop. I have it connected to my TV at the moment, but only for watching media, otherwise headless is no problem on Win10.
I'm not sure if it'd work without an iGPU though.

 

[sam_86314]

I've run a windows 10 server headless, no problems, just using remote desktop. I have it connected to my TV at the moment, but only for watching media, otherwise headless is no problem on Win10.
I'm not sure if it'd work without an iGPU though.

I've recently gotten it working with remote desktop, so it's running headless now. Just wish I could run it without any kind of display adapter.

 

[hat]

You should be able to, just set the BIOS not to stop on any error so it doesn't halt when it fails to detect a display adapter.

 

[silkstone]

You should be able to, just set the BIOS not to stop on any error so it doesn't halt when it fails to detect a display adapter.

This. You can also get USB display adapters for if you ever need to connect a screen.

 

[Durvelle27]

I've been using FreeNas for about 2 years now and it works great for me. No issues

 

[sam_86314]

You should be able to, just set the BIOS not to stop on any error so it doesn't halt when it fails to detect a display adapter.

So even though the system doesn't have an iGPU, I should still be able to remote into Windows without a dGPU in it? It'll use some sort of CPU rendering?

 

[Kursah]

You should be able to, just set the BIOS not to stop on any error so it doesn't halt when it fails to detect a display adapter.

I've seen some newer system builds that won't run headless and didn't have a BIOS/EFI setting, so I ended up having to get some cheap HDMI 1080P emulation adapters, works great.

I never went FreeNAS, but I know some folks that have. Out of all of them, only one dude stuck with it. Everyone else moved away. I run a headless (without adapter as it's an old SuperMicro Z87) system on Server 2012R2 as my Hyper-V core. I have a file server, also 2012R2, as a VM on that server that runs Plex as a service, has been excellent for going on 5 years now. I think I've only ever had 1 or 2 issues with it, but nothing major. Same box also hosts a few other VM's, and really it has become the hub for my family at this point. I know 2012R2's getting a bit old now...but still a solid OS, though I'm probably gonna upgrade to 2019 Hyper-V at some point. I mostly run Windows Server environments because that's what I'm familiar with and can make it work how I need, but I also run some Linux servers and VM's, more for experience and testing, but my home and job align with Microsoft products so that's what I operate with.

I say try FreeNAS out, many folks like it. Be weary of their forums though, last time I went there, folks were shamed if you didn't have the latest and greatest SuperMicro board, multicore Xeon and RAM with ECC. To each their own on that front. I've seen folks run FreeNAS on pretty old hardware and be just fine with it. Depends on what your usage plans for it are, and if your data is important, back it up and keep copies.

 

[hat]

So even though the system doesn't have an iGPU, I should still be able to remote into Windows without a dGPU in it? It'll use some sort of CPU rendering?

Yes, to my understanding remote control software basically encodes a steam of what's happening on the target system and sends you that. That's why you get video quality options.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Maybe have a look at OMV? https://www.openmediavault.org/
You can install it on a USB key to try it out, although long term it might be better to run it off a small, old SSD like I'm doing.
FreeNAS has a few downsides, like lack of driver for a lot of hardware due to being FreeBSD based. Linux wins in that regard.
Expect to have to SSH in on occasion, as none of the NAS operating systems allow you to do everything via the UI. However, it's not something you have to do very often.
As for the GPU, keep in mind that video transcoding/encoding would potentially benefit from it.

 

[Deleted member 158293]

Freenas is fine if you like tinkering with it, it is fun but will take up time.

If you just want something that works easily, a prepackaged QNAP or Synology solution is much easier to deploy, especially the built-in Synology Video app is nice & even easier then Plex.