Want to setup what I think is a NAS*HELP*

[Detale]

In short I want to keep one computer to have all the movies on so that the relatives on 2 other floors can watch them as well using the WDTV live and I don't have to worry about shutting my computer off. I want it to be like what I believe a NAS to be but I don't want to spend a couple hundred when I have enough parts to build 2 computers just sitting there.

I will probably use these parts.

TJ07 case (big enough to hold tons of HDDS)

Gigabyet GA-EP45-UD3R

Either a q6600 or a E8400 prob the 6600 though

4 gigs of Gskill ram

A bunch of different HDDS

So will this work the way i want it to? I plan on installing Windows server 2008 will this be what I need to do?

[Artemis]

That is a terminal case of overkill bud. I'm going to say a swear word now, but it is one that is a gigantic hardware saving. The swear word is Linux, or more specifically a Linux distro called FreeNAS. The beauty of this distro is it does exactly what a Linux based NAS box does ,it sets up a NAS on the network, all you need to run it is a single core processor of 800Mhz or better and 128MB RAM. The beauty of this config is you simply install PCI SATA controllers to your hearts content to add drives in a JBOD configuration. This way any old drive will do.
Windows Server 2008 as a media server is not my first choice, seriously. If you want to experiment with a server I understand, but you have a learning curve and for all resources to be available to clients they will have to join the Domain of the Server, which requires client logon and authentication, which just to serve media is as I said overkill.
There are many ways to relieve a feline of it's fur, but this way is a long winded one at best.
Here is an article on tomshardware answering a question identical to yours, it's worth a read :
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/250465-32-setup-freenas-ubuntu-server

Heres a linky to the system specs needed:
http://dailycupoftech.com/freenas-system-and-skill-requirements/

[Detale]

Thanks for the reply bud. I'll try linux if it works better sure. As far as the hardware goes. I don't own any single core CPU's ATM. I don't want to buy anything unless I need to so I'll throw in what I have laying around here. These parts just happen to be part of my tech mania and so they are all decent.
The thing I do not have is a STAT controller do I need one or can I use the MoBo's on board one? I'm pretty sure it can do JBOD. Also do I have to do that as well? What I wanted initially is to have different disks for different things like Movies>Music>Pics etc. so they would stay separate.


you will need to run a CIF/Samba client to allow Windows to read the disks

WTF is CIF/Samba client??

[Artemis]

Your questions in order. You don't have to run a single core processor or anything, it is just a waste of the gear you have (Quad core CPU's & 4GB of RAM etc) they could be far better used elsewhere.Since this machine is going to be running 24/7 the best thing to do is buy a 2nd hand server. A small workgroup server i.e a standard tower case design not a large rack server is great for this task since they are built to run 24/7 with stronger PSU's etc, and the bonus is they are cheap as chips.

This is why I was suggesting PCI SATA controllers they could be added to a machine like this very easily. This was also my reasoning behind JBOD you could configure multiple disks into a JBOD array and use anything lying around. If you have alot of 1TB disks lying around from your tech mania too then this is redundant.
You can still by all means build a quad core 4GB server running FreeNAS if you wish, it's just that the FreeNAS appliance O/S does not support SMP or address more than 256MB of RAM so 3 cores and 3.75GB of RAM are going to be doing fuck all!

(Actually while I am saying all this it is dawning on me that this is a nice cheap way for me to solve my own NAS woes, I've run a FreeNAS server before I just thought I was clever with a NAS box, now I'm not so sure.)
You can definitely dedicate different disks or disk arrays to different tasks on FreeNAS, in fact you have far more client control with FreeNAS than you would simply purchasing a NAS box, the firmware on a NAS unless it is a more expensive one is very limited.
Your leftovers would be far better used in a dedicated media center than in a FreeNAS appliance.

Samba is a slow rhythmic latin dance.....:naughty:
You asked, I couldn't resist. SaMBa is parlance for SMB or Server Block Messaging. It is a network protocol, you do not have to worry about whether your PC is configured or needs to be configured for SaMBa, it is part of the default protocols on Windows 7 and your machine(s) will automatically recognise the NAS box.

[Detale]

Thanks again Art. Honestly I don't even know where to begin on looking for a used server AT ALL. If they are cheap as you say maybe I'll just get one of them. I'm searching Craigslist and Ebay but I still have no idea what I'm looking at. Is this (http://newyork.craigslist.org/que/sys/1605432429.html) for me or no? Then I came across this offer on CL as well

dual xeon 3.02 ghz IBM server for $140. I emailed the guy for exact specs but again I have no clue what i'm looking for here I'm lost (Oh god, let the jokes fly)

Also could I, instead of building a system from what I have, use an old crappy computer like this (http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/sys/1605738707.html) one and just use that instead??

Also there's http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/sys/1604708056.html

[Artemis]

That Dell 600SC you linked me to is exactly the kind of server I was talking about and would be perfect for the task although the listing did not list the the CPU speed or type on the server ?
It supports both SCSI (2)? and 3 IDE channels but I doubt you still have an IDE drive lying around, so the beauty is you can also install SATA controller(s) into this machine, and if you wish you can set up a JBOD array. Something like this is ideal, along with similar offerings from IBM, HP etc.
This would be ideal as a NAS box, although if it may also need a Gigabit NIC as well to improve throughput.
No jokes here, this is a serious inquiry and I'm glad to help, workgroup servers like these used to be my bread & butter and I know their advantages in running 24/7 as you plan to do with a NAS.

[lee551]

For my personal media server I use FreeNAS (http://freenas.org/).

It is a tiny OS dedicated and revolving around NAS. You can run it off a bootable CD, USB stick, or install onto a hdd partition. It supports SSH, FTP, Samba, etc. basically anything you would want your server to do.

It's quite easy to set up and has a decent sized userbase with new versions released regularly.

Mine runs headless 24/7 and It's been running on the same old P4 for over 5 years now. It rarely requires attention or maintenance.

[Detale]

OK bud here are the specs for the 600sc cpu is 1.7Ghz

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/pe600sc/en/ug/1r234aa0.htm#103

Should I go for it you think?

About this FreeNAS do I install it on a hd or what? I downloaded the latest version but how would I install from a USB? Do I simply move the files or?

Also with that I will need a SATA card buut if I am reading right a PCI one? Like this one here
SYBA SY-PCI40010 PCI SATA II Controller Card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816124028)

[lee551]

About this FreeNAS do I install it on a hd or what? I downloaded the latest version but how would I install from a USB? Do I simply move the files or?

To install to a USB you need to install the OS first to disk (or VM would work great) and then there is an option in the main menu to install to a USB stick.

[Detale]

Thanks, disk should be fine though. Do you happen to know if that SATA card will work with that server?

[lee551]

Thanks, disk should be fine though. Do you happen to know if that SATA card will work with that server?

According to this post (http://sourceforge.net/apps/phpbb/freenas/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=962#p4340) on the FreeNAS forum the SIL3124 chipset is reported as compatible.

I bought this PCI SATA controller (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816132013) from newegg a few years ago and it's been a champ. The external SATA ports are nice.

[Artemis]

Yes a PCI SATA card will work with that server, it is a server architecture though so has only one 32bit PC slot, the other three slots are 64bit 66Mhz PCI slots, you can still get SATA controllers for 64bit PCI, I have no idea on price though.
That server would be ideal for your purpose.
That Syba card gives you the option of 4 onboard SATA connectors but others also offer eSATA as well, I would still shop around.

[Detale]

Thanks bud. I am meeting the guy tomorrow to pick it up. Another inane question if I may. I believe this is a socket 478 and I'm pretty sure I have 1 or 2 p4 478 chips around here somewhere. Could i swap out the CPU since it's a lower mhz cleron? I'll keep looking but I doubt I'll need a ESATA for this one. After the initial setup I plan on unplugging the monitor, keyboard and mouse and having her sit in the basement to feed the movie needs of the house. So this is the only card I can use for the one slot and the other slots will need something like this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816102080

[MultiForce]

This might be a good idea for my retired gaming rig. Also got a Q6600, RAM and a few SATA controllers.
Don't know what else to do with it anyway :P

[Detale]

Thats what I was going to do, but for $75 bucks, I'll get this one and give a computer to my brother.

[Artemis]

You can add a higher spec P4 chip to the server if you wish, for the duty it will be doing it will honestly make no difference at all, as I said 800mhz & 128MB RAM & your good to go using FreeNAS so this server in its current spec easily outstrips the requirements.
FreeNAS is designed to run headless, and can be administered from any computer on the Network once configured, I just hope your basement is fairly dry.

[Detale]

LOL yes it'd dry. it's where I do all my computer building.So I can acess it without using nother monitor. thats great.. it may move upstairs then behind the couch then. HMMM this is sounding better and better. I couldn't meet the guy today so i'll be seeing him in the morrow

[Detale]

OK so someone for the love of god explain how I install this thing please. I get 9 options and I have no idea on what to do next. Thanks

[Artemis]

OK so someone for the love of god explain how I install this thing please. I get 9 options and I have no idea on what to do next. Thanks

Gee, that was so helpful, unfortunately though I dropped my crystal ball last week & it's fucked so you will have to describe the nine options !

[Detale]

lol yeah I was in a huge hurry. When installing the freenas I get nine options that I will write down tomorrow. How did you install it bud?

The manual on the web site only says

====== Installation and Configuration Overview ======

FreeNAS installation and configuration involves three steps, which are:

- Download the FreeNAS ISO, burn it to a CD-ROM, then boot from the CD-ROM. The Initial Configuration is done via the FreeNAS Console Setup Menu on the FreeNAS PC.\\ After this stage FreeNAS will be installed on and run from your drive. However, you still need to complete the second step to make FreeNAS operational. This step is optional: You can run FreeNAS from a CDROM and a MS DOS floppy disk or USB device to store configuration.
- Basic Configuration via the Web GUI.\\ After this stage your FreeNAS server will be operational having a basic configuration.
- Advanced configuration via Web GUI and Command Shell.\\ This stage is not covered by this manual. It is up to you to read and understand the various options and features offered by FreeNAS and to decide How-to and What-to-do base on your own requirements.

Further customization, such as RAID configuration and localization to your environment can then be performed.

Now I clearly don't uderstand what the hell I'm doing here so I need to figure this out

EDIT: MN I found what i was looking for on their site. I'll set it up tomorrow. Thanks bud ;)

[Detale]

Ok guys i went with this one
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815124020
I know it's only SATA I but it's 66Mhz as I understand it it's better to have 66Mhz than STAII in my case. Hope it's true.

[Artemis]

On the balance of probabilities, given the overall specs of this system, going for a 64bit PCI controller was the better choice. In terms of overall throughput for the system this will provide a fast data transfer. The Syba 4P uses the SiL 3114 chipset which I have always found to be very reliable, and the huge plus for you is that you can run multiple cards (which is where the real advantages of 64bit PCI kick in).
You can use SATAII drives on a SATA controller, the drives will simply step down to SATA I throughput, so there are no compatibility problems to be concerned with.

[Detale]

What kind of data transfer rates am I to be looking at do you think?

Another question I thought of. I currently have a TB drive filled with movies. Can I just plug in and share or will I have to tranfer all the files or wht?

[Detale]

Yet another question, what are these green slots called are they PCI or PCI-X?

http://img532.imageshack.us/img532/1804/u60p2t68d27349f897dt200.jpg

I want to try and get a SATA controller for those as well. I think the one I ordered (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815124020) will only fit in the regular PCI slot (white) one in the pic.

[lee551]

Another question I thought of. I currently have a TB drive filled with movies. Can I just plug in and share or will I have to tranfer all the files or wht?
You can add pre-formatted drives no problem. This page (http://www.freenaskb.info/kb/?View=entry&EntryID=205) has FreeNAS supported file systems.

I'd assume the TB movie drive is NTFS, so:


NTFS – Originally found on Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista. Writing on NTFS can give you unexpected results(data lost). You can’t format(create a new NTFS partition) and run fsck(file system check) on FreeNAS.
From version 0.684b, FreeNAS will fully support read+write on NTFS volumes. However FreeNAS can’t format and fsck an NTFS volume.


My drives are UFS formatted, but that's just because I started with older versions.

[Detale]

Thanks so much Lee

Any idea about them green slots at all?

[Pozarynicoeta]

Thanks so much Lee

Any idea about them green slots at all?


The screen is PCI-E, the white is PCI.

Also I use Ubuntu 9.10 Server for my nas. Works great with Samba sharing. Little more flexible than freenas.



EDIT: Regarding http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815124020 stay away from software raid cards.
They will be bundled with a CD that you have to configure with your OS before it can see the Raid drive. There are dozens of problems with these over true hardware raids, just google it.

You can get proper hardware raids on ebay for under $90.

[Artemis]

The four green slots on the motherboard are PCI, NOT PCI-e slots. They are 64bit PCI slots. The bonus for you is that 64bit PCI is backwards compatible to 32bit. In other words you can put a 32bit PCI card into a 64bit slot, it wll just run @ 32bit bus bandwidth. The 64 bit cards are usually for advanced server cards i.e. Hardware RAID with onboard caching, SNMP management and remote access/failover reporting.
There is another version of 64bit PCI called PCI-X or eXtended PCI but these are specialised server cards, and the 600SC does not support PCI-X anyway (I just mentioned PCI-X to cover all the bases).PCI-X is based on 64bit PCI architecture however.
A simple test, simply align any standard 32bit PCI card with the green slots, you will see that the PCI card's connectors line up with the first two connector blocks on the green slot but not the last connector block, so your new card could be installed into one of the 64bit slots with ease.

[Detale]

Thanks Art. I can't seem to find any 64 bit PCI cards for those slots. I want to get some more raid cards, any ideas? Newegg doesn't seem to have any I can find.

[ryan20021982]

There for cards like this Detale

But its not a raid card just sata

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815121009

[Detale]

OK guys I have Freenas installed on my server and have initialized my test disk which is formatted NTFS. I still cannot get to the disk from my main computer. I can use the web GUI and see the disk that way but it does not come up in network at all. For the love of god what am I missing here?

EDIT: Finally I found what I was looking for. A hoe to configure I can easily understand

http://www.lagesse.org/freenas-tutorial-for-windows-users-part-two-configuration/

Thanks guys. This is working out very well already. I will need to replace the stock fans soon though it's kinda loud, but fixable ;)

[lee551]

EDIT: Finally I found what I was looking for. A hoe to configure I can easily understand

http://www.lagesse.org/freenas-tutorial-for-windows-users-part-two-configuration/

Thanks guys. This is working out very well already. I will need to replace the stock fans soon though it's kinda loud, but fixable ;)

Yep. The WebGUI is your friend now. Just gotta remember to add disks, put them online, then set mount points; sort of a funky process. I have all my FreeNAS drives network mapped for quick access, but typing in the address in explorer isn't too hard if you're on another box.

Be sure to check the graphs to see cpu load and what sort of transfer rates you get.

[Detale]

Yeah I did the network mapping as well, just easier. I was just speaking with Art on MSN and mentioned I NEED to get a gigabit PCI card because I'm transferring at a MAX of 8mb/s what do you get? Where are these "graphs" you speak of? I see this

http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/4010/freenaspic.jpg

EDIT: Ah, I found it here it is
http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/8550/graphmk.jpg

Still I think I have to get a gigabit card ;) Hell It's $14 on the egg.

[lee551]

Yea, that's about what I get:

Copying into:
http://imgur.com/gL2MH.jpg

Copying from:
http://imgur.com/rsvjT.jpg


I don't think adding just a Gbit e-net card to the box will help so much unless your router/switch is also Gbit.

[Detale]

Everything on my network is Gigabit. Would that help do you think?

[lee551]

Everything on my network is Gigabit. Would that help do you think?

/jealous

Enjoi your ludicrous speeds. :happy:

[Artemis]

Having a gigabit card on connected to a gigabit backbone will greatly improve speeds. I like you have a wired gigabit segment and with everything running at gigabit speed there is a dramatic speed increase. It will be $14 well spent putting that card in.

[Detale]

Ordered :)

[Artemis]

Remember to disable the onboard card in the BIOS as well.

[Detale]

It is already, When I got the server it came with 2 cards in it. One is a network card the other a IDE to PCI card allowing one to connect 2 more IDE drives.

[Detale]

A little better with the giga card in there,
into
http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/5724/freenasgig.jpg

I feel like it should be higher though. I'm going to loook into it ;)

[Cabalo]

It should be way higher, if all the network is using gigabit ports.
Cabling might be the issue. You should use cat6 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_6_cable) cabling.

[Artemis]

That throughput looks low, actually very low, now I'm going to ask you the obvious question , are you using Cat5e or Cat6 leads ? That is the first point also if your router supports data reporting check on the actual throughput on the router.

[Pozarynicoeta]

That throughput looks low, actually very low, now I'm going to ask you the obvious question , are you using Cat5e or Cat6 leads ? That is the first point also if your router supports data reporting check on the actual throughput on the router.

What's the difference?

[Artemis]

That throughput looks low, actually very low, now I'm going to ask you the obvious question , are you using Cat5e or Cat6 leads ? That is the first point also if your router supports data reporting check on the actual throughput on the router.

What's the difference?

Cat6 has a higher theoretical bandwidth and less cross-talk. Simply put, the more machines on the network segment, the more the need for Cat6 to prevent signal degradation. In a SOHO environment Cat5e is the better option because it is cheaper to purchase.

[Detale]

I think one cable is cat5e and the other cat6. I'll have to check though. The switch I have between the nas and my computer is this one here (http://www.netgear.com/Products/Switches/DesktopSwitches/GS605.aspx)

My router (http://www.linksysbycisco.com/US/en/products/WRT310N)

my mobo (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128359&Tpk=GA-EP45-UD3R) (still using the HTPC for now)

All components are gigabit. I'll check my cables in a bit

[Cabalo]

Is the router Gigabit? Which model is it? (sorry if you said this before, but I didn't read the whole thread.)

[Detale]

1 post above yours bud. Link and everything.

I just noticed on my switch that the lead coming from the server is orange while the others are green. If im not mistaken green is GB and orange is 100 Mbs so I have some inspecting to do. More details soon.

The 1000 GB LED is on on my new network card in the server but it is orange on the switch. I'm a bit confused. I have to look up where I bought the cable as there are no markings on it.

Edit: So I went to the Egg to look up some specs on the NIC and I found an interesting review


Bought this NIC for a FreeNAS server (FreeBSD). The NIC was recognized but would not run at 1000Mbps speeds - FreeBSD driver doesn't fully support this chipset. Tried installing it in a Linux Ubuntu box just to see if it would work; it did. However the machine would either lock up or lose network connectivity at least once an hour.

Glad I got it for $20 locally so I'm not too pissed. I will however need a new card can anyone suggest a decent one like? I'm looking at this one (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106121) or maybe this one (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833166002). The 2nd one is 64 bit if that makes a difference. Opinions?

[Cabalo]

Google a little and try to find if freeBSD is compatible with such chips.
Or maybe opposite, find which chips are freebsd compatible, and then look for cards with them.
Sucks to have happened that way. *nix drivers always sucked.

[Detale]

Meh, I'm getting a headache. I got an Intel card locally that is supposed to be compatible then installed it and realized the orange light I was looking at was supposed to be there! It is from my WDTV Live which is not GB so my switch was seeing the Freenas box as GB after all. I restarted Freenas and had to reconfigure it all again (is there a way to save the config so when I restart it I don't have to re-config all over again?) Then my speeds were dead slow. i tried it in the 66mhz slot and here are the new speeds, needless to say they are about the same :huh:

http://img682.imageshack.us/img682/4222/freenas2.jpg

Can anyone think of what I am doing wrong?

On another note What is this bay for on my server
By all means ignore the RED arrow I stole this pic from somewhere
http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/494/dellpoweredge600sc1.jpg

[Detale]

I think I may just change cases anyway. I have my trusty old antec900 unused. The Mobo should fit right in, no? Reason being I need more HDD space as I'm ordering another SATA card and some new HDD's as well :). I think the 900 will work well as the case works great with some silent fans. Airflow on that baby is great. Seems the dell case is way noisy. I changed the stock 140mm fan to an enermax one and that helped but stoill it's pretty loud.

[Artemis]

Meh, I'm getting a headache. I got an Intel card locally that is supposed to be compatible then installed it and realized the orange light I was looking at was supposed to be there! It is from my WDTV Live which is not GB so my switch was seeing the Freenas box as GB after all. I restarted Freenas and had to reconfigure it all again (is there a way to save the config so when I restart it I don't have to re-config all over again?) Then my speeds were dead slow. i tried it in the 66mhz slot and here are the new speeds, needless to say they are about the same :huh:

http://img682.imageshack.us/img682/4222/freenas2.jpg

Can anyone think of what I am doing wrong?

On another note What is this bay for on my server
By all means ignore the RED arrow I stole this pic from somewhere
http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/494/dellpoweredge600sc1.jpg

Ok,Ok....sorry your pm got buried with others, or maybe I just don't care :P

The bay isn't actually a bay, the front part of the space is for a system fan to bring air in and fan it over the expansion cards while the blue locking mechanism's are actually to lock full size 64bit PCI server cards into place and hold them there securely (hence the front fan to cool them).
You can transfer your existing parts over to the antec case without in anyway altering any of the system utility of the server.
The case in it's day was larger and more powerful than a standard case because it had a far more powerful PSU and larger internal expansion, that time has well and truly passed and the Antec will actually provide better cooling.

[Detale]

Thanks Art you ROCK!. BTW I am sending your stuff out tomorrow bud ;)

[Detale]

OK so I haven't yet transferred the server innards to my Antec 900 because I can't seem to find documentation on the front panel headers anywhere. on the current dell board there is one large pin connector that I don't know what pins go where when trying to use standard case pins. so I'm stuck for now :(

Also I have been trying my hardest to get Freenas to run from a USB but in the bios I can't seem to find anywhere to "boot from a USB" or anything like that so I don't think this is an option to me at the moment, right?

Without installing onto a USB is there any way to save my configuration so I don't have to re-enter all my disks when I restart the server?

On another note I'm thinking of getting this board to use as a server next
MBD-X7SLM-L-O LGA 775 945GC mATX Server Motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182168)

It's only $55 used at MC and I have a 775 CPU and a bunch of 1GB sticks or DDR2 ram. Do you guys think it's worth it to spend the $55 seeing as I'm sure I can boot from USB and it has an integrated GB NIC? Not to mention on board SATA II ports (4).

[lee551]

Without installing onto a USB is there any way to save my configuration so I don't have to re-enter all my disks when I restart the server?


My setup boots from CD-ROM, and reads the config file from a USB-attached floppy drive. :lol:

I was trying to remember how I told it to save to the floppy, but after some googling it seems you only need to have a USB stick or a floppy inserted and FreeNAS should auto-save the config file to either location for you.

There should also be a option in the web interface to download and/or restore the FreeNAS configuration file manually.

[Artemis]

I'll add to this post as I think of points to answer your query Detale, but the first point regarding the Servers BIOS a. it is an older machine from when bootable USB devices were first being used. More importantly though it is designed as a Server there is no specific need for it to be booted from a USB bootable device unlike a desktop, it is simply an option that is not needed.

If you could take a pic of the connector(s) that you aren't sure of that would help.

[Detale]

@ cousin Art ;) I will take a pic tomorrow. My problem is that I want to be able to save the configuration so i don't have to add then mount each disk every time I reboot and then enable the services. Kind of a PITA.

@Lee I have a USB stick inserted and it reads it as da0. There is an option to save the config file as XML but I can't get the server to read it. It always says something like "no config file found using default settings". When I try to restore the config file it reboots and doesn't help either. I tried formatting it as NFTS and now Fat32 should I try formatting it as UFS??

BTW I added another TB disk and decided to format it as UFS and my transfer speeds are now around 200Mb/s. I'm currently moving all the data on another TB drive formatted NTFS to the UFS drive so I can reformat the first drive to UFS as well. Seems file system had something to do with it.
http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/5732/capturecm.jpg

[lee551]

@Lee I have a USB stick inserted and it reads it as da0. There is an option to save the config file as XML but I can't get the server to read it. It always says something like "no config file found using default settings". When I try to restore the config file it reboots and doesn't help either. I tried formatting it as NFTS and now Fat32 should I try formatting it as UFS??



From the FreeNAS documentation pages (http://freenas.org/documentation:setup_and_user_guide:using_freenas_with_the_cdrom_and_a_removable_disk_livecd_mode):


The floppy disk or USB key must be already MSDOS formatted (FreeNAS will not format it).

If I'm not mistaken, by "MSDOS formatted" they would mean just FAT right? I'd try that and then UFS if FAT doesn't work.

[Detale]

Well I tried it UFS formatted I guess when I have time I'll try regular Fat next.

[Detale]

Been a while now and all was working well until last night when I had to shut the system down to clean the floors in my house. When I turned the system back on and had to reconfigure everything once again 2 of my disks weren't showing up and the others that were showing were acting odd. I could see the disks but couldn't save to them or delete them. A few options later (reinstall freenas, new install CD, etc) later I got fed up put the apprentice on a USB drive, watched it and went to bed.

OK so this morning I decided to see what would happen if I used my old Gigabyte mobo (GA-EP45-UD3R) and an E3300 I have laying around. a 2gb stick of ram and a crappy vid card I rescued from a junked computer. Some old raedon I didn't even look, but it's good for this :). I threw it all into my Antec 900 case which has plenty of room for HDD's and has on board SATA ports, and gigabit Ethernet so I don't have to use controller cards either. Not to mention fantastic airflow. It's working GREAT!!! My throughput speeds are better than ever. I Installed onto a USB stick finally (which I couldn't do due the server not allowing a boot from USB). Now when I restart I don't have to reconfigure everything!!! Thats huge for me!


Here's a shot of the speeds compared:

OLD
http://img682.imageshack.us/img682/4222/freenas2.jpg

Older as well
http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/5732/capturecm.jpg

NEWEST!!!
http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/8480/freeiq.jpg

Now this is transferring a 4.7GB file in about 60 sec. Thats great for me. Honestly I don't even care what was wrong with the server anymore I'm a' keepin' this one :)

Thanks guys again for all your help ;)

[Pozarynicoeta]

Forgive me for being off topic, but what application are you using to generate those speed benchmark charts?

[Detale]

No worries pal, It's on the Freenas OS under the Status-Graph tabs.

[Detale]

Hey guys. Please correct me if I'm wrong but JBOD will lump together different disks of different sizes into 1 large disk right?

For the life of me I can't seem to figure out how to do it here :huh:

nm, i got it now. I didn't format the disks after creating the jbod array. :)

[lee551]

Glad to hear it's all working so well for you now. I think I'm going to have to look at getting everything on Gbit ethernet. Those speeds are just too juicy looking.

[Detale]

Don't know your location but it's not that expensive really. Just keep in mind when you are upgrading something to but a gigabit part.

[MultiForce]

Installed FreeNAS last night and had it up and running for my popcorn box after 45 minutes. This thing is just fantastic. Lots of options and something for everyone whatever disks they may have.

Got it running around 400-500Mbps without any issues. I'm using 2 1TB WD GP disks right know and I can't get more than 40MB/s write speed to the damn thing and from one computer to another (both have WD black disks) I get 60+ MB/s so I guess I have try those instead.

Edit:
Got the 750GB black disks around 47 MB/s.

Maybe I have to get a HW RAID card instead of software or something, or what do you guys think?

Problem fixed itself somehow. Got around 60MB/s.

[Detale]

I had the same issue for a time. I tried different ethernet cards for a bit and it worked itself out. What specs are you talking about here? Are all of your parts gigabit or?

[MultiForce]

I had the same issue for a time. I tried different ethernet cards for a bit and it worked itself out. What specs are you talking about here? Are all of your parts gigabit or?

Me?

I just run it on some Asus Formula thingy with a Q6600 (my old gaming computer) and using the internal NICs and gigabit is working fine.

Haven't had a single issue with the box since I set it up.

[Detale]

Ahh great. If you were having NIC probs I have a bunch of cards laying around that I could have sent to you if you lived in the USA. Thats why I asked man.

[Cabalo]

Out of curiosity, which filesystem are you guys using? ext3/ext4/ whatever ?

[Detale]

Im using the UFS and have 4 1TB drives in Raid 0. I plan on upgrading to 6 2TB drives after xmas ;)

[Detale]

Just a minor update. I upgraded to Freenas 8 beta and I have to say it works a bit better but the gui is crappy in comparison to v .7. Also you can't add a drive without formatting it so I can't add my old data. It was fine with the majority of my movie collection but I did backup some on another drive in hopes of re-importing it. So that sucks. I did however save my freenas OS on a USB drive so I can easily restart it using the old USB drive and move the files that way but it's a PITA to say the least.