I've been reading this site for a while and finally got into building my own NAS device for a variety of reasons which I'll get into. I just wanted to share my build and experience for others that might be interested.
Need:
I set out to build or acquire a NAS device to meet several needs. First I needed a lot of bulk storage that is accessible in my home network. NAS is the obvious solution for this because I'll be digitizing my movie collection to eventually have available to my home theater. I also needed an extra backup location for my photography work where I store lots of RAW images. The NAS would serve as a third online backup location from the primary and secondary sources. Last I needed an iSCSI target that could be accessed from multiple computers. I'll be working on a VMWare ESXi server setup and having shared data store access is needed for my project. I also need VLAN capability and trunking for added performance and learning.
I also needed a unit that could grow over time and also with future storage technology. As hard drives increase in size and speed, I wanted to be able to add more devices into my NAS to get a better return rather than buying all the storage now and replacing it later. I needed a system that could grow fairly easily and also perform.
Hardware:
I researched for a long time and read many different forums and asked a bunch of different questions to different people. I eventually settled on making use of some existing hardware I had at home and some new hardware that I would have to purchase. In my research I had found the Supermicro drive cage system that allowed me to fit 5 drives in the space of 3 5.25" bays which was awesome. I then began a quest to find a reasonably priced case that could use 9 bays. I had originally found a Rosewill case for about $70 which is the newegg house brand (I think). During the time of my research it apparently went out of production.
CPU: AMD X2 4600+ (Existing item)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-M57SLI-S4 (Existing item)
Memory: 2x 1GB Corsair XMS DDR2 800 (4-4-4-12) (Existing item)
Memory: 2x 2GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2 800 (4-4-4-12) (Existing item)
Video: BFG 8500GT (Existing item)
Case: COOLER MASTER Centurion 590 (black)
Power: Antec NeoPower 480 Watt (Existing item)
Boot Storage: 1x Hitachi 250GB T7K250 SATA Hard Drive (Existing item)
NAS Storage: 5x SAMSUNG EcoGreen F2 HD154UI 1.5TB 32MB
Drive carrier: 1x SUPERMICRO CSE-M35T-1B Black 5 Bay Hot-Swapable SATA HDD Enclosure
RAID Controller: 2x Dell Perc 6i RAID controller (2 SAS to 8 SATA)
Cables: 2x SFF 8484 SAS to SATA Cables
Misc hardware: 2x PC Bracket back plates that fit the Perc 6i into a standard slot in a case.
Cooling: 2x Scythe 40mm chipset fan (for Perc 6i) (Existing item)
Software: OpenFiler
Build and troubleshooting:
When I first built the system, I started to learn the different NAS softwares that would work for my project. I started with OpenFiler because it seemed to fit all my needs, at least on paper. I ran into some issues because at this time I did not have a RAID controller. I was using my on board SATA ports which I have six of. They are controlled by an nForce 570 controller which is a bit wonky at times. I was having issues with drives disconnecting and not being recognized.
I thought that maybe OpenFiler was the cause so I decided to try freNAS. I had even more difficulties with trying to build the array so I gave up after an hour of fighting with the software. I moved on to Windows Home Server which also gave me equal amounts of grief. I couldn't find the right drivers but eventually the XP version seemed to work. The performance was really poor in WHS with my hardware. I could copy files over to my system but about 2/3rds into the copy, the network would drop from 50-60MB/s to a few hundred KB/sec.
I was never able to figure out why so I moved on to Server 2008 R2 which actually worked pretty solid with my hardware, but it wasn't exactly what I wanted. I didn't want to manage a server OS, I kind of wanted something a little more simple such as OpenFiler or FreeNAS.
Raid Controller research and port expansion:
During all this time I have been reading and thinking about my expansion goals for this system. My motherboard has two 16x PCIe slots and three PCIe 1x slots. I had been doing a lot of reading about the Dell perc 6i RAID controller and the value it offers for the money. I found an enormous resource over at Overclock.net and I wasn't even a forum member there! I read through 400+ pages of that single forum thread and came out knowing that I wanted this RAID card.
So I bought two of them. I found a seller on eBay who was selling the cards as new in the bag with the battery backup unit. it just so happens that this person on eBay was coincidentally an active member on overclocker.net so I felt safe about buying the cards. They arrived perfect in working condition for $150/each including shipping. I know it's not the best deal that people have found, but it worked for me and my budget. I was also able to get to 16 SATA ports for around $300 with a true RAID controller. I looked around at a lot of well known and not-so-known controllers and couldn't get there with the same money.
RAID Controller caveats:
The card isn't perfect right out of the bag, it's missing a few key things.
Need:
I set out to build or acquire a NAS device to meet several needs. First I needed a lot of bulk storage that is accessible in my home network. NAS is the obvious solution for this because I'll be digitizing my movie collection to eventually have available to my home theater. I also needed an extra backup location for my photography work where I store lots of RAW images. The NAS would serve as a third online backup location from the primary and secondary sources. Last I needed an iSCSI target that could be accessed from multiple computers. I'll be working on a VMWare ESXi server setup and having shared data store access is needed for my project. I also need VLAN capability and trunking for added performance and learning.
I also needed a unit that could grow over time and also with future storage technology. As hard drives increase in size and speed, I wanted to be able to add more devices into my NAS to get a better return rather than buying all the storage now and replacing it later. I needed a system that could grow fairly easily and also perform.
Hardware:
I researched for a long time and read many different forums and asked a bunch of different questions to different people. I eventually settled on making use of some existing hardware I had at home and some new hardware that I would have to purchase. In my research I had found the Supermicro drive cage system that allowed me to fit 5 drives in the space of 3 5.25" bays which was awesome. I then began a quest to find a reasonably priced case that could use 9 bays. I had originally found a Rosewill case for about $70 which is the newegg house brand (I think). During the time of my research it apparently went out of production.
CPU: AMD X2 4600+ (Existing item)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-M57SLI-S4 (Existing item)
Memory: 2x 1GB Corsair XMS DDR2 800 (4-4-4-12) (Existing item)
Memory: 2x 2GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2 800 (4-4-4-12) (Existing item)
Video: BFG 8500GT (Existing item)
Case: COOLER MASTER Centurion 590 (black)
Power: Antec NeoPower 480 Watt (Existing item)
Boot Storage: 1x Hitachi 250GB T7K250 SATA Hard Drive (Existing item)
NAS Storage: 5x SAMSUNG EcoGreen F2 HD154UI 1.5TB 32MB
Drive carrier: 1x SUPERMICRO CSE-M35T-1B Black 5 Bay Hot-Swapable SATA HDD Enclosure
RAID Controller: 2x Dell Perc 6i RAID controller (2 SAS to 8 SATA)
Cables: 2x SFF 8484 SAS to SATA Cables
Misc hardware: 2x PC Bracket back plates that fit the Perc 6i into a standard slot in a case.
Cooling: 2x Scythe 40mm chipset fan (for Perc 6i) (Existing item)
Software: OpenFiler
Build and troubleshooting:
When I first built the system, I started to learn the different NAS softwares that would work for my project. I started with OpenFiler because it seemed to fit all my needs, at least on paper. I ran into some issues because at this time I did not have a RAID controller. I was using my on board SATA ports which I have six of. They are controlled by an nForce 570 controller which is a bit wonky at times. I was having issues with drives disconnecting and not being recognized.
I thought that maybe OpenFiler was the cause so I decided to try freNAS. I had even more difficulties with trying to build the array so I gave up after an hour of fighting with the software. I moved on to Windows Home Server which also gave me equal amounts of grief. I couldn't find the right drivers but eventually the XP version seemed to work. The performance was really poor in WHS with my hardware. I could copy files over to my system but about 2/3rds into the copy, the network would drop from 50-60MB/s to a few hundred KB/sec.
I was never able to figure out why so I moved on to Server 2008 R2 which actually worked pretty solid with my hardware, but it wasn't exactly what I wanted. I didn't want to manage a server OS, I kind of wanted something a little more simple such as OpenFiler or FreeNAS.
Raid Controller research and port expansion:
During all this time I have been reading and thinking about my expansion goals for this system. My motherboard has two 16x PCIe slots and three PCIe 1x slots. I had been doing a lot of reading about the Dell perc 6i RAID controller and the value it offers for the money. I found an enormous resource over at Overclock.net and I wasn't even a forum member there! I read through 400+ pages of that single forum thread and came out knowing that I wanted this RAID card.
So I bought two of them. I found a seller on eBay who was selling the cards as new in the bag with the battery backup unit. it just so happens that this person on eBay was coincidentally an active member on overclocker.net so I felt safe about buying the cards. They arrived perfect in working condition for $150/each including shipping. I know it's not the best deal that people have found, but it worked for me and my budget. I was also able to get to 16 SATA ports for around $300 with a true RAID controller. I looked around at a lot of well known and not-so-known controllers and couldn't get there with the same money.
RAID Controller caveats:
The card isn't perfect right out of the bag, it's missing a few key things.
- First, it does not come with the traditional metal 'L' plate on the back of the card. I did some research and found the correct plate at a place called Mouser. The plate fit correctly, but I had to use a drill to widen the screw holes so that I could fasten it to the Perc card. This was trivial to solve.
- Second, the card requires active cooling which does not come with the card. I solved this by using nylon straps to mount a 40mm Scythe fan to the heat sink on the card (see example images below). I also have a 120mm side case fan which blows air over that area of the motherboard for added cooling.
- Third, the Perc 6i is actually a SAS card and requires proper cables. I initially ordered the proper cables known as SFF 8484 passthrough which turn each of the two SAS ports into 8 SATA ports. The cables were purchased very cheaply from a Chinese company called Cross-mark. I've ordered them a few weeks ago and I've still yet to receive them due to the distance and different country (I'm in the US). Since I'm impatient, I've ordered two cables from Amazon of similar type from Tripp Lite. I paid more than twice as much as all four cables from China are costing me, but I couldn't wait.
