freenas ss4200 plan

[subq]

I currently have freenas running on an old computer, booting off a thumb drive with 2 TB drives raid 1 (geom mirror).

I was thinking about buying a QNAP 4 bay or something because I really want to consolidate things here...keep current NAS for file storage, media streaming, itunes but start using iscsi and connect my VMs there.

However, the prices are pretty high on off-the-shelf solutions.

after running across the ss4200 here in the forums, I was thinking it could be cheaper to pick up one of those and build a new freenas box...

I'm wondering how a ss4200 might perform in comparison to..say the qnap 439 pro... anyone compared them?

I figure if the performance was decent my plan of attack would be to order the ss4200 throw a couple 1.5TB drives I have in there and install FreeNAS 0.7 on a DOM to create a new mirror (maybe even look at ZFS). Then I would rsync my data from the old 0.69 freenas box to the new box. Lastly, I would move the 2 1TB drives into the new 0.7 box and create another raid1 array for my VMs and maybe time machine or something. That would leave me with just the SS4200 a 1.5TB mirror and a 1.0TB mirror...I suppose I will need to check out ZFS more though because maybe I would need to add the other 1TB drives in differently, as long as the end result was the same, data storage and iscsi for VMs and maybe even time machine backups.

I would really like to boost performance a bit as the speed on the current box hasn't been that great, however, I want to scale down from the size of the tower and the noise ...current box is:

FreeNAS 0.69 Kwisatz Haderach (revision 4276)
Platform i386-embedded on Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40GHz (2411MHz)
500MB RAM

 

[Jay_S]

You saw these already I take it?
Intel Entry Storage System SS4200-E Review
QNAP TS-439 Pro Reviewed
Looks like the QNAP is slightly faster. But damn, it's expensive. For $800USD you could build a pretty nice server with a lot more flexibility / room for expansion. If you want to do ZFS, consider skipping the FreeNAS implementation until they incorporate ZFS Version 13 as used in recent SVN FreeBSD versions (FreeBSD 7-STABLE as of march, I think) and FreeBSD 8 betas. Ver 13 brought lots of improvements.

Better yet, give opensolaris a whirl with comstar:
http://opensolaris.org/os/project/comstar/
http://dlc.sun.com/osol/docs/content/2008.11/COMSTARADMIN/gentextid-110.html

 

[subq]

well the ss4200 review is old and when I went to the nas charts I didn't even see it listed anymore so I couldn't really compare the speeds

I wouldn't be interested in running the OS it comes with though, that's why I was looking at freenas, that's what I run now

However, I just saw that it doesn't support jumbo frames, so I'm not sure I want to go that route now

I agree on the 439, it looks real nice, performance is real nice but the price tag is way up there, it would seem something could be built that gets close to it in performance for much cheaper

 

[thiggins]

However, I just saw that it doesn't support jumbo frames, so I'm not sure I want to go that route now

I would not let lack of jumbo frame support stop you. Jumbo frames don't always provide improved speed.

 

[wathman]

If you're looking for a platform to build your NAS with, I just saw this deal on Newegg today... it's taking a lot of willpower to resist the urge to buy it since I don't NEED another one, but it sure would be fun to test some things out with: Supermicro Dual Core Atom 330 combo http://www.newegg.com/Product/Combo...EMC-IGNEFL102209-_-Combo-_-LM4A-_-Combo277521

$320, add an OS and you're up and running. Even includes a 1TB Caviar Green in that price.

 

[subq]

If you're looking for a platform to build your NAS with, I just saw this deal on Newegg today... it's taking a lot of willpower to resist the urge to buy it since I don't NEED another one, but it sure would be fun to test some things out with: Supermicro Dual Core Atom 330 combo http://www.newegg.com/Product/Combo...EMC-IGNEFL102209-_-Combo-_-LM4A-_-Combo277521

$320, add an OS and you're up and running. Even includes a 1TB Caviar Green in that price.

That's an excellent price, if I wasn't concerned about noise and didn't want a tower type format I would probably jump on it...I could actually live with a RM format but the noise I couldn't, SuperMicro are notoriously loud but I use them for lots of other stuff in server rooms and they make awesome gear.

 

[subq]

I would not let lack of jumbo frame support stop you. Jumbo frames don't always provide improved speed.

Well I'm still kicking it around, the thing is, I really want to beef up performance from what I have now, especially since I will be using iSCSI and VMs in addition to the media/itunes and storage I'm using my current FreeNAS for, so the question becomes which OS to run on the SS4200 if I pick one up, I currently use FreeNAS but it just doesn't seem to do all that well looking at everyone's performance numbers

 

[wathman]

That's an excellent price, if I wasn't concerned about noise and didn't want a tower type format I would probably jump on it...I could actually live with a RM format but the noise I couldn't, SuperMicro are notoriously loud but I use them for lots of other stuff in server rooms and they make awesome gear.

For full size rack systems, yeah I'd agree that they are way too loud. This is a low power server based on the Intel Atom, so it's just a really beefy netbook processor. If you look at the newegg reviews, they all remark on just how quiet it is. If you look at the actual board, it only has one 1 small CPU heatsink fan, which is all it needs. If you go with consumer grade case fans to cool your hard drives, it won't be very loud at all. http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/ATOM/945/X7SLA.cfm?typ=H

If I end up having to build a NAS for a family member in the near future, this would be the platform I'd pick.

 

[subq]

For full size rack systems, yeah I'd agree that they are way too loud. This is a low power server based on the Intel Atom, so it's just a really beefy netbook processor. If you look at the newegg reviews, they all remark on just how quiet it is. If you look at the actual board, it only has one 1 small CPU heatsink fan, which is all it needs. If you go with consumer grade case fans to cool your hard drives, it won't be very loud at all. http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/ATOM/945/X7SLA.cfm?typ=H

If I end up having to build a NAS for a family member in the near future, this would be the platform I'd pick.

Yeah, I read through the comments where people were saying it was quiet.

Where are you putting your drives? You obviously won't fit 4 3.5" drives in there

 

[Jay_S]

Preface: I'm a virtualization noob. But you mentioned "using iscsi and connect my VMs" to whatever new NAS you buy/build. Would this entail multiple iscsi connections to the NAS? I'm thinking that a high I/O load would overwhelm an Atom-based system.

Something based around AMD's Athlon II X4 620 quad ($100) should give you plenty of headroom for I/O and software-raid calculations. Its integrated memory controller supports ECC memory, it's 64-bit compatible, and has hardware virtualization features (unlike Intel's low-end CPUs).

 

[wathman]

well, depending on what they want and how much they want to pay for it, 2 of these will fit and operate at very low power: http://miamitechsolutions.com/proddetail.asp?prod=MDWD10TEVTSP

Otherwise, the cpu/board combo for $139 would be great with a case that supports flex ATX.

 

[subq]

Preface: I'm a virtualization noob. But you mentioned "using iscsi and connect my VMs" to whatever new NAS you buy/build. Would this entail multiple iscsi connections to the NAS? I'm thinking that a high I/O load would overwhelm an Atom-based system.

Something based around AMD's Athlon II X4 620 quad ($100) should give you plenty of headroom for I/O and software-raid calculations. Its integrated memory controller supports ECC memory, it's 64-bit compatible, and has hardware virtualization features (unlike Intel's low-end CPUs).

for this particular NAS I'm building the virtualization stuff is very low key, just some dev stuff really, in fact, those are currently running on just a low-end dell vostro with a couple 500GB HDs in raid1 (the onboard raid too, which is never great)

and I have freenas running on an old computer with a couple 1TB drives in it, then I have a 500GB drive hanging off an airport for the macs to do their time machines stuff....so really the goal is to try to consolidate all that down into one NAS without having to spend nearly a grand just for the chasis

 

[subq]

after reading for a few days I may move away from the ss4200 for one simple reason, it only has 1 ethernet port

since this is a DIY I'm getting quite experimental and pretty demanding I suppose

I want it to do everything freenas will do, i.e. media server, itunes, and iscsi too...however, I want to experiment with zfs too

so I may not be using freenas have to figure out which OS to go with

will probably end up looking around for a case/mb/ram with a 4 drive hot-swap cage, then throw a couple gbit nics in there so I can trunk them

this will allow me to use iscsi with virtual machines in addition to serving up media and files, still sticking to the plan of phasing in with two different mirrors, start with two 1.5tb zfs mirror that will serve files and media, then later add a couple 1tbs or 1.5tbs zfs mirror and do the iscsi off that

I will need to figure out how to get time machine working flawlessly as well

now a new model ss4200 with dual ethernet ports would be interesting