Building your own ZFS fileserver

I'm trying to plan a server to be used primarily as a NAS for media sharing and file protection/redundancy (I know unwise but I don't do backups presently).

I had been thinking Vail, but since they killed off Drive Extender, I am exploring the options. ZFS intrigues, but I am not clear how this would affect my media streaming options. I had been planning on running for example, MyMovies for WHS to be used with a MyMovies client in extender mode. Or a SageTV Media Center to be used with Sage's HD300 in client extender mode. So I think I'd lose these options if I did anything with ZFS, and I'm not sure I understand the alternatives - or at least anything with as nice an interface as those options present.

I'd also like to add some simple PBX/SIP/VoiP/google voice functionality, but I don't know if that should be done on the same server, or get a separate small box like an Acer Revo to do that by itself?
 
Hey guys,

I am using freebsd 8.1. The zfs version does not support raidz3, and I want to use raidz3.
How do I update the zfs version?
 
The_Frag_Man said:
Hey guys,

I am using freebsd 8.1. The zfs version does not support raidz3, and I want to use raidz3.
How do I update the zfs version?
Click to expand...

FreeBSD 8.1 use Zpool V14
http://www.bsdforen.de/showthread.php?t=24883

Raid-Z3 is supported from V 17 up
http://blog.vx.sk/archives/4-ZFS-pool-and-filesystem-versions.html

Free-BSD will support Pool V28 in a future release

Currently you could have it stable only with OpenSolaris base Systems
Nexenta Pool V. 26 (dedup and improved snapshot deletion)
OpenIndiana Pool V. 28 (could repair pool if multiple disks fails )
Solaris Express Pool V 31 (encryption)

Gea
 
Thanks Gea. I guess I have to wait for the next version of free bsd.

I was hoping that there would be some kernel module I could upgrade to just update the zfs version.
 
Excellent thread. I have no use for ZFS but still read the entirety of the first post because it was so well written.
 
I'm about to purchase hardware to build a 6 x 2TB ZFS raidz2 file server, and I've got a question about running FreeBSD on a USB memory stick. Does the speed of the memory stick make a difference to the performance of the operating system (in terms of r/w)?

The m-ITX mobo I'm likely getting will have USB3, so should I get a USB3 memory stick to utilize the extra bandwidth available?
 
twwen2 said:
I'm about to purchase hardware to build a 6 x 2TB ZFS raidz2 file server, and I've got a question about running FreeBSD on a USB memory stick. Does the speed of the memory stick make a difference to the performance of the operating system (in terms of r/w)?

The m-ITX mobo I'm likely getting will have USB3, so should I get a USB3 memory stick to utilize the extra bandwidth available?
Click to expand...

From what I've read, no, it makes absolutely no difference.
 
A USB 3 (or USB 2) USB stick that has a good controller (really expensive sticks have this) with good random I/O speeds, that also means it will be far more durable; like 100 times longer! But from a performance standpoint, only the booting would take longer, otherwise it should not harm your other speeds on your data pool.
 
Gotchya.

You guys are a great help. Last few questions for now:

1) I was planning to use one of the new AMD Zacate m-ITX boards. Most of them only have 4 SATA3 ports, and I'll need at least 6. For raidz2, I'm presuming it'll be ok to run 4 disks from the mobo ports and the other 2 from a HBA, say a HighPoint Rocket 620?

2) The AMD Hudson chipset (that these Zacate boards use) is limited to x4 PCI-E 2.0. I was looking for a 4-port non-raid HBA but there aren't any available in Australia. Are there any inexpensive 8-port non-raid HBAs that are compatible with the limited PCI-E slot? Otherwise I'll be limited to a 2-port model; forcing me to boot the O/S from a USB and I won't be able to use an optical drive.

I'm really wanting to avoid having to upsize to an m-ATX build, but it seems like I'm running out of options.
 
Asus Zacate Deluxe board has 5 SATA available + 1 eSATA; the Hudson chipset has 6xSATA600 under the hood, but apparently no single motherboard has chosen to implement all 6 of them; most of them either 4 or 5 + 1 eSATA.

As far as "HBA" (non-RAID controller) you could look at Intel SASUC8i. It uses Mini-SAS cables which you buy separately, but it does work with normal SATA drives and powers 8 SATA/300 devices at 3Gbps speed. It is a PCI-express 1.0 x8 controller, so it functions at 1GB/s max in Zacate board. The newer SAS2008 6Gbps controllers are PCI-express 2.0, and thus would have double the bandwidth (2GB/s) if you think that's important. But these are not supported in FreeNAS only ZFSguru and latest FreeBSD.

You should probably avoid Highpoint and other RAID controllers; those have the potential to disconnect your disks on timeouts or cause other problems; you would want a normal HBA without RAID function. Intel SASUC8i can do that if you flash it with non-RAID "IT" firmware, a relatively simple procedure.
 
Ah yes, the ASUS Zacate board. Looks great on paper, but will cost a fortune and doesn't seem to exist yet. I can't find anywhere that sells it, and it's only on Newegg sporadically. They don't ship electronic goods to OZ either.
 
It's not particularly more expensive than an Atom combination, so i can't say it costs a fortune; it's one of the cheapest computer systems you can build. But relative to the CPU power it is expensive, ay. But the idle power argument is compelling since you will save alot of power with a base consumption of just 7W for the mobo+RAM. With efficient disks and PSU you could have a very efficient NAS based on this platform. SATA/600 is also nice for SSD as SLOG/L2ARC acceleration.

AMD has been selling these since january i think; the demand is very high for Zacate so the supply is not in abundance, but you should be able to get it if you want it. It's not unlike many Sandy Bridge motherboards at the moment.
 
There's plenty of the E350 boards available, it's just the ASUS one that doesn't seem to exist. Newegg have it, but they don't ship to OZ. I haven't seen a single other store list it for sale. Not even on ebay.
 
Newegg has ASUS E35M1-M PRO with 5 6Gb/s sata ports and is shipping for $145. I am going to use this board for my freenas build.
 
Hello Guys, I would like to have a recommendation:

I would like to build a server and currently, my two 2TB WD green drives (would like to replace them with something else - Samsung f4) is almost full. I have about 300GB left. Anyways, I would like a server that I can do the following:

1. Be able to have Window shares so I can stream from my Win7 HTPC's (Blu-ray rips)
2. Do backups of all of the clients in my household (Windows, Linux)
3. May run some sort of database server.

First of all, last time i came around here, there was a lot of discussion about having the right number of harddrives for the best performance under zfs.300MB/s and up! Exactly how would I beenfit from such speeds if typical gigabit network speeds in the home currently max out at 50-100 MB/s. How would that affect my hardware requirements as I was currently set on getting a supermicro case and an i3.

Should I even be considering this (since it sounds like I won't be having that much functionality out of a server compared to you guys with IPMI and all of that jargon) or should I just buy a $99 program to play Blu-ray's from disc.
 
e2g said:
Hello Guys, I would like to have a recommendation:

I would like to build a server and currently, my two 2TB WD green drives (would like to replace them with something else - Samsung f4) is almost full. I have about 300GB left. Anyways, I would like a server that I can do the following:

1. Be able to have Window shares so I can stream from my Win7 HTPC's (Blu-ray rips)
2. Do backups of all of the clients in my household (Windows, Linux)
3. May run some sort of database server.

First of all, last time i came around here, there was a lot of discussion about having the right number of harddrives for the best performance under zfs.300MB/s and up! Exactly how would I beenfit from such speeds if typical gigabit network speeds in the home currently max out at 50-100 MB/s. How would that affect my hardware requirements as I was currently set on getting a supermicro case and an i3.

Should I even be considering this (since it sounds like I won't be having that much functionality out of a server compared to you guys with IPMI and all of that jargon) or should I just buy a $99 program to play Blu-ray's from disc.
Click to expand...

(1) is no problem - standard functionality (CIFS on Solaris/Samba on Linux)
(2) You can backup to a network share or iSCSI lun. Built in Win7 backup will backup to a network share I think in pro and higher - if not you can just mount an iSCSI lun and windows will treat it as a local disk. Not sure what backup software is on linux, but i have no doubt there's something that can backup to a SMB/NFS share
(3) No problem

Re: Speeds. You will see 100-110Mb/sec max probably with gigabit. If you have multiple computers connecting and multiple gigabit ports you can sustain full speed to multiple clients (with a faster array). Also this is for sequential - if you are working with lots of smaller files you may not be capping gigabit anyway. Finally people look at the internal array speeds as a way of making sure their system is performing up to snuff. Also benchmarking is fun :)

Re: Hardware - assuming you are going with a supermicro board also? Is that a Sandy Bridge i3 or a last gen i3 (500 series). I'm not sure if there is sandy bridge support yet in solaris/freebsd. If it's the 500 series i3 then you are golden - if you go with a server class board (supermicro - you can get a mATX one starting around 150 I think) you can run ECC ram with the i3 also, which is a plus.

Re: Functionality - I prefer using XBMC as the front end, which works well with having a server. A 99 buck program to play blue-rays wouldn't address your backup needs either - but really it just comes down to personal preference. Most of the people in this forum are going to be predisposed to the server route though, so you have definite selection bias in your survey group :)
 
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