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NAS enclosures have drive trays that can be removed from the enclosure. Simply mount the hard drives on/inside the drive tray, then reinsert it into the NAS enclosure. All NAS enclosures and almost all desktop computers will use 3.5-inch internal HDDs . They are usually designated with a color such as red, blue, green, black, purple, or gold. Limited Upgradability – Some NAS enclosures will have either 1 or 2 slots for RAM.
Overall, I’m enjoying my new NAS, and I learned a lot from this build. If this had been my first experience with a NAS, I’d be miserable and confused, but starting with my Synology gave me a gentle introduction to the technologies involved. I feel like the training wheels are off, and I’m ready to tinker with the power features of ZFS and TrueNAS. Coming into TrueNAS, I knew my Synology’s web UI would be hard to beat. It’s the most elegant and intuitive interface I’ve ever seen for a network appliance.
Build photos 🔗︎
Traditional filesystems like NTFS or ext4 run on top of a data volume that manages low-level disk I/O. ZFS manages everything in the stack from the file-level logic down to disk I/O. ZFS’ comprehensive control gives it more power and performance than other filesystems. I’m a big fan of Seagate’s IronWolf series of NAS hard drives.
Lack of Support – With all of the configuring necessary, you will find it difficult to find an easy support channel to assist with setting it up. You are kind of stuck with youtube videos and google searches . Limited Customization – Some NAS enclosures have a limited amount of features and software available. If you are a super-user that really wants to customize every singles aspect, then you may feel slightly limited.
Power supply unit (PSU) 🔗︎
FreeNAS is also known for its versatility and flexibility with regards to the concept of compatibility of most NAS server hardware created. This means that you don’t have to worry about compatibility issues that might potentially arise in your customized NAS server hardware design since it can be easily supported by FreeNAS. Rather than getting a dedicated NAS device and tacking it on to all your other devices, you can actually buy higher-end Wi-Fi routers that come with built-in hard drives.
Rather than buying a pre-made NAS or attempting to use your router as a NAS, you can always buy a network-attached drive enclosure. These are dedicated NAS devices with the appropriate server software, designed to be connected to a network. You’ll need to buy an appropriate hard drive separately and insert them into the NAS to get the storage you’ll need to use it. Even if you don’t have a physical keyboard or screen, ILO can be used to create a server. You can install a virtual machine on your workstation, booting Ubuntu from a live image, and installing Ubuntu on a USB hard drive.
Do I Need A Nas At Home?
Once you’re logged in, the first thing you’ll want to do is create the file system. Click Storage at the top of the menu bar, and then select Create volume. In the window that pops up, select all the drives you want to include, and give the volume a name.
Before building this system, I had zero experience with ZFS, so I was excited to try it out. In this post, I’ll walk through how I chose the parts, what mistakes I made, and my recommendations for anyone interested in building their own. If you do go this route, be sure to always have backups of your important data so you don’t lose it if your NAS bursts into flames. Alex Baker is a commercial photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She mostly shoots people and loves anything to do with the outdoors. You can see her work on her website and follow her Spanish landscape adventures on instagram.
Step 1: Installing FreeNAS
I had 2 sticks of 8 GB Corsair DDR3 RAM leftover from another project, so that was my obvious choice for the RAM for this machine. If you needed to purchase this RAM it does add $100 more to the cost of the build. I would recommend going with 8 GB of total RAM if you want to save $50. The low price point gave me a pretty limited number of options. I opted to base this build on an AMD A CPU, and mini ITX motherboard/case. This gave me the small size that I wanted with the ability to upicycle parts later.
It’s my favorite computer case ever, so I returned to Fractal Design on this build. I also looked at the B450, which was very similar but almost twice the price. The main advantage seemed to be better overclocking support, which I didn’t need. I’ve always appreciated my Synology DS412+’s compact form factor. I’ve never built a computer with a mini-ITX motherboard before, and this seemed like a good opportunity. I wanted to minimize my server’s physical footprint, so I opted for fewer, larger drives.
The motherboard is the most important component of a PC build and the same goes for NAS. We’d ideally want to pick a motherboard with countless SATA ports so plenty of drives can be connected, but that would mean going with a bulkier case. I’d recommend something like the SilverStone DS380B. It has support for up to 12 drives, four being fixed 2.5-inch bays and eight supporting hot-swappable 3.5-inch drives. There’s enough internal space for a graphics card though you will need to use the PCI slot for SATA expansion as only a Mini-ITX motherboard will fit here.
If the BIOS of Ubuntu’s Proliant isn’t found on a nearby hard drive, the operating system will not boot from the fifth hard drive bay. Remapping log directories to a ram disk and loading pre-loaded files may be convenient, but maintaining this jungle of scripts is impossible. I was able to solve the issue using a hack, resulting in a simple and elegant solution. Access to the RAID requires four disks, which is inconvenient, but it is very quiet.
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