Looking for advice on building a NAS

    Hi all,


    I'm looking for a little guidance. I am the user of a nas, actually a few, from a NAS manufacturer that shall remain nameless. They have solid hardware but their software is lacking in a lot of areas, like using 10 year old libraries that are full of security holes. I am looking at building my own NAS and I was going to use one of the linuxes that are out there and stumbled upon OMV. OMV looks really nice, a lot nicer that Freenas.


    Here are my current requirements.


    • File server.
    • Stream music which is 99.99% flac. I currently use Logitech Media Server to stream to a Logitech Duet.
    • Web server with pop3 and imap.
    • Mail server.
    • Proxy server.
    • DNS server. Currently using dnsmasq as I don't need a full blown DNS server.
    • (S)FTP server.
    • SSH.
    • Samba.
    • Syslog server.
    • Rsync.
    • Download station (bittorrents, etc)


    Future requirements - but we all know this will grow as I'm sure everyone elses usage of a NAS has grown.


    • Surveillance station.
    • Photo station.
    • Stream movies to a Samsung TV, iPads, other devices with transcoding if needed.
    • Ripping of bluray, DVD, and CDs on the device.


    My ideal setup would be the following.


    • 2 SSD disks in raid 1 for the OS and swap.
    • 6 - 8 slot drive bay (hot swap would be nice) for data in raid 6.
    • Multicore CPU.
    • 64 bit OS support.
    • > 4gb memory supported
    • Gigabit ethernet.
    • Hardware raid support via motherboard or expansion card (h/w raid is not a solid requirement but would be nice).
    • Sata III support.
    • eSata.
    • USB 2 and 3 (3 is not a solid requirement).


    So now we finally get to the part I am looking for advice on.


    Does anyone have any recommendations for NAS cases, motherboards, CPUs, and expansion cards for raid if not supported on motherboard? I'd like to keep the unit as small as possible and as quite as possible. Am I being unrealistic in my design and requirements?


    Thanks in advance.
    Don

    I'll give advie on SSDs. I think it is a waste to use 2. I wouldn't even mess with raid 1 for system drive. Learn to backup/image the system drive. I prefer a small Intel or Crucial SSD. They have been really reliable for me. Your ram at 4 gigs is fine unless you want to use the Virtualbox plugin. Then I would probably recommend 8gigs.

    Hi Don,


    I have to say that I'm confused between the use of the term NAS and the list of requirements above. By definition, the purpose of a network attached storage is to have lots of storage available on the network, period. It's a dedicated machine for this role, just as a "mail server" is a server running the mail services, and so on for web server, database server, proxy/gateway server, dns server. It's common practice to keep these services on separate machines with separate roles, to minimize security risks.


    What you want to achieve can be done in two ways: either an "all-in-one" server (your favorite linux server distribution should do), or virtual machines with dedicated roles running on the same physical server.


    From a hardware point of view, a server-grade motherboard should satisfy the needs for 24/7 reliability, remote management and a built-in SAS hardware RAID controller (SAS can also work with SATA drives, but not the other way around). But a rackable server case with hot-swap trays usually is bulky, noisy and also assumes it will be placed in a controlled environment (external cooling, controlled humidity, low dust etc.).


    If you are more interested in silence, you could go with a desktop motherboard and work on better cooling and smart airflow. Let's say, a Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge system around a LGA 1155 socket:
    - a motherboard with Z77 chipset such as the ASRock Z77 Pro3 ($90 on NewEgg)
    - an Intel Core i5-3450S Ivy Bridge quad core processor at 2.8 GHz and 65W low-power ($200)
    - passive cooling with a monster heatsink, such as the Scythe Ninja 3 or a Mugen 3 ($60)
    - a reliable power supply, such as the Seasonic S12II 520W modular or 620W, 80 Plus active PFC with a low-noise 12cm fan ($79)
    - a large, well-vented case with enough space for multiple drives and 1-2 low-speed 12cm exhaust fans
    - RAM and drives galore


    For a hardware RAID, you could jump on eBay and look for an older server-grade hardware SAS RAID controller with a PCI Express interface and a full-size backplate, such as the HP SmartArray P400 with 512MB memory and battery back-up, which goes for around $50-$80, plus cables.


    I'm not sure that the extra expense on hot-swap drive cage is worth it. You're likely not running a mission-critical system which can't be turned off for maintenance when needed, and you're also not physically limited to access the case only from the front, as it would be in a rack-mounted case. This extra cash on hand should allow you to be picky on tower cases, to find one with adequate cooling for the stack of drives mounted inside. Personally I put my 4 drives in a Cooler Master rack eating up 3 5,25" bays (SKU N82E16817993002 on NewEgg, $26); I have to take it all out to access a single drive, but I replaced its stock frontal 12cm fan with a quiet one so the cooling and noise problems are solved.


    Hope this helps :D

    I believe he want to have primarily a NAS based on LINUX and in second place utilizing it for other services.


    Anyhow, the requirements for a integrated drivebay only let open a very few things.


    You want something with not that much computing power, as you do not need it and it only costs money for power and coolin.
    First of all a chassis ..


    http://www.supermicro.com/prod…/2u/825/sc825tq-563lp.cfm


    This has up to 8 drives with 80Plus Gold PSU and can take any ATX or E-ATX Mainboard. It also can have low pofile expansion adapters for whatever you like (raid controller for the disks). It will ship for around $400.


    Inside that chassis you are then free to put in whatever you like.


    I would recommend the cheapest possible hardware you can get for it.


    1. Mobo ... ASRock B75 Pro3 ... supports already 8 SATA and USB3. Also includes onboard graphics if you put in the correct CPU. It could be also enough for your raid. With magentic hard disks you do not need SATA3. SATA 2 is sufficient for that. Also hardware raid .. yes possible, but expensive if you want it for 8 drives. Softwareraid is much cheaper and with OMV you can avoid it. Put the boot drive into an internal USB Slot and the rest of the drives into the SATA slots.
    2. CPU. the cheapest i3 will do the job. Massivly overpowered allready. You might consider to even go down for a dual core Celeron. It misses some features like AVX etc. pp. but if you only uses it inside your NAS and do not want to reencode Videos, absolute enought power. If I look at my HP N40L with the Turion 40 (AMD) Processor, it is idling all the time. This small box is definately not CPU limited :)
    3. The rest: pic to your liking.

    Everything is possible, sometimes it requires Google to find out how.

    Thanks all for your replies. A lot to consider.


    puterfixer - I would agree with you in a business environment but for home use there is no need to have separate devices. Home NAS units have come a long way from their beginnings of just providing storage to being able to run all kinds of packages.


    Again thanks for all your input.


    Don

    I fully agree with the processor being overpowered. The only consideration to have a decent CPU is to be able to run multiple virtual machines or video surveillance. On the other hand, you could get a low-power CPU plus a networked standalone DVR and still come out cheaper than a powerful CPU. The standalone DVR does the video encoding etc. more efficiently anyways.

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