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FreeNAS System JBOD build- Future expansion of HDD (Resolved)

FreeNAS JBOD backup build

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#1
Danny Olsson

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My media server is starting to get big and I have been using a My Cloud device for backup and it's not expandible in the way I need it to work.
 
I have to make a NAS device thats expandable and affordable do so. 
 
Looking at this simple solution -http://lifehacker.co...ne-with-freenas
 
I'm going with simple mini atx system with no OS.  It's going to be an AMD board and start off with 3, 4TB drives and the board will allow up to 3 more in the future.  Unlike the above article, I'll use backup software because my files are not stored in any of My Library folders on the media server.
 
My question is with FreeNAS, am I able to add drives to it as I need without loosing the data already backed up with JBOD?  Or am I better off getting a small SSD drive and Windows 10 to create my JBOD and use windows to extend the drive size as I add to it and not use FreeNAS or similar software?
 
I looked at FreeNAS, but everyone there seems to revert their answers to RAIDS and redundancy and never really quite answer similar questions.  This is a just for backup, no file serving or anything like that off this system.
 
Thanks
 

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#2
iammykyl

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:welcome:  Danny Olsson

I don't think FreeNAS is your best option.   When you combine the 3 drives it will be seen as 12GB logical drive in the OS.   Expanding jbod in FreeNAS, (ZFS files system) is possible, buy appears to be very hard to do using cmd.  Note, I am not an expert on this.   Files are written evenly across all drives, you can't direct a particular file to a particular drive.   There is no redundancy, if you lose a drive, you probable lose all you Data.   If you add a driver to the Pool, all Data must be rewritten evenly across all drives, hence why you will nearly always be advised to use RAID.  I think there is some sort of rule preventing the addition of a single drive to an existing RAID.

 

This Blog may help You.

>  http://blog.wdullaer...id-Like-Systems

 

Have you already acquired the hardware?   Would be interested in seeing a List. 


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#3
Danny Olsson

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A cube case that holds 4- 3.5drives, it has 3 internal, and 1 external  with SSD mounts and a 530 watt modular power supply

GIGABYTE GA-78LMT-USB3, AMD FX-4300 Vishera Quad-Core 3.8GHz, with Klevv FIT Faker Edition 8GB DDR3 memory.  

It puts me just under $250, I'm not sharing or streaming off of this, just backing up onto it.

 

No hard drives yet, I'm thinking 4TB each now.  I only need 8 TB to backup right now but have 11 TB worth of space which I'm quickly filling up and need to backup.  Starting with 8TB as backup, I can add a single drive as I need it.  I'm at 6-7 TB now of media.  But I'm looking to upgrade a lot of the it to HD, so i'm expecting my space requirments to shoot up.  This is why I'm looking for the ease of adding drives.  

 

Windows does it and it's quite easy, I can get a SSD and windows 10 and use Storage Space to create a large drive, and just use backup software like EaseUS Todo Backup on the server and backup to the Windows 10 , but was trying for something different, and I would prefer the money go towards hard drives.

 

I don't need redundancy, this is it.  I have the files in my server, plus if everything goes, the original media.

 

 

 Thanks


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#4
iammykyl

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Thanks for the info.

Have you purchased the hardware? cause there are a couple of points to consider.

The MB only has SATA 3Gbs ports, so the use of a SSD for the OS would yield no benefit.

Is the external connection on the cube a SATA port?

 

Possible alternative to FreeNAS/windows,  http://www.openmedia...g/features.html.   You can use jbod, easy to add drivers.  Has a choice of file systems.  Heaps of plug ins. You may need to us  rsnapshot, plug in, as EasUS Todo only supports Windows. 

Links on this page. > http://demo.omv-extras.org:9829/

If it looks promising, you might put you proposed build up and see what feedback is like. 


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#5
Danny Olsson

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The openmediavault looks interesting, when I have time later I'll read up on it.

 

I went the cheaper motherboard with only 3 Gbs because I don't need the speed and once backed up and it will only be needed when I add or make changes, and those will be 2-12 GB in size at a time.  Cube has the standard case plugs, no external SATA plug if that is what you meant.  it's the APEVIA X-QPACK3 , the 5.25 drive space is going to used hold a hard drive too.

 

The backup EasUS Todo is if I go the windows route.

 

Once I start assembly, I'll post the build and the exact hardware and software used.


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#6
iammykyl

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I miss interpreted  "and 1 external  with SSD mounts" as being a Dock. 

Thanks, your results with the build would be very much appreciatedespecially if success with Linux, as gives the alternative to Windows. 

 

Good luck. 


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#7
terry1966

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to be honest if your looking at ease of adding hard drives to your backup system then i really would reconsider the case your putting the system into.

 

eg. the board is capable of at least 6 sata connected drives yet your putting it in a case with only 4 hard drive locations.

 

for maximum expandability you really want to be looking at something like a rack mount case eg :- you can install 15 Hard drives in to this :- http://www.amazon.co...3NSKH8YAQ0B351E

 

that may be over kill for your needs but does give you an idea of what is out there.

 

another nice small option maybe something like this :- http://www.newegg.co...3-255-_-Product

 

that has 8 x 3.5 drive bays plus 4 x 2.5 bays.

ok you'd need to rethink your motherboard choice with this one because it's mini itx but again it does offer you an easy upgrade path to add new hard drives at a later date.

 

anyway just thought i'd give you something to think more about before making any purchases, a good case choice now will make things a lot easier further down the line when it comes to expandability.

 

:popcorn:


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#8
Danny Olsson

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Well I ended up going this way-  Not a fast way to add drives, but will take more or less a minute to do so in this case.

I wanted a MB with 6 SATA connections for expansion, and a case that could hold them. The case can fit 4 3.5" drives, with room for a couple 2.5" sized drives, and with some finagling, I'm sure I can get 1 or 2 more in there if needed. I tried to go inexpensive where I could, so that started me off with AMD.

GIGABYTE GA-78LMT-USB3 (rev. 6.0) AM3+ AMD 760G + SB710 USB 3.0 HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
and
AMD FX-4300 Vishera Quad-Core 3.8GHz (4.0GHz) Socket AM3+ 95W FD4300WMHKBOX Desktop Processor
with Klevv FIT Faker Edition 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model 

I wanted a case that looked a little different but would hold all the drives I wanted, so I chose the 
Apevia X-QPACK3-WHT Micro ATX Cube Gaming/HTPC Case, White plus I added two more 120mm fans and then I've always wanted to try a modular power supply, so I picked the 
RAIDMAX HYBRID 2 RX-530SS 530W ATX12V V2.2/ EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Modular Power Supply

I went with OpenMediaVault and was going to use the SnapRAID plugin, but with errors I didn't use SnapRAID.  After the images I'll add my notes and steps I used to get it running.

 

I wanted to put the OS onto a Flash drive so I got 2 Verbatim 8 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive but I couldn't get the GRUB to install onto the one because the drive wasn't A and I couldn't figure out how to switch the two USB in BIOS and I didn't see an option in the installer so I ended up having to use an 80 GB drive I had laying around. But it is actually better, now that I see some of the plugins available, I want to play around with some of them and the HD space could be useful. I also grabbed some extra SATA cables.


Here's a product picture of my case, and then my pictures of it during assembly and turning on. Let me know what you think

 

I forgot- The total price was $210 plus the drives.  11Tb where $300, 2 4tb and 1 3tb

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I just placed the extra plugs in the cas enext to the power supply

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1zzkidg.jpg


It powered up!
125gu4k.jpg


Edited by Danny Olsson, 10 April 2016 - 11:29 AM.

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#9
Danny Olsson

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Here is what I did and the pages I used to help me.
 
First I Downloaded the Openmediavault iso http://wiki.openmedi...le=Installation
 
I then used http://unetbootin.github.io/to create the boot/install onto one of the USB flash drives from a Windows computer and don't reboot when done, exit out and booted it up on the NAS PC
 
I have 2 USB flash drives.  I did the above steps onto one and wanted to install onto the 2nd flash drive.  But it wouldn't with GRUB errors.  The install USB was detected as the SDA, the second USB was SDB, GRUB wouldn't install on to SDB, it only wants SDA.  This installer wouldn't let me choose drive order and my BIOS wouldn't let me specify USB ports as a or b.  It could be me, I'm a Noob at this.  So I just added a small 80GB hard drive I had laying around and installed onto it.  I'm glad I did I like some of the other Plugins available and may need the space to use them.
 
I didn't want to use up the space (Case room, plugs and power) for it, I wanted to reserve it for additional hard drives for backup space and looking at my case, it has a dedicated 2.5" drive bay.  Looking at Newegg, I could have bought a cheap 2.5" hard drive for $20 and used it.   Anyways I got it up and working.
 
 
I then followed instructions to get the IP address to it, and then on my Windows PC hooked up to the network I was able to log in-
https://www.howtofor...edia-vault-nas/
 
I stopped using that page once I got to the file system. I want to backup Windows files to it from another computer on my network and not use RAID or the file system, it would create separate files for each of my back up drives, I want one large drive and the capability of adding more drives to it as they fill up.  That leads me to SnapRAID. http://www.snapraid.it/index.html  
 
So I switched to the help here:
http://forums.openme...ras-org-Plugin/
I downloaded it and then in the web interface of OMV and uploaded it.
 
I then went here: http://omv-extras.or...v-extras-plugin
 
I then used - http://forums.openme...D-Plugin-Guide/(After Errors I didn't use SnapRAID)
 
But still get the Extras plug in, it has a lot of other usefull plugins.
I also installed the Union Filesystem plugin that actually pooled my drives into one large drive. 
 
Now I created File systems and named the discs, d1, d2 etc. and mounted them. I then used http://omv-extras.or...fs-and-snapraid, I didn't use parity.
 
But when I tested to see if I could see my new pooled drive from my PC on the network, I couldn't get into it.  It says it was restricted.  I had played with my user and group privileges and messed everything up and couldn't get it back.  Then in playing with that it messed up the shared folder I made and the SnapRAID settings.  I couldn't get it to reset and I just reinstalled the whole OS again.  With a fresh new install.  I created a new User and didn't play with privileges, I left them default.   I only turned on the SMB / CIF service.
 
I added the extras plugins, the Union Filesystem, SnapRAID.
 
I mounted the 2 drives I have,   I made a pool drive in Union Filesystem, a shared folder on the pool drive and then stopped.  I went to my PC and the drive was there and I was able to log into it with my OMV user name and password.  I was done, no SnapRAID.
 
On my Plex Media server I decided to use goodsync.com/  I chose it because it mirrors my data, and not create a backup file only it can read, plus in the sync part, it will only backup the files I change. It's been running all night and works good. 

 

Next I want to check the expandability of the Unified filesystem.   Monday, I have another HD coming in and I will add that to the pool. What I'm hoping to happen is to get it installed and then in OMV, mount it and add it to the pool, that will get me to 11TB and should cover what I need for a couple months.

 

And lastly since it's working and backing up my Plex, I installed the backup plugin and made a backup.  I want to play around with a couple other plugins, but it seems kind of delicate and if I mess it up bad, I can restore what I just did.

 

Some stats.  The OMV is using 33% of my CPU and 3% of the memory while receiving backup files, the drives are running at about 25° C - I turned on the SMART for the drives.


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#10
Danny Olsson

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I was able to add that 3rd hard drive to the pool and no problems.  It added the space, and didn't affect my data at all!

I also changed the back up software.  After running and using my Media PC, it bogged that thing down to a crawl and I had to remove it.  I found SyncbackSE.  It works great, it'll backup, Mirror and all the settings it has built in is amazing, I can really fine tune what I want it to do.  Plus while running, it isn't noticeable on my systems resources.


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#11
iammykyl

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Thanks for the upadates about you install method, would be very useful for similar builds, i'll book mark it for the future.

 

 

 

I have 2 USB flash drives.  I did the above steps onto one and wanted to install onto the 2nd flash drive.  But it wouldn't with GRUB errors.  The install USB was detected as the SDA, the second USB was SDB, GRUB wouldn't install on to SDB, it only wants SDA.  This installer wouldn't let me choose drive order and my BIOS wouldn't let me specify USB ports as a or b.  It could be me, I'm a Noob at this.  So I just added a small 80GB hard drive I had laying around and installed onto it.  I'm glad I did I like some of the other Plugins available and may need the space to use them.

You can't split the install up, has to go on a single partition.   Good choice with a HDD as I now have seen USB sticks fail very very quickly due too continuous writes to temp log files, 

 

When you need the HDD space, buy the 2.5 one and clone the OS to it.

 

Good to see you had no problems adding to the Pool.

 

Perhaps as added security you could look at creating monthly images of the drive, 3rd party like Macrium Reflect, or there may be a plug in available.   That way, if you make alterations and things go pear shape, just restore the latest image. 


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