[Discuss] Home server

[tmetro+blu at gmail.com (Tom Metro)]

Richard Pieri wrote:
> FreeNAS runs as an embedded OS. You don't install it; you dump the
> image to a USB flash drive and boot from that. Very simple to
> deploy... PC-BSD and TrueOS are full installations like vanilla
> FreeBSD. More work to install...

While purpose-built distributions still offer the advantage of turn-key
setup, the distinction in how they get installed is not so significant now.

It used to be that a distribution had to take pains to trim the size
down in order to fit on a removable medium, and they'd offer up image
files or special installers.

Now you can get a 32 GB USB drive for a mere $13, and using a VM
environment to boot an install disk, you can install just about any
distribution to a flash disk on a desktop machine, then plug it into
your appliance.

(I recently set up Kodi (formerly XBMC) using their KodiBuntu
distribution, Virtual Box, and a 32 GB flash drive this way. Once
installed to the flash drive, it updates just like any other Ubuntu system.)


Chuck Anderson wrote:
> They say that the larger RAM requirements come from ZFS itself, which 
> apparently likes lots of RAM for performance reasons...

That's what I've heard as well. Apparently ECC RAM is also highly
recommended.

It does seem that there has been a shift from D-I-Y NAS systems using
rather low-end hardware cobbled together from leftover parts, to it
demanding rather high-end, expensive hardware. Of course I'm sure
requirements can be relaxed greatly if you don't have a need for high
performance. (I believe the OP said they were planning to use the
machine for backups. Not to serve up video files to multiple editing
workstations. So adjust accordingly.)

Other options to consider:
http://www.nas4free.org/ (also based on FeeeBSD; I don't recall how it
distinguishes itself from FreeNAS)
http://www.openfiler.com/about/ (based on CentOS)

For backup-focused NAS, you might want to look at:
unRAID Server OS http://www.lime-technology.com/
Greyhole: Samba storage pools https://www.greyhole.net/

I'd like to find a hardware/software setup that is optimized for backup
storage, rather than performance and redundancy. For example, a hardware
solution that allows attaching lots of hard drives, and hot-swapping
them. Software that treats hard drives as removable cartridges,
remembering what is stored on what disk. Similar to tape management, but
modernized for hard drives.

 -Tom

-- 
Tom Metro
The Perl Shop, Newton, MA, USA
"Predictable On-demand Perl Consulting."
http://www.theperlshop.com/