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what OS do you use on your home server?
- Thread starter sparkie1984
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FreeNAS, but I tried many others
I'm using a HP MicroServer with FreeNAS and 4x2TB disks in a RAIDZ array and I find it pretty good overall. On the way to selecting FreeNAS I tried several other options, which I'll summarise as follows, I have started to write up a report, but it's not finished, you can have a draft if you want.
My NAS has to support 2 x Windows 7 clients and 2 x Mac OS X clients (both on Leopard).
As a general note, Mac OS X (I can only speak for Leopard) is very slow at reading and wrting to network storage over SMB/CIFS, AFP or NFS, regardless of whether the server is an OS X server a Windows Machine or something else. For example, to the FreeNAS box from a Windows client I see 50MB/s write and 80MB/s read. From Mac clients I see 10MB/s write and 20MB/s read over SMB and 30MB/s read and write over AFP. Oddly, speeds are better to a Windows server on SMB than they are with FreeNAS, but its still only around 30MB/s. I did a lot of reading about this and it appears from what I've read that 30MB/s is considered good in the Mac environment.
WHS 2011 - fastest (writes 70MB/s Reads 107MB/s) and fullest featured but bloated (I guess that comes with being full featured). Mac OS support limited to SMB/CIFS (and therefore slow), though I hear Lion has improved the SMB/CIFS stack (by replacing SAMBA with a stack licensed from Microsoft) and it now performs reasonably well, I haven't tested this myself. Took about 2 hours to install and another 2 setting up afterwards.
Ubuntu 11.04 - server version requires too much CLI to manage and I gave up. Desktop version would not install correctly on the HP MicroServer, so had to give up on this too. I've always been impressed by Ubuntu in the past so was disappointed to have to give up, but I don't have the time or inclination to mess about getting it working.
NexEntaStor - very disappointing, SAMBA performance from Mac was pathetic - 2MB/s and AFP performance only slightly better at 10MB/s. NFS didn't work at all and performance from Windows systems was similarly disappointing (though not as bad as the Mac performance). I'm sure it can be optimised, but I have neither the time nor the inclination. However, the real killer for me was that accessing SMB shares from a Windows 7 box requires editing a registry setting on the W7 client - what planet are they on?
FreeNAS - the simplest to set-up and install. Install took 10 mins to a 1GB memory stick and post install set-up took about 1/2 hour to create RAIDZ array, shares and set permissions. Perfomance OK, not as good as WHS, but getting 50MB/s write and 80MB/s read over SMB from Windows 7 systems and 30MB/s over AFP from Macs. AFP support is pretty good and the Macs see the network shares as full blown Mac network shares including support for things like network trash folders. The downside to this is that it leaves a lot of clutter on the disk which uses quite a bit of space and which the Windows machines see a clutter on the network drive (there are 6 folders for each share and for every file that a Mac accesses it creates another file with all the resource fork data in it). This isn't a problem except it looks messy from Windows machines (Linux or other Unix based systems don't see it because all the files and folders start with a period '.').
The thing I like most about FreeNAS is the simplicity, it's a one trick pony and it does it's one trick very well and efficiently.
One thing that does strike me is that FreeNAS 8 has gone more commercial than FreeNAS 7 and has removed things like the iTunes server. However, I believe these may be available as add-ons that you can download afterwards, you may want to check that it can do what you want.
Out of the box it does CIFS, AFP, NFS, iSCSI, FTP, TFTP. It also integrates with AD or LDAP and has SNMP reporting and SSH and DDNS services. I've only tried the CIFS, AFP and NFS so far as that's all I need.
Overall I'm pretty impressed, especially as it costs nothing in cash terms and very little in time terms; in fact if FreeNAS accepted doantions like a lot of Open Source organisations do, then I'd make one.
I intended to test OpenFiler too, but given that it's based on the same BSD core as FreeNAS and given my good experiences with FreeNAS, I never got round to it. maybe I'm missing out, but I found something that did what I needed and that I liked in FreeNAS, so i settled on it.
I'm using a HP MicroServer with FreeNAS and 4x2TB disks in a RAIDZ array and I find it pretty good overall. On the way to selecting FreeNAS I tried several other options, which I'll summarise as follows, I have started to write up a report, but it's not finished, you can have a draft if you want.
My NAS has to support 2 x Windows 7 clients and 2 x Mac OS X clients (both on Leopard).
As a general note, Mac OS X (I can only speak for Leopard) is very slow at reading and wrting to network storage over SMB/CIFS, AFP or NFS, regardless of whether the server is an OS X server a Windows Machine or something else. For example, to the FreeNAS box from a Windows client I see 50MB/s write and 80MB/s read. From Mac clients I see 10MB/s write and 20MB/s read over SMB and 30MB/s read and write over AFP. Oddly, speeds are better to a Windows server on SMB than they are with FreeNAS, but its still only around 30MB/s. I did a lot of reading about this and it appears from what I've read that 30MB/s is considered good in the Mac environment.
WHS 2011 - fastest (writes 70MB/s Reads 107MB/s) and fullest featured but bloated (I guess that comes with being full featured). Mac OS support limited to SMB/CIFS (and therefore slow), though I hear Lion has improved the SMB/CIFS stack (by replacing SAMBA with a stack licensed from Microsoft) and it now performs reasonably well, I haven't tested this myself. Took about 2 hours to install and another 2 setting up afterwards.
Ubuntu 11.04 - server version requires too much CLI to manage and I gave up. Desktop version would not install correctly on the HP MicroServer, so had to give up on this too. I've always been impressed by Ubuntu in the past so was disappointed to have to give up, but I don't have the time or inclination to mess about getting it working.
NexEntaStor - very disappointing, SAMBA performance from Mac was pathetic - 2MB/s and AFP performance only slightly better at 10MB/s. NFS didn't work at all and performance from Windows systems was similarly disappointing (though not as bad as the Mac performance). I'm sure it can be optimised, but I have neither the time nor the inclination. However, the real killer for me was that accessing SMB shares from a Windows 7 box requires editing a registry setting on the W7 client - what planet are they on?
FreeNAS - the simplest to set-up and install. Install took 10 mins to a 1GB memory stick and post install set-up took about 1/2 hour to create RAIDZ array, shares and set permissions. Perfomance OK, not as good as WHS, but getting 50MB/s write and 80MB/s read over SMB from Windows 7 systems and 30MB/s over AFP from Macs. AFP support is pretty good and the Macs see the network shares as full blown Mac network shares including support for things like network trash folders. The downside to this is that it leaves a lot of clutter on the disk which uses quite a bit of space and which the Windows machines see a clutter on the network drive (there are 6 folders for each share and for every file that a Mac accesses it creates another file with all the resource fork data in it). This isn't a problem except it looks messy from Windows machines (Linux or other Unix based systems don't see it because all the files and folders start with a period '.').
The thing I like most about FreeNAS is the simplicity, it's a one trick pony and it does it's one trick very well and efficiently.
One thing that does strike me is that FreeNAS 8 has gone more commercial than FreeNAS 7 and has removed things like the iTunes server. However, I believe these may be available as add-ons that you can download afterwards, you may want to check that it can do what you want.
Out of the box it does CIFS, AFP, NFS, iSCSI, FTP, TFTP. It also integrates with AD or LDAP and has SNMP reporting and SSH and DDNS services. I've only tried the CIFS, AFP and NFS so far as that's all I need.
Overall I'm pretty impressed, especially as it costs nothing in cash terms and very little in time terms; in fact if FreeNAS accepted doantions like a lot of Open Source organisations do, then I'd make one.
I intended to test OpenFiler too, but given that it's based on the same BSD core as FreeNAS and given my good experiences with FreeNAS, I never got round to it. maybe I'm missing out, but I found something that did what I needed and that I liked in FreeNAS, so i settled on it.
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Anyone try using a mini networked to a win7 server reading from a NTFS disk? Haven't tried iTunes for windows but have read the windows version isn't very good. I built a server after selling my 08 Mac pro. Using it for video editing and ripping movies. Also bought a mini and a OWC external dual disk drive to house my movies. Problem is the external is noisy and the disks get pretty hot. Figure my tower has plenty of storage and cooling, why not direct iTunes on the mini to a hard drive on my win7 tower. Not sure if this would be a bigger headache. Think this would work or try iTunes for windows?
I have a W7 server running with iTunes and home sharing turned on. Works fine. I haven't ever experienced that many problems with iTunes on Windows; it seems to work well enough.
When I was experimenting with WHS2011 I installed the Windows version of iTunes on it and ran a few tests to my aTV. During the short lived test it worked great and I ultimately may use a Windows OS as my video server just because you can get large drive bays and load it with hard drives.
I think the bad rap iTunes for Windows gets is in iPod/iphone syncing.
40TB - Home Server consume less than 180W power
Here is what I did for my client
A 40TB home server base on FreeNAS fully support:
NFS, ATP, SAMBA, FTP, iTune Server, RSYNC
Transfer @ 90MB/sec. Currently being use of streaming BD.ISO to HD media players
It has being in server over a year
The hardware raid does make a lots of different
Here is what I did for my client
A 40TB home server base on FreeNAS fully support:
NFS, ATP, SAMBA, FTP, iTune Server, RSYNC
Transfer @ 90MB/sec. Currently being use of streaming BD.ISO to HD media players
It has being in server over a year
The hardware raid does make a lots of different
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When you say iTunes server for windows, this is not the regular iTunes, correct?
Thinking to use iTunes for windows just for my movies. Should show up on my library list to sync with. But also thought to get paragon software to enable read/writes NTSF for Mac, network the two, then mount the folder as a shared fold from the PC, then point iTunes on my Mac to it. Not sure this would work though.
Not sure I want to redo the pad and pods to go 100% iTunes in windows.
Thinking to use iTunes for windows just for my movies. Should show up on my library list to sync with. But also thought to get paragon software to enable read/writes NTSF for Mac, network the two, then mount the folder as a shared fold from the PC, then point iTunes on my Mac to it. Not sure this would work though.
Not sure I want to redo the pad and pods to go 100% iTunes in windows.
This is what I'm worried about. I dobt wanna redo my phones/pads etc....
I'm quite happy to go windows home server as long as it does what I want I.e. Time machine and host photos/videos and iTunes library
Installed iTunes 64 to test out iTunes streaming. Initial lag but otherwise streams great through my airport extreme. Will keep the mini for iPhoto and syncing the pods though. Now I can finally stop using an external to house my media. Got tired of turning it on/off when I needed it. Now it's for backups once I transition over. Great thread. Thanks for the help.
I have a cheap pentium 4 pc running windows 7, use it for:
Torrenting
General file sharing
Access files externally through FTP
Stream to PS3 / iMac / MBA
playing media through HDMI to tv
Hoping to set it up for wireless itunes and time machine so I dont have to have my USB drive plugged into my MBA. Hopefully even access my itunes library from my MBA when not at home.
Torrenting
General file sharing
Access files externally through FTP
Stream to PS3 / iMac / MBA
playing media through HDMI to tv
Hoping to set it up for wireless itunes and time machine so I dont have to have my USB drive plugged into my MBA. Hopefully even access my itunes library from my MBA when not at home.
One thing to be aware of with Pentium 4 based systems is they tend to burn a lot of power. I've seen numbers from 120 watts up to 400 watts depending on how you've got it configured. It would be considerably more efficient to look at a low powered system. Frankly, it would be just as fast and you could probably build it for under $150. At that price it will pay for itself in reduced power consumption and a\c bills.
HP Microserver running Win7 Home Premium, that does file sharing, torrents, iTunes server, etc. Time Machine still goes to my Time Capsule.
Snow Leopard running on a 2010 Mini works perfect for what I use it for which is sharing media and Storage between ATV1, ATV2, iPad, MBP, Mini and MB.
You are probably right, but I only got this a few weeks back for £20 ($25?) stuck in a bit of ram and a decent AGP HDMI graphics card and its working to my needs. Plus I live in a house share so the cost is equally spread over the 5 people/users.
Maybe in 12 months I will look at *upgrading* depending on my usage. Or when theres less people to spread the bill across. Can probably recoup most of the outlay for the machine/components.
Nice setup you've got there! I'm a bit jealous, my power bill is my own. So, I've tried pretty hard to reduce the number of watts I burn in a day. When the time comes, you might have a look at some low powered mother board. With a CPU they are starting at $48 US brand new for an Intel motherboard from Newegg.. Thats a combination thats pretty hard to beat.