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DIY Drobo alternative

KiLo said:
I read that u can install the freenas onto the dom
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure you can, but I didn't because I was just testing it out for a bit. I couldn't figure out how to get ZFS to allow for dynamic drive upgradability and gave up then went back to unRAID.
 
ok i found a guide on how to get ZFS on the freenas thx 4 ur help

would it be fine to have 4 1tb caviar blacks in my setup? it wouldnt run loud?

not sure if you would know this but can i upgrade the ram to 2gb and would i notice any difference in preformance if i do?
 
KiLo said:
ok i found a guide on how to get ZFS on the freenas thx 4 ur help

would it be fine to have 4 1tb caviar blacks in my setup? it wouldnt run loud?

not sure if you would know this but can i upgrade the ram to 2gb and would i notice any difference in preformance if i do?
Click to expand...

ZFS alone will not give you the ability to dynamically upgrade drives. Follow the link I posted in post #16 of this thread for instructions on how to get it done.

My SS4200 runs extremely quiet with four drives installed but ambient temps here are usually pretty low.

Yes, RAM can be upgraded to 2GB. I used a DDR2 800MHz DIMM to upgrade mine (533MHz and 667MHz should also run fine). I don't know if you would notice a difference in FreeNAS, but unRAID definitely utilizes the additional RAM. If you are really concerned about performance, the CPU on the SS4200 can be upgraded as well. From what I've read, E2140, E2160, E2180, E2200, and E2220 CPUs can all be used.
 
ok thx for ur help

is there any gigabit switch u would recommend i need about an 8port
and i was leaning towards the procurve 1400 8port i have read alot of good reviews on it

also when not in use does the ss4200 use less power and will the drives last long if they are kept ON 24/7?
or is there power management options

i dont want 4 1tb drives only lasting 1 year because they were ON for long perionds of time
 
KiLo said:
ok thx for ur help

is there any gigabit switch u would recommend i need about an 8port
and i was leaning towards the procurve 1400 8port i have read alot of good reviews on it

also when not in use does the ss4200 use less power and will the drives last long if they are kept ON 24/7?
or is there power management options

i dont want 4 1tb drives only lasting 1 year because they were ON for long perionds of time
Click to expand...

I don't have any preferences for gigabit switches. Personally, my DIR-655 has four gigabit switches and I also employ an old Linksys five port gigabit switch. It works fine for my needs but I don't have jumbo frames enabled on anything.

I didn't pay attention to how FreeNAS handled the drives when they were idle. I know that unRAID spins down the drives and sleeps them after a predetermined period of inactivity. It also has buttons on the web GUI to either spin the drives up or down.

Whether or not keeping drives on 24/7 shortens their life is the subject of many debates and there is no clear cut answer. I currently have 12 hard drives that are kept on 24/7 and have been for many months. Most of them are standard OEM drives and not enterprise class drives. I've yet to come across any dead drives. When drives do fail, I am relying on the redundancy to protect my data.
 
ok thx alot for everything i will go on to setup my ss4200 with freenas and zfs and my 1tb caviar blacks

i hope it all goes well

i am mostly doing this because i just got a WDTV Live and want to watch my 1080p movies on it but i dont have a bunch of external drives and this solution is great because it has alot of extras

thx again pastrychef
 
KiLo said:
ok thx alot for everything i will go on to setup my ss4200 with freenas and zfs and my 1tb caviar blacks

i hope it all goes well

i am mostly doing this because i just got a WDTV Live and want to watch my 1080p movies on it but i dont have a bunch of external drives and this solution is great because it has alot of extras

thx again pastrychef
Click to expand...

My pleasure. If you manage to get FreeNAS working with ZFS and enable it's ability to dynamically upgrade drives, please let me know how you did it. Thanks in advance.
 
Newbie Question

Total newbie question here, and if already answered, please let me know and forgive the ignorance. I'm looking for a reasonably priced NAS, that can hold between 4TB and 8TB, can use unRAID from Lime Technology, can stream media over a wired home network, and can be accessed by both Mac / Windows. I am currently using a D-Link DNS-323, with two 1TB WD-green HDD, streamed through a Dlink DIR-655 router (via Powerline 200mbps adapters) to multiple televisions in my home which run Plex (via Mac Mini) and XBMC (via classic xBoxes). Computers on the network can access the media as well, without difficulty. I am fast filling up the DNS323 with movies, TV and music, and looking to upgrade, plus provide backup protection for my media files. The DNS 323 works well, but only has 2 HD bays, and rather than purchase another DNS323 I was hoping for a solution with more HD bays. Questions:

1. Will the Intel Entry Storage System SS4200-E NAS Server support 2TB HD in each bay? The product description on Newegg says that it will support 1TB drives, but couldn't find definitive info that it will support > 1TB drives.

2. Being a complete and utter newbie, I'm not sure how to install unRAID on this device. Do you have to manipulate the device's BIOS, or run unRAID directly from a USB flash drive?

3. Is it a fairly simple Plug-n-play solution? I'm hoping to be able to buy NAS server, install hard drives, format drives, connect to router, boot Lime Technology's unRAID, and go - basically a fire and forget type of solution where the media is widely accessible throughout the network, streams effectively to Plex and XBMC, but is also protected so that if a drive fails my movies/TV/music are not lost. Would this device fit that description?

4. Are there any tutorials with newbie-oriented step-by-step instructions on how to setup this device with unRAID for use as a server in home network?

Any and all help appreciated, and I apologize for any redundant questions. Thanks to all!
 
1. I've read of people using 2TB drives with the SS4200 without problems. I personally currently have four 1.5TB drives in mine.

2. You can install unRAID on the DOM that comes with the SS4200 or use a USB flash drive. (The DOM is a flash drive which has a PATA connector rather than USB.) The SS4200's standard NAS software comes on the DOM, but if you will be using unRAID instead, you can format the DOM and install unRAID on it.

Yes, you need to tell BIOS to boot from the USB flash drive if you install unRAID on one. I believe the SS4200's BIOS defaults to booting from the DOM, so, if you use the DOM, you probably won't have to change BIOS settings. (I'm guessing a bit here since I haven't tried installing on the DOM personally.)

Another option if you use a USB flash drive is to hold the Reset button while powering up to force the SS4200 to boot from the USB flash drive.

3. If you do not need AFP and, based on your description of needs, it seems you can do without it. Installing unRAID to USB flash drive is very easy.

4. I am unaware of any tutorials for setting up an SS4200 to run unRAID. But it isn't hard.
 
Alrighty, question for u about the intel 4200e

I actually got the fujitsu siemens version of this Called the scalio home server and it has the print server USB installed with the unit as well as it can run raid right out of the box! It is a bit different than the original intel one and I guess even has different software according to the review over on http://www.legendmicro.com/store/75...anded--Scaleo-Home-Server-SS4200E.lmsp?RID=23

according to the wiki this unit comes with NO server os!

So with that in mind I can put unraid or whatever I want in it!

And I have an extra mb I can switch out that has 9 sata ports on it


Would it benefit me to switch out the mb in this item with the other one I have running 8 gig of memory? Or would it even be worth it? It also has a dual 2.8 processor compared to the 1.6 I believe it came with.

Or just sell this and build my own?


Since it came with everything including a way to run raid, I won't need to install unraid at all correct?

Am I correct to think that the one I got us a bit better than the origianl I tel version?
 
Hardware-wise, the Intel SS4200 and Fugitsu Siemens Scaleo are identical.

If your unit came with the EMC server software, you won't need to install another OS if you didn't want to. Installing another server OS could give you additional and/or more advanced features.

Chances are that your extra motherboard will not fit in this enclosure without having to modify the enclosure.

If you intend on running unRAID, the standard motherboard and CPU work fine. RAM is sufficient, but more never hurts.

In my opinion, it's an excellent unit and works very well as a NAS. I don't know what your exact needs are, but should be good for most home users.

No, the Scaleo is not better than the SS4200. It's identical except for the name. It's just a rebranded SS4200.
 
pastrychef said:
No, the Scaleo is not better than the SS4200. It's identical except for the name. It's just a rebranded SS4200.
Click to expand...
It's like most anything else these days... ODM'ed products usually from somewhere in Asia, and multiple companies buy them and have their badge slapped on it.

Even Intel will do ODM work for other companies. :eek: :p
 
Thanks for the reply pastrychef! Appreciated!

So are there benefits to using the server software it came with or are there advantages to running unraid?

I am no vet to servers, pretty much a newbee in the sence that this is the first one I have ever bought!

So for a newbee I will prolly run something simple!

Thanks for the input on the other mb, I will still check to see if it fits!

Thanks
 
j2048b said:
Thanks for the reply pastrychef! Appreciated!

So are there benefits to using the server software it came with or are there advantages to running unraid?

I am no vet to servers, pretty much a newbee in the sence that this is the first one I have ever bought!

So for a newbee I will prolly run something simple!

Thanks for the input on the other mb, I will still check to see if it fits!

Thanks
Click to expand...

I didn't bother to even try the original EMC OS that came with the SS4200 so I can't comment about how well it works. I decided to with with unRAID for its ability to mix and match drives, its ability to upgrade those drives easily, and redundancy. These three features are extremely important to me because I know I will need more storage as time progresses and because I know that all drives eventually fail.

As for simplicity, setting up unRAID on the SS4200 is not difficult. On a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being extremely difficult), I would say setting up unRAID is about a 2.

1. Download and install the unRAID software on a USB flash drive as per the instructions provided by Lime Technology.
2. Plug in the USB drive to one of the available USB ports on the SS4200.
3. Hold the reset button while powering up the SS4200. (Continue holding the reset button for about 3 seconds after it has been turned on.)
4. Launch a browser and enter in the IP address of the SS4200 for URL.
5. Configure. (Configuration is a breeze.)

If, however, you wish to add additional features to unRAID beyond its basic functionality, such as AFP support, Bit Torrent client, Time Machine support, etc. it requires a bit more work and knowledge. Fortunately, Lime Technology's forum is quite active with very helpful members.
 
Thanks for the directions PASTRYCHEF!! very much appreciated!!

will do this within the next couple weeks, but i am going to see if my other gigabyte mb will go into the intel case first, as it will be more powerful, more memory, and way more drive capable! 9 sata ports! awesome!

thanks again!

j
 
j2048b said:
Thanks for the directions PASTRYCHEF!! very much appreciated!!

will do this within the next couple weeks, but i am going to see if my other gigabyte mb will go into the intel case first, as it will be more powerful, more memory, and way more drive capable! 9 sata ports! awesome!

thanks again!

j
Click to expand...

Four drives can fit in the SS4200. One of the great things about the SS4200 is that it has two eSATA ports built-in and they support port multipliers. If/when there's a need to add additional drives to unRAID, you can purchase an external enclosure with an eSATA port with port multipliers and just plug it in to the SS4200. unRAID will detect it right away.

I recently added a Sans Digital four bay enclosure to my array. Found it on sale for $110 shipped. I'm currently only using two of the four bays because I only have the unRAID Plus license which is limited to 6 drives (1 parity + 5 data + 1 cache (optional)). However, eventually, I'll probably upgrade my license to the unRAID Pro license which can handle up to 20 drives (1 parity + 19 data + 1 cache (optional)). When that time comes, I still have one more eSATA port that can be used for another external enclosure.

I do not doubt that your extra motherboard is more powerful, but it will probably be better served in another system. My unRAID with 6 drives and AFP enabled routinely only uses about 30-something percent of the CPU's power with 60-something percent idle. This is on the stock Celeron 420 1.6GHz CPU that's in the SS4200. I did upgrade the standard 512MB RAM to 2GB, though.

At some point, I may experiment with the Bit Torrent client, NZB client, and add UPnP/DLNA support to my unRAID which may stress the CPU a bit more. How much? I don't know but I'm guessing that the stock CPU will still be able to handle it.
 
nanofrog said:
It's like most anything else these days... ODM'ed products usually from somewhere in Asia, and multiple companies buy them and have their badge slapped on it.

Even Intel will do ODM work for other companies. :eek: :p
Click to expand...

The story of the SS4200 is an interesting one. Apparently, Intel originally meant for it to be a headless Windows Home Server box. I don't know what happened, but I guess that never panned out and they eventually sold it in two flavors; one with the EMC OS and one bare with no OS. Eventually, they also OEMed it to Fujitsu Seimens... At least that's what I've been told.

I'm just glad that they sold such capable boxes at such reasonable prices. As I mentioned earlier, I got my for $135 shipped around December of last year. It has exceeded all my expectations and it runs silent which is a huge plus.
 
pastrychef said:
Four drives can fit in the SS4200. One of the great things about the SS4200 is that it has two eSATA ports built-in and they support port multipliers. If/when there's a need to add additional drives to unRAID, you can purchase an external enclosure with an eSATA port with port multipliers and just plug it in to the SS4200. unRAID will detect it right away.

I recently added a Sans Digital four bay enclosure to my array. Found it on sale for $110 shipped. I'm currently only using two of the four bays because I only have the unRAID Plus license which is limited to 6 drives (1 parity + 5 data + 1 cache (optional)). However, eventually, I'll probably upgrade my license to the unRAID Pro license which can handle up to 20 drives (1 parity + 19 data + 1 cache (optional)). When that time comes, I still have one more eSATA port that can be used for another external enclosure.

I do not doubt that your extra motherboard is more powerful, but it will probably be better served in another system. My unRAID with 6 drives and AFP enabled routinely only uses about 30-something percent of the CPU's power with 60-something percent idle. This is on the stock Celeron 420 1.6GHz CPU that's in the SS4200. I did upgrade the standard 512MB RAM to 2GB, though.

At some point, I may experiment with the Bit Torrent client, NZB client, and add UPnP/DLNA support to my unRAID which may stress the CPU a bit more. How much? I don't know but I'm guessing that the stock CPU will still be able to handle it.
Click to expand...

So... what does the cache drive do and the parity as well? I have read a bit about them but am a total newbee,,,

And with unraid you can add upnp/dlna support? How does one do that?

What type of memory does this item take, and what is the max it can handle with the mb?

I also read through the wiki of this server box that the cpu is upgradeable and some have doen that as well as the memory,
 
j2048b said:
So... what does the cache drive do and the parity as well? I have read a bit about them but am a total newbee,,,

And with unraid you can add upnp/dlna support? How does one do that?

What type of memory does this item take, and what is the max it can handle with the mb?

I also read through the wiki of this server box that the cpu is upgradeable and some have doen that as well as the memory,
Click to expand...

A parity drive will protect you in the event one of your drives fail. Pop in a replacement drive, let it rebuild, and all your data will be recovered.

There are other pluses and minuses, but the cache drive is primarily used to help speed up writes to the NAS.

Yes, since unRAID is Linux based there are many additional features that you can add to it, UPnP and DLNA support is one of them.

In a nutshell, to add features, one must get the packages and add commands to a script that unRAID reads and executes during startup. For specific instructions on add different features, there are a number of "how-to's" that can be found on Lime Technology's forum.

The SS4200 uses regular old DDR2 533 DIMMs (PC2 4200), if I recall correctly... Personally, I stuck in a 2GB stick of DDR2 800 DIMM (PC2 6400). There's only one slot, so 2GB is the max you can put in.

Going by my memory, I think the Intel E2140, E2160, E2180, E2200, and E2220 Pentiums are compatible with the SS4200. But, again, on my unRAID setup the stock Celeron 420 1.6GHz CPU doesn't come close to being stressed.
 
pastrychef said:
A parity drive will protect you in the event one of your drives fail. Pop in a replacement drive, let it rebuild, and all your data will be recovered.

There are other pluses and minuses, but the cache drive is primarily used to help speed up writes to the NAS.

Yes, since unRAID is Linux based there are many additional features that you can add to it, UPnP and DLNA support is one of them.

In a nutshell, to add features, one must get the packages and add commands to a script that unRAID reads and executes during startup. For specific instructions on add different features, there are a number of "how-to's" that can be found on Lime Technology's forum.

The SS4200 uses regular old DDR2 533 DIMMs (PC2 4200), if I recall correctly... Personally, I stuck in a 2GB stick of DDR2 800 DIMM (PC2 6400). There's only one slot, so 2GB is the max you can put in.

Going by my memory, I think the Intel E2140, E2160, E2180, E2200, and E2220 Pentiums are compatible with the SS4200. But, again, on my unRAID setup the stock Celeron 420 1.6GHz CPU doesn't come close to being stressed.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the knowledge! appreciated!!

plan to set my stuff up over the next couple months and the rest of my home theater stuff! cant wait!
 
pastrychef said:
The story of the SS4200 is an interesting one. Apparently, Intel originally meant for it to be a headless Windows Home Server box. I don't know what happened, but I guess that never panned out and they eventually sold it in two flavors; one with the EMC OS and one bare with no OS. Eventually, they also OEMed it to Fujitsu Seimens... At least that's what I've been told.

I'm just glad that they sold such capable boxes at such reasonable prices. As I mentioned earlier, I got my for $135 shipped around December of last year. It has exceeded all my expectations and it runs silent which is a huge plus.
Click to expand...
It may have originally been an ODM product for another company (that wanted a Win Home Server box), and the deal fell through (i.e. company bailed or failed). But as the design was complete, they found another use for it in order to turn a profit (smart IMO).

At any rate, the cost is great, and you've a decent little storage server (though I'm usually a little nervous of proprietary software RAID systems given what I've experienced unless I get the opportunity to test it thoroughly - failure testing - or know someone who has). :D
 
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