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turning old computer into NAS/server.

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Completely depends on what you need it to do. Systems older than socket 775 probably won't have the connections you need to run an usable amount of disks.
 
Make sure the board has enough SATA ports and supports the RAID type you want to use, typically 5 or 6.

If you were planning on going with a hardware RAID controller, then you need to use HDDs that have TLER/CCTL built in so that the RAID card won't be fighting the HDDs' error recovery causing drives to drop out of the array.
 
Blacks don't have TLER so you can't use them with a RAID card reliably. You would need the RE drives when using a RAID card. The 4TB ones are $410. To use RAID5 you need at least 3 drives, and RAID6 needs at least 4.

You can use the Blacks if they aren't connected to a card with its own error recovery though.
 
- Ditch hardware RAID, use the integrated ports and ZFS.
- Use a hypervisor (VMware ESXi 5.1 is free, limited to 1 physical CPU but free) and virtual machines. Install the hypervisor to a USB flash drive and dedicate an internal drive (small, 300GB, but should be fast) to the virtual machines.
- Use OpenIndiana as the OS for the file server virtual machine. Map the raw drives to OI for maximum performance.
- Get as much RAM as possible. ZFS loves this. I think AMD consumer processors supported ECC. Grab ECC RAM if possible.
- IIRC WD Reds have TLER. Use those. RE / Constellation drives are the best for a server but they are more expensive.
- Get Intel NICs. I've had a lot of headaches with Realtek. A dual PRO/1000 PT should be cheap on eBay.
- Get an UPS. You don't want your server to die if it is performing any critical operation.
 
Personally, I wouldn't use a RAID card for a basic home file server either since the extra cost of the card and enterprise drives is too high for me to justify. You'll have to listen to txus.palacios and thideras for NAS OS and software suggestions, that's beyond what I know.

I've been thinking about using my old P4 631 and Asus Commando for a NAS. I was just going to use the motherboard's 6 SATA ports and the ICH8R chipset for RAID5. I have a lot to learn on the OS/software side of NAS, so I'll prolly just use XP and setup the array as a shared drive in the meantime :D I might try the FreeNAS with a USB flash drive first to save a SATA port.
 
txus.palacios said:
- Ditch hardware RAID, use the integrated ports and ZFS.
- Use a hypervisor (VMware ESXi 5.1 is free, limited to 1 physical CPU but free) and virtual machines. Install the hypervisor to a USB flash drive and dedicate an internal drive (small, 300GB, but should be fast) to the virtual machines.
- Use OpenIndiana as the OS for the file server virtual machine. Map the raw drives to OI for maximum performance.
- Get as much RAM as possible. ZFS loves this. I think AMD consumer processors supported ECC. Grab ECC RAM if possible.
- IIRC WD Reds have TLER. Use those. RE / Constellation drives are the best for a server but they are more expensive.
- Get Intel NICs. I've had a lot of headaches with Realtek. A dual PRO/1000 PT should be cheap on eBay.
- Get an UPS. You don't want your server to die if it is performing any critical operation.
Click to expand...

CPU's are unlimited now in the free version. RAM is capped at 32GB per CPU though
 
briansun1 said:
the computer is an old oem gateway so I dout it has software raid... also slow down a bit... did I mention I am a noob @ nas/servers I have never set up one so slow down a bit ... thanks
Click to expand...
I wouldn't suggest using old hardware to store files you care about. If it fails, recovering data is harder because parts are more scarce and may cost more. Additionally, the system is more likely to fail.

If you were to run a NAS operating system (or mdadm in Linux), the system doesn't need to "support" software RAID as it is done in software. As long as you can hook drives to the system, you can do it. Whether or not it will be quick is another matter entirely.

To clarify on WD drives, all have TLER (including consumer and enterprise) and the problem occurs when the value is set too high. Consumer level drives have it set to 90 seconds, which is way more than any RAID controller is going to sit around waiting. Enterprise (and Red) drives have it set to 7 seconds, which is within the wait period. Not having TLER would actually be ideal, because after so many read errors, it would just tell the RAID controller there was a problem (usually after a few rotations of the platter, very short).
 
thideras said:
To clarify on WD drives, all have TLER (including consumer and enterprise)
Click to expand...

Actually the Western Digital AV-GP series disks dont have TLER, but aside from that one exception I believe your correct on that.
 
briansun1 said:
so what would you sugest?for drives/what to do with that old computer... I am looking at it raight now... I think it is taunting me...
Click to expand...
You haven't told us what the system even is. :confused:

It also bears repeating that you shouldn't use old hardware like this for something you will trust files to. You can get the core components of a home server for a few hundred dollars.

ssjwizard said:
Actually the Western Digital AV-GP series disks dont have TLER, but aside from that one exception I believe your correct on that.
Click to expand...
I couldn't find anything on their website that claimed one way or the other. But since they are being made for surveillance systems, it makes sense to exclude TLER. Not sure why they didn't just set it to a low value (which they may have done).
 
if you plan to use iSCSI, With FreeNAS you can share the drive using device extents that bypass the RAM caching.
 
briansun1 said:
spec's are

amd phenom II X4 945

geforce 315

6gb kingston memory

some cheap mobo and psu(probably will git new ones)

gateway case... the thing is like 3 years old
Click to expand...
As long as you aren't doing anything processor or memory intensive, that doesn't seem too bad, especially if it has PCIe slots to put in disk controllers or RAID cards.

You need to think about what is going to be stored on the server now and in the future to get an idea of how you want to go about building it and to decide on what software you will run. I'm not looking for answers to these questions, but you should be thinking about them. What type of files are you going to store? How much storage do you need now and in the future? Is the server going to be used for anything else besides sharing files (transcoding media, virtualization, etc)? What is your budget? How many concurrent users will you have and what are their access patterns? Are there any other restrictions (size, power draw, disk limit, etc)? What types of operating systems do you feel comfortable using? And many many more that I can't think of right now.

Just like when it comes to building a gaming system, you can't just ask "I want to build a gaming system, what do I buy?". There are way too many factors to give an answer. I could spec you out a really nice server, but I doubt you'd be interested in buying it.
 
With all of that said, there is no reason why you can't turn it into a file server and play with it. I wouldn't solely trust it with the only copies of important files but if you have the hardware lying around, there's no reason why you can't turn it into a NAS and get familiar with it. That way in the future if you want to build another one with more features and whatnot, you know what you are doing.

I've heard FreeNAS is pretty user friendly so I would start with that. It also supports ZFS which is a great filesystem. Personally I use OpenFiler for my NAS/SAN needs (which is based on Linux). It's very powerful and robust and support is limited unless you pay for it, but I'm working through it. I knew nothing about it until about August/September 2012 and now I'm comfortable with it.

NAS4Free is also good I'm told, but I have no experience with it. Do some research on the NAS software out there, list out exactly what you want it to do, and find something to fit your needs. Dive in and get learning.
 
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