Make your own NAS - Computer Shopper UK #259 September 2009

[Tom]

In CS #259 they had an article on “Make your own NAS” - it's a great
article and a great idea and I like many others have an old PC and
some hard discs I could readily use for it.

But the significant problem I can see with this is the power
consumption of such a PC running all the time - I do know some people
who leave PCs on permanently, even when they will not be using them.
Nevertheless, we all now are expected to reduce our energy consumption
and most people will want to do this on cost grounds. Am I right in
thinking a standard older PC system (without a monitor running in this
instance) will use anything from 150 to 300 watts of power - that’s at
least 2-3 units of electricity per day I think.

Another consideration is the heat issue - I doubt it could be located,
say, under the stairs without some extra ventilation installed and
whirring away in a bedroom it would be too noisy.

Its still a great idea and if I've got this all wrong about the power
consumption I would be more than delighted to hear this.

Any comments?

Regards, Tom

 

[Bryce]

In CS #259 they had an article on ?Make your own NAS? - it's a great
article and a great idea and I like many others have an old PC and
some hard discs I could readily use for it.

But the significant problem I can see with this is the power
consumption of such a PC running all the time - I do know some people
who leave PCs on permanently, even when they will not be using them.
Nevertheless, we all now are expected to reduce our energy consumption
and most people will want to do this on cost grounds. Am I right in
thinking a standard older PC system (without a monitor running in this
instance) will use anything from 150 to 300 watts of power - that?s at
least 2-3 units of electricity per day I think.

Another consideration is the heat issue - I doubt it could be located,
say, under the stairs without some extra ventilation installed and
whirring away in a bedroom it would be too noisy.

Its still a great idea and if I've got this all wrong about the power
consumption I would be more than delighted to hear this.

Any comments?

Regards, Tom

Recycling an old PC in this way is a great idea. You will save money
and learn something too. I think your estimate for power consumed
is high by a factor of 2-3, but that depends on the hardware. For
sure, there is no need for a high-end video card, so remove it or
at least replace it with a PCI card if you need to log in locally
for maintenance. Same for other hardware that the server doesn't
need. Now you may be able to remove a fan or lower fan voltage to
reduce noise and save a bit of power.

I have two rescued 300 mHz Athlon boxes running linux as headless
NAS servers. How much CPU, memory and disk space you need depends
on how you will use the machine. Even a 200 mHz pentium may be
suitable, depending on your needs and performance expectations.
Experiment!

None of my computers (servers included) run 24/7.

 

[Tom]

Many thanks for the reply.... that's made the whole thing a lot more
viable.

I assume that with the FreeNAS software you can't just turn the NAS
server off at the end of the day - there's no screen/keyboard attached
to do shutdown on the unit itself - someone has to go through the hoop
of determining it no one is writing to it and then remotely shut it
down (presumeably the software will warn that its up to something at
that stage). I'll have to look into this aspect.

Thanks again,

Tom

 

[Bryce]

Many thanks for the reply.... that's made the whole thing a lot more
viable.

I assume that with the FreeNAS software you can't just turn the NAS
server off at the end of the day - there's no screen/keyboard attached
to do shutdown on the unit itself - someone has to go through the hoop
of determining it no one is writing to it and then remotely shut it
down (presumeably the software will warn that its up to something at
that stage). I'll have to look into this aspect.

Thanks again,

Tom

I ran FreeNAS for a while. I recall a little tweak that supported
remote shutdown over the network. It may be built-in by now. You
may find wake-on-lan useful, if the hardware supports it.

Bryce

 

[PC Guy]

In CS #259 they had an article on “Make your own NAS” - it's a
great article and a great idea and I like many others have an
old PC and some hard discs I could readily use for it.

What's an "NAS" ?

 

[Ken]

What's an "NAS" ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network-attached_storage

 

[Tom]

Thanks again for the replies about FreeNAS software.

I am planning to use a fairly acient PC (that does run XP slowly, but
OK) using, of course, FreeNAS - I've turned off Halt on Keyboard
errors in the bios in prepartion for the NAS server useage. Which
means once setup I can disconnect the keyboard and then just turn the
PC on.

Its an old Soyo MB SY-5EMA+ that has bios version V1.0-1BE3 at the
moment- I think there is at least a V1.1 of the bios out there
somewhere - although this mobo does have a very early version of usb
(1.1), boot from usb is not an option and unlikely to be even with the
bios upgrade. This apparently is a drawback, but not the end of the
line, with the use of FreeNAS.

Anyone know where I could find the bios upgrade for this board?

Thanks again, Tom

 

[Tom]

I can see why its so difficult to find their web site - it appears
they went bust in May 2009... but the bios upgrade must be out there
somewhere.

Tom

 

[Bryce]

Thanks again for the replies about FreeNAS software.

I am planning to use a fairly acient PC (that does run XP slowly, but
OK) using, of course, FreeNAS - I've turned off Halt on Keyboard
errors in the bios in prepartion for the NAS server useage. Which
means once setup I can disconnect the keyboard and then just turn the
PC on.

Its an old Soyo MB SY-5EMA+ that has bios version V1.0-1BE3 at the
moment- I think there is at least a V1.1 of the bios out there
somewhere - although this mobo does have a very early version of usb
(1.1), boot from usb is not an option and unlikely to be even with the
bios upgrade. This apparently is a drawback, but not the end of the
line, with the use of FreeNAS.

Anyone know where I could find the bios upgrade for this board?

Thanks again, Tom

I have always shied away from BIOS upgrades - a clutz moment bringeth
the end of the m/b. usb 1.1 is too slow to be useful for disk access,
but why not just install from CDROM to an internal disk partitioned
to contain freeNAS o/s as well as file storage? If your BIOS doesn't
know about boot from CDROM, a SmartBootManager floppy disk will pave
the way to booting the CDROM. In fact, you can just run freeNAS a
a live CD and try it out.

Bryce

 

[Tom]

Yep... 'tis true. It can boot from a cdrom, I just suspected booting
from a usb device would be easier. Also the power off on shutdown has
never worked on this old pc (poss power management issue I'm well too
thick to sort out) so I thought the bios upgrade would deal with it.

Bios upgrades have never phased me.... perhaps they should. I haven't
had a disaster with one yet, but there's still time for me to muck one
up!

Tom

 

[Bryce]

Yep... 'tis true. It can boot from a cdrom, I just suspected booting
from a usb device would be easier. Also the power off on shutdown has
never worked on this old pc (poss power management issue I'm well too
thick to sort out) so I thought the bios upgrade would deal with it.

Bios upgrades have never phased me.... perhaps they should. I haven't
had a disaster with one yet, but there's still time for me to muck one
up!

Tom

I have two fossil PCs on which win2k power-off @ shutdown bails out
with a "You-may-turn-off-power-now". Both power-off without a whimper
under Debian. No guarantee it will work on all hardware though.

Bryce

 

[Tom]

I have two fossil PCs on which win2k power-off @ shutdown bails out

with a "You-may-turn-off-power-now".  Both power-off without a whimper
under Debian.  No guarantee it will work on all hardware though.

Bryce

Yep, thats exactly what I get under XP on this gothic PC with a Soyo
mobo.... Never tried Linux on it yet, but I think FreeNAS is linux
based so you never know, it might work.

Tom

 

[Peter]

Many thanks for the reply.... that's made the whole thing a lot more
viable.

I assume that with the FreeNAS software you can't just turn the NAS
server off at the end of the day - there's no screen/keyboard attached
to do shutdown on the unit itself - someone has to go through the hoop
of determining it no one is writing to it and then remotely shut it
down (presumeably the software will warn that its up to something at
that stage). I'll have to look into this aspect.

Thanks again,

Tom

Can't see much point in setting up a computer when you can buy a NAS
enclosure for under 40UKP and put your own HD in it.

 

[GMAN]

Can't see much point in setting up a computer when you can buy a NAS
enclosure for under 40UKP and put your own HD in it.

A freeNAS setup is 100 times more flexible than those cheap NAS drive
enclosures, expecially when it comes to media streaming.

 

[Tom]

Thanks guys for the help here, great appreciated...

I have now seen on eBay the following NAS enclosure
NETGEAR SC101 NETWORK ATTACHED STORAGE NAS ENCLOSURE
- its an IDE model (2 disc drives), which is what I need, but would
present a bit of dead end for future upgrades to SATA - priced at
£27.99 + £6.95 - I never realised these were so cheap... but would it
be any good and what would the power useage situation be like? I think
on one of these sales I saw 5amp power mentioned - I really hope not !

I take the point about flexibility etc which would be better with the
FreeNAS solution - also I could phase out all the old hardware by the
old PC route.

Tom

 

[Bryce]

Thanks guys for the help here, great appreciated...

I have now seen on eBay the following NAS enclosure
NETGEAR SC101 NETWORK ATTACHED STORAGE NAS ENCLOSURE
- its an IDE model (2 disc drives), which is what I need, but would
present a bit of dead end for future upgrades to SATA - priced at
£27.99 + £6.95 - I never realised these were so cheap... but would it
be any good and what would the power useage situation be like? I think
on one of these sales I saw 5amp power mentioned - I really hope not !

I take the point about flexibility etc which would be better with the
FreeNAS solution - also I could phase out all the old hardware by the
old PC route.

Tom

The SC101 is NOT a NAS device. It can be accessed only through the
proprietary (windows only) software supplied with it. If a future
flavor of windows (possibly even an update) breaks NetGear's client,
you're in deep doodoo.

Home NAS devices are typically very skimpy on hardware (to keep cost
low) and so are poor performers. Read what users report:

http://www.amazon.com/Netgear-SC101NA-NETGEAR-Storage-Central/dp/B0009RML8S
http://www.dvhardware.net/review89_netgearsc101.html

Bryce

 

[Tom]

Thanks for the advice and link - its greatly appreciated.

I can see now from what you say why the FreeNAS software on an old PC
would be much better !

Cheers, Tom

 

[Peter]

Thanks guys for the help here, great appreciated...

I have now seen on eBay the following NAS enclosure
NETGEAR SC101 NETWORK ATTACHED STORAGE NAS ENCLOSURE
- its an IDE model (2 disc drives), which is what I need, but would
present a bit of dead end for future upgrades to SATA - priced at
£27.99 + £6.95 - I never realised these were so cheap... but would it
be any good and what would the power useage situation be like? I think
on one of these sales I saw 5amp power mentioned - I really hope not !

I take the point about flexibility etc which would be better with the
FreeNAS solution - also I could phase out all the old hardware by the
old PC route.

Have you looked here:

http://www.mediacase.co.uk/

Their's supports SATA as well. Can't vouch for them as a company as
haven't actually used them so you may want to see if there's any
negative stuff about them first.

Slightly more than your £27.99 enclosure, but still reasonable.

 

[GMAN]

Have you looked here:

http://www.mediacase.co.uk/

Their's supports SATA as well. Can't vouch for them as a company as
haven't actually used them so you may want to see if there's any
negative stuff about them first.

Slightly more than your £27.99 enclosure, but still reasonable.

One very big drawback to these NAS cases is the fact that sometimes their
firmware limits them to severely limited hard drive sizes. Some or most of
these cheap chinese imports can only support up to a 500GB drive, kinda
retarded if you ask me.

Secondly, they many times require you to format the drive in FAT32.... YES
FAT32???? WTF!!!!


This one you listed says that to support using on a LAN, you must format in
FAT32 to be used on a lan.


Disk format: FAT32 via LAN
. NTFS or FAT32 via USB.


Notice how conveniently they dont mention MAX drive size???

 

[Bryce]

One very big drawback to these NAS cases is the fact that sometimes their
firmware limits them to severely limited hard drive sizes. Some or most of
these cheap chinese imports can only support up to a 500GB drive, kinda
retarded if you ask me.

Secondly, they many times require you to format the drive in FAT32.... YES
FAT32???? WTF!!!!

This one you listed says that to support using on a LAN, you must format
in FAT32 to be used on a lan.

Disk format: FAT32 via LAN
. NTFS or FAT32 via USB.

Notice how conveniently they dont mention MAX drive size???

They claim 48-bit LBA disk access, or up to 2TB. Seems like enough.
Sure would take a long time to defrag 2TB of FAT32.