Build Your Own NAS (BYON)

[FanFreak]

Just to share my latest project.

My NAS
Casing : U-NAS 4 bay from taobao
MB : Giada NE70E-DR NAS Server Motherboard with Onboard Intel Ivy Bridge Celeron 1007U 1.5GHz Dual-Core The Leading Cloud Computing Equipment Supplier-Mini PC / Tablet
PSU : FSP 250W flex atx psu
additional nic : Intel single nic PCI-ex adapter
HDD : WD20NPVX
HDD : seagate ST4000DM000 X4

internal fan change to GT AP-15, temp of disks hovering between 40-43.

Special thanks to Tears for sharing his blog.

 

[icer1985]

TS have done a very nice job. But i got this idea in mind not sure TS got solution on this?

since we got so many nas around, be it BYON or buy off shelf, would it be great if we can cluster all as one like a virtual san?

 

[davidktw]

TS have done a very nice job. But i got this idea in mind not sure TS got solution on this?

since we got so many nas around, be it BYON or buy off shelf, would it be great if we can cluster all as one like a virtual san?

It is already available. You can form such distributed storage system using application layers like Ceph, GlusterFS. Ceph falls under distributed block devices, while GlusterFS falls under Clustered File System.

Normally such systems only make sense in very large storage requirement. Anything is terabyte range is considered too small for the cost and effort to maintain one.

Most consumers don't even move into the SAN range. When you are at such large scale storage design, your cost and effort will be more on operational and maintenance.

What would be your use case to go such scale ?

 

[icer1985]

It is already available. You can form such distributed storage system using application layers like Ceph, GlusterFS. Ceph falls under distributed block devices, while GlusterFS falls under Clustered File System.

Normally such systems only make sense in very large storage requirement. Anything is terabyte range is considered too small for the cost and effort to maintain one.

Most consumers don't even move into the SAN range. When you are at such large scale storage design, your cost and effort will be more on operational and maintenance.

What would be your use case to go such scale ?

Yup. and because the enviroment have to many diff nas / san laying around, merging them into one system would be better since the thirst for storage space never stop. i am looking at glusterfs but its more for building around server hw. my idea is to cluster any nas / san as one unified storage so that i can just add on more different hardware down the road without worry. i know brands like thercus support stacking but this only works with their own product.

 

[davidktw]

Yup. and because the enviroment have to many diff nas / san laying around, merging them into one system would be better since the thirst for storage space never stop. i am looking at glusterfs but its more for building around server hw. my idea is to cluster any nas / san as one unified storage so that i can just add on more different hardware down the road without worry. i know brands like thercus support stacking but this only works with their own product.

If your storage is for business usage and you find the complexity in managing such systems justify your use case, by all means go ahead. I would deem the effort only make sense if you are dealing with storage size in petabytes range. Do you really have such storage requirement ?

If not, I wouldn't recommend going down such a route. You are free to try out if you like. If you feel you have a storage requirement, perhaps AWS S3 might help to alleviate for those data which are more for archival purposes.

 

[polyglob]

Normally such systems only make sense in very large storage requirement.

Here's my use case:

My primary workstation is an MBP with SSD. I want to play with crunching data (up to 1TB maybe) which is more than my MBP's disk capacity, and I don't want to kill my disk so quickly.

I am planning a BYON NAS project. As per this thread, the NAS will not have a powerful CPU. I intend to run an open source NAS OS that supports iScsi target mode.

So I'm thinking to use the NAS as iScsi target, use my MBP as iScsi initiator, thus combining the CPU power of my MBP with the storage capacity of the NAS. Wall clock time speed for my data crunching is presently not an important factor.

Naturally I also want to use my NAS as a NAS.

In theory, sounds like workable. Have to see in practice how.

 

[davidktw]

Here's my use case:

My primary workstation is an MBP with SSD. I want to play with crunching data (up to 1TB maybe) which is more than my MBP's disk capacity, and I don't want to kill my disk so quickly.

I am planning a BYON NAS project. As per this thread, the NAS will not have a powerful CPU. I intend to run an open source NAS OS that supports iScsi target mode.

So I'm thinking to use the NAS as iScsi target, use my MBP as iScsi initiator, thus combining the CPU power of my MBP with the storage capacity of the NAS. Wall clock time speed for my data crunching is presently not an important factor.

Naturally I also want to use my NAS as a NAS.

In theory, sounds like workable. Have to see in practice how.

When you say you are crunching data, what type of data are you talking about ? After you crunch your data, what output are you getting ?

Crunching data will normally not incur much write to your SSD if data are read for processing. After that, do you mean 10TB of data will end up writing 10TB back into the disk ?

In practice, I find in today's resource availability in the cloud, your use case could very well be done in AWS without incurring much cost. You might just end up with more computing power than what you can afford on premise if your whole point is crunching data.

Nowadays AWS have extremely large R3 instances offering up to 244GB of memory with 2x 320GB SSD for you to do your data crunching at the cost of only USD3.36/hr. That is much more affordable than you own your own hardware of the same power provided you are not operating 24by7 for data crunching.

Next is you can always shift your input and output into S3 and then shutdown your instance when you are not working with it. I really don't find your use case justify the CAPEX of a series of NAS for just data crunching.

Think about it.

 

[mfbatzap]

do you guys have UPS to protect your NAS?

And do you guys do a spindown on the hdd (after a period not used) or put it as always on?

 

[davidktw]

do you guys have UPS to protect your NAS?

And do you guys do a spindown on the hdd (after a period not used) or put it as always on?

UPS will be essential if you really care about the integrity of your data. During data writing, sudden shutdown of the system can potentially render the array corrupted. NAS must always be shutdown properly to ensure array integrity. Feel free to read up "Write hole" phenomenon in RAID5, RAID6, RAID1, and other arrays.

I don't really care about the spin down of the HDD though I suspect the HDD will do that from time to time. The problem is not so much with whether the HDD spin down, but the fact for Linux system, from time to time it will write to the logs and that will spin up the HDD eventually.

Generally HDD are pretty hardly when running constantly. The parts in them are manufactured with high precision and don't wear and tear like your bicycle wheels and gears. Having them running constantly and maintain at certain mean temperature is good for the hard disk due to more or less expanded metal parts due to heat. Typically they don't generate too much heat for low spindles of 5400rpm and below which are your green and red WD hard disk. I have been using them for years 24by7 and having only 2 broke down so far and no data lost to date. Subsequently for the WD green disk, I did a firmware change to the timeout of the disk so that it doesn't spin down so fast. There is no point to spin down and then spin up again when your Linux box(NAS) is writing logs to the root volume.

 

[mfbatzap]

UPS will be essential if you really care about the integrity of your data. During data writing, sudden shutdown of the system can potentially render the array corrupted. NAS must always be shutdown properly to ensure array integrity. Feel free to read up "Write hole" phenomenon in RAID5, RAID6, RAID1, and other arrays.

I don't really care about the spin down of the HDD though I suspect the HDD will do that from time to time. The problem is not so much with whether the HDD spin down, but the fact for Linux system, from time to time it will write to the logs and that will spin up the HDD eventually.

Generally HDD are pretty hardly when running constantly. The parts in them are manufactured with high precision and don't wear and tear like your bicycle wheels and gears. Having them running constantly and maintain at certain mean temperature is good for the hard disk due to more or less expanded metal parts due to heat. Typically they don't generate too much heat for low spindles of 5400rpm and below which are your green and red WD hard disk. I have been using them for years 24by7 and having only 2 broke down so far and no data lost to date. Subsequently for the WD green disk, I did a firmware change to the timeout of the disk so that it doesn't spin down so fast. There is no point to spin down and then spin up again when your Linux box(NAS) is writing logs to the root volume.

Thx for your feedback bro. What to look out for when buying a UPS?

My system is 18W CPU + 3 HDD (10W each?) + PCIe Lan card & 2x4GB DDR (ballpark, 10W?) ~ 50W

I'm using nas4free embedded system and the logs are all written to RAM instead of HDD. So I am wondering whether it's a gd idea to set a spindown timer or will it in the long run degrade the HDD?

 

[davidktw]

Thx for your feedback bro. What to look out for when buying a UPS?

My system is 18W CPU + 3 HDD (10W each?) + PCIe Lan card & 2x4GB DDR (ballpark, 10W?) ~ 50W

I'm using nas4free embedded system and the logs are all written to RAM instead of HDD. So I am wondering whether it's a gd idea to set a spindown timer or will it in the long run degrade the HDD?

I have been using the APC BACKUP-UPS CS500 ever since I purchase my Synology like more than 2 years ago. Served me effectively and integrated nicely with the NAS. When I bought it, it costed me SGD145, perhaps slightly more expensive now. I bought it from Funan Centre.

It's a rather small unit. How much battery capacity is not the most important. Important is the integration with the NAS so that the NAS can shutdown gracefully when the battery power drain out.

Mine will last roughly about an hour on the NAS alone. Today I got a C13/C14-3pin socket adapter and also provided UPS to my wireless router, EdgeRouter Lite and Fibre ONT.

Throughout the years, it has prevented 2/3 power outrage plus someone accidentally power off the socket to the UPS. Without the UPS, it will most likely be my NAS. I remember also a household power trip event.

I basically set it to drain till battery low and alert my NAS to shutdown.

 

[mfbatzap]

I have been using the APC BACKUP-UPS CS500 ever since I purchase my Synology like more than 2 years ago. Served me effectively and integrated nicely with the NAS. When I bought it, it costed me SGD145, perhaps slightly more expensive now. I bought it from Funan Centre.

It's a rather small unit. How much battery capacity is not the most important. Important is the integration with the NAS so that the NAS can shutdown gracefully when the battery power drain out.

Mine will last roughly about an hour on the NAS alone. Today I got a C13/C14-3pin socket adapter and also provided UPS to my wireless router, EdgeRouter Lite and Fibre ONT.

Throughout the years, it has prevented 2/3 power outrage plus someone accidentally power off the socket to the UPS. Without the UPS, it will most likely be my NAS. I remember also a household power trip event.

I basically set it to drain till battery low and alert my NAS to shutdown.

I see so a gd one would be one which allows for auto-shutdown of the NAS.

Thx!

Just wondering the does APC BE525R-AS 500VA support this feature?

 

[davidktw]

I see so a gd one would be one which allows for auto-shutdown of the NAS.

Thx!

Just wondering the does APC BE525R-AS 500VA support this feature?

I can't answer you that. Why don't u stick with the CS series?

 

[mfbatzap]

I can't answer you that. Why don't u stick with the CS series?

I was looking through the different SLS pricelists online, it seems like they do not sell that model anymore..

 

[davidktw]

I was looking through the different SLS pricelists online, it seems like they do not sell that model anymore..

Okay, for sure APC BE525R-AS 500VA won't work because it does not have the USB connection cable that allows notification from the UPS. Basically Synology is using NUTS(Network UPS Tools - Welcome) for integration with UPS. You may refer to the HCL there for reference. However I don't think CS models of APC have EOL yet. Perhaps you would like to make a trip to Funan Centre and see if you can find it.

I believe models in this series from APC would be what you need Buy APC Power-Saving Back-UPS Pro 550 - Technical Specifications and Information | APC

I can't be too conclusive about the compatibility list between Synology and UPS since it's pretty fuzzy too. You might wanna google for it. There is a Synology forum and hopefully the UPS model you are googling against the Synology keyword will get you someone who tried and able to advice, such as here Synology Inc. Online Community Forum • View topic - UPS Support

 

[mfbatzap]

Okay, for sure APC BE525R-AS 500VA won't work because it does not have the USB connection cable that allows notification from the UPS. Basically Synology is using NUTS(Network UPS Tools - Welcome) for integration with UPS. You may refer to the HCL there for reference. However I don't think CS models of APC have EOL yet. Perhaps you would like to make a trip to Funan Centre and see if you can find it.

I believe models in this series from APC would be what you need Buy APC Power-Saving Back-UPS Pro 550 - Technical Specifications and Information | APC

I can't be too conclusive about the compatibility list between Synology and UPS since it's pretty fuzzy too. You might wanna google for it. There is a Synology forum and hopefully the UPS model you are googling against the Synology keyword will get you someone who tried and able to advice, such as here Synology Inc. Online Community Forum • View topic - UPS Support

thanks bro, I saw a few other series with USB connection. Will decide on which one to get soon.. The NUTS hardware support table is quite confusing. haha.. The APC models don't really tally with the models that are available in the market (probably because they have different model names in diff parts of the world).

I'm will not be using Synology, building my own NAS using nas4free OS.

 

[saysuzu]

tag this thread

 

[cyuxiang]

The Bay Trail-D motherboards look to be a viable BYON choice for 1 or 2 HDD NAS. Any opinion on them?

Availability seems to be an issue though.

 

[leinad]

Just adding my 2¢ to this. I have tried running a couple of other solutions including building my own NAS and file/other-purpose servers from parts and even buying new ones. I eventually ended up with three Synology NASes over the years.

My introduction to the world of the home server via a NAS started in 2005, with the Synology DS106e, run 24/7/365. Yes, I was one of the early adopters. That NAS never died - I got greedy and wanted more space/features than it could support. This was when I branched into various custom server solutions, including a couple of Linux distributions customised appropriately (and the necessary headaches and tweaking and electrical bills)

Personally, time is more than money. The amount of time I spent configuring and actually optimising and ensuring the custom NAS is up and running properly, compared to procuring a good off-the-shelf NAS and initially configuring it, is quite significant. One is a set and forget after a day or two, the other requires monitoring and tweaking over a long period of time. Time, I used to have as a student but no longer have now. Also, should things go awry, I'm pretty much left on my own to troubleshoot and bring it back up all over again.

Add the ongoing electrical running costs, the footprint (HDB units are getting smaller and smaller) and other considerations, and it makes it even more untenable for me.

I suppose if one has the bandwidth to go through all that maintenance, troubleshooting, optimising and tweaking, by all means build your own server. Else, nothing beats getting a good Synology NAS and just pop in the storage you need - I use a DS213+ with 2x4TB and it's on 24/7. The proof of how good this market is is evident - new players are coming in and making the market much more competitive - we now have Asus on board, along with other players worldwide. Previously, it was a 212J which I donated to a charity who needed a fileserver.

When real life commitments arise and you need to balance your time with other commitments and hobbies beyond tweaking a computer, then the easiest solution is still one that someone else tweaks/optimises/maintains for you. Set-and-forget computing, which is what the NAS is meant to be.

/Dan

 

[chuanz]

I fully agree with leinad on his post... BYON is not for everybody. Definitely need to be technical inclined and must be comfortable with *nix systems. Also another must is some spare time on your hand. BYON is not plug and play and have everything automagically works.

Having an off-the-shelf NAS solution guarantees support during the warranty period, but tough luck when your NAS is out-of-warranty. BYON means you are on your own even before your NAS is assembled.

Anyway, I've done this for the geek in me as a side project and hopefully it will serve me for a few years (other than disk RMA). My next one (if there is one) would probably be off-the-shelf, especially with consumer grade NAS being commoditized...

Casing: China OEM
Had considered the U-NAS but chose this instead coz personally prefer the "covered" look rather than leave the HDD hot plug trays "exposed".

Board: Yueson NAS N70E-DR (V3)
Wanted to get the Giada board but not able to source locally. Yueson is the domestic China market brand while Giada is the export market brand. Good feature of this board is integrated Intel Celeron 1037U, 4x SATA2 + 2x SATA3, and dual Intel NIC. Downside is max 8GB RAM (min. req. for FreeNAS).

PSU: Delta DPS-400AB-12 A
Definitely overkill for a NAS build but hopefully it will keep the PSU temp down and consequently keep the PSU fan on low (quiet). This is a 80Plus Gold PSU but not sure if it will stay >80% efficiency for such low load (lowest load test required for certification is 20% = 80W, not something I expect my NAS to be pulling even at full load).

Currently trying out FreeNAS RAIDZ with 2x 2TB WD Green (43 deg C) + 1x 2TB Samsung F4EG (39 deg C).

Todo:
- 1x 2TB HDD (planning for RAIDZ2 or equivalent two-disk redundancy)
- UPS... my personal belief that NAS should always go with backup power
- off-the-shelf backup solution