Do-it-yourself home data storage server. We collect from the old server a home NAS with a media player on XPEnology

This is another article about building another NAS for home use. What prompted me to write it? Starting to assemble a NAS for myself, I re-read all the googled articles in which people told how they chose and assembled storage for themselves. Thanks to these articles, I avoided some mistakes when choosing hardware and software. I assembled the configuration from the first time, which completely suits me to this day. Therefore, I am sure that my article may be useful to someone.

True, I must say that I am a system administrator by profession and this imposed certain requirements on the configuration, and on the article - the details in the descriptions with ~2 Mb illustrations. So yes, I assembled the NAS myself. But without fanaticism. In the article, I did not limit myself to describing the hardware, but also told how I use the resulting machine. Everyone interested is welcome under the cut!

In the life of every IT specialist, there comes a moment when the space for disks runs out in the case

Before running to the store, I tried to decide what I want to get from the device now and what i might want after.

Storage of a large amount of data. It is obvious.
But there was a small nuance in that I had a certain number of hard drives. Let's just say, nasysadmin. Those are the ones I was going to use. All discs are of different sizes, manufacturers and working time. In total, they gave me a volume of 2-3 terabytes that was quite sufficient for me.
Torrents.
The device must have a sane client for these purposes.
Flexible settings and additional features.
Such a vague criterion, just the same for the future, for the possibility of using additional services, for example, cloud storage or a media server.
Low power consumption.
Low or no noise level.
Minimum price.

Ready NAS

By that time, I had experience at work with Synology DiskStation DS411 and D-Link DNS-320. I was in love with the Synology OS! Stable, convenient, understandable, its own repository with applications, useful updates - it's all about it. The iron itself also pleased with its uptime and silence. Only the price was not pleasing (end of 2014). I was not ready to give 20,000 rubles. for simply storing movies with music there. Naturally, there were cheaper models for two disks, but there are four disks for honor storage, and there are two in a stationary computer.

Using the DNS-320 as an example, I saw that if I choose the cheapest one, then I will get a more than modest device. Actually, distributing files in a local area is the only thing that this box can do more or less normally.
At this stage, it became clear that the NAS would have to be assembled from computer components.

HDD issue

While researching the prices of branded storage, I was also thinking about the configuration of disks in the system. RAID? JBOD? Separate volumes? On the one hand, it's wasteful to store movies with music on raid. In case of loss, they can be downloaded again. On the other hand, there are a couple of folders that need to be preserved and preferably without developing special backup scripts (backups need to be monitored and checked). In addition, the disks I already have are of different sizes. Accordingly, after assembling any RAID, I will lose hundreds of gigabytes by "cutting" disks to the smallest and the whole disk to checksums (for example).

Performance can not be objectively assessed. With NAS tasks on Windows Server she's doing great. I did not do synthetic tests.

The case with optimal price/quality ratio was quickly found. CoolerMaster Elite 120.

I looked at the cases and more compact, but their prices were no longer so compact. The case is comfortable and good quality. Three HDDs are inserted regularly.

The fourth one, through an additionally purchased adapter, into the CD-ROM compartment. (yes, yes, the adapter had to be collective farmed, there was no other in the stores)

The case comes with 2 fans. One for 120 mm for the HDD and one for 80 for the motherboard heatsink (you already noticed it in the previous photos).

A nice little thing in the kit were two adapters from 3.5 "to 2.5" HDD. A special pleasantness is that the adapters are suitable for any other case. They have bolt holes in a standard place, and the height of the structure with installed disk does not exceed the height of a conventional HDD.

There were no problems during the build process. All wires are long enough, installation and subsequent access to components is convenient (except for the obvious things). In general, a building for people!

I had all the rest of the hardware, namely disks, power supplies and RAM (SO-DIMM). In total, I got into 5 085 rubles.

I note that two gigabytes of RAM is noticeably small. I keep the minimum possible set of programs on the servers. I do not have any Updaters from Google and Adobe, some applications from drivers, etc. hanging. The minimum set, only the most necessary. With all this, in a calm state, 800 megabytes of memory are occupied. It is clear that with a certain user activity, the active use of the swap file begins with all the consequences. In general, take more memory.

Noise

He is. Do not put next to the bed. The noisiest of fans blows over the heatsink on the motherboard. The fan in the power supply and on the hard drive cage is not audible over the sound of the drives themselves. It is a pity that the case fans from the kit do not support PWM. Then the motherboard would control their speed:

And I'm sure I would always keep it to a minimum. I also tend to believe that the heatsink on the processor does not require additional cooling provided in the case. Be that as it may, the issue with noise faded into the background. I put the system unit where its noise does not interfere at all and forgot about it for now. When the time comes, either the fans will be replaced with PWM-enabled ones, or a controller for them will be purchased. Well, for example:

Soft

To work with torrents, I first installed the classic μTorrent. It has a wonderful feature in the settings: you can specify a folder that µTorrent will constantly monitor for the presence of a torrent file. As soon as a new file is found, the program starts downloading. And there is one more checkbox "Delete the torrent file when the download started". What happens. I'm at my computer, downloading the torrent file and putting it in a special folder on the NAS. After 5-10 seconds it disappears. This means μTorrent "took" it and started downloading. Another checkbox called something like “Add a random extension to a file until it is completely downloaded” allows you to see in the download folder which files are still downloading and which have already been downloaded. According to this scheme, I did not need the μTorrent interface at all to download torrents.

I went even further and installed YandexDisk on my server, instructing μTorrent to look for torrent files in the YaDisk folder. Now, sitting at work and picking up a film for myself for the evening, I put the torrent file on YaDisk and after 20-30 seconds it disappeared ...

The HWMonitor program was very useful, displaying a nice window on the desktop with the temperature of the sensors and the speed of the fans (by the way, about the temperature in the case):

When you enter via RDP, you can immediately appreciate that everything is spinning, spinning and not engulfed in the flames of a fire.

Unfortunately, the author in the new versions of the program divided it into paid and free. In the free version, only the minimum basic functionality remained. And all the buns like the small screen as on the screen, apparently, have been transferred to the paid one. I have version 0.6.0 beta.

wake-on-lan

This scheme did not work for me for a long time. I thought about the fact that most of the time the server just sits and wastes electricity. He certainly distributes torrents, but those unfortunate couple dozen of my favorite films that I keep for myself are not even a drop in the ocean. In general, the torrent network will not become poor at all if I stop distributing.

So, I want the NAS to work only when I need it. And slept the rest of the time. And wake him up over the network, and not with a button. There is Wake-on-LAN technology for this. This feature must be supported by the motherboard and Network Controller(if it is external). Fortunately, many models have this function, as well as mine. The computer wakes up using a "magic packet" sent to the network indicating the MAC address network card. There are specialized free programs for this, or, for example, my Asus router has such a function. But during operation, it turned out that Windows itself sends this magic when accessing a network resource. Both when accessing RDP and when accessing network folder. This is both good and bad. Good for not needed additional programs. And here's the bad thing, if the shared folder is connected on the client as a network drive, or added to favorites:

Then when the client is turned on, a “magic packet” will automatically be sent to the server and wake it up. I found this out when I was trying to figure out why my NAS was waking up on its own. In the case of a network drive, the behavior is clear - the client tries to get information about the drive in order to display its status (size, availability). But why Windows checks links in favorites is not clear to me. Although this feature may come in handy for someone - he turned on his working machine, the NAS started automatically with it.

The server can restlessly “sleep” not only because of windows machines on the network. There were times when the NAS went to sleep for several days in a row and immediately woke up. I sin on the router, but there is no evidence yet.

The server goes to sleep with its own standard means if there is no network activity during the specified time.

μTorrent has been replaced by Free Download Manager. It has a checkbox "Close program when download is complete". I start the download, check the box, disconnect from the remote desktop. Free Download Manager closes when download is completed, NAS goes to sleep on inactivity timer.

YandexDisk naturally also had to be removed from the server.

wifi

When I thought about where to put the NAS in the apartment, I decided to try Wi-Fi. Fashionable, comfortable, modern. TP-LINK TL-WN881ND was purchased:

Everything was connected through the Asus RT-N12 router. Everything was great until I sat down to watch the movie in good quality. Regular .mkv 1080p ~ 20 GB in size. In the middle of the movie, the picture and sound began to break. media player Classic showed that all its buffers were empty and barely pulled up the next piece of video. It was like that with all the "heavy" films. On simple copying of a large amount of information, I also noticed that after a while the speed sagged significantly. A superficial search for information on this problem did not give results, but throw twisted pair it was easier for me to get to the server than to deal with Wi-Fi further.

In no case do I want to slander wi-fi and make loud statements about its readiness for a long and high load. But if you are going to connect your NAS through it, then be aware that there may be problems.

For example, banal data backups. If locally, then the same Cobian Backup is scheduled to a special folder. If over the Internet, then BitTorrent Sync. In the case of Cobian, do not connect the backup folder as a network drive. In the case of BitTorrent Sync, use shadow copies on the server (

The FreeNAS operating system will run on any personal computer. If you don’t have an extra system unit with the ability to install multiple hard drives, then assemble a new one following our recommendations.

We chose the Prodigy chassis from BitFenix as the basis for the NAS system. It has six bays for installing 3.5-inch hard drives. Compact motherboard ASRock board The E350M1 with an integrated dual-core CPU provides sufficient performance and four SATA connectors for connecting hard drives.

To use six drives, you will need to install a controller board with two SATA ports. FROM motherboard two Kingston HyperX 4 GB RAM modules are compatible. We chose the quiet and energy-efficient 300W be quiet Pure Power L8 model as the power supply, and we recommend quiet hard drives such as, for example, WD Red (2TB).

2. Assembly of components

If you strictly follow the instructions in the user manual for the BitFenix Prodigy case, then there should be no problems when assembling the computer. It should be noted that it is best to install the power supply with the vent down, and the hard drives are inserted into the case with the sled connectors forward.

3. Connection

First, connect the power and reset button connectors to the system board, and LED indicators, since later access to them will be significantly difficult. It is recommended to connect hard drives from the side of the case where the power and reset buttons are located.

4. Installing FreeNAS on a flash drive

Unpack on a PC with an operating system Windows system FreeNAS image, as well as the free Win32 Disk Imager program. To do this, use the 7-Zip archiver, which can work with the XZ format.

Insert a flash drive with a capacity of at least 2 GB and launch Win32 Disk Imager. Open the FreeNAS image file by clicking on the folder icon and selecting the drive letter for the Device. Clicking on "Write" will start the process of writing the image to the USB flash drive. Remove the drive from your computer and insert it into the USB port of the NAS you have assembled.

5. First boot NAS

Connect the keyboard as well as the monitor to the NAS you have assembled and connect it with a LAN cable to the router. Turn on the NAS and immediately press the Del button several times to enter the UEFI settings.

In the "Advanced / Super IO Configuration" item, change the value of "Serial Port" to "Disabled" - otherwise FreeNAS will not start. After that, in the "Boot / Boot Option" item, select the flash drive, save the settings and reboot the NAS.

After the reboot, you will see a text menu and an IP address where you can access the FreeNAS web interface.

6. Basic parameters

Open the web interface in a browser on your computer. In the "System / Settings" item, you can change the language to Russian. In the "Time zone" section, select the necessary settings. After clicking on "Save" and pressing the F5 key, the Russian-language interface will load.

7. Disk setup

Using the "Storage/Manage ZFS Volumes" button, you can perform disk space allocation. First, enter "Volume Name", then click on the "+" sign next to "Available Drives". After that, in the "Volume Layout" section, you will see the connected disks. Drag the round silver button up and to the right, as a result, all the disks should be located next to each other. For maximum fault tolerance, select "RaidZ2" from the menu.

8. Creation account user

In the folder tree, click Account/Users/Add User. In the "Username" and "Full Name" section, enter "Guest", click next to "Home Directory" on "Browse" and select the volume created in the previous step.

Activate the "Disable password login" option and confirm your choice by clicking on "OK". Click on the "Storage" icon at the top and on the previously created volume, then at the bottom on the key icon with the "Change Permissions" disk. In the dialog box, select Guest next to Owner (User) and Owner (Group) and click Edit.

9. CIFS setup

Then create a new share with any name in the “Shares / Windows (CIFS)” item and specify the previously created volume as the path. Activate "Allow Guest Access" and "Guest Access Only".

Then click the Services button at the top and the wrench icon behind CIFS. Select the Anonymous option in the "Authentication Model" line, enter the NetBIOS name and working group your PC.

As a guest account, select "Guest" and activate the option "Allow empty password' and 'Include home directories'. In the "Home Directories" item, select the volume you created earlier.

Finally, enable CIFS using the Services button at the top. Now the network share will be displayed in Windows Explorer at the address "\\\".

tutorial

If I were an employee of a pasta factory, now I would be racking my brains over where to put that way 500 half-kilo packs of pasta. Fortunately, when the authorities decide to reward the system administrator “in kind”, receiving a dry ration van as a gift does not threaten, although there are good chances of becoming the owner of several tens of kilograms of frank scrap. However, this time I was lucky - as a corporate gift I received a pair of brand new WD Re 2004FBYZ 2 terabytes each, and a Thermaltake Smart DPS G 750W power supply. But what to do with disks? Putting it on a home computer is too wasteful even for me, after all, Enterprise Class, and there is no particular need. It is much more practical to assemble a NAS based on them. Of course, not some kind of file storage, but highly reliable storage - a kind of "black box" for critical data. Plus, you can combine business with pleasure - since the decision has been made to completely transfer the infrastructure to “smart” PSUs (namely, this is how Thermaltake positions the Smart DPS line), it would be nice to see firsthand how it works.

But there is one catch - at the moment, the proprietary application exists only under Windows. For a corporate data center, this operating system is good, but for home file storage it is terrible and extremely unprofitable. Therefore, I decided to make two posts. In this, we'll lift a Windows Server 2008 r2 based NAS (making sure "windows" and "home NAS" are incompatible concepts) and see what DPS G App 2.0 is capable of. In the second, we will assemble a budget NAS based on NAS4Free, creating a truly reliable system.

Foreword

In order not to be showered with tomatoes, I want to warn you right away - the article is intended, first of all, for non-professionals. Although even experienced administrators and enthusiasts will be interested in reading about Thermaltake's Smart Power Management, the main material is aimed at people who do not want to overpay for a big name by buying ready-made solutions, and at the same time are far from system administration (programmers, designers, web developers, etc.). .d.). If your hand is strong enough to assemble a computer from components, but at the same time you do not want to deal with server software for a long and tedious time, and the console was seen only in bad dreams, this material is for you. If you want to look at SPM Cloud to decide how useful this system can be for you, scroll the post to the subheading “How smart is an intelligent power supply?”. By the way, I warn you - there are a lot of photos and screenshots under the cut.

Simple but tasteful

I’ll make a reservation right away - I didn’t seek to assemble a home NAS just based on the cost. When choosing components, I was guided by how the components are suitable for the implementation of the task, while not forgetting about the quality characteristics. Is it possible to build a budget NAS at a lower cost? Can. But at the same time, you can also lose in performance and convenience, which I would not like. As a result, the following happened.

Frame. The Thermaltake Core V1 took on the role of the data storage case, a nice, all-metal cube with a quiet 200mm fan behind the front bezel.

At the back there are seats for a couple of 80 mm fans, thanks to which the network storage can be made really cold.

As in other modern models, the bottom compartment is reserved for the power supply. Dust protection is provided by a metal filter.

Another advantage of the Core V1 are 4 removable walls (sides, roof and bottom), which greatly simplifies the assembly procedure. Each panel is secured with a pair of screws that can be easily unscrewed by hand. I also really liked the implementation of disk cages - each of the four fixing screws received its own rubber damper, which dampens vibration quite well:

Motherboard. Here my choice fell on the GIGABYTE GA-J1800N-D2H with an integrated Intel Celeron. The power of a dual-core processor with a base 2.41 GHz for a network storage drive is enough for the eyes (although Windows Server will load it 100%, but windows are not our target platform), it is quite economical and does not require active cooling (there is no need to buy a cooler) .

Despite the cheapness, Gigabyte has implemented their proprietary chips into the product: High ESD technology, which provides ESD protection for chips and LAN, as well as Anti-Surge IC, which prevents the motherboard from failing due to power surges - everything you need to really reliable system. The only controversial point is the location of the internal USB connector close to the radiator: it is simply inconvenient to work with it.

RAM. Nothing special - the usual Transcend 2Gb DDR-III 1333Mhz in the SO-DIMM form factor. If somewhere in the closet an old laptop is lying around, you can remove the modules from it.

Power Supply. Solid Thermaltake Smart DPS G 750W, designed for productive PCs and server platforms, certified according to the 80 PLUS Gold standard. For a full server or workstation- just right, for assembling a NAS with your own hands - too powerful, but for the duration of the experiment you can treat yourself by installing nitros on a small car.

Of course, a device of this class provides for modular cable connection. Of the built-in ones, only the motherboard and processor connectors (shared 4 + 4 pin, which came in handy during assembly).

Additional convenience is provided by flat cables, although even they fit into the compact Core V1 with difficulty - after all, the case is not designed for this. Among them was a wire for connecting the Thermaltake Smart DPS G 750W to the internal USB connector. Obviously, it ensures the interaction of the onboard 32-bit microcontroller with the sensors of the motherboard, and is necessary for the full functioning of Smart Power Management. However, we will talk about how the monitoring system justifies itself and what features it provides, a little later.

Cooling. Two silent unregulated TITAN DC FAN. Since we want to build a quiet NAS without extra costs, this would be the best option.

HDD. Although they don't look a gift horse in the mouth, I think it's necessary to say a few words about the heroes of the occasion - the sweet couple WD Re 2004FBYZ. After all, whatever one may say, the safety of information depends on the quality of hard drives.

If you look at the manufacturer's specifications, everything looks very tasty. For example, hard drives are equipped with accelerometers and pressure sensors based on Rotary Acceleration Feed Forward (RAFF) technology, which provides protection against linear and angular vibration in real time, which increases both reliability and performance. Being a server solution, WD Re 2004FBYZ also has TLER (Time Limited Error Recovery), which limits the time of correction in order to avoid erroneous loss of a disk from a RAID array. Add to that a claimed 1.2 million hour MTBF and we're pretty much perfect.

However, it is difficult to judge the veracity of beautiful words and sophisticated abbreviations until you try the product yourself. And here I can only say that I am typing this article on a computer, inside which a couple of terabyte Caviar Blacks have been working for the 6th year. And the 2.5-inch kid in the old Dell Inspirion 1501, now given to his parents, feels no worse. Actually, the transfer of the infrastructure to WD at the current place of work took place precisely at my suggestion - I have developed a long-standing and very productive relationship with this brand. I've been using their discs for years now, they've never let me down, and to this day I see absolutely no reason to change my preferences.

Flash drive. Any 8 GB USB drive. Of course, compact “plugs” are optimally suited, the body of which practically does not protrude above the connector.

Now you need to assemble network storage from this goodness - everything is quite simple here. If you have ever assembled a computer yourself, then you can handle it without any difficulty. I will just highlight a few key points:

Additional coolers should be put on blowing - then we will achieve flowing air circulation from front to back and optimal cooling;
When will you install motherboard, keep an eye on the metal jumper above the USB 3.0 hole on the rear panel - acting carelessly, it can be bent and thus block the connector;
The drive cages are held in place with a single screw, but they're installed quite rigidly and may not move right away. To remove the basket, it must be pulled in the direction from the body and slightly down;
The motherboard does not provide a connection for external USB 3.0, you can safely hide this wire in the lower compartment of the case.

Entertaining mathematics

Perhaps it’s worth taking a small groove and calculating how budget our assembly turned out to be. So let's get started:

Case: Thermaltake Core V1 - 3,764 rubles.
PSU: As good as the Thermaltake Smart DPS G 750W is, it's too luxurious for small file storage. In the future, I plan to put Chieftec HPS-350NS there - 1560 rubles.
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-J1800N-D2H - 4436 rubles.
RAM: Transcend SO-DIMM 2Gb DDR-III 1333Mhz x 2 - 3040 rubles.
Cooling: TITAN DC FAN (80 mm, 2000 rpm) x 2 - 404 rubles.
USB drive: 300 rubles.

Total: 13,504 rubles.

I deliberately left out the HDD to compare with Synology products. For example, DiskStation DS216+ will cost you 28,173 rubles, while under the hood we will see a very modest filling: Intel Celeron N3050 1.6 GHz, RAM - 1 Gb, all the same two 3.5 mm disk slots. If WD Re 2004FBYZ hadn't been given to me for nothing, I would have paid another 17,660 rubles, and the final costs approached 31,000 - the cost of a "naked" platform of a popular brand. Yes, our assembly is less compact, but more productive and reliable, and it's almost half the price! And if there is a difference, then pay more? This completes a small lyrical digression - it's time to move on and put our car into operation!

Windows Server is the worst home NAS solution

Even if you haven’t seen * nix’s in your eyes, even if at the sight command line it gives you the creeps, even if the “windows” seem familiar and inspire a sense of security, do not try to raise a Windows-based personal file storage. Why? I will tell in the course of this material. But first, let's deal with the installation.

We will install Windows Server 2008 r2, of course, from a USB flash drive. For creating boot drive you can refer to the following instructions, or use the Windows USB / DVD Download Tool, which is also recommended on the official Microsoft blog. The same can be done using Rufus, which, moreover, will be able to check the memory for broken blocks (one or two passes will be enough), or install in Windows To Go mode, which will allow you to run the OS directly from the device.

However, the latter option is not the best idea, given the operating system and the disk space required for it, so let's make a regular bootable USB flash drive.

Now you can proceed with the installation, and here we see the first pitfall - size. Do you want to install the Standard edition with a visual interface? Please allocate 24 gigabytes. In the case of a pair of disks, this is too wasteful. Otherwise, there are no nuances: as in the version for home use, it all comes down to “Next-Next-Finish”.

When you log in, you will see the next con - the need for activation. I do not plan to use Windows Server as the basis for a NAS - all this is, first of all, an experiment, so I will limit myself to a trial, which is kindly provided by Microsoft themselves. Run regedit, look for the registry key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SoftwareProtectionPlatform\Activation\Manual

Change its value to one and reboot the machine. Now the trial period has increased from 3 to 30 days. In total, it can be extended up to six months using the slmgr.vbs script. The slmgr.vbs -dli command will help you find out how much time is left before the end of the current license, and slmgr.vbs -rearm will reset the evaluation period (no more than three times). The process can be automated by creating a small XML file.

One more "fe" I would like to express in the direction of the "Update Center". For Windows Server 2008 r2 SP1, more than 300 patches of various calibers were subsequently released. It will take several hours to install all of them, while the patches conflict with the addition of server roles. That is, you need to update either before or after, the process takes a lot of time, and loads the system to the maximum:

There is also an unfortunate bug associated with updates. After installing the updates, you may find that the space on the system disk began to disappear by itself. If you notice a leak, go to the C:\Windows\Temp folder. You will almost certainly see something like this:

The point is the failure of archiving the update logs - the system breeds damaged archives at a terrible speed, after each error starting the procedure again. This is treated by deleting all files from the C:\Windows\Logs\CBS folder, after which you can safely clean the Temp directory.

However, let's move on. And the first thing to do is to set up autologin, since the NAS will still be in home network, and entering the password every time is too tiring. We go to “Start” –> “Run”, and drive in the command control userpasswords2.

Selecting the “Administrators” group, uncheck the box “Require username and password”, save the selection.

Now let's deal with remote connection. The easiest way is to use the built-in desktop manager. To activate it, go to “Start” –> “Control Panel” –> “System and Security” –> “Remote Access Settings”, select the second or third item (if you plan to bring the NAS to the Internet). It is also worth setting a simpler and more concise computer name on the tab of the same name.

An alternative can be LiteManager - a multifunctional and free program for a private user that has a bunch of useful features: file transfer, direct access to the console, registry editor, task manager, and a number of others. When installing the server part on the NAS, set the access password that will be used when logging in:

If you plan to release your home NAS to the Internet, you can additionally configure an IP filter:

Make sure LM Server is in automatic startup mode:

Also, don't forget to set a static address for our machine in the adapter's properties:

Where 192.168.1.1 is the address of the router. Finally, enable network discovery and file and folder sharing in “Control Panel” –> “Network and Internet” –> “Network and Sharing Center” –> “Change advanced sharing settings”.

After the above operations, you can connect the NAS to your home network with a clear conscience. If further management will be carried out through the LM Viewer, install the application on your computer and add a new connection by clicking on the plus on the toolbar and filling in the required fields:

Where 192.168.1.250 is the IP address of the NAS. Or use the built-in Windows utility remote desktop connections.

Now let's create a partition to store information. Go to “Server Manager” –> “Storage” –> “Disk Management”, right-click on the unallocated space on the system drive, select “Create a simple volume” and, following the prompts of the wizard, create the main “Data” partition formatted in NTFS.

You can proceed directly to raising the file server. Open "Roles" -> "Add roles" in the manager.

After the welcome window of the wizard, a list of available ones will appear. We are interested in “File Services”:

In the next window, check the box next to “File Server Services Manager”, if you wish, you can enable the “Windows Search Service”.

In “Storage Monitoring” we mark our “Data” section:

Here, by clicking the “Parameters” button, we configure volume monitoring. For convenience, you can add reports on duplicates and large files.

In the “Report Options” set the path for storing records:

If you have connected Windows Search, select the indexing of the “Data” volume:

We confirm the choice and wait for the installation to complete. After that, the capabilities of the file management manager will become available to us (located in “Start” -> “Administrative Tools”). Of the full range of tools offered, quota management will come in handy for home use.

As you can see, the “Data” section has already received a “soft” quota by default. This means that if it is more than 85% full, we will receive an alert, but the recording of files in the NAS will still be available. Quotas can be set not only for partitions, but also for individual directories. Let's create a "Music" folder on drive "E", and set a size limit for it. Click "Create Quota" and choose the path:

In the “Custom properties” we will specify a limit of 300 GB and select the “Hard” option so that music addiction does not lead to a situation where there is no space left on the disk for regular backups and important documents:

Let's add a threshold value of 85% and set the notification method:

As a result, we get:

After clicking the “Create” button, the system will offer to save the settings to a template. Subsequently, this will allow us to apply similar rules to other folders in one click.

For the new quota to appear in the list, you must reconfigure the filter. Click on the link of the same name and select the values \u200b\u200b“All”:

Now the new quota is also visible on the main screen:

Another option that can be useful if your wife, children and beloved cat use file storage besides you is file lock management. It allows you to exclude the loading of files of certain extensions in certain directories.

Let's create a Backup directory and prevent it from being littered with music and videos. To do this, just click on “Create file blocking filter”, select the desired directory and, in our case, the pre-installed template “Block audio and video files”.

The template contains almost all the most common formats, but you can always add new ones in the appropriate section:

By clicking on “Change template properties”, we get to the settings menu.

Here, by clicking the “Change” button, you can call up the section for adding new extensions and removing existing ones, as well as familiarize yourself with the pre-installed ones:

It remains to make our folder available over the network. To do this, go to "Start" -\u003e "Administrative Tools" -\u003e "Computer Management" -\u003e " Shared Folders” –> “Shared resources” and create a new one. Then just follow the prompts of the wizard. First, specify the path to the folder:

In the next step, set its parameters (you can leave it by default):

Set up access permissions. For local network you can open access for everyone, for the Internet - leave only administrators:

Now the “Music” folder will be accessible directly from any computer on your home network - just type the address \\NAS\Music in the explorer and log in. We will do a similar procedure for the Backup directory, and at the same time we will check how file locking works by trying to upload a movie to it.

Access denied - everything works fine.

The final touch remains - the creation of a software RAID-1. There is nothing complicated in this: we go to “Server Manager” –> “Storage” –> “Disk Management”, right-click on the system disk (“Disk 1” in our example), and select “Convert to dynamic disk”.

Then we click on each volume in turn, choosing “Add Mirror” from the menu. All partitions will be “reflected” on the second disk and resynchronization will begin:

And here is another argument against. The fact is that the resynchronization process for a 2 terabyte HDD will last more than 5 hours. The discs will be checked in full, no matter how much information is recorded, and their loading will tend to 100%. Of course, WD Re is able to withstand such a test, but you won’t be able to use the NAS normally during this period: the write / read speed will drop significantly.

Speaking of speed, let's evaluate the performance of the array in real conditions. Here's what happened when I transferred the Rammstein discography to a network folder:

Not bad at all, but it can be really better, which NAS4Free will help us to make sure of. Free and undemanding to resources, the operating system is optimal for home NAS and is able to work with file system ZFS, where disk mirroring is implemented much more intelligently and reliably. In this case, the process of primary synchronization is absent in principle. That is why I recommend NAS4Free for organizing home file storage. However, we will talk about it in the next post, and now let's get down to the most interesting.

How smart is an intelligent power supply?

Do you like quests in reality? I remembered them because my acquaintance with the DPS App and Smart Power Management began with just such a mini-quest. Google helpfully suggested a page for downloading the application, by clicking on the coveted button, I saw this form:

Nothing out of the ordinary - many companies ask for your E-mail for their newsletter. However, by entering my address, instead of a utility, I received:

Even without a translator, it is clear that the requested page was not found. What could be the matter? It turns out that everything works a little differently. First you need to create an account in the system, confirm registration, and only then you can download the utility in the “Products” section.

Another important nuance is that if you adhere to the golden rule of compiling passwords, including using special characters, then this practice will have to be abandoned. There will be no problems with authorization on the site, however, the DPS App simply will not accept the passphrase, displaying an error:

Therefore, it is worth limiting yourself to a combination of Latin letters and numbers. However, we will not judge strictly: while the system is at the beta testing stage, such bugs are quite natural.

Now let's finally download and install the application itself. Please note that it requires Microsoft .NET 4.5, Adobe Flash Player ActiveX, as well as up-to-date Java version. After launching, the utility will prompt you to log in to synchronize with SPM, which we will do.

Hardware is detected automatically (in earlier versions serial number had to be entered manually). After successful authorization, the following window will appear:

You should not be afraid - the program wants to determine your coordinates for display on an interactive map (about it - a little later), but positioning can be turned off.

Now let's see what, in fact, the application offers us. The range includes a whole set of scanners that allow you to control the following parameters:

Total voltage and voltage for each of the connected lines;
Voltage on CPU and video card
current strength;
Total power.

Using round arrows, you can turn on the graph mode that displays changes in real time:

There is also a PSU temperature sensor, where you can choose the units of measurement to your liking:

The Thermaltake Smart DPS G 750W fan control is also available in the DPS App. In the “Performance” mode, the unit will select the optimal speed, practically equalizing the temperature of the power supply components with the ambient temperature. The “Zero fan” option allows you to turn off the fan altogether - although the power supply itself is extremely quiet, if your household is still not used to the lulling sounds of a working server, given function help make the NAS virtually silent. Considering the economy of our system, active cooling may not be needed at all. If the temperature exceeds the critical 80°C, the PSU will automatically switch to intensive mode.

The “Expenses” item allows you to set tariffs for electricity and, thus, find out how much it costs you to operate the equipment. Unfortunately, at the moment only one tariff zone and only one currency is supported - the US dollar. As a result, the tool is only suitable for use for informational purposes, about which the utility kindly warns.

A rather interesting feature is the ability to send data to social networks. Facebook, Twitter and its Chinese counterpart Weibo are supported. When you click on the corresponding icon on the account, a screenshot of the currently open counter is published. Sending a picture to e-mail is also available, but only if the mail client is pre-configured on the computer.

The “Record” tab provides much more interesting features. Here you can download reports on the operation of the power supply by date in CSV format.

Readings are taken at intervals of one minute. The table records all the parameters displayed on the indicators - very convenient for assessing the effectiveness of the system.

However, let's digress from the application (we have analyzed all the available functionality, with the exception of backlight control, which this model not equipped), and see what opportunities the SPM cloud platform offers. But first, let's go to “My Account” –> “Settings”:

If you set the status to “Public”, the statistics will be displayed on the “All uploads” tab, however, only users added as friends will have access to the data. When you turn on the location service, the location of your computer will be displayed on an interactive map.

According to the developers, Smart Power Management should become not just a cloud monitoring service, but a full-fledged social platform. Using the positioning features, you can meet other users and share experiences through private messages. Considering that the target products of Thermaltake are professionals and enthusiasts, in the future such a system can serve as an excellent alternative to thematic groups and forums, allowing you to find colleagues and like-minded people around the world in a couple of clicks.

Let's go to the "My uploads" tab. Reports generated by the application are loaded here.

By clicking on the link "Load data ..." we get to the visual interface. All the information stored in text reports is presented here, but already in the form of graphs. You can view statistics on the PSU itself, CPU and video card:

The most interesting is the “Analysis” tab. Having chosen a PSU (and the platform allows you to add an unlimited number of devices), we get to this page:

The first three tabs allow you to find out the total time of using the power supply, the cost of electricity and the amount of kWh spent, respectively. By clicking on the tree icon, we can evaluate the environmental friendliness of the system:

Unfortunately, the NAS has only run through nothing, so I haven't planted a single tree yet. Then you can get summary statistics on electricity consumption and cost, as well as find out the average power for the selected period:

The “Electricity Analysis” tab will tell you how suitable the PSU is for file storage:

As expected, we were able to put together a home NAS with power consumption comparable to that of an ordinary household light bulb.

The last tab allows you to create an energy saving plan based on the selected parameters. Here you can set alerts for mobile version applications:

In addition, Smart Power Management allows you to remotely manage the power of a computer or server. All necessary tools presented in the Remote section.

It is possible to completely de-energize or reboot the system (do not be alarmed, the corresponding signal will be sent to the motherboard), as well as schedule a scheduled shutdown:

The listed functionality is also available in the DPS G Mobile App, released for iOS and Android (Windows Phone was naturally ignored). And if viewing statistics on a smartphone screen is not very convenient, then the implementation of remote control of a home NAS will come in handy. All previously made settings are fully synchronized:

The most useful feature is the notification of a fan stop or overheating of the unit over 60 ° C, after which you can immediately turn off the system, preventing the home NAS PSU from failing.

Instead of a conclusion

Summarize. We found out that Windows usage in a home NAS, it is long, expensive and extremely inconvenient. Excessive gluttony, the length of setup, updating and resynchronization, finally, bugs and the need to purchase a license - all this makes “windows” perhaps the worst solution for file storage. Therefore, in the next post I will talk about what NAS4Free is and what it is eaten with.

As for the Smart Power Management platform, I can say that the solution is already working great, offering quite a sufficient set of tools for monitoring and managing power. It can be a good help in situations where the use of professional industry solutions is unprofitable (for example, when building an IT infrastructure for small offices). A smart PSU can also come in handy for a private user: when your computer is running 24/7, the ability to monitor changes remotely will come in handy, as well as a panic button to turn off the system in case of emergency. But personally, I would like to see a more advanced billing system with support for several zones and currencies - this would allow us to record energy costs with high accuracy and plan a budget without additional software. If Thermaltake releases a version of the utility for Linux and FreeBSD, it will not be priced at all. I hope that company representatives read Habr - maybe they will like my ideas and still transfer the utility to * nix "s.

This small tutorial will help you build a complete NAS server from an old computer. If you are ready to buy new parts and make your file storage compact and more modern look and functionality, then the article is more suitable for you, Well, for lovers of ready-made solutions, I prepared this material:. Now let's go back to the old PC and evaluate its capabilities.

Requirements for an old PC

SATA connectors on the motherboard, since HDDs with this interface have the best price / performance ratio and have a much larger volume, unlike IDE hard drives.
The number of connectors for connecting hard drives on the motherboard and free slots in the case (the ability to install HDDs in 5.25-inch bays (special boxes)) For HTPC assembly, I use such boxes with 2 slots for 2.5″ HDD .
If there are not enough SATA plugs on the power supply, you can use special IDE-SATA adapters.

Procedure for Installing an HDD in an Enclosure

To install 3.5-inch hard drives in 5.25-inch optical drive bays, place them in a special box (see figure).

Such cases can also be made in the form of rails that are attached to the HDD on both sides.

You can also use the five-inch bay in which the optical drive is installed, since its need is eliminated in the server solution.

Software installation

To implement the server solution, we will use the software FreeNAS. Download the ISO image from the link for a 32-bit or 64-bit system and burn at minimum speed to a CD-R\RW disc. If there is no blank, you can install it on a USB flash drive, how to make a bootable USB flash drive is written in. Temporarily connect a disk drive (which you removed earlier or use a USB drive) to your PC. Go into the BIOS and set the Boot section to boot from the drive. After installing the software and restarting the PC, remember its IP address, which will be shown on the screen.

Setting up the NAS server

Connect the NAS server to your network. Open a browser on your work computer on this network and type in the address bar: http://"IP address of your NAS". In the window that appears, enter the username - admin and password - freenas. Go to menu Storage | volumes | Create Volume" and select the hard drives that will form the RAID array. Next, activate the ZFS file system.

Can be used:

RAID 0- a disk array of increased performance, without fault tolerance.
RAID 1— mirrored disk array, has high reliability

We will use RAID 1 as more reliable. Now click "Add Volume" to format your drives into an array.

Access to the NAS server on the local network

To open access to the server, go to the menu Services | Control Services, enable CIFS services and configure access in the partition Sharing | Windows Shares». As with any LAN network media, access is via Windows Explorer (for example, \\NAS to access the root, or \\NAS\Photos to access a specific shared folder). You can also make shortcuts by clicking on the "Map network drive" button in the Computer window (Windows 7) under the explorer line.

P.S. You can always make an additional array by adding hard drives, and you can also set up access for remote use of your NAS server.

Some information about the dangers of using RAID

RAID is a redundant array of independent hard drives. RAID is not a storage system backups, it only helps to improve the comfort of accessing data. A RAID system is a set of HDDs combined into one array. If your HDD if it fails, you can replace it, and then restore the RAID and your data will be with you, excluding the RAID 0 array.

Disadvantages of RAID 0

This mode gives only the speed of data access. In Striping Mode (interleaved mode), data is divided into blocks and written simultaneously to multiple hard drives. If one hard drive fails, all data will be lost.

Disadvantages of RAID 1

RAID 1 uses data mirroring, meaning that the second drive has an identical copy of the data. There is one vulnerability - a possible malfunction of the controller, which will damage both media.

Disadvantages of RAID 1 and RAID 5

During the RAID recovery process, the write speed is high, and if one hard drive fails, it can cause another hard drive to fail, and, consequently, data loss.

Also, a faulty RAID controller can lead to HDD failure. In RAID arrays, changes are applied to files and if data is accidentally deleted or changed, the actions are irreversible.

tutorial

Foreword

Simple but tasteful

Frame. The Thermaltake Core V1 took on the role of the data storage case, a nice, all-metal cube with a quiet 200mm fan behind the front bezel.

At the back there are seats for a couple of 80 mm fans, thanks to which the network storage can be made really cold.

As in other modern models, the bottom compartment is reserved for the power supply. Dust protection is provided by a metal filter.

RAM. Nothing special - the usual Transcend 2Gb DDR-III 1333Mhz in the SO-DIMM form factor. If somewhere in the closet an old laptop is lying around, you can remove the modules from it.

Power Supply. Solid Thermaltake Smart DPS G 750W, designed for productive PCs and server platforms, certified according to the 80 PLUS Gold standard. For a full-fledged server or workstation - just right, for assembling a NAS with your own hands - too powerful, but for the duration of the experiment you can treat yourself by installing nitros on a small car.

Of course, a device of this class provides for modular cable connection. Of the built-in ones, only the motherboard and processor connectors (shared 4 + 4 pin, which came in handy during assembly).

Cooling. Two silent unregulated TITAN DC FAN. Since we want to assemble a quiet NAS at no extra cost, this option will be optimal.

Flash drive. Any 8 GB USB drive. Of course, compact “plugs” are optimally suited, the body of which practically does not protrude above the connector.

Additional coolers should be put on blowing - then we will achieve flowing air circulation from front to back and optimal cooling;
When you install the motherboard, keep an eye on the metal jumper above the USB 3.0 hole on the rear panel - acting carelessly, it can be bent and thus block the connector;
The drive cages are held in place with a single screw, but they're installed quite rigidly and may not move right away. To remove the basket, it must be pulled in the direction from the body and slightly down;
The motherboard does not provide a connection for external USB 3.0, you can safely hide this wire in the bottom compartment of the case.

Entertaining mathematics

Perhaps it’s worth taking a small groove and calculating how budget our assembly turned out to be. So let's get started:

Case: Thermaltake Core V1 - 3,764 rubles.
PSU: As good as the Thermaltake Smart DPS G 750W is, it's too luxurious for small file storage. In the future, I plan to put Chieftec HPS-350NS there - 1560 rubles.
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-J1800N-D2H - 4436 rubles.
RAM: Transcend SO-DIMM 2Gb DDR-III 1333Mhz x 2 - 3040 rubles.
Cooling: TITAN DC FAN (80 mm, 2000 rpm) x 2 - 404 rubles.
USB drive: 300 rubles.

Total: 13,504 rubles.

Windows Server is the worst home NAS solution

Even if you haven’t seen *nixes, even if the command line makes you shudder, even if the “windows” seem familiar and inspire a sense of security, do not try to raise a Windows-based personal file storage. Why? I will tell in the course of this material. But first, let's deal with the installation.

We will install Windows Server 2008 r2, of course, from a USB flash drive. To create a bootable drive, you can refer to the following instructions, or use the Windows USB / DVD Download Tool, which is also recommended on the official Microsoft blog. The same can be done using Rufus, which, moreover, will be able to check the memory for broken blocks (one or two passes will be enough), or install in Windows To Go mode, which will allow you to run the OS directly from the device.

However, the latter option is not the best idea, given the operating system and the disk space required for it, so let's make a regular bootable USB flash drive.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SoftwareProtectionPlatform\Activation\Manual

However, let's move on. And the first thing to do is to set up autologin, since the NAS will still be on the home network, and entering a password every time is too tedious. We go to “Start” –> “Run”, and drive in the command control userpasswords2.

Selecting the “Administrators” group, uncheck the box “Require username and password”, save the selection.

If you plan to release your home NAS to the Internet, you can additionally configure an IP filter:

Make sure LM Server is in automatic startup mode:

Also, don't forget to set a static address for our machine in the adapter's properties:

Where 192.168.1.250 is the IP address of the NAS. Or use the built-in Remote Desktop Connection utility in Windows.

You can proceed directly to raising the file server. Open "Roles" -> "Add roles" in the manager.

After the welcome window of the wizard, a list of available ones will appear. We are interested in “File Services”:

In the next window, check the box next to “File Server Services Manager”, if you wish, you can enable the “Windows Search Service”.

In “Storage Monitoring” we mark our “Data” section:

Here, by clicking the “Parameters” button, we configure volume monitoring. For convenience, you can add reports on duplicates and large files.

In the “Report Options” set the path for storing records:

If you have connected Windows Search, select the indexing of the “Data” volume:

Let's add a threshold value of 85% and set the notification method:

As a result, we get:

After clicking the “Create” button, the system will offer to save the settings to a template. Subsequently, this will allow us to apply similar rules to other folders in one click.

For the new quota to appear in the list, you must reconfigure the filter. Click on the link of the same name and select the values \u200b\u200b“All”:

Now the new quota is also visible on the main screen:

The template contains almost all the most common formats, but you can always add new ones in the appropriate section:

By clicking on “Change template properties”, we get to the settings menu.

Here, by clicking the “Change” button, you can call up the section for adding new extensions and removing existing ones, as well as familiarize yourself with the pre-installed ones:

It remains to make our folder available over the network. To do this, go to “Start” –> “Administrative Tools” –> “Computer Management” –> “Shared Folders” –> “Shared Resources” and create a new one. Then just follow the prompts of the wizard. First, specify the path to the folder:

In the next step, set its parameters (you can leave it by default):

Set up access permissions. For the local network, you can open access to everyone, for the Internet - leave only administrators:

Access denied - everything works fine.

Then we click on each volume in turn, choosing “Add Mirror” from the menu. All partitions will be “reflected” on the second disk and resynchronization will begin:

Speaking of speed, let's evaluate the performance of the array in real conditions. Here's what happened when I transferred the Rammstein discography to a network folder:

Not bad at all, but it can be really better, which NAS4Free will help us to make sure of. Free and undemanding to resources, the operating system is optimal for home NAS and is able to work with the ZFS file system, where disk mirroring is implemented much more reasonably and reliably. In this case, the process of primary synchronization is absent in principle. That is why I recommend NAS4Free for organizing home file storage. However, we will talk about it in the next post, and now let's get down to the most interesting.

How smart is an intelligent power supply?

Nothing out of the ordinary - many companies ask for your E-mail for their newsletter. However, by entering my address, instead of a utility, I received:

Now let's finally download and install the application itself. Please note that its correct operation requires Microsoft .NET 4.5, Adobe Flash Player ActiveX, as well as the current version of Java. After launching, the utility will prompt you to log in to synchronize with SPM, which we will do.

The equipment is detected automatically (in earlier versions, the serial number had to be entered manually). After successful authorization, the following window will appear:

You should not be afraid - the program wants to determine your coordinates for display on an interactive map (about it - a little later), but positioning can be turned off.

Now let's see what, in fact, the application offers us. The range includes a whole set of scanners that allow you to control the following parameters:

Total voltage and voltage for each of the connected lines;
Voltage on the central processor and video card;
current strength;
Total power.

Using round arrows, you can turn on the graph mode that displays changes in real time:

There is also a PSU temperature sensor, where you can choose the units of measurement to your liking:

The Thermaltake Smart DPS G 750W fan control is also available in the DPS App. In the “Performance” mode, the unit will select the optimal speed, practically equalizing the temperature of the power supply components with the ambient temperature. The “Zero fan” option allows you to turn off the fan altogether - although the power supply itself is extremely quiet, if your household is not used to the lulling sounds of a working server, this feature will help make the NAS almost silent. Given the economy of our system, active cooling may not be needed at all. If the temperature exceeds the critical 80°C, the PSU will automatically switch to intensive mode.

The “Record” tab provides much more interesting features. Here you can download reports on the operation of the power supply by date in CSV format.

Readings are taken at intervals of one minute. The table records all the parameters displayed on the indicators - very convenient for assessing the effectiveness of the system.

However, let's digress from the application (we have analyzed all the available functionality, with the exception of backlight control, which this model is not equipped with), and see what opportunities the SPM cloud platform offers. But first, let's go to “My Account” –> “Settings”:

Let's go to the "My uploads" tab. Reports generated by the application are loaded here.

The most interesting is the “Analysis” tab. Having chosen a PSU (and the platform allows you to add an unlimited number of devices), we get to this page:

The “Electricity Analysis” tab will tell you how suitable the PSU is for file storage:

As expected, we were able to put together a home NAS with power consumption comparable to that of an ordinary household light bulb.

The last tab allows you to create an energy saving plan based on the selected parameters. Here you can also set up notifications for the mobile version of the application:

In addition, Smart Power Management allows you to remotely manage the power of a computer or server. All the necessary tools are presented in the Remote section.

It is possible to completely de-energize or reboot the system (do not be alarmed, the corresponding signal will be sent to the motherboard), as well as schedule a scheduled shutdown:

The most useful feature is the notification of a fan stop or overheating of the unit over 60 ° C, after which you can immediately turn off the system, preventing the home NAS PSU from failing.

Instead of a conclusion

Summarize. We've found that using Windows on a home NAS is time consuming, expensive, and extremely inconvenient. Excessive gluttony, the length of setup, updating and resynchronization, finally, bugs and the need to purchase a license - all this makes “windows” perhaps the worst solution for file storage. Therefore, in the next post I will talk about what NAS4Free is and what it is eaten with.