Scratch Build – In Progress Project Green Serenity. June 9th. OS overview added

This is awesome data, can't wait to find out the final choice of OS

 

Cheers, it's taken a LONG time to collect it all, lol

It's also important to note that all tests were done with a single drive and so performance may vary in a proper setup, for example unRAID will probably be slower in writing as it would calculate parity but could be speeded up by using a cache drive.

 

i have just bought this board and i was going to use ubuntu server but i will be intrested on what u choose

 

Here's how I see each OS:

WHS:
Pros:
Windows based.
Integrates well with Windows clients
Allows for easy system backup and restores
Streams well to other devices inc xbox 360

Cons:
V1 performed poorly during testing. - I have done further investigation into this and it seems users of WHS have got them to work, but I tried the same resolution and had no joy
OS runs from hdd
fairly expensive - about £75

Server 2008 R2:
Pros:
Performed well in testing
integrates wel in windows setup

Cons:
very expensive - £300+
OS runs from hdd
setup not as straight forward as other solutions
Not specifically designed to run as a NAS OS
Doesn't have web config ability, so not able to run completely headless

Ubuntu 10.04 x64:
Pros:
Performed well in testing
Free
Major distro and so should have plenty of support

Cons:
setup not as straight forward as other solutions
Not specifically designed to run as a NAS OS
Doesn't have web config ability, so not able to run completely headless out of the box (iirc you can add this on with additional packages however)

unRAID 4.5.4:
Pros:
Very fast in testing
Easy setup
Very nice data redundancy solution
Appears to be many addons available
Appears forums are well staffed and so support is available
OS runs from USB memory

Cons:
some additional config not as easy as other solutions
not free - approx £47
might need to purchase additional software such as twonky server

FreeNAS 0.7.1:
Pros:
Easy setup
Free
Very nice web interface
Extensions seem fairly straight forward to install
OS runs from USB memory

Cons:
Performed poorly in second round of testing
Data redundancy not as good a solution as unRAID (debatable I know but imo) - ZFS sounds great but is listed as experimental for FreeNAS
Doesnt appear to be great at streaming to xbox 360

BETAS:
WHS V2:
Pros:
Performed reasonbly well in testing
Integrates well with Windows clients
Allows for easy system backup and restores
Streams well to other devices inc xbox 360

Cons:
Likely to cost similar amount to V1
Currently beta, release date unknown

FreeNAS 0.7.2
Pros:
Performed reasonably well in testing
Easy setup
Free
Very nice web interface
Extensions seem fairly straight forward to install

Cons:
Data redundancy not as good a solution as unRAID (see above)
Currently beta, next stable release unknown (but likely soon I think)
Doesnt appear to be great at streaming to xbox 360

I think i'm going to go with either unRAID or FreeNAS, haven't decided which yet though. I'm going to have to have more of a play before I choose.

 

Ubuntu 10.04 have u tried installing webmin on top of ubuntu as it gives u a nice web interface. but not sure if works with 10.04 but i know it works with 9.10

 

I didn't install it no as i'd prefer something that's designed more with being used specifically as a NAS OS.

Obviously you can tweak Linux, stop any unnecessary things from running, get the web admin tools installed etc but after all of that you'll probably end up with something similar to FreeNAS anyway.

But Ubuntu did do VERY well in the testing

 

So are u going to use freenas then I take it?

 

I still can't decide.

I'm going to have to look at what addons FreeNAS and unRAID use I think to make a decision

 

so what did u pick in the end also hows the case building going

 

Sorry for the lack of updates.

In the end I went with unRAID, the ability to just drop in a drive and gain it's full capacity without having to upgrade any other drives or start messing about with pools was perfect for me.

I still haven't started a new case build, i've seen a Lian Li that would fit the project well so I may just go with that.

Alternatively i'm also thinking about upgrading the board to something that supports more sata ports so I can increase the size of the system without having to use the IDE channel to a PCI sata card, maybe something with PCI express ports