New FreeNAS server?

[b0redom]

Hi All,
I've got a LeNovo TS140 with a CPU E3-1225 in it. I'm running out of space, and rather than upgrade the drives to 10/12TB disks, I'm considering repurposing the TS140 and replacing the server with something with more SATA ports. Ideally I want a 'proper' server with a Xeon processor(s) of at least the same power (possibly more as I'd like the NAS to do other bits and bobs too).

Any recommendations? The server currently runs Plex and FreeNAS. I am hoping it will also run DHCP, DNS, Bitbucket, JIRA etc etc.

[peterb]

Any of the common Linux distributions will do all of the above - although it might take a bit of work to get it set up. FreeNas is a specific distro, which you can download and install on the platform of your choice.

The hardware recommendations are here http://www.freenas.org/hardware-requirements/

If you want to buy something ready built, Synology do quite an extensive range.

https://www.synology.com/en-uk

I run Fedora, which does Plex, Postfix/Dovecot (mail) Fileserviing (SAMBA) and in the past it has run Apache webserver (with php, MySql and wordpress)

It will do DNS and DHCP - but depending on how you operate DNS you may need a lot of resources if you intend operating a public service. I will run DHP, but I find it easier to let my VDSL router do DHCP and DNS redirection.

[b0redom]

Thanks for this Peter, but I was rather after hardware suggestions, I'll stick with FreeNAS and run DHCP and DNS in jails. I have previously had my router assign DHCP addresses, but the problem with doing that is that I have a few devices which I like to be able to have accessed via local DNS, and it's a pain having to pin the IP in one place and configure DNS for them in another.

So I guess my question is - is there something equivilant to the TS140 (ie a Xeon server) but with more SATA ports (8-12) which doesn't cost and arm and a leg and is at least as powerful as a Xeon e1225v3, or should I just stump up and buy new (larger) disks?

[DanceswithUnix]

At work I built a Ryzen 2600 box with a B350 motherboard, a pair of 4TB hard drives and 32GB of ECC ddr4. An off the shelf server is surprisingly expensive if you want a few cores on it.

Only downside so far is that the kvm virtual machine farm on it issues warnings in Fedora saying that it is an untested platform, but it works just fine.

The rack mount case we went for is horrible though, a tower case would have been better.

[peterb]

Thanks for this Peter, but I was rather after hardware suggestions, I'll stick with FreeNAS and run DHCP and DNS in jails. I have previously had my router assign DHCP addresses, but the problem with doing that is that I have a few devices which I like to be able to have accessed via local DNS, and it's a pain having to pin the IP in one place and configure DNS for them in another.

So I guess my question is - is there something equivilant to the TS140 (ie a Xeon server) but with more SATA ports (8-12) which doesn't cost and arm and a leg and is at least as powerful as a Xeon e1225v3, or should I just stump up and buy new (larger) disks?

Well, the Synology boxes that I mentioned earlier - this has more than enough expansion for home use

https://www.ebuyer.com/788397-synolo...RoCc1sQAvD_BwE

There are lower cost Synology ioptions

https://www.ebuyer.com/search?q=synology

This has fewer bays, but lower cost

https://www.ebuyer.com/785973-synolo...am-ds1817-8gb-

Plus the cost of the disks of course.

[scaryjim]

If you want a minimum of 8 drive bays on a prebuilt Xeon tower server you're looking at around £1000 upwards: https://www.ebuyer.com/store/Servers...rice+ascending

The lower level of that search gives you the Xeon 1220 v6, which is Kaby Lake 4C/4T @ 3.0 - 3.5GHz: that should be practically identical performance to the 1225v3 (Haswell 4C/4T @ 3.2 - 3.6GHz). Go up to the Xeon Silver 4110 server and you hit Skylake 8C/16T @ 2.1 - 3.0GHz ... that's a hell of a lot more CPU.