Anonymous
Unregistered | Dear Enlightenment,
Can you give me some names of NAS software, so I can use an old PC as NAS?
I only know FreeNAS, but that still seems to be a Beta version.
Thanks in advance,
Rob.
|
Enlightenment
Administrator
 108 posts | Hi Rob,
Besides FreeNAS there is OpenFiler, which is based on Linux instead. FreeNAS and OpenFiler are two completely different projects though; OpenFiler is much less user friendly but has more features.
It all depends on your wishes. If you are knowledgeable you could run a 'real' FreeBSD too. I suspect however that you do not have much UNIX-knowledge, then FreeNAS might be best suited to you. Version 0.68 is labeled 'stable', though it is somewhat outdated. You could use that version though.
Beware of upgrading though, only upgrade to stable versions. When upgrading to beta's, you can loose your software RAID mountpoints. Before upgrading you really should have a backup of your important data.
Good luck! Take control of the input and you shall become master of the output. |
rob040
Member
8 posts | | Posted on 13 August 2007 @ 12:06 | edited 20 Aug |  |
Hi Enlightenment,
Thanks for your quick response. No, I have indeed not much (non at all) experience/knowledge of Unix. Disadvantage is that my old PC does not go into sleep mode. I read a lot on the internet and came to the conclusion that FreeNAS does not support this function on my Compaq Deskpro EN with PIII 866MHz processor. Tried with the onboard NIC and a 3C905C-TXM card, but without luck.
As I am (for the moment) only interested in a backup NAS, maybe I can concider just do it with Win XP.
Saw that you are 'queen of raid', so you are way ahead of me.
I will have a look at OpenFiler, just to know where you are talking about.
Cheers.
B.t.w., do you want to stick to the English language, or can we also enter your site in Dutch? |
Enlightenment
Administrator
108 posts | I think you might find OpenFiler too difficult. FreeNAS is much more 'click click and it works'. Sleep mode might not work, but spindown might work with a recent version of FreeNAS. Have you tried FreeNAS? Do you like it?
I decided this site to be English-oriented to reach a broad audience, but i guess i'll make a Dutch-language forum too in the near future. Officially i haven't launched my site yet, since i have not finished the site code yet (yes i coded everything - forum, CMS, etc). If you prefer to write in dutch you can use email instead, info )at( fluffles .dot. net. Take control of the input and you shall become master of the output. |
rob040
Member
8 posts | | Posted on 13 August 2007 @ 21:39 | edited 14 Aug | |
Yes, I have played with FreeNAS and its very easy to install and use it. Only reason to look for another program was that sleep-mode was not working properly.
You might be right by saying that OpenFiler is too difficult for me. I think I won't try it out to save a lot of time  .
Other thing that crossed my mind is to go for new hardware that also can make me 'future proof'. But I am still considering that. Could be that I need some help from you (if you want to) to check if the hardware is working close together with FreeNAS (sleep mode).
English is OK for me, just wanted to be sure. |
Enlightenment
Administrator
108 posts | Do you want your FreeNAS box to go into sleep mode (so that it does not respond to network requests) or are you talking about the disks who can spindown to save energy? The latter option works in FreeNAS with a few tweaks. Take control of the input and you shall become master of the output. |
rob040
Unregistered | I thought that were two different things. In my opinion there are systems (modern PC's) that are able to go into a stand-by mode (spin down the disks, but also shutdown the power supply) and startup again on a network (WOL) or keyboard/mouse request).
In that case, the power supply only needs to give a 5V or 12V voltage that only takes a few milli Amps. The fans also can stop, so no noise, no pollution and again no energy needed.
In my case the NAS box is not in use for most of the day, but is in a separate room on another floor.
Now the HDD's are spinning down, I could set that in the BIOS and they are for sure starting on a keyboard/mouse action. Not sure if they also do on LAN requests. I was more focussed on the powerdown.
Am I wrong with my assumption? |
Enlightenment
Administrator
108 posts | Ah yes, then you would need a motherboard with Wake On LAN function (and have it enabled in the BIOS!). Whether you use FreeNAS or other software doesn't matter; this is a BIOS feature. You do ofcourse have to shutdown your NAS yourself, or maybe FreeNAS offers some auto-shutdown after x minutes of inactivity but i'm not aware of that.
But the WOL-function should work if properly supported by your motherboard. Same goes for wake-on-keyboard etc. Look at your BIOS' power functions. Take control of the input and you shall become master of the output. |
rob040
Member
8 posts | That's exactly the problem, I do not want to switch off the NAS by myself, I want FreeNAS (or any other software) to do that. But I understand now that its not possible. Is that also impossible with new or other hardware?
If I remember well, there is a field in FreeNAS where I could fill in after howmany idle-minutes the system should go into sleepmode. But maybe that was only to spindown the HDD's.
I did uninstall FreeNAS for the moment, I will try to find it later, just to understand it. |
Enlightenment
Administrator
108 posts | You want to shutdown after x minutes of inactivity? You can ofcourse, shutdown via the web-interface so no physical computer access is required. You might want to file a feature request to also shutdown the whole computer after x minutes of inactivity, though i think not many people would use such a feature and it might not be implemented soon or at all. Take control of the input and you shall become master of the output. |
rob040
Member
8 posts | | Posted on 15 August 2007 @ 09:59 | edited 16 Aug | |
Funny, because I understood in other forums that many people want to save as much energy as possible when they are not using their NAS or PC. Some of them are willing to wait for a few seconds so the HDD can spinup again. That is nearly the same as a wakeup, that will also take some time.
Can you explain how I can let the PC go into sleepmode (not shutdown) via the webinterface? Or is that also a BIOS option in newer motherboards? Any thoughts? |
Enlightenment
Administrator
108 posts | I do not have experience with that, but the waking would also have to be done via WOL (network), i doubt such a feature is convenient. For one, you would wake up your NAS from time to time because windows sends unnecessary network packages to your NAS. Also, it would not save so much energy. Only a real shutdown will provide real benefits.
If you're using an AMD processor and power efficient motherboard, you're not drawing much power to begin with. Your PSU has a minimum load of about 40W i think, so its impossible to get below that number. Overal i don't have a solution to your 'only-use-power-if-actually-used' request. Its a good idea, but currently not possible in a convenient matter.
Though with spindown you would save 10W per drive, which is quite significant if you have 6 or more disks. Take control of the input and you shall become master of the output. |
rob040
Member
8 posts | | Posted on 16 August 2007 @ 08:26 | edited 22:00 | |
Well, consuming 40W in "stand-by" is quite a lot. You can hardly call it 'green' nowadays. 
Windows has the feature I want, therefore I was hoping it was commen in most software and/or hardware.
Maybe I can do something with the spinning down of the HDD's, (use that as a trigger for a hardware sleepmode) so that might be a nice job for the winterperiod.
Thanks for your contribution and for sharing your thoughts, it was very helpful.  |
Enlightenment
Administrator
108 posts | Hm so what exactly do you expect?
You power on the NAS computer. You access files. If you do not access files for 30 minutes or so, it powers down automatically? Then how would you power it up again? Simply try to access the network share again or via special WOL-software ("magic packet")?
In both cases you have to wait a while until you can access your files. I'm trying to grasp your exact needs, how you expect it to work. I see possibilities (like cron-jobs) but also problems. Windows sends keep-alive packets to your NAS computer, how would your NAS know when it's time to shutdown?
And yes 40W is not nothing, but its not a lot. Even when using it 24/7 you pay about 52 euro a year, or little more than 4 euro a month. But i agree that it would be great if equipment used only power when actually used. Idle power drain should be close to 0W. Currently though, that's utopia.  Take control of the input and you shall become master of the output. |
rob040
Member
8 posts | | Posted on 20 August 2007 @ 14:36 | edited 14:36 | |
Enlightenment wrote: Hm so what exactly do you expect?
You power on the NAS computer. You access files. If you do not access files for 30 minutes or so, it powers down automatically? Then how would you power it up again? Simply try to access the network share again or via special WOL-software ("magic packet")?
Yes, that is the idea. Only... how to startup is a big questionmark. I do not have a clou what the possibilities are. Are you aware of such a software packet? I was thinking of hardware solutions...
Enlightenment wrote: In both cases you have to wait a while until you can access your files.
That is no problem.
Enlightenment wrote: I'm trying to grasp your exact needs, how you expect it to work. I see possibilities (like cron-jobs) but also problems. Windows sends keep-alive packets to your NAS computer, how would your NAS know when it's time to shutdown?
Yes, I noticed that Windows is sending data (I have also a NAS from Argosy which startsup now and then). But the Argosy is very slow and not reliable.
But I turn-off my PC when it is not in use (nights and when I am not at home). So, the NAS-PC may go into sleepmode when I am not using my PC with Windows.
And I would like to enter the NAS device when I am somewhere else. But that is not the biggest problem, I guess. |
Enlightenment
Administrator
108 posts | Well a power on could be done with a "Magic Packet" -- a special packet sent to a powered down PC on the LAN. The Network Adapter recognises this magic packet and sends a wakeup-signal via the Wake On LAN-cable (WOL). The system will then powerup. You will have to use a little program that can send these magic packets to computers in your network.
I never played with this, though. But what you say is possible, but might need some work to actually work. You would need WOL-support for your network, and configure the NAS software to 'detect' when your Samba network shares aren't used for up to x minutes and then signal the system to shut down. This could be done with a cronjob. You might have to search the web a little more if you're serious with this feature. I wouldn't know how to implement it myself -- but i'm sure it's possible. Take control of the input and you shall become master of the output. |
rob040
Member
8 posts | Yes, I am serious. So, I will investigate what the possiblities are and try it out. Give me some time, I will report back if I found a (or the) solution. Thanks again... |
Enlightenment
Administrator
108 posts | Ok. I'd like to hear from your experiences, be sure to keep to me posted!  Take control of the input and you shall become master of the output. |
angel
Unregistered | Excellent discussion - I will be referencing & following this discussion. Thank you Enlightenment. |
chang-li
Member
2 posts | Another NAS to try - http://cryptonas.org/
lot's of potential. |
