Need advice on Raid and FreeNas

[Jim Freeze]

On 7/19/06, pete wright <nomadlogic at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 7/19/06, Jim Freeze <jim at freeze.org> wrote:
> > Hi
> >
> > I am setting up a file server for a small office (10 computers).
> > My first attempt at this I used FreeNas. It was easy to setup
> > and I like that the system is dedicated.
> >
> > One downside of this method is that the write times are slower
> > than I expected. I am using SATA2 drives w/ 8MB buffer on a
> > 100MB network, but the write times I was getting was about
> > 2.5GB per hour. I expected 5 GB in ten minutes.
> >
> a better metric for us would be network throughput and disk I/O over a
> shorter period, like kilobit's per sec.

Well, if I do the math, 5GB/3600 =  1356 KB/sec.
A 100MB/s network has a maximum thruput of 12800KB/sec.

So, I am getting 10% of the available BW.

> > The mother board I am using has a built in raid controller, but
> > I have never read about anyone having warm fuzzies using
> > a built in raid card.
> >
> hmm...actually the oposite is generally true.  what motherboard are
> you using, and what is the RAID controller chipset?

Opposite of what?
I don't have the specs in front of me, but one is a 945? Intel and the
other is a AMD. I'll have to get the specs.

> > I assume I could use a hardware raid with FreeNas and have
> > it setup the CIFS and NFS systems. It is also nice to
> > be able to boot from a USB drive.
> >
> > Another downside is that it is not easy to build and install scripts
> > onto a FreeNas system.
> >
>
> I'd hit the FreeNAS list regarding questions about scripting and configuration.

I've been down that road, but have not been able to dig up an active
list. The bb system seems rather sparse. Do you have a link for me to
an active mailing list?


-- 
Jim Freeze