Installing The Operating System
We are choosing to use FreeNAS in our DIY NAS and the reasons for this are multiple. Firstly and most importantly FreeNAS is free which helps keep costs down allowing you to acquire better hardware for the same budget, instead of spending lots of money on an OS like Windows Server. Secondly, FreeNAS is incredibly compatible with a wide range of consumer hardware so is ideal for a DIY build where there are literally millions of possible hardware permutations you can choose from. Finally, FreeNAS is a well rounded NAS operating system with a complex and sophisticated range of features as well as great developer support and a huge community. To get started with FreeNAS you need to grab the latest USB image file from the downloads page here. I opted for the 64 bit FreeNAS USB image as the minimum requirement is 4GB of RAM which this system meets. Most users are also likely to upgrade from 4GB to 8GB or more RAM in the future so I definitely think 64 bit is the way to go in this instance.
The next thing you’ll want to do is grab a copy of Win32 Disk Imager from here and use it to write the USB image you downloaded from the step above. Ensure you extract the image file from its archive with something like WinRAR before you try and write the image file to your USB. Allow the program to write the image file to a blank USB stick, the program will notify you once the write procedure has been successfully completed.
With your image file written to your USB drive all you need to do now is plug the USB flash drive into one of the rear USB 2.0 ports on your NAS motherboard and ensure the boot priority is correctly set. By correctly set I mean that the first device the system should try and boot from should be the USB drive and you should use a standard boot protocol (aka do not select UEFI boot mode). Once you’ve set the correct BIOS boot priority the operating system sets its self up on the server end (aka on the NAS), though you will have to wait about 3-5 minutes before the system gets running and online. On the first set-up you should ensure you have a mouse, keyboard, ethernet cable and display connected so can ensure the system sets up okay and check which IP address it has assigned the FreeNAS client to so you can access it via the Web GUI on another system (using a web browser and the IP address provided). Once your FreeNAS is online for the first time you will only have to take it offline to conduct hardware level maintenance so you’re unlikely to need the mouse, keyboard and display again. However, it is recommended that you wait until you have everything configured and set up how you want it before you stow away your file server in a cupboard or under a table because you may need the mouse, keyboard and display to troubleshoot or optimise certain things, such as power settings in the BIOS. Once you have chosen your default password on the initial FreeNAS setup you will greeted with a page that looks something like this.
Forgive my ignorance, but what is the purpose of a NAS? We use cable broadband with WIFI in the house; all or computers have SSDs and/or HDDs. It appears a NAS is basically a local cloud storage system. My wife and I have three desktops, two laptops, two tablets (with WIFI only), and one smartphone. So what advantages would a home NAS offer that the “old fashioned” way lacks? I’m just looking to increase my fund of knowledge and know this is a great place to do so.
The benefit of a NAS is always on connectivity so any computer can access the data.
For example to get something from your main computer to another PC would require having your main computer on when the file is needed.
A NAS is designed for 24/7 access so you don’t have to go and switch a specific PC on for say a single file. Also, a NAS can be set up for low power consumption (as in this article) so it doesn’t run up a big electric bill.
Your typical PC will consume much more power as you wouldn’t throttle the CPU/GPU every time you boot up to share a file whereas a NAS would be set up for low power mode all the time.
My main PC uses around 150w just idling due to the fact it has a GPU, multiple fans, sound card, usb devices and a dvd drive. A NAS will have unnecessary devices disabled to save even more power.
Yes pretty much what Andy says below. It’s effectively a centralised form of storage that all computers can access, it doesn’t have to be “always on” but that’s normally the easiest way to make sure it is always accessible to everyone. The idea behind a NAS is that it is designed primarily for mediating access to storage but obviously there are a lot of things you can do with this storage. You can set up internet gateways so you can access it when you’re away from your home network, you could host a website off it, you could use it to stream music, films, TV shows, photos. You could use it as the destination for automated backups from your laptops/PCs in the house. The possibilities are as endless as your imagination really. In most cases people will just use it as somewhere to dump large files when their device is low on storage. E.g. I use a tablet with only 32GB of storage, really difficult for me to store films on it but it is really easy for me to stream films onto it from my NAS. Hope this helps.
Thank you, Gentleman. That was very enlightening. I can easily see advantages over our current system. Especially when I offload picks from our cameras and must upload to five computers just so they’ll be available when/if necessary. I’ve owned computers since the old TRS-80 and Commodore days and have been building them since 1991, but I’ve still not joined the 21st century as far as ease and practicality of connectivity; I bought my first cell phone from Walmart last February for $15 and have used it once. But a NAS, thanks to you guys, is something I’d like to do so I’m off to do some research. A new project with lots of benefits.
hey yall, welcome to the new century !!!
hey, good one, $220, a NAS with no NAS
NAS System.
Gents thanks for the great write-up. One question; what do you reckon, would the FM2A88M Extreme4+ mobo be a viable alternative to the one you recommended? My trouble is sourcing all of these from one (decent) place is nigh’ impossible in Australia, and the aforementioned mobo is available (altho it puts the price up a bit, there’s nothing in the price range of the other one)
Still a good option Steve. It has Gigabit LAN and 8 SATA ports so there’s plenty of room for expansion, you can have up to 8 drives with it. Remember that you could go even cheaper if you wanted to, it all depends on how many drives you need, for example you could use an AM1 motherboard if you only want to use 2 drives as most AM1 boards still have gigabit LAN. Best of luck!
thanks for that!
Hi i’m new at this where does the black cable from pso9b plug into the motherboard
for even less – sleek media center and expandable NAS – works great, super fast on over-clocked raspberry pi b+ http://www.ebay.com/itm/xbmc-Portable-Media-Center-Expandable-NAS-/171709257100?
40 Watts is quite high for a NAS setup. In Germany that would result in over 100$/year for electricity (running 24/7).