|  | September 05, 2017
Choosing the right DC-DC PSU August 27, 2015
AMD's Project Quantum August 13, 2015
The Redstone PC is the ultimate Mini-ITX Minecraft Machine October 09, 2014
The "Restomod TV" April 09, 2013
Installing NAS4Free February 28, 2013
Building an XBMC 12 Home Theatre PC January 25, 2011
XBMC Guide updated to version 10.0 August 06, 2010
Building a Green PC February 15, 2010
Building an ION powered HTPC with XBMC October 10, 2008
The "Cambridge Autonomous Underwater Vehicle 2008" |
| | | | September 12, 2008
"Florian", the DVD burning robot September 05, 2008
The "i-EPIA" May 22, 2008
The "GTA-PC" April 14, 2007
The "Digg" Case January 19, 2007
The "ITX-Laptop" December 07, 2006
The "Tortoise Beetle" October 02, 2006
The "DOS Head Unit" August 31, 2006
The "Janus Project" August 05, 2006
The "Leela PC" June 26, 2006
Nano-ITX in a Football May 17, 2006
The "EPIA Alloy Mod" April 11, 2006
Neatorama's Collection of Case Mods February 18, 2006
The "Rundfunker" October 24, 2005
The "ITX TV" October 06, 2005
The K'nex-ITX August 05, 2005
The "Waffle Iron PC" July 21, 2005
The "Supra-Server" July 18, 2005
The "Mega-ITX" July 07, 2005
The "Encyclomedia" May 25, 2005
The "Accordion ITX" |
| | | | May 16, 2005
The "FileServerRouterSwitch" May 15, 2005
The "Mini Falcon" May 13, 2005
The "Bender PC" May 11, 2005
The "BBC ITX B" May 10, 2005
The "Frame" April 20, 2005
The "Jeannie" March 09, 2005
The "Cool Cube" January 30, 2005
First Nano-ITX Project? January 17, 2005
The "iGrill" January 15, 2005
The "Gumball PC" December 15, 2004
The "Deco Box" December 03, 2004
The "TERA-ITX" October 06, 2004
The "Coealacanth-PC" September 17, 2004
The "Gramaphone-ITX-HD" August 26, 2004
The "C1541 Disk Drive ITX" August 25, 2004
The "SEGA-ITX" August 13, 2004
The "Quiet Cubid" August 06, 2004
The "BMWPC" July 14, 2004
The "Moo Cow Moo" July 02, 2004
The "Mini Mesh Box" Full alphabetical archive on right hand side of page... |
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Installing NAS4Free
Introduction
With so many of our memories and purchases existing only in the digital realm, having a reliable method of storing them is essential. This guide will help you to install NAS4Free - free software which provides several methods of protecting your data by mirroring it across multiple disks.
What does NAS mean?
NAS stands for Network-Attached Storage, or put another way, "Files on your network".
Files become accessible in a number of ways:
- From a Windows, MAC or Linux PC.
- From a DNLA client like Smart-TV or Smart-Phone.
Why NAS4Free?
There are several alternatives to NAS4Free. The ones most often refered to are FreeNAS and OpenFiler. These all provide a simple and flexible way to protect your data.
| NAS4Free |
FreeNAS |
OpenFiler |
| Based on FreeBSD |
Based on FreeBSD |
Based on Linux |
| Scalable requirements |
Version 8 requires at least 4GB (preferably at least 6GB) RAM |
Scalable requirements |
| UFS, ZFS Filesystems |
UFS, ZFS Filesystems |
EXT3, JFS and XFS |
| Install to disk or USB memory stick |
Install to disk or USB memory stick |
Install to disk or RAID set |
Currently we consider NAS4Free to be the most straightforward and scalable solution. We're also big fans of ZFS, which isn't going to arrive on OpenFiler any time soon due to licencing issues. Scalability makes NAS4Free a good choice for Mini-ITX systems, which can vary from low power consumption Atoms up to powerful Core i7 and Xeon based systems.
This guide concentrates on the software installation and not the myriad of hardware possibilities - contact the Mini-ITX Online Store if you have specific requirements.
Disk Portability
The main benefit of a software-based storage system are disk portability. Let's say that you have a traditional storage device and it becomes faulty. Your data is still on your disk-drives but you cannot access it because the NAS unit is dead. Perhaps it's been several years since you bought the unit and support is no-longer available. Your data could well remain inaccessible.
With NAS4Free you would re-install the software onto completely different hardware, connect your disks and PRESTO your data is back!
Your disks should also be accessible from any other FreeBSD-based system, including FreeNAS.
Should I choose UFS or ZFS?
NAS4Free supports 2 different data-protecting filesystems, UFS and ZFS. The mimimum requirements for a UFS-based system are extremely low. If you have a more powerful machine you could install a ZFS-based system with data de-duplication and compression.
Features and Requirements of UFS and ZFS
| |
UFS |
ZFS |
Supported
Raid Types |
Stripe (RAID0)
Mirror (RAID1)
RAID3 |
Stripe (RAID0)
Mirror (RAID1)
RAIDZ1 (RAID5-like)
RAIDZ2 (RAID6-like)
RAIDZ3 (RAID6+) |
| Minimum Hardware |
Any recent 32-bit or 64-bit processor
A 512MB USB stick or other flash device |
| Memory |
Minimum of 512MB of memory |
64-bit processor recommended
Minimum of 1GB of memory
At least 4GB if using advanced features like snapshots and compression. At least 8GB and a fast processor for de-duping. |
This guide would not have been possible without the hard work of the good people at the NAS4Free project.
Please consider donating to the NAS4Free project!
Start here -->
*Advert* Boards and Chassis suitable for NAS4Free! *Advert*
In stock at the Mini-ITX.com Online Store. We serve the UK, Europe, USA and beyond. Order before 7.00PM GMT and we'll ship same day! |
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