DCAudioDIY.com
http://dcaudiodiy.com/phpBB3/

FreeNAS
http://dcaudiodiy.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1538
Page 3 of 7

Author:  Grover Gardner [ January 21st, 2020, 10:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: FreeNAS

Well, now I'm listening to the Digione Signature again and can't tear myself away. Dave, do yourself a favor and check out these new Allo offerings.

Author:  David McGown [ January 22nd, 2020, 2:05 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: FreeNAS

Grover,

It is on my to-do list. I have to work on getting a reliable network infrastructure to support streaming. Just setup up a range extender as a wireless bridge/access point in my listening room. I have ethernet from the wireless bridge to the DigiOne. I want to setup a repeater (probably later this afternoon) and then add a NAS off the same repeater as the DigiOne so I have ethernet instead of wireless between the two.

I have a problem where the wireless network seems to just shutdown and I lose connectivity. Probably a channel issue I am running into, there is so much 2.8 GHz wireless clutter in my neighborhood. I see my neighbor's access points almost as strong as mine. I have 5 GHz running on a clear channel, but range issues can cause occasional drops. I am trying to get to a place where data is running through ethernet, and wireless control is running off the local access point (i.e. on the same range extender as the repeater is plugged into). If I continue to have problems, it is time to start running wire (a pain to do).

David

Author:  Grover Gardner [ January 22nd, 2020, 2:29 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: FreeNAS

David McGown wrote:
Grover,

It is on my to-do list. I have to work on getting a reliable network infrastructure to support streaming. Just setup up a range extender as a wireless bridge/access point in my listening room. I have ethernet from the wireless bridge to the DigiOne. I want to setup a repeater (probably later this afternoon) and then add a NAS off the same repeater as the DigiOne so I have ethernet instead of wireless between the two.

I have a problem where the wireless network seems to just shutdown and I lose connectivity. Probably a channel issue I am running into, there is so much 2.8 GHz wireless clutter in my neighborhood. I see my neighbor's access points almost as strong as mine. I have 5 GHz running on a clear channel, but range issues can cause occasional drops. I am trying to get to a place where data is running through ethernet, and wireless control is running off the local access point (i.e. on the same range extender as the repeater is plugged into). If I continue to have problems, it is time to start running wire (a pain to do).

David


Dave, one thing you might want to try is what I've done with Jim. Get a pair of AC ethernet adapters, one near your main router and one in the listening room. This gives you a solid wired connection. Then in the listening room, add a little Netgear GS105 or something similar so all the connections are locally handled by the switch and not going through the AC wiring. The Netgear is a good-sounding little switch (no comments necessary, please). You can connect the NAS and Allo to the switch. The only trick with the powerline adapters is that they need to go directly into a wall plug, and they have to be on the same circuit in the house. You'll know right away if they don't sync.

I use a few in my house for my daughter's computer and Apple TV and she never has a glitch.

https://www.amazon.com/Comtrend-Powerli ... 04&sr=8-10

https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Ethernet ... 568&sr=8-2

Of course Tidal or other streaming service will come through the wall connection, but the Netgear will give you some isolation.

Author:  David McGown [ January 27th, 2020, 11:19 am ]
Post subject:  Re: FreeNAS

Grover,

The AC ethernet adapters did the trick, worked immediately after setting them up when I tested them. Not to say that I did not continue to have some problems getting my DigiOne to work in ethernet mode with Volumio, it kept connecting via wireless. After a day or so of hand-wringing, I found the ethernet port on my RPI3B was bad, a victim of an overly territorial and analog loving cat, my first DigiOne with the same RPI got hit a few weeks ago, which destroyed the DigiOne (I bought a replacement, though considered a DigiOne Signature at the time, but was not ready to commit to the upgrade). The RPI seemed to survive, but apparently the ethernet port did not. So it is now working with a spare (good) RPI3B board.

I wasted a good amount of time over the weekend trying to get OpenMediaVault running on an RPI4-4GB, I seemed to have a bad SD card which set me back on a couple of attempts. Also, it appears it wants to be setup with blank media, rather than plugging in a preexisting data drive. That does makes sense, since it needs to have the drives setup properly for volume management, so need to look towards getting a couple of new drives (SSDs) with enough capacity for my music library + growth space. Right now have a WD MyCloudEX2Ultra with 4 TB spinners, which has a pretty weak CPU compared with an RPI4 and limited memory (not to mention a closed system). But it is working for now, particularly once the network issues were finally resolved.

Sorry for the long story, but thanks again for the tip on the powerline ethernet adapters.

David

Author:  Grover Gardner [ January 27th, 2020, 11:41 am ]
Post subject:  Re: FreeNAS

Not too long at all! :-). Glad you got the ethernet set up. And yes, OMV will need clean drives to format and set up. Keep me posted!

Author:  Roscoe Primrose [ January 27th, 2020, 1:50 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: FreeNAS

Which Ethernet over ac adapters have people had good luck with? Could solve some problems with Dad’s daphile setup.

Author:  Grover Gardner [ January 27th, 2020, 1:55 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: FreeNAS

The ones I linked to for Dave, above, work fine. They also have a security feature if you need that. The ones I'm using at home aren't made anymore.

Author:  Roscoe Primrose [ January 27th, 2020, 2:49 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Free

Cogito wrote:
Jim G wrote:
Is there an advantage to these over say a Synology NAS for music? They appear to be roughly in the same price range.


There are two parts to a NAS:
RAID system and OS which supports network presentation of file system. FreeNAS is an customized OS which supports former. RAID, the core of NAS is best done by a “mature” RAID controller. Companies like Synology and Qnap develop their own hardware and OS, so they operate trouble free mostly. To build a NAS server at home with FreeNAS , you need to take care of hardware. A good RAID controller from companies like LSI, Dell, HP costs about $300-$600. Typically the PCs include $15 RAID controllers.

Unless you are technically saavy like Roscoe,I would recommend against building a FreeNAS system. You don’t want to loose all your song collection because the the Silliness of the cheap hardware that comes with consumer PCs. A server class computer costs about 10 times more than a similarly configured PC.


With FreeNAS you DON’T want a raid controller, you need to let freeNAS handle the RAID. You do need a PC with ECC RAM, raid will protect you from drive errors, but won’t do anything if a bit gets flipped in RAM... There are a lot of server-class motherboards that will fit in a standard PC chassis, the rest of the system can be built from standard PC hardware.

Roscoe

Author:  Cogito [ January 27th, 2020, 4:15 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: FreeNAS

Any software RAID is not recommended if one is looking for reliability.

Consider the situation of power outage or power surge while writing to the disks. With Software RAID, entire system dies with the power. Any unwritten data which is the OS cache is lost for ever. At the time of power outage he discs in the RAID are likely not synchronized which causes problems next time the RAID partition is accessed.

All good RAID controllers come with battery backup. And RAID controllers also have a decent amount of cache. The result is, the OS does not hold the "unwritten" data it the cache. OS just pushes the data to the RAID controller which holds the data in its cache and employs "write back" mechanism. Ie. the RAID controllers determines which and how to write to the disc, not the Operating System. All software RAIDs employ "write thru" mechanics, which means, the data needs to be dumped to disc immediately.

Anyway, to summarize the advantages of RAID controllers:
1. RAID COntrollers are specialized smart creatures which know how to manage the disks and the RAIDs.
2. In case of heavy writing activity, unwritten data is stored in the RAID controller cache and the OS proceeds forward. The effect is , much faster I/O is seen by the system.
3. In case of power surges/outrages, the unwritten data in the RAID controllers is preserved for 48-72 hours. As soon as the RAID system is powered on, the RAID Controllers completes the pending write job thus protecting the integrity of the data.
5. RAID Controllers allow hot-swaps, that the failed or failing disk can be replaced while the system is running.
6. RAID controllers allow for hot-spares, ie. a spare drive which comes on line automatically and takes the place of a failed drive.

Author:  Pelliott321 [ January 27th, 2020, 4:25 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: FreeNAS

I have a UPS no my routers, NAS, main switch. Routers are rebooted every 24 hours automatically.
NAS cannot see the internet and go to sleep after midnight, wake up at 6am..

Page 3 of 7 All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group
https://www.phpbb.com/