Build Your Own Atom-based NAS

[tazdevil]

TIm, I also built one of these last week with 1gb of ram, 120gb 2.5" OS disk, and 2x1TB Seagate hard drives mirrored using mdadm with Ubuntu Server 8.04. I used a mini case to mount all the hardware in and used a dual port PCI 1GB Intel Pro nic, running in bonded mode with load balancing, this little thing flys. I would like to see your next series as I have been using Ubuntu for a desktop and like it, but if the performance gain is enough, I will flip the linux distro to something else.

Please keep up the great work, I enjoy reading the articles, and the information.

Tazdevil [article link]

 

[Muunsyr]

Hi Tim and all,

This is just the sort of article I was after atm. I have been messing around with Ubuntu server/FreeNAS for a couple of weeks now on a dual core AMD - but this is just a test until I get my hands on something like the atom board you have used here. For me, the big benefit for a (relatively) low powered DIY NAS is the ability to add support for extra services as I see fit. Initially it will be 'squeezecenter' for my squeezebox, and remote file downloading (which of course can already be done with many other commercial NAS's).

Of course, part of the reason I want a NAS at all is for somewhere safe and accessible for my files, which is perhaps a good reason not to be adding services - none the less it is something that I feel is worthwhile.

Just my two cents - and a big thanks for the site, it has been a great help and I imagine it will continue to do so. Keep up the good work!

-Muunsyr

 

[Unregistered]

great article

i currently own a DNS-323 & i am very happy with it. in the future i am planning to build a simular NAS box to replace my dns 323 because i need a "security camera server" to go along with all the things i can do with my dns 323.(file, media, & print serve) i will probibly have to run xp on my system to ensure compatability with the horrible linksys camera recording software.

if there is any way to run the recording software on the dns i would go that route, but i doubt that would be possible.

keep up the good work, i love this site!

 

[Unregistered]

About ACPI / watchdog

Thanks for this interesting article.
Currently I struggle with a (bigger) NAS setup built on linux. I need it to be fast and reliable, but the thing is guzzling over 100W when up and idle (micro ATX board and lots of discs.)

So I am using suspend-to-ram + wol, and network services come around under 5 secs. With a squeezebox appliance for example this is very useable. When sleeping, the NAS rates at 13W according to my kill-a-watt, for me thats good enough.
Problem is, ACPI support and specifically suspend to ram, is quite difficult to obtain under linux (never tested w/ BSD.) I tested with 4 boards until I found one able to suspend, wake-up, reboot or shutdown reliably. So if you could give us info on the state of ACPI compatibility in your reports, I would appreciate that.

The last board I tested with has a nicety: a hardware watchdog. I think this is an important feature for a NAS. Linux has a software watchdog, but a hardware one is better. I discovered the hw watchdog on that board when linux auto-loaded a module which blocked the software watchdog module... So can you mention the presence of a watchdog on the boards you are testing ?

Keep up the good work.
PS: too lazy to register this time. next time, I promise.

 

[gremlin190]

Tweaking freenas

I've installed freenas and have it running on a shuttle sg31g2 with a celeron 420 and 1 gb of ram. On the third page of your part 1 article, you enabled large read/writes, but you didn't change the send/recieve buffer size. On my nas I have these set to 65536 and constantly get 55MB/s writes and 65MB/s read with Vista sp1 running gigabit with jumbo frames

 

[gremlin190]

forgot to add I am running raid 5

forgot to add I am running raid 5

 

[js.opdebeeck]

Hello ,

Really good article, but Webmin hides your current settings .

I'm a bit curious about your /etc/fstab and your /etc/samba/smb.conf values.

I'll be also interested from Linux to Linux bench (iozone works well) , in Samba ... but also with NFS .

----


You can tune a bit Ubuntu and Samba :

* System

Set the 'noatime' or 'relatime' mount options in the /etc/fstab file. Look for the 'defaults' section and add 'defaults,noatime'.

/dev/md0 /mnt/raidarr/public ext3 defaults,noatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1


Sudo and edit /etc/init.d/rc file, look for CONCURRENCY=none and change it to:
CONCURRENCY=shell

Can help to improve boot and some Dual-Core processing.

* Samba :

The default SAMBA setup has terrible defaults!
Edit /etc/samba/smb.conf and find the line 'socket options'
Change the line to read:

socket options = TCP_NODELAY IPTOS_LOWDELAY SO_RCVBUF=8192 SO_SNDBUF=8192

From a terminal line execute:

sudo /etc/init.d/samba restart


Read that just as comments. Just take care of it in future test if you want .

Nota ... ghost is a bit old ... use acronis . It really rocks and can be used on USB stick too.

Thanks again for all.

Kind regards

Js

 

[thiggins]

On the third page of your part 1 article, you enabled large read/writes, but you didn't change the send/recieve buffer size.

Sorry, didn't realize that the two were related. I'll have to go back and check that out.

 

[thiggins]

Thanks for the comments, js. Yes, Webmin isn't great at showing the current settings for everything. But it sure is easier for newbies and occasional Linux users!

I didn't make any changes manually to /etc/fstab or /etc/samba/smb.conf.
I did a quick check of the smb.conf and found socket options = TCP_NODELAY

I'll try out your suggestions soon, but probably when I switch to a platform that doesn't have the PCI gigabit Ethernet limit.

 

[Unregistered]

low power atom chipsets are available

Looks like 12W atom systems are on the way. I also saw Marvell released samples of 1.5GHz "Sheeva" ARM SOCs for NAS. No embedded graphics, but very low power. I would expect to see new products in 6 months, and low prices in a year. I still like the Marvell solution better as it should theoretically have a much higher hardware reliability (less components & less power means more reliability).

http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9047&Itemid=35
http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/embedded/SCHUS15W/index.htm

http://www.marvell.com/products/media/index.jsp

fyi

 

[kevinherring]

Tim, great article, it's just what I have been after. It really does amaze me that intel can produce such a great little CPU and then tie it with such a beast of a chipset!

Anyway, I have been toying with the idea of using one of the EEE boxes for a similar job. The advantage is that they are much smaller and have a built in 1Gbps ethernet, but of course they are quite a bit more expensive. I would then add one of those lovely 500GB Samsung 2.5" drives (no room for raid here!).

I would be interested in seeing some performance and power benchmarks on one of those things.
Kevin

 

[thiggins]

I have been toying with the idea of using one of the EEE boxes for a similar job.

You mean the little notebooks? I thought of that, but, as you said they are an expensive way to go, handle only one drive and will be limited by drive performance.

 

[tazdevil]

Other Mini ITX Products

There are lots of Mini ITX Boards for different CPU's (C7, Atom, Socket 775, AMD AM2+, and different slot configurations, and they range in price, and feature sets as well). I have on order the following Intel Board DG45FC, (http://www.intel.com/Products/Desktop/Motherboards/DG45FC/DG45FC-overview.htm) with a Chenbro ES34069 (http://usa.chenbro.com/corporatesite/products_detail.php?serno=100) to build a 4 drive RAID5 NAS. The draw back is the board only supports PCIe 1x, so I will be doing some testing, then looking at the possibility of a highpoint rocket raid 2300 currently (4port PCIe 1x) unless I find something better for PCIe 1x.

 

[thiggins]

There are lots of Mini ITX Boards for different CPU's (C7, Atom, Socket 775, AMD AM2+, and different slot configurations, and they range in price, and feature sets as well). I have on order the following Intel Board DG45FC

Yep, there are. But this article was just looking at the Atom.

The DG45FC is not exactly an inexpensive board. And is the Atom available as a standalone CPU?

 

[tazdevil]

Dual Core Atom's

The Dual core Atom CPU boards are out with their cpus for about $20.00 more, averaging around $99CDN for the board and CPU (dual core atom).

 

[thiggins]

The Dual core Atom CPU boards are out with their cpus for about $20.00 more, averaging around $99CDN for the board and CPU (dual core atom).

Can you provide some links to these boards?

 

[jdabbs]

I was curious too (the 330 hasn't officially been released yet), so I went looking.

Provantage says they have a dual-core Atom board in stock.

From what I gather, Intel's offering is just the addition of a dual-core CPU: no new chipset enhancements or features.

 

[tazdevil]

Dualcore Atom Link

All, below is the link I came accross for the dual core atom link.

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=33303&vpn=BOXD945GCLF2&manufacture=Intel

Tazdevil.

 

[thiggins]

All, below is the link I came accross for the dual core atom link.

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=33303&vpn=BOXD945GCLF2&manufacture=Intel

Tazdevil.

Thanks. Looks like the same board, but with different CPU.

 

[thiggins]

Thanks. Looks like the same board, but with different CPU.

Looks like a completely different board, without CPU. Spec says Form Factor is ATX ?!