Building my own NAS... possibly. Just need a chassis.

[mike503]

TL;DR - Looking for a chassis like Synology uses for their 12 bay models (see picture at link below)

Verbose:

I am a current Synology user, I like them... but would like to change some basic things.

a) their processors aren't very beefy. I like CrashPlan to run and it eats resources (Java, millions of files to monitor)
b) I want to run ZFS. It's native on Ubuntu (very easily) nowadays. I don't like their stripped down version of Linux and limited package selection
c) speaking of packages - I don't want my NAS to have a bunch of packages for SMTP servers and all this other stuff. I would say "I just want my NAS to store stuff" but I might decide to use this NAS as an actual Linux server too, but that is *secondary*

Primary focus is simple, ZFS action in the most compact chassis possible.

Other than their pseudo-proprietary Linux build and web UI / tooling, their biggest value proposition for an empty chassis is the chassis itself. That's the main question I am looking to ask, is if anyone knows of a 10-12 disk (or so) chassis that is basically as small as 12 drives can be stacked like a Synology unit.

See picture here:
https://www.synology.com/en-us/products/overview/DS2413+

For my build, I would put in 12 data disks, a beefier CPU and more RAM than the SOHO Synology units support, and put a barebones Ubuntu + ZFS setup on it. ZFS has built-in share support for CIFS and NFS, and Ubuntu itself has enough sharing options if I didn't want to use the built-ins. I could put the boot volume on an SSD internally, or even a SD card. Not too worried about that.

Need to figure out the backplane situation (if a chassis exists out there maybe it already has one?) and would look at using a Mini-ITX board (which just by eyeballing it looks like what they use in the Synology)

I've built some DIY NAS systems in the past, but the chassis has been the holy grail. It's so much more portable and simple than a full-tower with a bunch of 5-in-3 conversion bays (been there done that)

At the end of the day, I don't really use much of the Synology value adds - I don't really need their support, I don't need their package center, I just need a solid data storage unit + a way to back it up to a secondary place (my choice is the cloud, using CrashPlan since it's the only "set it and forget it" unlimited solution for Linux that I know of still... praying for Backblaze to get a Linux client going)

Anyone know of any places with these kind of chassis? I'm surprised there isn't just ONE I can find out there.

 

[mike503]

Promising - optimized for mini-itx, but only 8 bay. Not horribly expensive.
http://www.u-nas.com/xcart/product.php?productid=17617&cat=249&page=1

http://www.fractal-design.com/home/product/cases/discontinued-products/array-r2-mini-itx-nas-case
discontinued :/ 6 bays in a small chassis.

http://www.fractal-design.com/home/product/cases/node-series/node-804
8 bays + 2 possible extra
(not including the 2x SSD for boot)

someone else asked same question, more or less
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1760102

Silverstone DS380B is 8 bays

just found this place. finally a more boutique store
http://www.caselabs-store.com/pc-cases/

 

[easp]

When I was looking for a 4-drive storage oriented enclosure I wasn't too happy with the available options. I ended up with a Norco S4-ITX, which isn't bad, but isn't great.

UNas and iStar USA were the options I identified for a larger NAS.

I found that starting with Google image search results was a better way to find what I was looking for than the standard text-based results.

 

[mike503]

Where at on the iStar site?
http://www.istarusa.com/trayless/jbodtratlesschassis.php are all extension chassis, using eSATA I'm assuming for all

Seems like they only have rackmount chassis, or some expansion ones that are "desktop" (non rack) format. Rackmounts usually have more cost markup + take up more room than what I am looking for. I know I can always go crazy with rackmount options.

So far the best I can find anywhere is an 8 bay that is roughly a "no space wasted" option. Not sure why nobody out there has produced anything close to the synology 12 bay. It's 12 bays, all hot-swap, and has enough room behind the front disk trays for a mobo + PSU. piece of cake, it seems!

 

[aigomorla]

personally id go with the silverstone case.
however u dont really swap out drives in a NAS.

its a nice feature to have when your drive fails and u need to swap them out.
however id think you'd be more worried about data when drive fails then swaping out a drive.

I would probably select the case which has the most vents, and a direct fan to all the drives, more so then hotswap case.

 

[easp]

Yeah, I've not seen anything like that Synology. It looks like my memory is fuzzy. The biggest compact iStar case I find is only 5 bay: http://www.istarusa.com/istarusa/product_speclist.php?series=Tower&sub=MINI-ITX

Beyond that its stuffing in conversion bays into too-deep cases.

At one point I was considering building my own case.

Good luck in your quest! It really seems like there should be better options.

 

[mike503]

Yeah hot swap wouldn't be a priority. Seems like the hardest thing is finding a chassis like the synology and then a backplane like it too.

I don't feel like taking out the mobo and using the skeleton out of my existing ones... They cost like $1500. I would be spending another 500+ on a new proc/mobo/RAM

 

[aigomorla]

Yeah hot swap wouldn't be a priority. Seems like the hardest thing is finding a chassis like the synology and then a backplane like it too.

I don't feel like taking out the mobo and using the skeleton out of my existing ones... They cost like $1500. I would be spending another 500+ on a new proc/mobo/RAM

Norco has cases which are somewhat simular, but fairly large.
They were meant for a full sized ATX, but has the backplane i think your looking for.

Othrewise just go for the silverstone one.

those are probably the closest u'll get to a synology type case.

 

[ethebubbeth]

I have an earlier revision of the U-NAS 8 drive case and it's quite good. The two 120mm fans in the back provide excellent airflow for the drives. I just outgrew it and got a 24 drive Norco.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I heard bad things about the Norcos, like bad backplanes and lot of DOAs and needing to buy lot of extra accessories that make it end up more expensive. Though if you end up with one with no DOA issues it is a good bang for the buck.

I ended up getting the Supermicro version. This or very similar model:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-124-_-Product

Not exactly cheap though... by the time all was said and done it cost me 3k. a bit over 1k for motherboard/cpu/ram (wanted ECC ram so went Xeon route, you could probably cut cost by going Atom) then another grand for the controller cards. You can get some that have SAS expanders built in though so you don't need so many controller cards, I think it was not available at the time I built mine though.

These are probably the closest thing you'll get to enterprise storage without paying the enterprise 5 figure price. As they keep making hard drives with larger capacities I don't see myself needing to buy another one in a very very long time.

It seems they don't have anything in between for cheaper though. I actually wanted like 10 bays when I bought mine but per bay this ended up being a cheaper route, and I ended up practically filling it anyway. I'm at about 19TB right now. 2 raid 10 arrays and 1 raid 5 (old array with 1TB drives)