Move to Amahi from WHS2011?

[ari]

I'm considering moving from Windows Home Server 2011 to Amahi. I'm curious if this is the path I want to take for my home server, and I have a couple questions:

• Does Greyhole spin up ALL the disks when a file is requested, or just the ONE disk that the file is on?
• Is there a problem with using Flexraid on Amahi 7 instead of Greyhole?
• Does the server need to be on 24/7 or can it sleep at night (when I sleep)?
• WRT the above, does the Amahi NEED to be the DNS server on the network? What if it sleeps at night? (I have a PfSense firewall appliance I think that I'd rather have as the DNS server)

Thanks for any help that might point me one way or another,
Ari

[bigfoot65]

There is guidance in the wiki to answer some of these questions.

http://www.greyhole.net/

https://wiki.amahi.org/index.php/FlexRAID

https://github.com/gboudreau/Greyhole/w ... ateFromWHS

The FAQ on the web site should provide clarification for others.

https://www.amahi.org/faq#is-dhcp-server-required

Hope that helps.

[ari]

Thank you for posting the reply - it's great to see the community is active (+1 if I'm considering Amahi).
I actually previously read the posts you linked to, perhaps I'll expand on the questions:

1) The Amahi wiki page about Flexraid does have some instructions, but it says that they "have become outdated or irrelevant...[and are]...recommended only for advanced users, proceed with caution".
This concerned me enough to post the question here in the forum. Is running FlexRaid on Amahi going to be a problem?
If not, I'd be happy to try it out and to update the wiki. However, I'm not an advanced user (haven't used Amahi before and am coming from Windows) and I don't want to waste time fiddling around with something to get it to work. (If that's the case I'll stick with what I'm running now)

2) I ask about the whether the server needs to be on 24/7 especially as there is the recommendation for the DNS and caching server. None of my clients will be using the internet connection at night... So hopefully if the Amahi appliance is sleeping, they just won't need DNS and DHCP?

3) I haven't seen anyone discuss whether Greyhole spins up all the disks when a file is requested, or just the disk that the file is on, though I've googled this etc. I'd, of course, prefer that it didn't and so saves power as well as extending drive life-span (like FlexRaid does).

Thank you again for any help with the above!
Ari

[bigfoot65]

Is running FlexRaid on Amahi going to be a problem?
If not, I'd be happy to try it out and to update the wiki.

Quite honestly I never used it. The guidance may be close, just has not been tested on Amahi 7. Like everything else, you have to try it to know for sure. If you are willing, recommend that's the first thing you do before spending hours getting your server set up to find out you hosed it.

So hopefully if the Amahi appliance is sleeping, they just won't need DNS and DHCP?

If you don't need connection, then it should be fine. Once it wakes up, clients can then get their DHCP lease from the HDA. This may take some testing to see if it will work as you expect.

I haven't seen anyone discuss whether Greyhole spins up all the disks when a file is requested, or just the disk that the file is on, though I've googled this etc.

Not sure if this question has ever been asked or answered before. If you access files directly on the HDA, change them, then it will most likely sense it and spin up the disks. I am no expert on this one, so you might try asking the Greyhole author. His web site should provide for this sort of questioning.

A lot of what you seek should be possible with Amahi. Unfortunately there is no guarantee it will meet you expectations without testing.