I need some advice...

[texmedic49]

All,

I'm contemplating installing Amahi and running it at home. I'd like to use it as a server, but am debating as to whether or not I need to use a different platform such as FreeNAS (or something similar) to put a NAS box into service. I've spent a good deal of time reading about Amahi's capabilities, so maybe I'm not understanding what I've been reading.

A little background on what I'm trying to accomplish:

1. I'd like to have the capacity to store pretty much any and all files (pictures, videos, ripped movies, etc.) that my family generates, and make them accessible via the server.

2. I'd like to put up a homepage for my family, as well as a calendar.

2. I am involved in a fairly large project with a large amount of data. Think approx 3-4TB in total. I'd like to make this data accessible over a VPN (or something similar)for collaboration between approximately 7-8 persons spread throughout the US.

3. Redundancy is a must-have requirement for the data, hence my leaning toward a NAS box.

I'm gaming out hardware requirements right now, hence this post. I'd like to run this by the folks that have used Amahi, as to prevent throwing money at a problem unnecessarily.

Do I NEED another platform?

Cheers!

[reezin68]

You would have no problems running what you require with Amahi. There is also plenty of help available on the forums & Wiki.

1- Amahi has the ability to store all file types (pics,video,backups,etc...)

2- There are many apps that will accomplish these tasks for you.Just check-out the app store.
2a- Amahi includes a pre-configured OpenVPN server and IPsec VPN as one-click install all you need is the client app for your OS,and your good to go.

3-With Amahi you can have as much redundancy as you want.As long as you have the hard-drive space to accommodate the extra copies.As a copy of X file will be duplicated on another hard-drive. I personally have my most important data set to 2 copies.With the whole server backed up externally else where. But keep in mind that if you have 2TB's of data you want redundancy for you'll need 2TB's extra for the copies too so...But adding more storage to your pool is a breeze.You can also use different size hard drives to make up your drive pool.

I started off my new build with a Asrock N3700 Pentium Quad-Core 8GB's or ram and it ran flawlessly.But one mobo bonked out on me and I just sold the replacement a couple of weeks ago. I'm now will be using a Supermicro J1900 mini-itx X10SBA-O with 8GB's or RAM.(haven't set it up as of yet). This mobo has some features that I think I can take advantage of.Plus I got it for a great price .

So you don't need all that much firepower to run Amahi well.Where as with something like Freenas the more RAM the more sufficiently it seems to run.Freenas is a good OS & ZFS is an excellent file system but it has it's faults too. Just to name a few. Storage expansion isn't what it should be IMO. And recovery of a RAIDZ data can be tricky. If you go the Freenas route do your research. I love Amahi because it has always just worked for me. And I can run pretty much whatever app/service I might need,for a home server.

Sorry to be so long-winded but give Amahi a try I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

[texmedic49]

You would have no problems running what you require with Amahi. There is also plenty of help available on the forums & Wiki.

And for that I am very thankful! When I get this going, you can bet you'll see posts from me.

2- There are many apps that will accomplish these tasks for you.Just check-out the app store.
2a- Amahi includes a pre-configured OpenVPN server and IPsec VPN as one-click install all you need is the client app for your OS,and your good to go.

This was one of the things that caught my attention about Amahi. My only concern is that one of my guys is running a Mac, and isn't terribly computer literate (read: Luddite). I haven't researched that part thoroughly yet, so please forgive my ignorance. I figured we can get him up and running after I get this off the ground, and that there is probably an easy way that will make itself known.

3-With Amahi you can have as much redundancy as you want.As long as you have the hard-drive space to accommodate the extra copies.As a copy of X file will be duplicated on another hard-drive. I personally have my most important data set to 2 copies.With the whole server backed up externally else where. But keep in mind that if you have 2TB's of data you want redundancy for you'll need 2TB's extra for the copies too so...But adding more storage to your pool is a breeze.You can also use different size hard drives to make up your drive pool.

I've never set up a RAID array, but am familiar with the way they work. I should have written something in my initial post about RAID 5, as that is the direction that I think I want to go in. One of my collaborators is also thinking that this is the direction that we should go. I've read about Greyhole and what it's capable of. I'm comfortable with using it for the non-critical data, but having that much data strewn about so many disks makes me nervous, despite having multiple copies. I'm also worried that I'll run myself out of disk space in short order. This is going to be a massive amount of data.

I started off my new build with a Asrock N3700 Pentium Quad-Core 8GB's or ram and it ran flawlessly.But one mobo bonked out on me and I just sold the replacement a couple of weeks ago. I'm now will be using a Supermicro J1900 mini-itx X10SBA-O with 8GB's or RAM.(haven't set it up as of yet). This mobo has some features that I think I can take advantage of.Plus I got it for a great price .

So you don't need all that much firepower to run Amahi well.Where as with something like Freenas the more RAM the more sufficiently it seems to run.Freenas is a good OS & ZFS is an excellent file system but it has it's faults too. Just to name a few. Storage expansion isn't what it should be IMO. And recovery of a RAIDZ data can be tricky. If you go the Freenas route do your research. I love Amahi because it has always just worked for me. And I can run pretty much whatever app/service I might need,for a home server.

This is another plus for Amahi. I'm looking forward to having a family webpage, calendar and file server. I'm tired of looking through multiple places for something. My wife is also excited, as we can finally have a unified calendar. Too much stuff with work, school and 3 kids to keep track of. Gone are the days of hand-written calendars. I gave that up and rely on my phone.

One more thing that I also forgot to mention in my initial post was the fact that I'd like to keep the project data separate from everything else. I'd like to be able to pack the box up and take it on the road to dump data into it on site, as to avoid bandwidth caps that AT&T places on us. Is it possible to use Amahi as a headless NAS on the same network as another Amahi box that acts as the server? Maybe this was what I was getting at before, but couldn't verbalize it? If this IS indeed possible, I intend to use a refurbished desktop box as the server, and build a purpose-built NAS box.

Sorry to be so long-winded but give Amahi a try I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

I'm alright with long-winded, as long it says something.


edited to add: Might it be possible to set up a RAID array on a basic install of Ubuntu or Mint, and use that as a "dump" instead of using "NAS" software? That might actually be easier in the long run, no? I didn't think of that until just now. I guess I'm kinda thick like that...

[bt107]

I've been using Amahi for a few years now (since version 5, I think) as a basic home file server and media server. I started out with an old Pentium 4 and 3 160 GB drives (1 for OS, 2 for Greyhole pool). I'm now using an HP N36L Microserver with 4 drives (1 160GB for OS, 3 1TB drives for Greyhole pool). I set up the Greyhole pool to max copies of important stuff like documents, home videos and pictures, and maybe only one extra copy for things like music or TV shows. I have a mixture of Windows 10, 7, tablets, and a Mac that access the network. I also have two Rokus. I use Crashplan to backup selected data to cloud storage. Having said all that, Amahi isn't necessarily plug and play in that it all just works. Sometimes it takes a bit of tinkering to get everything just as you want it but there's a ton of help here on the forum and the Amahi wiki.

I have to say that I've been really pleased with Amahi over the years. This is just my opinion and like they say, it's worth what you've paid for it

[reezin68]

Double post.

[reezin68]

Personally,I don't have any Mac computer running on my network,but my nephew often comes over with his iPad and connects to the server just fine(to watch movies etc).Although bt107 does seem to have Mac's on his network so I'm thinking you should be fine.Also I like to chime in on what bt107 stated. I did not intend to sound as though Amahi is perfect in all aspects it can take some configuring(depending) to get things the way you want.But that's with any OS IMO.....

edited to add: Might it be possible to set up a RAID array on a basic install of Ubuntu or Mint, and use that as a "dump" instead of using "NAS" software? That might actually be easier in the long run, no? I didn't think of that until just now. I guess I'm kinda thick like that...

This sounds like a viable alternative too. Although you can run Amahi headless,moving it to a different locations would mean re-configuring the router(DHCP) or the server itself. And if your a guest in a hotel/or someone's house this isn't always possible. Raid-5 with whatever linux distro your comfortable with would fit your needs as far as mobility/redunancy without the worry of re-configuring anything. Look into Webmin to manage it. Then just use Amahi for your home uses. Snapraid also work really well for redundancy needs.