Whenever I think about building a system, there comes a point where I doubt whether I need it or not, or if there are better things I could be doing with those funds. I hit that point last week as I was spec’ing it out in more detail on Newegg. First of all, there are other things I could do with the money than buy another computer. Like, save for retirement, or …buy food. I was able to quell such thought with the following rationalization: It will help me in my job. In building this system, I will undoubtedly learn something that will come in handy, maybe in a job interview! Also, this specific system would be used in making backups, which could potentially save money and frustration in the long term.
But now I’m torn between building this one and building a Linux workstation. To make this decision harder, FreeNAS is on the verge of a fairly large update, which will include many new features, including full ZFS support. Ideally, I would like to wait for this update, rather than using what is current now, and having to upgrade, potentially having to start over. I have read up on ZFS, but its benefits over what I was going to use did not jump out me. So I call upon our faithful readers to help me out here. What are the biggest benefits to waiting for ZFS? Performance? Redundancy? Nerd cred?
Note: From what I could gather, ZFS is included by not fully supported, correct? This system is going to be in a “production” environment, and I would rather wait for the big update than take my chances now.
I still need to do a post about NASes, RAID schemes, and other associated technologies. Maybe you guys can give a blurb about ZFS?
One more thing to consider. I found out today that our house is in a “High-Risk Flood Zone.” Two years ago, my entire street flooded, and most of the houses in the neighborhood were damaged. While I would rather not get flooded, my data is far more valuable to me than my hardware, especially when I have insurance. So this thing takes a slightly highter priority than the linux workstation. And it’s going upstairs.
My co-workers re joking me about my basement flooding. I am already thinking about how to design the network in order to survive a flood. Sounds like a good post!