Setup for NAS + Transmission

[rocktheroad]

I know that Transmission is not yet supported in 8.* release, but I've read roadmap and I am more scared about upgrade from 7.* to 8.1 when Transmission will be included, than of trying to use Transmission with 8. I understood that Jailing Transmission is better approach, but I have very vague understanding what kind of virtualization is that.

I bought server where I can fit 5 drives for NAS purposes and to have server who will be doing boring tasks in backgrounds (Torrents, SABnazd, etc...).

First noobish idea I had is to install FreeNAS on one HDD (which is really small anyway), and have RAIDz on remaining 4 drives. That way I could use that HDD as staging zone for torrents which will be moved later to Raidz. I would have only one HDD spinning most of the time, and RAIDz would be spinned down. I have no idea how RAIDz works, but I think that all disk will be awaken whenever data from volume is accessed. I don't like idea of having larger USB stick taking heavy Torrent writes, making it useless after a while.

Then I've read somewhere that boot volume is locked to 2GB, having filesystem which is proprietary rendering rest of HDD unusable. So my question is how to setup disks/USB flash for build I am targeting?

I know it is steep learning curve, I don't expect whole tutorial as answer. Just a advice how to start. I am worried that I can hit the wall later, having to repartition and rebuild array with data all over it.

Thanks.

[Stenull]

Hi!
I found this litle guide [HOW TO]: Freenas 8 with Transmission (newbie guide)
Don't know the consequences when updating to 8.1 though.

[rocktheroad]

Thanks, I saw that tutorial... I am not just sure what is the best practice. I found some tutorial which refer to more options for installing FreeNAS. There was option to install on USB Stick, USB and separate Data and Swap and install on HDD with Data and Swap partitions. In latest version I had just one choice, and I have installed it on HDD, so I am not sure is it best for my needs.

[rocktheroad]

I came up with build that gives results:

1) USB Flash for booting.
2) ZFS volume on small HDD for jail and services (torrents, flexget etc..)
3) ZFS raidz volume for storage

I managed to create jail, and install transmission and it works. Everything runs on small HDD and idea is to transfer completed torrents to storage on completion.