Binarymist

Add Disks:

What I did, was add a disk at a time (one each week, and stressed it for the entire week).
This way the wear on the disk should be staggered and we are less likely to have all drives fail at the same time.
Once I’d physically added all disks (ended up adding 4 x WD7500AACS for now).

Follow directions here.
This set of directions is also useful: http://freenas.org/contrib/sloan/freenas1.htm
I used software RAID 5.
I was keen to setup a raid-z using ZFS, but it’s still only an experiemental release.
Plus when I install the new RAID card, I’ll have to rebuild the array anyway, and by then, hopefully ZFS will be production ready (thanks to Olivier Cochard-Labbé and iXsystems).
Each disk I added I chose to set the Hard disk standby time to 60 minutes.
Turned the S.M.A.R.T. monitoring on.
Chose Unformated for the Preformatted file system for each disk I added as they were new disks.

Format Disks:

Format each of the disks for Software RAID.
Again following directions here

Create the software RAID array:

While the RAID is building you can continue to the next step.
It took about 12 hrs to build the array.

Format the software RAID array:

Format the array as UFS (GPT and Soft Updates).
This is BSD’s native file system.

Create the mount point:

Partition type set to GPT partition.
File system set to UFS.
Called my Share Name “FileServer”.
This will mount the array on /mnt/FileServer

Add the groups and users in the Web GUI

Access|Users:

groups:

family, sons-name, my-name, wifes-name

users:

guest:
—Primary group
——guest
—Additional group
——none
—Other settings as default.
——enter passwords.
sons-name:
—Primary group
——sons-name
—Additional group
——family
—Other settings as default.
——enter passwords.
my-name:
—Primary group
——my-name
—Additional group
——family, wheel (wheel is like admin in windows)
—Other settings as default.
——enter passwords.
——enable bash Shell so I can ssh
wifes-name:
—Primary group
——wifes-name
—other settings same as sons-name

Enable SSH in web gui:

Services|SSH

Login to the file server and create the directories you will be sharing:

You can do this via the Web GUI (Advanced|File Manager (make sure you login as admin)) or just SSH to the shell.
I find going directly to the shell easier.

ssh [your user name]@<hostname>
Create the directories (family, media, etc) I want to share and set appropriate ownership and permissions.
I set my ownerships and perms up the same as my existing file server. I also had these recorded in a text document.

Enable CIFS/SMB In the Settings:

Authentication set to Local User.
Local Master Browser set to Yes.
Time server set to No, as I have another server doing the honors.
In Auxilary parameters, I added some of the params I used in a smb.conf file from my existing file server.
Some of these parameters in the global section.

Create the smb shares on top of FileServer (family, media, etc).
As is stated in this thread:

Set permissions in the following places:

Disk mount point, set file/directory creation masks, override inheritable permissions option in the CIFS/SMB share itself.
The creation masks I used from a smb.conf I already had setup on another file server (mouse).
These go into Auxiliary parameters on each share.

Setup Email alerts on disk failure and disk heat:

This is done in Disks|Management|S.M.A.R.T.
Heat on each of my first 3 disks Only gets to around 30 tops (in summer (room temp 24 deg c)). The bottle kneck is the 100Mb port on the switch. This only allows 100Mb total to/from the file server.
So the disks never really get a chance to heat up at this stage.
The last (4th) disk I added was getting to around 33 deg c, as it wasn’t sitting behind a fan. So I added an old 80/20mm fan I had, and stuck it in front of it, now the drive runs cooler than all the others.
Enable self monitoring.
Set Check interval to 300 (5 min).
Power mode Standby. I only want the disks checked if they are spining).
Temperature monitoring
Difference set to 5 deg c
Informal set to 33 deg c
Critical 36 deg c
Setup Scheduled self-tests in order to receive email alerts if a disk is offline.
If it’s off line I need to add another disk and re-build the array.
Directions for replacing a failed hard drive here.
Add each disk and select all hours, all days, all months, all week days and choose Offline Immediate Test.
Set the email address you want alearts to be sent to and select the Send TEST warning email on startup until your happy you have it all set up correctly.
You’ll also need to setup the email settings in System|Advanced|Email
The From email is the same as the email recipient.
If using gmail…
Outgoing mail server: smtp.googlemail.com
Port: 465
Security SSL
Username: this will be your email address.
Enter password.
Authentication method: Login
Save and Send test email.
Then back in Disks|Management|S.M.A.R.T.
Save and Restart samba.

Tested this configuration over a week.
Disks never seemed to spin down.
According to Diagnostics|Information|Disks (ATA)
APM (Advanced Power Management) is not supported on my disks (WD750AACS)
In which case there is no point in setting the Advanced Power Management or Acoustic level on Disks|Management|Disk|Edit for each disk.