Looking for a lightweight file server OS.

[onething]

TL;DR
Hardware: dual core, 2GB RAM, 10TB worth of drives
OS Objective: File server, bittorrent sync, (open)VPN, run off of USB
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I've got this weak but power efficient board with a dual core, only 2GB of RAM and plenty of SATA ports.
In addition to being a file server, it needs to be able to run bittorrent sync and work with a VPN service.

FreeNAS looks great, but ZFS requires a ridiculous amount of RAM; requirements I don't meet. I have 10TB of storage and only 2GB RAM.

I currently use SnapRAID as my backup solution for data, but that requires a more complete OS.

It would be ideal if the suggested OS can run off of USB only, freeing up a SATA port.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

unRAID is probably your best best. It isn't free, but for your very particular requirements, it's probably worth the money. unRAID runs off a thumb drive, and has plugins for OpenVPN Client and / or Server, as well as the SickBeard Torrent client. unRAID also works on the same file-based parity solution that SnapRAID uses (though in a slightly different manner).

It isn't a fast system, but that's inherent with most file-based parity systems. Since you already appear happy with the performance of your SnapRAID system, you'll be equally happy with an unRAID implementation.

 

[John Connor]

Filezilla and Puppy Linux?

 

[TheRyuu]

TL;DR
FreeNAS looks great, but ZFS requires a ridiculous amount of RAM; requirements I don't meet. I have 10TB of storage and only 2GB RAM.

You may still be able to use ZFS with deduplication disabled. Also see here[1] for some general ZFS tips.

[1] http://nex7.blogspot.ch/2013/03/readme1st.html

 

[haggggler]

Another vote for UnRAID...

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Any linux distro without a GUI will be pretty lightweight. (My DNS server is just an Ubuntu VM with 256MB of RAM, for instance.)

RAM use is more dependent on what applications or DE you're using.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

You may still be able to use ZFS with deduplication disabled. Also see here[1] for some general ZFS tips.

[1] http://nex7.blogspot.ch/2013/03/readme1st.html

You can definitely use FreeNAS on systems as low as 1GB of memory. However, pre-fetching will be disabled, and other tunings, as already noted, will be needed. The performance on such a crippled system means that unless you really want the file management features of ZFS, there are equally well-performing systems that are a little more simple-user friendly. Additionally, for many home users, a file-based parity system (that retains access to surviving files in the event of large failures), may be beneficial.