media server/storage setup

[jester1614]

I currently have a buffalo linkstation 3.0 terabyte. I download shows and use the unit as media storage and stream to my 2 ps3's and a few laptops in the house occasionally. I have completely run out of space, the linkstation is full as well as 2 laptop hard drives totaling 1.5 tb so I am looking into budget building a dedicated media box. I have no plans currently of this server being connected to the internet in the near future.

I recently got a Dell Poweredge 4600 server off of craigslist for cheap, currently it has 6 18 gig 10k rpm scsi hard drives set up in raid 0 giving me a whopping 118 gigs of storage. I plan on purchasing a sata raid controller for the computer as well as power cables and data cables. I plan on purchasing a bulk lot of 6 or 8 2-3 tb hard drives on ebay (same model hard drives) and running them in a raid 10 setup giving me 8-12 gigs of storage on top of the linkstation box.

currently the server runs windows server 2003, I am planning on installing windows 7 or linux Mint.

does anyone have any suggestions (parts or otherwise) and or see any potential issues with this setup?

server has a single xeon processor 1.8 gbps (probably will purchase a 2nd one) and 4 gigs of ram

thanks in advance

[SMR510]

I would buy some NAS drives like the WD reds or Seagate NAS drives rather than some random "bulk" drives. In fact you would be wise to mix and match drives to minimize the risk of getting a batch of manufacturing defects that can take out your server. At least order two separate batches of drives from different people or at different times to minimize the risk and make sure they are mixed between the RAID 1 pairs.

Remember RAID is not a backup it is redundancy, you will need somewhere to backup your whole server (or at least stuff you don't want to lose). I guess you could create two different arrays but then you are looking at getting 1/3 the capacity of the drives you buy at most, definately something to keep in mind.

I would also not go crazy with the storage on day 1, there is no reason not to buy 2 pairs of 3tb or 4tb disks and wait until you get 75% full to add another pair. Technology is only getting better and cheaper.

As far as OS, its a tough call on what is best. You will have to do some reading and see what you want to go with, they all have upsides and downsides and unfortunately its not exactly easy to switch down the road.

[jester1614]

I had read somewhere, that it is better to go with the same makes and models of drives, so that the seek times and such are the same, is this not correct?

[sholling]

That server should make for an interesting Edison bill .

Your desktop computer should be doing all of the ripping so unless you have a ton of users you probably won't need much in the way of processor power or RAM for a media server. In reality an i3 is plenty of processor and 2GB plenty of RAM for a pure media/home-file server, and FWIW I get by just fine with an obsolete but economical AMD e450 in mine. What matters is reliable storage and lots and lots and lots of it, backups, and a low enough power drain to make it affordable to run 7x365.

[GimpsUnlimited]

What Sholling said.

Dump that ancient Dell server with SCSI asap! I would not use that at a server room, let along your home. Not only is it loud, heavy, hot, and power hungry, it is unreliable. I remember those ultraSCSI HDD's failed on me monthly and I had to swap them out with new ones.

For what you do, try one of the consumer media servers. Synology comes to mind. I played with one years ago. Very easy to use. Not cheap, but their OS is very polished and runs fast & lean on minimal CPU/RAM.

I have been using a HP ProLiant MicroServer I built running Windows Homeserver 2011 for the past 5 years (used WHS 2008 before). It streams media to my PC, tablets, and hacked AppleTV's. And back up vital data from my PC to it. Very happy with it.

[Section 101]

What Sholling said.

Dump that ancient Dell server with SCSI asap! I would not use that at a server room, let along your home. Not only is it loud, heavy, hot, and power hungry, it is unreliable. I remember those ultraSCSI HDD's failed on me monthly and I had to swap them out with new ones.

For what you do, try one of the consumer media servers. Synology comes to mind. I played with one years ago. Very easy to use. Not cheap, but their OS is very polished and runs fast & lean on minimal CPU/RAM.

I have been using a HP ProLiant MicroServer I built running Windows Homeserver 2011 for the past 5 years (used WHS 2008 before). It streams media to my PC, tablets, and hacked AppleTV's. And back up vital data from my PC to it. Very happy with it.

Yep, used to have a big HP server. Went with the Microserver and windows 2012 essentials server. Running 4 sata 2 tb hard drives in raid 3, 2 SSD drives for the OS in a mirror. Small quiet and easier on the energy bill.

[the86d]

Opt for solar panels.

I didn't buy them, but pay lower electricity bills because of them, and can buy them at a depreciated rate in the future.

[stonith3901]

I think you might want to go Linux for your media storage. Would be wise to run RAID, but looking into LVM and ZFS or XFS.

I recently upgraded to Hitachi Deskstar 4TB drives, already had an existing software RAID and growing into the 4TB wasnt all that bad.

[locosway]

I run Linux on my old desktop which I stuck 5 HDD's in. Primary drive has the OS and temp storage, while the 4 drives are setup in RAID 5. I have a nightly backup that sends all my data except for my media offsite (I don't care to backup movies and TV shows).

The best part about using software RAID in Linux is you can change hardware later on and not have to rebuild your array. There's also a lot more flexibility with maintenance and upgrades from within the OS as well.

The downside is you may need to run some command line stuff, but it's nothing that Google can't help you with.

[glock 357]

Personally I went the custom route. 16 drives 2tb each. Running unraid. My LG TV's run off the plex client which lets me run my own personal netflix style library. I have a spare server chassis if interested check it out http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/s...d.php?t=890055

[blackandredwarrior]

I had read somewhere, that it is better to go with the same makes and models of drives, so that the seek times and such are the same, is this not correct?

Same make and model, but try to locate them in different batches. Bad batch and you hate life. It was funny in an IRC channel someone was telling this guy to be careful with a huge array. Short time later the guy with the big array got bit pretty hard. IIRC, there were over 100 drives purchased in a big lump.

[mavericksun]

I run a Qnap 420 with two pairs of HHD in RAID 1. Part of the reason for the Qnap is to auto backup my phone to the Qnap. I tried running Plex on it but the plex software was a bit dated and since it did not have much RAM and processing power, it was slow. I actually have an Intel NUC with an atom processor with an SSD on ubuntu that I run the plex server on it with the Qnap drives mounted. The qnap is not noisy at all. The NUC makes no noise since it doesn't even have a fan. Power consumption is very low for both compared to a full server. Noise is also a lot lower than a server.

[Excitable Boy]

I have two NAS type storage/media server devices on my network. One is a Buffalo Terrastation Live that is eight or nine years old and has been running the whole time. It was a whopping 2TB 4 drive box which was pretty good sized when it was new. It was 2TB unformatted with 500GB Samsung drives, but is about 1.3TB formatted for RAID5. RAID5 isn't the most efficient way to get the most storage out of your box, but in my experience is very good for Data integrity. I have had to replace one drive over the years and even though the box had to run for several days while I waited for the new drive, I never lost a file.

While the Buffalo has been reliable, it has always sort of sucked as a media server as it was only DLNA 1.1. I was concerned about it just getting old, wanted more storage and modern media server capabilities. After a lot of research, I found that building your own box is great if you need mega storage, or bragging rights and don't care about size, noise or energy consumption. It seems Synology and QNAP are the leaders in the performance/bang for the buck category these days.

I ended up with the new QNAP TS-451. I populated it with four Western Digital Red 3TB drives. That gives me 12TB unformatted, or just over 8TB formatted for RAID5. The media server performance seems good so far as does the backup performance. My Windows7 desktop backs up nicely as does my Macbook Pro via Time Machine. I have had some issues while burning in as I've either lost two drives either from a bad batch, or an issue with the QNAP, but still haven't lost a bit of data. I spent some time on the phone with both WD and QNAP tech support today.

I work in the home entertainment industry and know several guys that deploy QNAP NAS devices regurlarly and all report that while there's the occasional setup hiccup, once you get one dialed in, they run for years. If you buy one preconfigured with drives, you will pay more, but it's guaranteed to work. I chose to roll my own and will spend a little time sorting it out. The thing is only 6" x 7" x 9" and nearly silent. It consumes nearly no power. It runs on Linux and if you get at least the 4GB memory, it will run virtual machines as well as doing all it's other functions. The CPU is dual core Celeron running at 2.4GHZ, so with 4GB of SDRAM, for a home server running Linux, there's plenty of horsepower.

YMMV, but I can't see running a big old semi industrial server for this application with stuff like Synology and QNAP available.

[Dieter]

I had read somewhere, that it is better to go with the same makes and models of drives, so that the seek times and such are the same, is this not correct?

I would agree with this.

I recently upgraded to Hitachi Deskstar 4TB drives, already had an existing software RAID and growing into the 4TB wasnt all that bad.

My favorite hard drive. Have 27 of these in service, 2 x 3TB and 25 x 4TB, standard drives and some NAS, no enterprise class though. Have yet to have one go down.

[vikingm03]

+1 for linux. I have a low power ubuntu server in a closet with a tiny ssd for the OS and two 4-terabyte western digital drives that form a zfs pool. For those of you using hardware raid setups, it might be worth a glance at the stuff going on in zfs and btrfs land, software raid has some really neat advantages.