8x Hitachi 7K1000 File Server

[l0x]

My friend and I decided to build a File Server. Business is good and we want to treat ourselfs. We don't have a clue on where to start other than we need 2TB off the rip to get all our files off our main rigs. Seeing that the Hitachi 7k1000 is just around the corner we want to jump on those... 8 of them to be exact. Our source for them says we can get them at $345 a piece when out. We talked and we agree that Raid just won't fit out needs. Yet we want to hear from you File Server Experts what would be our best bet to help decrease the chance of Hard Drive failure and Data Corruption. HDD Diagnostic software? etc. Also speed is of no concern also.

The parts we already have:

Opteron 165
Never Used CM Stacker
76gig Raptor
Geforce 6600

What we believe we need to make this happen.

Controller Card
I have no clue on what card/s to get that would support 8TB worth of drives connected to it.
I have been having my eye on cards with ECC memory. Am I heading in the right direction?

Motherboard
Since we have scratched off raid. I have been really looking into reliability. I tend to stay within touch with desktop motherboards than I do with server boards. Would you say a Tyan 939 board be the way to go?

Memory
I guess this all depends on the motherboard.

PSU
This might need to be asked in the Power Supply forum
9 Hard Drives - 1 DvD burner - Opty 165 - GF 6600 (depending if the MB has on board video)
TV Tuner (since I will have the luxury of keeping it at my house + depending if it is freezable) Will the Silverstone 1K be enough or too much from what we need.
Nothing else will ever be connected to it.

I think this is my longest post here to date.
Thanks for your time and knowledge.

L0x

 

[mavalpha]

Get RAID.

Period.

I mean it- GET RAID. It's your choice whether to get RAID0+1 (or 10) or RAID5 (higher performance out of 0+1/10, more space out of 5). With eight drives, you're just asking for trouble otherwise.

With a 6600, any good PSU over 600W will be just fine- that Silverstone is way overkill unless you're planning on going 8800/R600 down the road. Put it this way: most drives pull less than 25W peak, and that's only for a couple of seconds while they spin up. 25x8=200W. Tack that onto an ordinarily-high-end rig, and you'll STILL be fine under 700W unless you're talking about an 8800 SLI setup.

For a cost-effective controller, look at the Promise SX8300 (PCI-X) or new SX8350 (native PCIe) 8-port SATA RAID controller. Either one will handle any RAID level up to 5(8300)/6(8350). They both have hardware XOR engines for parity calculations (RAID5) and their own cache, so you won't need to worry about CPU overhead from your data security.

Any desktop board will do just fine, although you'll be hard pressed to find PCI-X in anything below a workstation. You can get the Asus P5W DH Deluxe (Intel 975X chipset, PCI-X) and pair it with the SX8300. The 8350 fill fit in any board with a PCIe x4 or higher (x4, x8, or spare x16). It's a better option, if you're prepared to wait until it becomes available. Nowadays, just about all boards are reliable- more so than hard drives. Just stay away from budget names like ECS.

 

[pj-schmidt]

With that many drives and that much potential data, I'd be interested in why a RAID array has already been dismissed?

My file server uses a 3ware 9500S-8 controller. Although I loose one disks worth of storage space in my RAID5 array, that's definitly a small price for having a the ability to deal the inevitable drive failures that will occur over time. The controller also emails me whenever there is a problem, so I know right away when something happens. This is not to say that RAID is perfect, but the idea of loosing 1TB of data in a single disk "death" would give me nightmares.

Good luck,

PJ

 

[MrGuvernment]

If you want stability in a board consider a server board SuperMicro / Tyan , as they have PCIx slots as well, which could be useful..... or are most PCie cards as fast or faster then PCIx ?

 

[unhappy_mage]

With a 6600, any good PSU over 600W will be just fine- that Silverstone is way overkill unless you're planning on going 8800/R600 down the road. Put it this way: most drives pull less than 25W peak, and that's only for a couple of seconds while they spin up. 25x8=200W. Tack that onto an ordinarily-high-end rig, and you'll STILL be fine under 700W unless you're talking about an 8800 SLI setup.

They do indeed draw 25W or so (mostly from the 12V rail) but rule of thumb is it's best to allocate enough power supply for 3A each at startup if you don't use staggered spinup. With staggered spinup, 1A each plus 5A is about right for 12V rail draw, and 1A on the 5V rail. I still agree, though; a quality 600 or 700W unit will do you fine.

For a cost-effective controller, look at the Promise SX8300 (PCI-X) or new SX8350 (native PCIe) 8-port SATA RAID controller. Either one will handle any RAID level up to 5(8300)/6(8350). They both have hardware XOR engines for parity calculations (RAID5) and their own cache, so you won't need to worry about CPU overhead from your data security.

I'm not a big fan of the Promise controllers. They're not very dependable, it seems; about half of the stories about them I've heard are "my controller melted and died".

We talked and we agree that Raid just won't fit out needs.

Why? What are your needs? Which of them precludes RAID?

The parts we already have:

Opteron 165
Never Used CM Stacker
76gig Raptor
Geforce 6600

Good start. Are you interested in having the ability to hotswap the drives, or not?

Controller Card
I have no clue on what card/s to get that would support 8TB worth of drives connected to it.
I have been having my eye on cards with ECC memory. Am I heading in the right direction?

If you're not doing RAID, there's no need for any memory at all. A Supermicro AOC-SAT2-MV8 is cheap ($110 or so in the US, probably more in UK ), does the job just fine, and is plenty reliable. I have one, and several other [H]ers have used them in projects to much success.

Motherboard
Since we have scratched off raid. I have been really looking into reliability. I tend to stay within touch with desktop motherboards than I do with server boards. Would you say a Tyan 939 board be the way to go?

No. Tyan boards have a terrible reputation with adding storage controllers. Supermicro is my first choice.

Memory
I guess this all depends on the motherboard.

I'd go the other way. Pick ECC memory (reliability, remember) and a controller card, then find a motherboard that supports your choices.

PSU
This might need to be asked in the Power Supply forum
9 Hard Drives - 1 DvD burner - Opty 165 - GF 6600 (depending if the MB has on board video)
TV Tuner (since I will have the luxury of keeping it at my house + depending if it is freezable) Will the Silverstone 1K be enough or too much from what we need.
Nothing else will ever be connected to it.

It'll be enough. But if you're buying a new PSU you should do more research than just jump on the first thing to come along.

This is not to say that RAID is perfect, but the idea of loosing 1TB of data in a single disk "death" would give me nightmares.

Me too. OP, whatever you do, get a backup solution for the important portion of this data.

If you want stability in a board consider a server board SuperMicro / Tyan , as they have PCIx slots as well, which could be useful..... or are most PCie cards as fast or faster then PCIx ?

PCI-X and PCI Express, for purposes of this scale storage project, are equally fast.

 

[Ockie]

Check out my galaxy thread in the projects section. You might find exactly what you are looking for.

 

[spectrumbx]

With that many drives and that much potential data, I'd be interested in why a RAID array has already been dismissed?

My file server uses a 3ware 9500S-8 controller. Although I loose one disks worth of storage space in my RAID5 array, that's definitly a small price for having a the ability to deal the inevitable drive failures that will occur over time. The controller also emails me whenever there is a problem, so I know right away when something happens. This is not to say that RAID is perfect, but the idea of loosing 1TB of data in a single disk "death" would give me nightmares.

Good luck,

PJ

I can see why someone would not want RAID.

1. If this is purely a file server, then DFS can consolidate all the drives/partitions/shares in a single root.
2. It is easier to backup a single drive than a whole RAID, and you can "bit for bit" backup only those drives or partitions with important data.
3. You don't lose all your data if a drive fails. Yes, you lose some of it, but you get all the storage space you paid for.

Example:
I am currently moving all my DVDs to 6x 500GB drives.
The original DVDs are my backups, so I don't care if the data on hard drive is lost.
Even then, I only have to restore the data on the drive that failed after it is replaced.

Copying all those DVDs to hard drive is a lot of work even with 3 readers to do the job.
I would much rather take the risk of having to re-do it for a failed drive than for a failed RAID.