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...Big Mother Server...

Firstly, I'd like to appologize for my absense to all you guys. I'm sure some of you have decided long ago that this project was dead in the water. I am back at it and will see about getting product photos re-posted.

Moments ago I ordered the additional PSU brackets I need (only have 2 atm) from servercase.com they were a lot cheaper then I thought they'd be ($10/per). I did try to make my own out of some fairly thin sheet metal I had picked up at Home Depot .. needless to say it was TOO thin and couldn't really hold a PSU, figured I might as well make it all nice and proper :) ...


The dilema I had run into was with finding a File System to run on a potential 20TB+ machine. I didn't want to have drive letters running from A-Z and then some, I wanted a File System that I could grow while keeping redundancy through a parity based system. This made me stop working on this project for sometime as at the time I thought there really wasn't an option that suited my needs. After looking at 'MS Storage Server' , 'MS Home Server', and Solaris 'ZFS' I've chosen 'ZFS' without contest it's just an amazing amazing thing... it does EXACTLY all the little things I wanted. Anyone considering a File Server at home that they plan to grow overtime I'd really suggest looking into ZFS / Multi-Pool / Z-RAID setup it's just well awesome :) ... see http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/zfs_learning_center.jsp : about halfway down the page there is a video presentation by Bill Moore, a bit long but well worth the watch :).


Tonight I work on Wiring :)
 
Great news! Good to know you're still working on this. I'm sure you will pave the road for many others here at [H] that will be needing storage of that size in the near future. Good luck and I look forward to seeing your pics again.
 
protias said:
Well, ext3 should work just fine for a 20TB+ file system.
Click to expand...

Here is a small IRC chat I had a few days ago to clarify what I had wanted out of ZFS...
It's not that other FS aren't cabable of 20TB+ partitions ...

[19:30] <Tcalp> I'm looking into possibly using ZFS as my media storage server that I'm building (capable of upto 40HDD drives) ... can anyone here help me with a few questions :)
[19:39] <kAv_> will it run glftpd by any chance?
[19:40] <Tsuwa> bwwhha - nice Phus
[19:41] <kAv_> tcalp : have you checked opensolaris pages and the admin guide and did not find answers to your questions?
[19:46] <Tcalp> kav .. I've been looking at the admin manual and watched a presentation http://www.sun.com/software/media/real/zfs_learningcenter/high_bandwidth.html ... I guess I'm just looking for clarification on what I beleive ..
[19:46] <isol> Title: ZFS Learning Center Overview - High Bandwidth
[19:46] <isol> http://urlx.org/sun.com/19e2a
[19:46] <kAv_> fire away
[19:47] <phusnikn> Tcalp using it here works very well
[19:48] <Tcalp> As I said I'm building a media storage server for my home, and I'm planning on starting off with X number of discs and adding discs as needed (most likely a pool of discs at a time) .. from what I've understood you can have multiple drive pools to be one large pool that equates to one volume and the file system will take care of storing whatever where ...
[19:49] <phusnikn> correct
[19:49] <Tcalp> eg. I'll add 5 discs as a parity Z-RAID and it will just add to free space ...
[19:49] <j0ker> zfs is love
[19:49] <phusnikn> Tcalp, yeah
[19:49] <Tcalp> the 5 discs should be the same size .. but they can differ in size from the 5 drives I added before that ...
[19:50] <Tcalp> also say Z-RAID named '500-5' I could later choose to add another drive to it expanding Z-RAID from 5 drives to 6 drives .. ?
[19:51] <j0ker> yes
[19:51] <Tcalp> sweet
[19:53] <kAv_> no
[19:53] <kAv_> j0ker : no he cant
[19:53] <kAv_> this is an upcoming feature
[19:53] <j0ker> I thought it was already part of zfs
[19:53] <kAv_> was not in nevada 50
[19:54] <Tcalp> expansion of existing arrays isn't that important to me anyhow ... I'll most likely only add storage in blocks of drives anyhow
[19:54] <kAv_> which is when i made my zraid
[19:55] <Tcalp> now if I have say 3 Z-RAID's setup with 5 drives and I store a 700mb file to the volume is it possible to only have it store it to 1 of the raids (or does it do it by default) so that the file isn't relying on 15 discs for the file ... ... I hope that makes sense in the way I mean it to
[19:55] <kAv_> but you could have raidz under lets say mp3 and then you can add another "pool" in there
[19:56] <kAv_> well imagine you have /media
[19:56] <kAv_> and under there you have 3 device pools, you could assign 1st device pool to /mp3
[19:56] <Tcalp> can I not assign all 3 to ./ ?
[19:57] <kAv_> you can
[19:57] <Tcalp> or by doing all 3 to ./ mean that it would span a file to all 15 drives ?
[19:57] <Tcalp> or can I set it so that when storing a file that it only writes it along one pool
[19:58] <kAv_> mm its 4am now, and this is streching my memory without having vpn to my box
[19:58] <kAv_> the second one
[19:59] <Tcalp> thnx guys + KAv_
[19:59] <Tcalp> you guys have been a big help on clarifying stuff for me
[19:59] <kAv_> btw
[19:59] <Tcalp> looks like I found my FS :)
Click to expand...
 
Awesome! Thanks for reposting the pics. I had forgotten about the details of this project. I can't wait to see it up and running!!
 
Okay Okay so I never have time to work on this damng thing :)

However, the machine is up and running now using Windows Home Server. I haven't added moved all my data over yet but once I do I'll move all existing hdd's into the server for ~8TB total storage (20 drives), with room for another 20 or so drives.

I'll be needing some of these guys to get more SATA drives added. These are great for anyone *NOT* looking for high-end drive performance. Being that I only want storage space they work out nicely and provide a nice cheap way to get a lot of sata ports running.

cgs-3726-a1-2-main.jpg


They are called SATA Multipliers -- that guy turns one eSATA port into 5 SATA/eSATA ports and they only cost ~$80-90USD. Considering that gives you 20 ports for ~360 vs 16pr sata cards are $800ish I'm a happy camper.

I bought a Asus M2N32 WorkStation Pro board / AMD X2 4600 / TP Trio 650 / 2gb RAM / etc.. to replace my older hardware.


Will post up newer pics if I get a chance.
 
Ockie said:
With that configuration I can add 42 drives without even having to chamber or mod any in :)

As for the brackets, I don' t know if you have an odd revision or something but mine came with 4 ATX plate modules :confused: for 4 normal psu's.

Was that price CAD or USD? I do have a residence in Canada you can forward it too, I'd like to get another one of those. How much you think that would run me?


Thanks!
Click to expand...


@Ockie, sorry man I just noticed this. I just checked with my wholesaler and they don't have them anymore. I had picked up up at Wholesale on clearance way back when I started this project and it was $180 w/shipping (CAD). Back before the currency tumble in the states that was ubber cheap :)
 
Although I'd almost always be using Remote Desktop to control this rig it seems like it would be fun to have a 'control center' type thing. I can't remember the exact name of them but they are used in larger server racks. They are basically headless laptops (have a touchpad, keyboard, lcd) and plug into a kvm or machine directly. In anycase I came across one of the 2yr old gen compaq amd turion laptops (lots of those things ended up dead after 1-2yr) -- I still have one and it's on it's last legs after just over a year, mind you it's my spare laptop now. In anycase those 'control centers' still cost a boat load of cash $400-500ish.

So I'm going to pick one of these guys off ebay:
TFT_LCD_Panel_Controller_BlackLight_1.jpg


I'll wire that puppy upto the LCD, plug it onto the machine and FUN ensues. Even if it doesn't work out it will still be a fun project that should take me months to get around to toying with ;) (given the time it took me to get this build together).

If anyone knows anything about converting a laptop keyboard / touchpad to PC based ports please let me know.
 
you wont be able to get that laptop lcd to work from a standard input, belive me.
 
ring.of.steel said:
you wont be able to get that laptop lcd to work from a standard input, belive me.
Click to expand...

I know it won't work with a standard input without getting a proper control board to adapt it but they do exist and don't cost a whole lot (see pic above..)
 
The touch pads in most laptops tend to be PS/2 interface, most can be figured out by trial and error with the pins.
 
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