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Chenbro Nas

F

fatmcgav

n00b
Joined
Sep 11, 2008
Messages
28
Hi All,

I know this has been done before - ilikecake has done it here.

However, mine's going to be slightly different, and i have some different questions, so here goes...

So, hardware first... i'm going to be using:
  • Chenbro ES34069
  • Jetway NC62K M-itx board. Socket AM2+ with Nvidia 8200 chipset, 4x SATA on-board, Gigabit Lan
  • AMD Athlon 4850 AM2 2.5GHz 1MB Cache Energy Efficient
  • 2gb DDR2 800 Ram - Kingston most likely
  • Array Drives: 4x Seagate Barracuda 7200.1 500GB 7200RPM S300 32MB

Now my questions
  1. Am i better off sticking in a small 2.5" IDE Drive for boot, or do i just shave 5Gb of each drive, and run as a 10Gb Raid 10 Boot part?
  2. With the 4 on-board SATA ports, is it worth me getting a dedicated Raid card, or just use the onboard SATA? Performance differences? Reliability differences?
  3. I'm likely to run the 4 drives in a Linux Raid 5 array, giving 1.5Tb advertised - any recommendations otherwise? Likely to use XFS filesystem, as the intention is to use this NAS for my MythTV recordings aswell, so going to be working with larger files.

Think that's it for questions for now...
For reference, i'm either going to run Ubuntu 8.04 or CentOS 5.1, both of which i know can do software raid easily...
Usage is going to be Samba, FTP, Torrent, Webserver, Media Streamer and watever else i fit in...

Comments welcome?

Cheers
Gav
 
1. Definitely invest in a separate boot drive. It makes life a lot simpler to have your drive array and OS completely independent.
2. Depends what sort of performance you're looking for, but you should be able to get enough speed to saturate a GigE link with that setup just using Linux soft raid5.
3. I have a very similar setup, highly recommend it. If you don't need the redundancy, you could get the full 2TB on one volume by using LVM, but you're exposed to disk failures that way.
 
The Hunter said:
1. Definitely invest in a separate boot drive. It makes life a lot simpler to have your drive array and OS completely independent.
2. Depends what sort of performance you're looking for, but you should be able to get enough speed to saturate a GigE link with that setup just using Linux soft raid5.
3. I have a very similar setup, highly recommend it. If you don't need the redundancy, you could get the full 2TB on one volume by using LVM, but you're exposed to disk failures that way.
Click to expand...

Cheers for that mate...
Does it matter about not having redundancy on the OS though? Spose i can just backup the relevant stuff onto the array...

Perf sounds good to me, only running 100Mbit atm, but might look at upgrading if necessary... and can always invest in a dedi card if necessary after...

Yeh, i want to keep that element of redundancy - dont wanna loose everything afterall...

Cheers again for the info...

Any one else?

Gav
 
fatmcgav said:
Cheers for that mate...
Does it matter about not having redundancy on the OS though? Spose i can just backup the relevant stuff onto the array...

Perf sounds good to me, only running 100Mbit atm, but might look at upgrading if necessary... and can always invest in a dedi card if necessary after...

Yeh, i want to keep that element of redundancy - dont wanna loose everything afterall...

Cheers again for the info...

Any one else?

Gav
Click to expand...
One appeal of keeping the OS separate from the Array is that if either fails, it won't take the other. Unless you have an absolute pressing need for the performance and/or the redundancy of RAID 10, I wouldn't bother, because if one disk fails in the Array/OS, then that means both the Array and the OS is at risk. The problem would be that your uptime is in danger if that were to happen.

For the least amount of headaches, I'd say go with one OS disk and a separate, physical Array.
 
Nice case. ;)

1. Other people seemed to answer question one better than me. I read that it is easier to separate the OS from the array disks, so that is what I did.

2. I would recommend against getting a add-in RAID card, just because it is hard to fit. I got the smallest card I could find, and even that just BARELY fits in the case. Since your array disks will use the SATA ports, you could use a PATA drive for the OS.

3. This is the same thing that I have done. No problems yet.
 
Cheers for the help there guys, think that answers my question..

No doubt i'll have more, but that's it for now...

Cheers
Gav
 
1 -You should invest in a dedicated boot drive, in this case a 2.5" drive.
2 - Depends on your budget and needs, but I would recomend a proper hardware raid card if you are going that route
3 - You should look at WHS, then you don't need to worry about raid. Also, have you considered the HP MediaSmart server? Same capacity, except it comes with WHS and it's an awesome appliance with gigabit and the works.
 
Ockie said:
1 -You should invest in a dedicated boot drive, in this case a 2.5" drive.
2 - Depends on your budget and needs, but I would recomend a proper hardware raid card if you are going that route
3 - You should look at WHS, then you don't need to worry about raid. Also, have you considered the HP MediaSmart server? Same capacity, except it comes with WHS and it's an awesome appliance with gigabit and the works.
Click to expand...

Right, decision made, i'll get a cheap 40Gb IDE 2.5" drive for OS then, and make sure i keep it backed up onto the array...

I think i'll run with on-board SATA for now, and then upgrade if i dont get the performance i want from it...

WHS... Possible, although i've used Linux raid before, so i know my way around it, and linux just seems almost easier for what i want to do...
That MediaSmart server does look nice, although is quite expensive compared to building my own... Food for thought though...

Cheers
Gav
 
I think i'll run with on-board SATA for now, and then upgrade if i dont get the performance i want from it...

WHS... Possible, although i've used Linux raid before, so i know my way around it, and linux just seems almost easier for what i want to do...
That MediaSmart server does look nice, although is quite expensive compared to building my own... Food for thought though...
Click to expand...

Forget about the raid card. Running mdadm on any flavor of linux is going to saturate the gigabyte network connection. I would even consider running the os off of a usb drive.
 
Fluke,

Cheers for teh info... Think i'll stick with mdadm and a 40Gb IDE OS drive...

Cheers
Gav
 
I've bought basically the same as you did above.

Ordered the mobo,cpu,memory, drives last night. Should get them in 2 days.

Going to use it primarily for DVD playback, Game emulator, etc. So i can free up some space in my AV cabinet next to my TV.
 
I was going to go with one of the atom mobos + a dedicated raid card, but this seems like a much better solution (Ill lose the hot swapping of HDs, but will be cheaper and I could mod a tv tuner into that pci slot). I'll be wathcing this closely :)
 
Gav,
I would also invest in a 2.5" boot drive. My parts are inbound as well, not quite using mine just as a nas thou. HTPC, mainly for hd playback and storage.

I went with the Intel BOXDG45FC, E7200, 4gb ram, 60gb SATA 2.5" boot and 4x 750gb F1's. Using a Rosewill pci-e 1x, 1port sata card for booting the 60gb sata drive. (Hopefully it all works out) And of course the Chenboro NAS case.
 
WesM63 said:
Gav,
I would also invest in a 2.5" boot drive. My parts are inbound as well, not quite using mine just as a nas thou. HTPC, mainly for hd playback and storage.

I went with the Intel BOXDG45FC, E7200, 4gb ram, 60gb SATA 2.5" boot and 4x 750gb F1's. Using a Rosewill pci-e 1x, 1port sata card for booting the 60gb sata drive. (Hopefully it all works out) And of course the Chenboro NAS case.
Click to expand...

Wes, that looks like a very nice Mobo there... Let me know what sort of perf you get out of it, as that might be a contendor... Similar price to the JNC61K...

I thought about using an Atom board, but you've got the whole complication of finding a suitable SATA Raid Card and the added expense. i also wasn't sure the Atom would be beefy enough for what i want to do...

Comments???

Gav
 
fatmcgav said:
Wes, that looks like a very nice Mobo there... Let me know what sort of perf you get out of it, as that might be a contendor... Similar price to the JNC61K...

I thought about using an Atom board, but you've got the whole complication of finding a suitable SATA Raid Card and the added expense. i also wasn't sure the Atom would be beefy enough for what i want to do...

Comments???

Gav
Click to expand...

Well my thought was that with an exteral card, and me not needing serious HTPC power, atom would be fine, and run much cooler/quieter than any desktop chip. The atom board has really poor rear IO connections though (no gigabit ethernet), so thats another minus for it. It + a pci sata raid is still cheaper than those mobos which dont include cpus, however...
 
fatmcgav said:
Wes, that looks like a very nice Mobo there... Let me know what sort of perf you get out of it, as that might be a contendor... Similar price to the JNC61K...

I thought about using an Atom board, but you've got the whole complication of finding a suitable SATA Raid Card and the added expense. i also wasn't sure the Atom would be beefy enough for what i want to do...

Comments???

Gav
Click to expand...

I'll let you know, I should have it mid next week.

TBH, I don't know much about the atom boards, but if the pc is going to be strictly a NAS, I don't see why it wouldn't be powerful enough. Short the lack of GbE.
 
Wes: cool, cheers.

the big downside i see with the Atoms is the fact you've got to worry about a sata raid card... much rather have plug n play... ;)
 
well sure, but like I said, you also get hot-swap capabilities, if that's important to you. Pros and cons to either way of doing it I guess
 
whakojacko said:
well sure, but like I said, you also get hot-swap capabilities, if that's important to you. Pros and cons to either way of doing it I guess
Click to expand...

Is it definite that i loose the hotswap capability?
As reading the ATA Wiki, it says the following for AHCI - apparently the newer NVidia chipsets are AHCI:
ATA Wiki said:
Summary: Full NCQ support, full SATA control including hotplug and PM.
Click to expand...

Any ideas??? Not that i think hot-swap would be a massive bonus... only means you've got to shutdown to replace a drive...

Cheers
Gav
 
fatmcgav said:
Is it definite that i loose the hotswap capability?
As reading the ATA Wiki, it says the following for AHCI - apparently the newer NVidia chipsets are AHCI:


Any ideas??? Not that i think hot-swap would be a massive bonus... only means you've got to shutdown to replace a drive...

Cheers
Gav
Click to expand...

maybe im misreading, but that just sounds like the driver which supports that chipset also supports hotswap...
 
anyone see this board? looks loaded for mini fs/htpc usage like this...
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article869-page1.html ...Has pci-ex1 too, which I prefer over pci. My main issue if heat concerns in a tiny case like that though, since space is effectively non-existant and even a low powered 45nm 775 will be putting out a lot of heat, not mentioning the apparently very toasty NB/igp. Also: lot cheaper than the AMD option, and has a much more useful (imo) rear IO panel. No IDE (no 5th hard drive?) but 2x ram slots...
 
whakojacko said:
anyone see this board? looks loaded for mini fs/htpc usage like this...
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article869-page1.html
Click to expand...

Yes. There's a thread on it:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1342558

Also WesM63 mentioned purchasing one and promising to provide a review in this very thread:

WesM63 said:
I went with the Intel BOXDG45FC, E7200, 4gb ram, 60gb SATA 2.5" boot and 4x 750gb F1's. Using a Rosewill pci-e 1x, 1port sata card for booting the 60gb sata drive. (Hopefully it all works out) And of course the Chenboro NAS case.
Click to expand...

WesM63 said:
I'll let you know, I should have it mid next week.
Click to expand...
 
That Intel board looks equally nice as the Jetway AMD versions...
I've managed to buy a JNC62K for a work project, so i shall see how it performs whilst i'm playing with it, and make a decision from there...
Only slight down-side i can see for HTPC usage is the fact it's a PCI-X 1x rather than PCI, as most DVB cards are still PCI... but not an issue for Fileserver usage... ;)

Cheers again for the info...
Gav
 
Right, i know i'm bringing this one back from the dead, but thought it makes more sense that duplicating all the info i've already posted...

Anyhow, having read a few posts on here and a few tutorials online i'm toying with going down the route of using Xen virtualisation on this box. djBon2112 has done a similar thing here
The reasoning behind this is that I can set-up CentOS 5.2 XenKernel as Dom0, and then run various machines off of this to perform the required actions.
Initially i'm thinking 1 DomU running Openfiler to manage the 4 HDD's in a Software Raid 5 array, which can be presented using CIFS to my Windows Clients, FTP to external and iSCSI Lun's back to Xen to provide disks for the other DomU's.
I can install another DomU, most likely running CentOS or FC9 for the rest... BitTorrent, Slimserver, Apache, Php, mySql etc...
I could also put on a 3rd DomU for testing.

Personally, i can see the benefits being greater flexibility, extensibility and customisability.
However the one thing i'm not sure on is whether the performance will suffer at-all by doing this? I'd probably up the RAM to 4Gb, and maybe use the CoreDuo mini-ITX board instead of the JNC62K or JNC81-LF.

Comments? Opinions? Am I being mad?

Cheers
Gav
 
Ok, having looked into the DG45FC, it does look like it gives me a bit more flexibilty. Tied with an E6750 or E6850, and 4Gb DDR-800 memory, should give me a pretty quick box..

However one potential issue i've found with the DG45FC is that it only has 4 SATA ports, and no IDE connection, so i would need to get a PCI-E 1x SATA card to support the Boot Disk and potentially a SATA DVD drive... The Adaptec 1220SA looks like it should do the job, although one question mark is whether it will support SATA DVD drives???

Comments?


Cheers
Gavin
 
Hi fatmcgav,
I'm looking to use the exact same case, same mobo, same CentOS 5.2 vm setup, but using hw mobo raid.

1 - Did you build your box and installed everything? Because I read somewhere that you need a very recent kernel (which centos 5.2 doesn't have) to use all the HTPC capabilities of the MoBo.

2 - Also, considering power consumption of the mobo, the cpu (e8400), the add-on raid card, 4 x 3.5" 7200rpm hdd, 1 x 2.5" hdd, and maybe a slim blu-ray drive, I think I should get the 180 W version of the case, no?

thank you
 
Truth is i haven't got any further with this yet...

Still trying to get the money togeather... Think i'm guna go with a JNC81-LF with a 5600 X2...

Just gotta get the money togeather...

Must admit i havent researched the kernel req's yet... was just going to build it, lob the disk in and go from there... ;)

And not sure on the power req's... shall have to do some digging... :)

Cheers
Fatmcgav
 
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