Data Storage System Build Advice Needed

Syntax Error said:
The Adaptec controller has had reports of having rather lackluster performance
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That Adaptec controller is terrible if you need RAID (Under ~40MB/sec), if its just JBOD it works fine for the most part but does limit the drives to around ~60-65MB/sec reads. I have one in my server, but since my server is slow by nature and I am the only user it was fine.
 
As I had some time to work on my new components this weekend I thought I would update the thread.

So, I picked up the Huntec 15U rack from a local retailer (HDNW) for around $250. The thing is damn huge. Mostly because it has casters fairly large, top, bottom, front and side pieces. However, it is INCREDIBLY nice how easy it is to take off the door and the sides (extremely convenient). Overall, it is very nice to look at if a bit large.

I purchased the 26" Norco rails from newegg as I guessed that they would go along with with the 4020. As many other newegg commentators had noted, those things are a pain in the ass to install. The instructions are poorly done and are essentially useless. You save yourself a lot of headache if in the end you glance at them and then just start using common sense to figure out how to mount them; the instructions are counter-intuitive. I am not sure if there are better (read easier to install) rails available for the 4020 but if anyone is thinking about buying some for their 4020 there must be some that are better than the Norco rails. Anyhow, I was only racking the server to make SURE that it fits in the rack I chose before I ran out of time to return it; not much use to have a rack your server/rails don't fit in.

So, with this done, I started on my 3-tier migration plan. I backed up my primary workstation with Acronis Echo Workstation with Universal Restore, shut it down and installed the new Core i7/EVGA x58 motherboard and 6GB DDR3 1600Mhz RAM. I had issues booting into the Acronis recovery disc with the new hardware; the solution was to use an old PS/2 keyboard (it would hang with my fany logitech mouse and keyboard plugged in). Then I pointed Acronis Universal Restore to the SATA controller inf for the new motherboard and away the restore went. Amazingly it went perfectly; I was able to migrate between motherboard/CPU/RAM without a hitch (I had to obviously install the new drivers for the motherboard and reactivate but that was it). I then even took the time to zip-tie it all up; practice for the 4020 NAS cabling.

My intent tonight is to try to do the same thing with my AMD HTPC. I will migrate my Q6600, 4GB DDR2 1066 and Gigabyte P36 (LGA 775) motherboard to my HTPC using Acronis Echo Workstation with Universal Restore. I am hoping it works as smoothly with an AMD -> Intel platform move as it did with LGA775 -> LGA1366. Either way the MediaPortal configs on the HTPC are fully backed up so if Acronis fails and I have to reinstall XP and MediaPortal I am prepared for that.

Once the HTPC migration is complete I will plan for installing the HTPC AM2 motherboard/CPU etc into the Norco 4020. Before installing any components I am going to install the replacement Panaflo L1A fans and measure the case a bit to determine precisely what length SATA cables and power cables I need to reach the backplane, then order them all.

As a side note by doing a bit of 'thinking outside of the box' I was able to get a AOC-SASLP-MV8 - 8 Sata PCI-E 4x ordered (two of em actually, these are the new SuperMicro 8 port PCI-E x4 SATA controller cards) before they hit retail. Based on shipping I expect them to get here tomorrow, so they will be all ready when I start planning the NAS/Norco 4020/WHS build and migration.

In case any cares and for my own record I will try update the thread again with how the HTPC migration (or rebuild haha) goes and then again with the beginning progress of the NAS/Norco 4020/WHS build.
 
That all sounds great.

pirivan said:
As a side note by doing a bit of 'thinking outside of the box' I was able to get a AOC-SASLP-MV8 - 8 Sata PCI-E 4x ordered (two of em actually, these are the new SuperMicro 8 port PCI-E x4 SATA controller cards) before they hit retail. Based on shipping I expect them to get here tomorrow, so they will be all ready when I start planning the NAS/Norco 4020/WHS build and migration.
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Where did you get them from?
 
@nitrobass24 I got the AOC-SASLP-MV8 - 8 Sata PCI-E 4x from Wiredzone. I had to do it a non-standard way (ie not from the website) but I was able to order them. I was planning on updating the thread about the new supermicro PCI-E cards with this information once I actually got them. Until I physically SEE them tomorrow I am honestly not convinced everything is on the up-and-up.

In related news, I installed the Q6600, 4GB DDR2 1066 and Gigabyte P35 motherboard in the HTPC. After I had everything physically in place, connected and was ready to power on and boot to the Acronis disc I accidentally bumped the power button and turned the machine on. So, I decided to simply let it boot and I was AMAZED to see that it booted into Windows without any issues. Obviously there was a ton of unidentified devices but many clicks, a couple driver installs and a few reboots later the Intel equipment was all fully installed and working. I couldn't believe it; I didn't even need to use Acronis. In my past experience migrating Windows XP installations between hardware was a big mistake to even consider (not even taking into account an AMD CPU/NVIDIA chipset platform -> Intel CPU/P35 chipset Platform). Either way, it seems to work perfectly so who am I to complain?

Either way, once I am confident the HTPC is fully functional again it's on to the NAS build planning!
 
Well, I thought I would update the thread again for my own notes as I have made some progress on the build. The primary PC and the HTPC are both fully functional and migrated, woo.

On a slightly related note I did do some build work on my Norco 4020 box and both the AOC-SASLP-MV8 cards appear to work (though obviously I wasn't able to use them as I have no cables). I see the staggered spin up messages correctly and the drivers from the Super Micro disc installed just fine under WHS.

Currently I am waiting some SAS - 4x SATA cables and the disc drive combined SATA/Power cable to finish up the install. I haven't quite figured out how I am going to route all the power cables to the backplane with my http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139009&Tpk=N82E16817139009PSU CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply

It looks like the cabling will be a fairly big mess unless I work hard to keep the power cabling clean. Also, there aren't enough 4 pin connectors on the PSU to use anyhow (8x 4 pin connectors, 8x SATA power connectors). I need 10x 4 pin power connectors for the backplane, 1x SATA power connector for the SATA OS drive, 1x SATA power connector for the SATA disc drive and 1x 4 pin additional for the backplane fans. I am going to have to get some splitters or some SATA -> 4 pin power adapters, I am not yet exactly sure what will be the best/cleanest. I also may need to get a small extender for one of the rear exhaust fans. The cable JUST isn't quite long enough to reach one of the other fan power connectors on the motherboard (unfortunate) and the only close one is already taken up by the other fan.

I plan to read the thread about Norco 4020 power cabling and see if I get any ideas (though I am not sure how keen I am about putting together my own custom cables, I'd rather just buy some that are close to the right length to keep things neat and save myself the trouble :).

Anyhow, that's my update, hopefully I will come up with some bright ideas on how to do the power cabling easily/nicely and I can finally seal up the case and leave it in the rack for a while!
 
I don't have all the 4-pin power connectors on the backplane connected on my 4020. Both headers are tied together on the backplane and my server has been running rock solid for going on 7 months now like that.
 
Yea you really dont need all 10.
I have just 5 connected and its all good.
Those backplanes were designed for a 1u case and 5 fans to be attached as well as 4 HDD's
 
You don't need NEARLY that much performance for a simple file server, or even a home server doing other tasks. A single dual-core Core 2 Xeon will do you well.
 
djBon2112 said:
You don't need NEARLY that much performance for a simple file server, or even a home server doing other tasks. A single dual-core Core 2 Xeon will do you well.
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Thanks for the feedback, however I think you might be referring back to one of my way earlier posts :). Since then my hardware choices have changed drastically. What ended up in the NAS WAS what was in my old HTPC:

MSI K9N Platinum AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 Ultra MCP ATX AMD Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ Windsor 3.2GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2 125W Dual-Core Processor

The NAS also has 1GB of generic RAM, though I am getting 4GB of it for dirt cheap (DDR2 800 is so cheap now it's insane, I think I paid $25 or so).

@LittleMe I am not sure I completely follow. I guess I thought each backplane routed power from each of the 2 connectors somehow directly to each of the 4 drives on that row (so 1 4-pin molex connector per 2 drievs). It seems odd that they would include so many backplane 4 pin power connectors if you didn't really need them; 5 seems like so few for 20 drives. Do you have 20 drives in your 4020? I won't initially but I would prefer not to run into power issues if I did someday :).

@Nitrobass24 How many drives do you have in your 4020? 20 drives with just the 5 backplane power connectors? I am not sure what you mean when you say "those backplanes were designed for a 1U case and fan fans to be attached with 4 hard drives". Why would they use a 1U server backplane in the design for a 4U server if it wasn't necessary? And why would a 1U server have greater backplane power requirements than a 4U with 20 drives instead of 4? Is it just designed that way for power redundancy? Perhaps I am a bit dense or don't understand server hardware design/backplane design but I am not completely following the point you are trying to make here.

***EDIT/UDPATE***

I read through some of the Norco 4020 case thread and it explains some of my questions I believe. Like this quote from epimetheus:

"The dual molex connectors on the backplanes are wired in parallel. I checked this with a multimeter when I got my Norco 4020. I believe there are 2 connectors because the molex connector has a theoretical current limit and 5 hard drives could possibly exceed that limit. Therefore, from an engineering standpoint, putting 2 connectors is the safe design. I just made up some adapters for mine using these connectors:"

I guess that explains why you don't precisely NEED all the connections hooked up, it's just safer.

I might also try to do what he describes here:

"So I split the the backplanes among the 2 molex feeds. I've got the top 3 rows on one feed and the bottom 2 on the other. I should have taken some pictures on the adapters themselves, but I'm not taking it apart now.

Flipping the fan divider worked pretty well since I'm not using an extended ATX mobo. I was able to get all the side screws back in without a problem. I could only get the center of the 3 bottom screws to line up - not real sure they all didn't line up. I checked but nothing was deformed, the holes must have been drilled out of whack originally. I did have to flip the fans to keep the front to back airflow, but I changed the fans from the original ones to quiet Panaflo's."

I may flip the fan divider just to create more room. I just did a test wiring and I can tell it will get a bit tight on the side closest to the power connectors (I just connected 1 4-pin molex connector per backplane). I am not sure if I will try to make adapters like he did; it will probably turn out poorly for me :). I may try to see if I can purchase adapters some like the ones he fabricated (if I can find any like that) to clean up the backplane cabling and allow me to connect 8 or so of the backplane 4-pin molex power connectors just to be safe.

Either way it looks like I won't necessarily need any SATA -> 4 pin power adapters which is a relief. Those add bulk. I will just use the 1 SATA power connector run over to my SATA hard drive and disc drive.
 
It looks like you found the answer to your question. I've got 20 drives in my 4020 now and I have only 1 4-pin molex connector per backplane connected. If you do connect both headers, I don't see the point unless each is on a different power rail. If it comes off the same rail or even a splitter, there's no benefit.

Also, the backplane is from a 1U case because it was already designed. So why pay to design another when you can save money and use what you have? The only difference is it has extra fan headers on it that aren't needed in the 4020. The RPC-4020, RPC-2008, RPC-1104, and RPC-1004 all use the same backplane. I wish they'd make a 4020 with the backplane from the RPC-3116 though, it allows for a ton more airflow.
 
I connected all 10 molexes primarily because I wanted redundant power sources from different rails on my PSU. The near side just with spare connectors, and the far side with a 1 female->5 male adapter thing I knocked up (I think you can buy these somewhere.. I remember seeing someone post a link to one, but can't remember which thread it was now..)

I'm running RAID arrays, so it wouldn't be all that good news if a line of hard drives suddenly disappeared, either due to a rail going dodgy/being overloaded or a connector working its way loose.

By the way, for the fan noise I just undervolted all the stock 8cm fans to 5v and they sound much more tolerable now.

I also put some thin strips of foam packing in the front of each drive tray (there's a space behind the handle, just in front of the hard drive), to act as dust filters. I find vacuuming the front of the case each week a much more realistic prospect than opening it up regularly to clean.
 
I know this thread was buried way back but I ordered a bunch of cabling which just recently arrived. So, I spent some time working on the server and the cabling is now complete. It's not as clean as it could be but it's not incredibly messy either. I turned around the fan backplane to allow more room for power and SATA cables which helped tremendously; that and a lot of zip ties. The mini-sas to 4x SATA connectors worked absolutely amazingly as well. MUCH easier to work with than crappy SATA cables (I utilized 6 on the motherboard, 4 going to the backplane, 1 to the OS drive, 1 to the disc drive). I did also connect power cabling to all of the backplane power connectors; mostly just because it was easy for me to do so the way I had the power cabling setup.

In retrospect I almost think I should have never bought a disc drive for the Norco 4020. It added unnecessary cabling and is pretty much useless. I was able to install WHS from a flash drive anyhow; I'm about ready to say goodbye to disc drives I think. Having one external might be good enough for me from now on; but that's another topic.

The server is now very quiet with the replacement panaflow 80mm fans; it was worth the effort replacing the stock fans.

However, when I booted the server with 2 of the hot-swap drive bays filled I ran into some issues. I have two of the Marvel AOC-SASLP-MV8 cards. I was able to boot into Windows Home Server without any issues and install drivers for the cards without ANY drives connected to the cards (ie nothing in the hot swap drive bays, just the OS drive). However, when I put 2 Seagate 1.5TB drives into the hot swap drive bays in my Norco 4020 I get this error while booting:

“No enough space to copy PCI option rom [05:00:00]”
“No enough space to copy PCI option rom [04:00:00]”

Removing the drives from the hot swap drive bays allows the PC to boot normally. I also have a Sil3232 eSata controller card (I may use this card in the future to connect 2 of the 5 bay eSata AMS enclosures I have). If I remove this Sil3232 card I can leave the hard drives in and the PC boots normally. So, as I have determined that the Sil3232 controller card is the issue. The solution turned out that I had to boot into WHS without any drives connected to the SuperMicro cards and flash the firmware on the Sil3232 card to a different version (I forget which firmware finally allowed this for me). I haven't yet tested if the 5-bay AMS e-sata enclosures works with this firmware but I assume that they will.

So now, I have two larger outstanding issues that I can't find solutions to yet.

1. When I select the shutdown command on the server it reboots instead. Pressing the power button manually works just fine. I haven't been able to find any definitive articles online that might point to why this is happening.

2. I can't find an answer to the following question about how WHS drive pooling works. I have a 640GB drive for the OS that I would like to not have ANY of it participate in the drive pool. However, it looks like it creates the small OS partition (SYS) and then allocates the rest of the "OS" (DATA partition) drive to the pool as the 'landing zone'. I don't want this. The reason I don't want this is that I buy storage hard drives in pairs (ie 2x 1.5TB drives at a time) and then duplicate (ie sync) ALL the data between them. I don't intend to have ANY data on ANY of my storage drives that is not set to duplicate. So, the way WHS is handling it, the way I understand it, I would have to purchase an additional 640GB drive to "match" my OS drive to continue to handle storage how I have been (IE full duplication on all storage drives). I'd rather not do this; it's a waste of hot swap drive bay space in the Norco 4020 (I'd rather throw at least 1TB drives in there). So, is there any way from preventing the DATA partition on my WHS OS drive from participating in the storage pool?

Based on my research thus far I have really ended up with only these solutions, none of which are what I wanted:

1. Buy 2 more 1.5TB drives and use 1 for the OS
2. Follow the instructions in this post http://social.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/whssoftware/thread/7b895a02-0300-4738-8d74-e9ca88691137/ and simply resize the sys partition to 620GB or so, though I believe this could have major performance penalties based on the way DE appears to work
3. Fill the space outside of the DE folder with some blank, large files I don't care about to prevent data being placed on the pooled part of the D: partition. This also creates performance issues
4. Actively monitor the capacity status of all the hard drives and make sure there is always free space on the 'data' drives. The way I understand it is that placing data on the primary drive/landing zone area is the LAST resort for WHS. As long as there is free space on the other drives it SHOULD go there first

I haven't really been happy with any of the solutions but, perhaps that is just one of the tradeoffs with WHS. Ease of management vs flexibility.
 
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