Gerage Server (help,parts,yes,no)

[mikeblas]

AGAIN: guys I am very sorry for not providing you with the correct info. I am also sorry about

No worries; once we get the information we need, we can make a solid recommendation.

- Computers acessing the mucis, stored dvd's, TV shows, etc on this pc at one time will be a max of maybe 4.

If we go with uhappy's 1 MB/sec mark, then you'll want 4 MB/sec to serve those four users. That's well within the speed of your wired 100 mb/sec network, and shouldn't require anything special at all in the way of your disk subsystem. You have plenty of headroom, too, if you want to go to a higher bitrate later.

Still want 1g of ram. Large power supply for later upgrades, and for HD's
instead of 12x 300g's for 3.6TB why not go for 8x 300g for 2.4TB.

More memory can help with caching; though I don't think it's necessary, it's pretty cheap.

I can't guess why you'd ever want dual-procs on this machine. Again, are you going to use encryption (like IPSEC) or file system compression? If so, then maybe you need more CPU--but I still don't think a dual-core or dual-proc Pentium 4s would be warranted.

The total storeage you'll use is completely up to you: we have no idea how much you need now, or will want for future use. Or if you'll want to expand later.

If you buy eight 300 gig drives and set them up in RAID 0 to get 2.4 terabytes, you'll have no backup. If one single drive in the array fails, you lose the data on the whole array.

If you have some backupmechanism (like a separate machine that mirrors the data), then you can safely use RAID 0; it's just that you have a non-trivial recovery task. If you use RAID 10 or RAID 5, then you can gain some fault tolerance... but still might want to choose an external backup mechanism. While RAID 10 and RAID 5 might help against losing a drive, they don't help against a virus infection, a physical catastrophe, or an errant user.

I later gave benchmarks; don't they apply?

Yep. I asked, and you answered.

 

[Tman]

thanks,

I guess I should really look into finding a way to back up everything I have. At first I really
didnt think I needed to (never have had a drive fail) and just wanted to save money.

soo i quess i pose another question to you guys
what is your recomdation for backing up everything that I plan on storing?



also.. looking at the duel processors. A signal Opte will be fine. You guys are right!
but do you recomend me gettting a duel PIII board over it? and if soo please let me know
and give me a little info with links to parts that I will need

I really may have to paypal some of you guys

 

[mikeblas]

At first I really didnt think I needed to (never have had a drive fail) and just wanted to save money.

It'll happen sooner or later.

Is the pool house heated and cooled, by the way?

what is your recomdation for backing up everything that I plan on storing?

I'm into redundant servers. At home, I use Acronis TrueImage on each of my machines to send a full image to a server that has a ton of space in RAID 0. If the RAID 0 array fails, no biggie; I quickly replace it and I'm backing up again. If a machine fails, then I order a replacement drive, burn an image from this server, and restore.

The backup runs once between once every week and once every other day, depending on how important the data on the given client machine is, and how much that data changes.

If I accidentally delete a file, I can mount the image on the remote machine very quickly and copy the file off it. At most, I lose the time between my last backup.

If my house catches fire, then I lose everything... so I'm thinking of finding a way to isolate the most important data (eg, my book manuscript, financial data, and so on) to send it to a remote store. I think I've got it worked out, and I can automate such a scheme easily, but I just haven't implemented it yet.

It doesn't completely protect my from viruses; if I get infected, I might end up overwriting good data with bad data since the server only keeps a single copy of each machine. For now, I'm mitigating this by using virus software on each machine.

With such a large store, I can't imagine any other method besides mirroring would be good for your use. So you might end up taking whatever cost you spend on this machine and multiplying it by two.

also.. looking at the duel processors. A signal Opte will be fine. You guys are right!
but do you recomend me gettting a duel PIII board over it? and if soo please let me know
and give me a little info with links to parts that I will need

I think a single Opteron will be far more than enough.

Opteron benefits: new technology, easier to get parts for it, warranty.
P3 benefits: cheaper, cooler, less power.

Say you pull together a P3 system, for example. The power supply dies three years from now; what do you do? An appropriate power supply might be tough to find. Maybe you end up building a new machine; you'd probably not have to do that if you'd started with a more modern box, based on a current power supply spec.

 

[Tman]

Heating and Cooling
The pool house is heated and cooled and I will be liveing out there.

While the pool house's gerage is not like the main houses (main house fully heated and
cooled) it will stay pretty cool in summer but... not very warm in the winter which is perfect.
So... it will have good cooling 24x7x365



For backing up...
I am still up in the air about ;/
I really need a cheap way of doing that.. I really can not dump a huge amount into getting
another 8x300g HD's for back up. I am thinking about just haveing say.. another cheap
computer and putting maybe 2x300g hd's on that and doing it that way. And only copying
the most important data onto that. (ie- word documents, payed for online songs, pictures)
I will have to risk loosing the TV shows and Saved DVD's becuase I can simply upload the
orignal DVD's while the there are always new better shows on TV ]

 

[unhappy_mage]

I agree with mikeblas' recommendation of a single Opteron. P3s are cheaper, but as long as you're spending enough for 8 drives at once, you might as well go with more future-proof hardware at the same time. His backup scheme sounds good, too, except that I'd tend to avoid raid 0 across more than 3 disks for a long-term use. What would happen if a drive in a backed-up machine dies, and then the stress of reading an entire image off the raid 0 to restore it kills a disk in the server? Raid 5 is only one disk more expensive; 2.1 instead of 2.4 TB won't make much difference.

Heating and cooling the space the machine's in (preferrably to a few degrees cooler than "room temperature") will make a big difference in life of all the parts.

You might also consider building another array and keeping it offline. Another set of disks and another controller, and just leave the controller unplugged most of the time and the disks unpowered, and synchronize them every once in a while.

mikeblas: Not strictly on-topic here, but rsync over ssh sounds like a perfect match for your remote-backup idea. There's a win32 version here. Also of interest is Unison, which is bidirectional (changes on both ends are propagated). They're both command-line tools, so you can schedule them easily.

 

[Tman]

Well... since the server and networking where all going to be in ther gerage I was going to
build a custom Rack Tower to store everything in. I am also throwing around the idea of
making my own custom Computer case since I have ALL the power tools and etc to do it
with.

I am trying to find ways of cooling the Tower though a little better. Such as a small AC unit.
again somthing to figure out

 

[mikeblas]

What would happen if a drive in a backed-up machine dies, and then the stress of reading an entire image off the raid 0 to restore it kills a disk in the server?

Stress of reading? Is the stress of reading greater than the streess the drive endured last week, writing that same image? I'd think the stress of restarting the drives is far greater.

Raid 5 is only one disk more expensive; 2.1 instead of 2.4 TB won't make much difference.

That much is true, though. The only reasons I didn't do it was because of the expense in the controller card, and fitting the additional drive in my case.

Heating and cooling the space the machine's in (preferrably to a few degrees cooler than "room temperature") will make a big difference in life of all the parts.

I still don't have a complete picture of the space where this machine will live, but if the machine is substantially warmer than ambient and the space it lives in isn't finished, it'll attract bugs and vermin.

mikeblas: Not strictly on-topic here, but rsync over ssh sounds like a perfect match for your remote-backup idea. There's a win32 version here. Also of interest is Unison, which is bidirectional (changes on both ends are propagated). They're both command-line tools, so you can schedule them easily.

I'm going to use ROBOCOPY (a native Windows solution) and WebDrive (a cool utility that mounts an FTP connection as a shared drive). All the pieces are in place; I just have to set my ass down and write the AT script.

 

[Ghettobox]

To be honest with you guys..this thread has turned very hostile.

Noone knows what the average user needs in a file server? Funny. Cause three people have actually listed theirs..or their prospective builds. And all three looked EERILY similar didnt they. Funny how that worked. Amazing that the "average" file server is so elusive to some. And those who dare to make a reccomendation, based on either a) thier personal use or b) their personal experience are so quickly confronted with questions, arguments and opposing formulations.

Backup..are you f'n kidding me. I got some backup for you. Its called a damn DVD burner. We're talking movies..which if memory serves me correctly you OWN a damn copy of already. Music..which last I checked LEGALLY only came in CD/cassette/itunes style form. So you must OWN the damn original..right? What exactly are you then backing up? And at what point..given the entire 2.who the hell knows terrabyte data storage we're talking about ( I damn well know NOONE needs 2.X TERRABYTES of staorage for their Music/dvd/TV collection)..does backups become a fulltime gig?

By that theory..we need DUAL Itaniums...redundant PSU's..an offsite storage solution..fireproof safe for our tape backups etc. etc. etc. add a capable OS, Tape backup machine..and 100 tapes cause 20 years down the road they might be hard to come by. At this point we're well ove rthe 2k limit arent we? So what do you say we drop the pro IT stuff and get real.

Nevermind. What was a simple thread that had sound advice at page one has become a contest to see who can be thie bigger net guru.

MY FINAL specs.

OS...get linux. Its cheap..and works. Windows Server in any form legally runs $100 MINIMUM. Now your at $1900..

MOBO..get any damn dual P3 you can find. If it works now...your quite sure its stable. Max..$100

A pair of whatever speed P3 CPU's.. Price watch varies but $80 will score you some 933's.

Ram..get a gig and call it a day. $75-$150 depending on your needs. ECC, etc.

HD's. Who cares. If your board has SCSI onboard. Buy a decent brand 18 gig for your OS etc. Then dump as much as you want on SATA drives and a card. You will need a card if you run a P3 setup. Let say you go "safe" and drop $500.

case. Like I said the Codegen 4u on ebay with a 480w PSU is the current best deal IMHO. $100. No its not a redundant PSU..and in 3 years you'll never find a damn ATX PSU... but I say chance it.

You may or may not need a second NIC card. tops.. $30 for 10/100

DVD burner...instant DIRT CHEAP "backup" system. Good ones $100. My style $40

Total Build. All new components..$1100 give or take any incidentals. Odd stuff you may need depending on Mobo..your willingness to Ebay stuff...hunt in the For sale forum etc. I KNOW for a FACT I could build this for $500 with a bit of hunting/scrounging/recycling/shopping.

Good Luck Tman

 

[Tman]

Thanks guys.

To: Ghettobox
I understand exactly what you mean by saying get the duel P3's and etc. I agree
very cheap and easy way of doing that.

If my PIII setup breaks in a few years... it will be time to upgrade by then! and have no
problem doing that in a few years.


Backing everything-
everything I will be putting on this server will be on a disk. (I always have a hard copy)
I will probably use one of my old PIII computers to back up everything that I REALLY need.
So backing up is taken care of (feel free to help more though)

Cooling
Guys.. this is really under control. The custom Sever case will have 4x 120mm Fans to blow
through the case. The custom Tower for everything (networking, server, etc) is going to
have good venting that will have things to collect dust. Thinking about getting an old AC
cooling unit for it though that I can use to cool it in the summer though.


The things that I REALLY NEED is help on what parts to get. I am open to the Opteron
and a Duel PIII system. So please post and link to what you think I will need for each
system that will have a high of 4 users. (Sending and recieveing Video and Audio)

PIII system
MB
Processor
Ram
Raid Card
Powersupply
HD- 8x300g HD's

Opteron system
MB
Processor
Ram
Raid Card
Powersupply
HD- 8x300g HD's

 

[Ghettobox]

Tman

I just dont see the point in making this any mor edifficult than need be. The P3 stuff while not sexy..has one hell of a track record of stability. Its cheap, abundant, and thouroughly tested. It just plain works. Its not sexy like a new opteron..but it damn well does the job..and for what a 144 opty costs..you can have a dually with mobo..and maybe some ram to go with it.. As far sa finding parts down the road..lets get real. Parts...that will work for your needs have been around since the early 90's. They will continue to be around..regardless of what some may think. I can say with 100% certainty..if your PSU pops..you will be able to find a damn ATX psu in the next 3 years.

Backups are nice in theory. Even better on paper. Truth is for a MEDIA file server its a waste of time and money. If you feel the need to backup something..a DVD burner has you covered. Worst that happens is you have to reload a bunch of files from media you already own. No loss really. A loss of time yes..a pain in the ass...yes. End of days..hardly. Not to mention...how faithfull are you going to be to your backup's? Some cute girl comes over and wants to go swimming late at night..you going to say "Hey baby..got to backup my 3.6 TB raid array..so lets just say you hold your horses..huh?" Not real likely.

MOBO...seriously you would have a hard time picking a bad one. My personal faves are the Tyan Thunder LT-E series. Tualatin capable etc. $100 on ebay. Other notables Aopen DX34, ASUS CUR-DLS, ASUS CUV4X-DLS. All great boards. All available for less than Ben Franklin.

If you can score a set of 933's or 1ghz P3's your set. If you go the Tualatin setup..just spring for 1.4's. Pricewatch lists 1000's for $40. A set should run no more than $80... probably $75 on Ebay.

RAM.. like I said 1 gig of what your MOBO needs. Anymnore than that is a waste of funds that should be spent on HDD's

RAID card. Go to the egg. Whatever they have for the best price, and the amount of drives you want form a GOOD brand like Adaptec, Intel, Promise etc...buy it. Dont get hung up on models or brands. Buy a GOOD brand name chipset. easier support in Linux etc.

PSU. No idea. Aint never used nothing but generic. I guess Seasonic owuld be OK..or Antec. Then again size depends on your Case, Drives etc. You shouldnt need anymore than a 350 watt PSU though.

HDD's. 8 300's is A TON of space. While I dont htink you'll need near that. You better damn well buy whats on sale. Even a $10 difference on price totals almost $100 over 8 drives. Hitachi Drives usually are cheap and well rated. I prefer Seagate...or WD..but to each his own.

Opty your on your own. All i know is what you'll spend on a CPU and MOBO vs. a P3 setup costs you drives. And more than likely more than one.

 

[unhappy_mage]

Backup..are you f'n kidding me. I got some backup for you. Its called a damn DVD burner. We're talking movies..which if memory serves me correctly you OWN a damn copy of already. Music..which last I checked LEGALLY only came in CD/cassette/itunes style form. So you must OWN the damn original..right? What exactly are you then backing up? And at what point..given the entire 2.who the hell knows terrabyte data storage we're talking about ( I damn well know NOONE needs 2.X TERRABYTES of staorage for their Music/dvd/TV collection)..does backups become a fulltime gig?

Ripping CDs to Flac or your preferred format isn't instantaneous. Getting a good rip (with EAC, cdparanoia, etc.) can take a few minutes, not to mention media changes. Backing up one's music collection is a worthwhile investment in time. Same goes for DVDs.

And 2TB isn't too unreasonable an array for a DVD collection - that's only (only ) 400. I know I thought 600gb would last a lot longer than it has.

As for a single Opteron board with pci-x, the h8ssl-i from Supermicro looks theoretically good at about $225 (s939 and pci-x). But you can get a duallie with more pci-x slots (for future upgrades (gigE?)) for $275, though I don't know if I'd trust the company - they have no reviews on Froogle. Add the Supermicro AOC-SAT2-MV8 for $130 (it comes with 8 sata cables), a 246 (for better memory bandwidth in case you ever need it) (or a 146 if you get the single-proc board) for $250 or $180 respectively. PCP&C power supply for $200, Coolermaster Stacker case for $160, a gig of ram in two or four sticks for around $80 or $100. Hard drives to taste.

Assuming you go for the single-proc variant, the above build is $1000 plus disks (about $1k for 8x300 from ZZF). With Linux it'll get nice read/write speeds in raid 5 (plenty for the purpose) and plenty of stability. You might want to add 2 4-in-3 bay thingies at about $120 so you can have the drives in a smaller space and leave room for other things (they come with 120mm fans on the back, so the smaller space isn't a problem).

Sorry if the above is still kind of fuzzy. Without a hard number for budget, # of CPUs, type of CPU, everything is a shot in the dark. I think that makes a good single-opteron build, though. If someone comes up with a dual-p3 setup (just saw Ghettobox's; looks like he's shooting higher than I was thinking; my mobo and processors cost $100 total) then we're all set.

WRT buying disks on sale; "on sale" implies (in my mind) brick & mortar. Avoid it. Get the drives from ZipZoomFly; they've usually got free shipping, and the prices are only a $ or two more (and sometimes cheaper) than Newegg. In my mind the most important thing that happens to a hard drive before it gets to you is shipping and handling, and B&M employees are not gentle with hard drives (or anything else ) while ZZF ships hard drives in manufacturer-recommended foam.

 

[movax]

I'll rehash: in his case, the majority of the money is best spent on HDDs, but don't go overboard, as you can use the money you save towards the other PCs you stated you were building. Really, 4x300GB WDs drive are really enough unless you're a giant warez freak, have tons o anime, or need more drives for RAID or whatnot. Just having a bunch of disks (not even in JBOD) doesn't lag for me, though my bottleneck is the ATA interface on the drives, not the CPU or network. (It'll be a bit more before gigE network is the bottleneck ).

Ah, time to run, new ep of 24 ^_^

 

[Tman]

is there anway that you guys can tell me EXACTLY WHAT PARTS TO CHOOSE!
and link to where I can buy it.

PIII system
MB
Processor
Ram
Raid Card
Powersupply
HD- 8x300g HD's

Opteron system
MB
Processor
Ram
Raid Card
Powersupply
HD- 8x300g HD's

 

[unhappy_mage]

h8ssl-i$225
controller $132
146 $215
PCP&C PSU $220 + $7
CM Stacker $171
Ram $39+$5 (*2)
drives $124.75 (*8)
boot disk $51
Total: $2110 (1062 for computer, 998 for drives), I was a bit off on the price of the 146 and the PSU. You can probably find some parts at the same store (stacker, for example, at newegg) so you don't end up ordering from 6 stores listed. The board, the chip, and the controller are all hard-to-find, though, at the more popular sites, so those will likely have to be seperate stores. If you go elsewhere for the chip, make *sure* it's 939. A 144 or slower won't kill you.

Edit: added boot disk, which I strongly suggest.

Also, is it really that hard to use froogle? I just typed in part descriptions or model numbers, and got back a list of stores. Put some work into it, please.

 

[Tman]

Thank you VERY VERY MUCH!!!!
this is exactly what I need to know


no offence or etc but... if anyone else wants to through their ideas other there... please do so
tooo


Thanks again

 

[Tman]

Ockie just told me to do this-

Get an AMD 3200+ or something similar
As for motherboard, anything with a nf4 chipset, 8 sata and gigabit
PSU, anything around 500w, probably antec
ram, i prefer gskill memory, you need no more than 512mb
as for raid card, it depends what kinda raid, most boards can do some form of raid

 

[Xahok]

No one short of Production movie companies needs more than 4 of those. I call BS on anyone needing 3.6 TB of storage for their home video, TV, MP3 collection. You are either on the verge of being indicted by the FBI for Piracy, or living in your moms basement watching way too much porn.

Thank you.

 

[movax]

I'd recommend you check the FS/FT forum for the P3-class parts you need if you go that route, but you'll find Opteron parts/hardware abundantly as well. Lots of people have either dual P3 kits (or P3 procs/mobos) OR Athlon MP kits (sorry to throw another type of proc into this, but it'll do the job as well) for good prices. Just use the forum search feature

However, if I _had_ to build a new fileserver today, I'd probably grab dual Socket 603 Xeons (should be <$100), the respective mobo, a GB of RAM, and pour the rest into the amound of HDD I needed, and the cheapest RAID card possible from a somewhat reputable brand.

Speaking of that, the suggestion from Ockie makes sense in that way. I've heard good things about nvRAID, but a motherboard featuring 8 SATA ports + nvRAID and a A64/Opteron sounds sane as well.

I suppose it boils down to your mobo + CPU + HDD options. So far, what I've seen on thread:

1. Dual-P3s + PCI RAID Card
2. Opteron + PCI RAID Card
3. Opteron/A64 + Mobo w/ onboard RAID

Use froogle to estimate the costs, and choose. All will serve a home well, though the first choice is not future-proof.

 

[mikeblas]

Noone knows what the average user needs in a file server? Funny. Cause three people have actually listed theirs..or their prospective builds. And all three looked EERILY similar didnt they. Funny how that worked. Amazing that the "average" file server is so elusive to some. Amazing that the "average" file server is so elusive to some.

I don't think people here are typical computer users. Even if four more people have similar configurations, then it might mean it's typical for the higher-end user that frequents this forum, but is hardly a large enough sample to draw any real conclusion.

I'm sorry you feel so put out, but the fact is you can't make assumptions based on few data points and expect that the result fits everyone... particularly when you're thinking about the configuration of hardwre that isn't even owned by the nominal user in a market you're examining.

2.4 gigabytes is about 600 DVDs, I figure. I'd rather automate a job that has one machine copying its data over to another in the middle of the night than sit around and scrape (again!) 600 or more discs.

 

[Ockie]

Ockie just told me to do this-

Get an AMD 3200+ or something similar
As for motherboard, anything with a nf4 chipset, 8 sata and gigabit
PSU, anything around 500w, probably antec
ram, i prefer gskill memory, you need no more than 512mb
as for raid card, it depends what kinda raid, most boards can do some form of raid

The reason I chose this setup is becuase it gives the most impact for your dollar. It's not a massive file box, it's not going to be streaming to thousands of clients... it's going to be used for a home.

Reason I chose a bit more modern cpu is incase if he wanted to use a media player (network dvd player comes to mind) to stream from this unit and have it convert on the fly...

I have another little file server using those components and I can stream to two + tv's at the same time without any letdown and it's fast enough to perform everything I need to do.


Now I do have a 10tb file server, thats Galaxy, it's meant for a lot more traffic and a lot more data, so it's warranted that the specs are significantly higher.


When people think of file servers, they instantly think of purchasing a 3ware controller for $500, the reality is ithat almost no one here needs a controller like that and I can gurantee you no one would use a $500 controller to its fullest extent for home use. The on board controllers are great controllers especially on the newer boards... some do have a basic function of raid and others has no raid... in fact some even has raid5. So it might be worth venturing in testing out the onboard controllers first before you dig in.


Let me build you a machine online and post it here, it will give you an idea what you can get away with. But AFAIC, you don't need a power house for that bit of storage.

 

[Ockie]

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Keep in mind that you can shave off over 200 more on this setup by just shopping at diffrent stores, this is just to give you an idea.

 

[Tman]

Thank you Ackie

 

[Ockie]

Price hunting time:

Case - $66 plus $15 ship
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16811125469

320GB Drives - $129 free 2 day ship
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=101252
I chose the 320's because they are only a few $$ more than 300's.

80GB System drive - $53 free 2 day ship
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=101318

Motherboard $119 plus $5 ship
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813130484

Video card $38 plus $5 ship
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814127204
I chose this card because it's an awesome card, you can save more by going to geeks.com Oh and this card has DVI

PSU $79 plus $6 ship
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16817103931

To save lots of money on the CPU, buy it used, here is one with a hyper heatsink... awesome deal and free ship!!! $85
http://cgi.ebay.com/Athlon-64-3200-...845152446QQcategoryZ80139QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Other people sells these for 100 on the forums with oem heatsink. I highly recomend you buy it used.

Memory $36 plus $5 ship
512MB is all you need
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820231029

Drive bay adapters, you will need 3 of these $15 (I'd buy enough for all my bays for future expansion
http://www.coolerguys.com/840556008095.html


$1559 including shipping for 2.64TB

 

[Ockie]

You took too long with the processor price, somone just bought it Actually, I should have just snapped that up, was a great deal.

 

[movax]

All I have to say is, share the, ahem, legit apps and games that will be residing on those HDDs once you have it built

 

[mikeblas]

Reason I chose a bit more modern cpu is incase if he wanted to use a media player (network dvd player comes to mind) to stream from this unit and have it convert on the fly...

Yeah; it seems like scraping or encoding on this machine might be a decent idea, and having enough CPU to do the job wouldn't be a bad idea. It's up to Tman, though.

When people think of file servers, they instantly think of purchasing a 3ware controller for $500, the reality is ithat almost no one here needs a controller like that and I can gurantee you no one would use a $500 controller to its fullest extent for home use.

Actually, the reason I assumed a RAID card would be necessary is just for the number of connections. To support enough drives, we'd need six or eight SATA plugs. You've found a motherboard which has that onboard, which is great. You don't need to spend $500, though -- you can get an eight-port SATA 64-bit PCI card for about $200, like the HighPoint 1820A.

Are you using onboard controllers to get RAID5 on any of your motherboards, BTW? It's still software RAID 5 for those onboard controllers these days -- how's performance compare to a hardware solution? I think a firmware upgrade is available for my S2882 to get RAID 5, but I haven't fooled with it yet.

 

[Ockie]

Are you using onboard controllers to get RAID5 on any of your motherboards, BTW? It's still software RAID 5 for those onboard controllers these days -- how's performance compare to a hardware solution? I think a firmware upgrade is available for my S2882 to get RAID 5, but I haven't fooled with it yet.

Naw. RAID5 takes up too much space thats needed. I'd rather backup valuable information and hope the drive doesn't crash. If I really wanted good redundancy, I'd bust out a Proliant server with a real RAID controller


I was just tossing it out there as an option. I'd recommend that he sticks with JBOD so he can maximize space and eliminate the need for more expensive hardware components. Also, if he uses some form of media unit to play videos/movies/music, then it would automatically sort all the media in one section (in other words, no drive surfing)

 

[Tman]

WOW
Thank you very much Ackie!!! you are the man!!!

That system right there looks perfect and I am
soo happy that you took the time to help me
out. Actually.. Thank You ALL for your help.

but your not off the hook yet guys
what is JBOD?
what Raid should I use?


thanks again
Tyler

 

[movax]

JBOD is "Just a Bunch of Disks", turns your drives into one giant drive to the OS.
RAID 0 stripes data across disks, and you get to use all your drives' capacity. Nice performance, but if one drive fails, ALL data goes poof[/b[.
RAID 1 mirrors data, but you only get to use half your capacity. e.g, two 300GB drives in RAID 1 will have 300GB storage only, with the other drive mirroring the first one.
For more explanation, check the Wikipedia Article on RAID.

Note that most mobos support RAID 0, 1, 0+1 (I believe) and JBOD. For other RAID levels, you'll have to go for a hardware RAID card. Since iirc, you're getting a mobo with onboard SATA ports, you should stick with what your mobo supports to save some money.

 

[Tman]

thanks for the link... but I am still lost ;/
lol

 

[movax]

For your application of a simple file server, and to use all the available capacity of your disks, simply JBOD'ing them would make your life very easy. True RAID levels other than 0 will require to sacrifice a drive for mirroring or parity, so you'd lose that storage capacity.

 

[Tman]

k, thanks

soo could i use the 80g HD for my OS then the rest of the HD's for JBOD?

Can my motherboard do JBOD? or do I have to get something to do it with?


Thanks again for all your help

 

[movax]

Yes, the 80GB as OS would work, with the rest as storage.

newegg seems to imply that the mobo can only do JBOD on the PATA controller, but MSI's website states:

On-Board IDE/SATA
• An IDE controller on the nVIDIA nForce4 Ultra chipset provides IDE HDD/CD-ROM with PIO, Bus Master and Ultra DMA133/100/66 operation modes.
- Can connect up to 4 IDE devices • NV RAID supports 4 SATA ports (SATA1-4). Transfer rate is up to 300MB/s.
• NV RAID (Software)
- Supports up to 4 SATA plus 2 ATA 133 Hard drives
- RAID 0 or 1, 0+1, JBOD is supported
- RAID function work w/ ATA 133 + SATA H/D or 2 SATA H/D
• Silicon Image's SATARAID5 supports another 4 SATA ports(SATA5-8). Transfer rate is up to 150MB/s
- RAID 0 or 1, RAID5, RAID10, and JBOD groups are supported
- Support up to 4 SATA devices connected to a single controller

So it seems like both controllers are capable of JBOD.

 

[unhappy_mage]

JBOD is "Just a Bunch of Disks", turns your drives into one giant drive to the OS.
RAID 0 stripes data across disks, and you get to use all your drives' capacity. Nice performance, but if one drive fails, ALL data goes poof.

JBOD suffers from many of the problems that raid 0 has. Losing a disk won't kill your data for sure, true, but if it's the first one you're in trouble and will probably have to send it out to a data recovery service for $$$.

You can do JBOD with dynamic disks in winxp. You need a 'server' version of windows to get raid 5 capability.

 

[Tman]

k, soo JBOD is what I am going to go with

Can anyone give me info on installing it and etc?
since... I have only done Raid 0

 

[movax]

I believe since its a nf4 board, you can use the nvRAID utility. Docs should be online, as should basic tuts on getting it setup.

 

[Ockie]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JBOD