Help a *nix newb setup a home server

[bastage]

So long story short I know just enough about the usage of linux to be dangerous. But not nearly enough to make an informed decision. SageTV is gone so I want to get rid of WHS from my server & go *nix of some flavor.

Hardware:
Mobo - Asus AMD 740 Chipset
CPU - Phenom 9150e (60w quad core @ 1.8Ghz)
NIC - Intel PCI 1Gbit
Raid - IBM m1015 sas
HDD - All 5400 rpm Samsung's 1z @ 1TB, 2x @ 1.5TB, 3x @ 2TB
Case - Lian Li A04b
PSU - Corsair cx430
Ram - 4gb Corsair DDR2 800
Optical - Some old IDE drive that I don't even think works

Also planning to add a Faster boot drive. Will be a 8gb SSD (maybe 16gb if I think I'm going to need more space), or either my Samsung 500GB mp4 7200 RPM 2.5" drive that I am currently using for steam games if I upgrade that to a 3.5" f3 since I now have the room, or possibly my 64gb c300 that is the boot drive in my Desktop if I come across a good deal on a larger g3 drive. This way all the storage drives are just storage.

So what I need is pretty simple as at this point it will basically be hosting video files to be snatched by my desktop & the 3x Apple TV2's running XBMC to stream content to the other rooms. I would like some sort of redundancy & dont want to have to replace current drives to do it so traditional raid's are out as far as I know. I was thinking something with greyhole (amahi maybe) or if it will work ZFS. I am fairly clueless to ZFS or how it works, but I see it recommended often for this type of need. Greyhole I have never used before, but if I understand correctly it is basically a *nix version of WHS's DE.

Any input on what would be the simplest & most reliable would be much appreciated.

Edit: Also I do not have a way of backing up all my data to anything else beyond the current drives, so I cannot enter all the drives into whatever I am going to be using all at once (about 4tb of the 10tb is used.

 

[john4200]

If you have any non-media data mixed in with all the media files, I'd segregate that out and find a separate backup method for that data. By non-media data, I mean any data that is changed frequently and/or the files are modified. Media data is generally write-once, read often.

For your media data, I think SnapRAID or FlexRAID is your best bet. I prefer SnapRAID, since it is open source, but SnapRAID is fairly new and not GUI-based (although there is a guy working on a GUI).

http://snapraid.sourceforge.net/

 

[bastage]

If you have any non-media data mixed in with all the media files, I'd segregate that out and find a separate backup method for that data. By non-media data, I mean any data that is changed frequently and/or the files are modified. Media data is generally write-once, read often.

For your media data, I think SnapRAID or FlexRAID is your best bet. I prefer SnapRAID, since it is open source, but SnapRAID is fairly new and not GUI-based (although there is a guy working on a GUI).

http://snapraid.sourceforge.net/

There is very little that I would call non Media.. Maybe a couple GB total worth of assorted files, but definitely nothing worth its own method for backup (and what is modifies regularly it is still on a weekly to monthly basis not a daily basis).

SnapRAID seems interesting. It appears to basically be a way of duplicating the data, but then requires more to do the rest of what I need. & it definitely appears to be above my head.

 

[Dangman]

Hmm, considering that you have drives of different sizes, a traditional RAID array or a ZFS array is probably out of the question. I would not go with Amahi + Greyhole as it's still relatively experimental at this point.

I would check out FlexRAID if you're looking for a bit of redundancy. Fairly solid and stable. Also unRAID might be a candidate as well.

 

[bastage]

Hmm, considering that you have drives of different sizes, a traditional RAID array or a ZFS array is probably out of the question. I would not go with Amahi + Greyhole as it's still relatively experimental at this point.

I would check out FlexRAID if you're looking for a bit of redundancy. Fairly solid and stable. Also unRAID might be a candidate as well.

its not really amahi+greyhole though is it. Isn't amahi just a web interface over fedora 14 with greyhole support.

Edit: ok so is unRAID a feature that could be added to another nix distro or a complete distro on its own. FlexRAID appears to be more in depth then what I am willing to do.

 

[Jesse B]

It'd also just be easy enough to set up multiple arrays (2x1.5TB for one, 3x2TB for the other), which would still allow you to utilize standard software raid or ZFS.

 

[bastage]

It'd also just be easy enough to set up multiple arrays (2x1.5TB for one, 3x2TB for the other), which would still allow you to utilize standard software raid or ZFS.

Uhmm as in Multiple Raid 1's or raid 5.. That would waste extra space compared to a pooled product.

 

[Jesse B]

Uhmm as in Multiple Raid 1's or raid 5.. That would waste extra space compared to a pooled product.

True, that'd still give you 5.5TB of usable space though. Was just pointing out that this is an option, wasn't saying it was the best or most efficient option.

 

[Dangman]

its not really amahi+greyhole though is it. Isn't amahi just a web interface over fedora 14 with greyhole support.

Huh? Isn't that Amahi + Greyhole? Greyhole is a separate technology and can be used with other OSes.

Edit: ok so is unRAID a feature that could be added to another nix distro or a complete distro on its own.

Complete distro on its own IIRC.

FlexRAID appears to be more in depth then what I am willing to do.

Hmmm.....

 

[bastage]

Huh? Isn't that Amahi + Greyhole? Greyhole is a separate technology and can be used with other OSes.

Right & so is Amahi for the most part. Thats why there is a in devilment Ubuntu version. Basically I was saying that it is just greyhole to be concerned with.

Complete distro on its own IIRC.

This is what I thought. Honestly I am not comfortable enough in the setup with anything *nix that doesn't have a easy to follow GUI.

Hmmm.....

Same as above.. I don't trust myself not to break shit & loose my own data if it isn't simple to setup.

 

[john4200]

Now that you have shot down everyone's suggestions, your only remaining option is to hire a computer consultant to set up your system and maintain it for you.

 

[bastage]

Now that you have shot down everyone's suggestions, your only remaining option is to hire a computer consultant to set up your system and maintain it for you.

Well...

Any input on what would be the simplest & most reliable would be much appreciated.

As nobody has recommended anything that I would consider to be simple I guess nobody has made a suggestion to what I was asking int he 1st place so I haven't shot down anyone's suggestions.

I am not opposed to a little command line configuring or tweaking, but not a complete command line setup. I am well aware of my limits & am not willing to exceed them when there are options that don't require me to when my data is at hand. If I was setting up a 2nd server from scratch so I could leave my WHS up & running it may be a different story, but as I am not I need something with less learning involved.

Edit: anyone know of anything like Open Media Vault available to the public. I may even give freenas another whirl (used it along time ago before it was bought & the main guy spun off to do OMV)

 

[Dangman]

Unfortunately "simple" and "linux" or any sort of open source OS don't exactly go together. The closest that I can think that's "simple" is Amahi + Greyhole but since it's relatively new, not exactly the best to trust your data with.

The simplest option in general is pretty much WHS. No open source solution can begin to touch WHS when it comes to simplicity.

 

[Jesse B]

Most of the options suggested don't involve more than a few commands to be run. They're about as simple as a *nix system will get. If you want a GUI to hold your hand through everything then go with WHS.

 

[bastage]

Unfortunately "simple" and "linux" or any sort of open source OS don't exactly go together. The closest that I can think that's "simple" is Amahi + Greyhole but since it's relatively new, not exactly the best to trust your data with.

The simplest option in general is pretty much WHS. No open source solution can begin to touch WHS when it comes to simplicity.

Once upon a time ago when I used freenas it was extremely simple, but from what I understood it was pretty much dead ended.. Though I just noticed they have a newer version out then last I used it so when I get my drives prepped to start this whole process I will probably give it a shot & then if it doesnt work out install Fedora with the Amahi repo's.

And I have had enough problems with WHS that I didnt have with ubuntu, Slack, FreeNas or any other *nix platform that I ahve used previously that its not going to be kept. I would jsut really like to keep the DE like functions with the select-able redundancy.

 

[john4200]

As nobody has recommended anything that I would consider to be simple I guess nobody has made a suggestion to what I was asking int he 1st place so I haven't shot down anyone's suggestions.

No officer, I didn't shoot him. I was just shooting my gun and he got in the way of the bullets...

 

[bastage]

No officer, I didn't shoot him. I was just shooting my gun and he got in the way of the bullets...

well it was his own fault for dancing around at the receiving end of a firing range marked for another topic..

 

[Red Falcon]

Unfortunately "simple" and "linux" or any sort of open source OS don't exactly go together.

+1

Linux is not an easy OS, you have to 'mold' it to what you require or what you are doing. But that is why is has so many advantages over Windows or OS X (among other OSes).

bastage, you said you liked FreeNAS, but I have bad news for you: FreeNAS is a very unstable OS and outside of setting up a quick, temporary media/file server, it is not a good choice. It is very unstable, unreliable, and does not have the updates or major backing that other UNIX and UNIX-like OSes have.

Ubuntu Server or a Solaris-distro would be your best choices for security, options, support, and updates. ZFS or software RAID are both very good for what they are, depending on your needs.

If you REALLY need simple, go with OS X Server and be done with it. Boring GUI, thought-less setup, and mindless computing. You probably won't get very far though, since simple /= customisability.

Other than that, you may need to learn a few things about Linux and UNIX before you continue.

Both john4200 and Danny Bui gave you some great suggestions. I'm not even really sure what you want at this point.

 

[gboudreau]

I would jsut really like to keep the DE like functions with the select-able redundancy.

The only thing on Linux that does what DE did is Greyhole.
No other system or software has user-selectable redundancy level (per folder).
This was a requirement for me, and the reason I wrote Greyhole instead of using anything else that might have been comparable.

Now, even Amahi, which integrates a version (not always the latest) of Greyhole isn't command-line-free.
For example, here's the wiki page about adding additional hard drives:
http://wiki.amahi.org/index.php/Adding_a_second_hard_drive_to_your_HDA
It's not really rocket science (it's mostly copy-paste really), but it's still more involved than following a wizard, like it is in WHS.

I'm currently writing a UI for Greyhole, which should take care of most, if not all, command-line mumbo-jumbo required to setup and use Greyhole. But it won't be ready until 1.0 is released (target is later this year.....)

Until that happens, I'm sorry to inform you that there just isn't an alternative to WHS' DE on Linux that doesn't require at least some command-line know-how.

 

[gboudreau]

About Greyhole 1.0:
Here's the still open issues list: https://github.com/gboudreau/Greyhole/issues?milestone=1&state=open
As you can see, it contains a single bug; all other issues are improvements I deem necessary for a 1.0 'at-large' release.
Greyhole latest version (0.9.9) has been quite stable.
With the ability to read Greyhole files without Greyhole installed (a nice DE feature I needed too), and it's Recycle Bin feature, I'm pretty confident that data handled by Greyhole is quite safe.

 

[bastage]

The only thing on Linux that does what DE did is Greyhole..

Then Greyhole wins by default

Now, even Amahi, which integrates a version (not always the latest) of Greyhole isn't command-line-free.
For example, here's the wiki page about adding additional hard drives:
http://wiki.amahi.org/index.php/Adding_a_second_hard_drive_to_your_HDA
It's not really rocket science (it's mostly copy-paste really), but it's still more involved than following a wizard, like it is in WHS.

Yep I was already aware of that to add drives you had to go command line. & even with clear cut directions its still fairly scary to someone with limited experience.

And gboudreau thank you for your post's. It says alot when someone register's to respond to a topic they are familiar with.

 

[bastage]

@gboudreau am I understanding this right, I can add a populated drive to the storage pool without loosing my data? Does this work with NTFS or just ext*? I am going to be installing the OS onto a 32gb SSDso all the mechanical drives can be added at once if this is the case.

 

[Sparkyy]

Figured I would chime in on this and say I just switched from Server 2008 to unRAID as I liked the idea of having somewhat of a safety net for my data. Yes, RAID or any flavor of RAID is not a true backup, but at least should one of my TB+ drives die, I won't lose everything on that drive.

It's nice as it is almost completely GUI and anything that needs to be put in at a command line is written out.

Plus like the fact that the entire OS sits on a flash drive.

 

[Duff76]

Figured I would chime in on this and say I just switched from Server 2008 to unRAID as I liked the idea of having somewhat of a safety net for my data. Yes, RAID or any flavor of RAID is not a true backup, but at least should one of my TB+ drives die, I won't lose everything on that drive.

It's nice as it is almost completely GUI and anything that needs to be put in at a command line is written out.

Plus like the fact that the entire OS sits on a flash drive.

I want to second or third this. I've been using this for quite a few years and it works very well. Booting off a flash drive is nice since you won't have to buy another drive. Everything you need to set it up and administer it is done through the GUI, no command line. It basically works like WHS with DE, but with parity protection. It's very easy to setup and run and is perfect for storing media files. Check it out on the web, the forum is also very extensive and helpful.

 

[bastage]

well with all I have heard about unRAID it seems promising.. Seems to carry the same following that FreeNas used to. I may consider it if Amahi doesn't work out. At this point though I have already ordered a 32gb SSD for my boot drive so it would feel like a gross waste if I ended up putting on an OS that can run off a flash drive.