Hypothetical media server advice

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GJSNeptune

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Originally I was going to build a small-scale WHS box to centralize my media because I'm tired of moving it around and manually copying directories to other drives for "backup,' but I've started backing up my movies to my hard drives, so I'm going to need way more storage. I plan to get either SageTV or PopcornHour to stream movies to my TV, so whatever I build needs to be compatible with media extenders.

My main concern is backup. Ripping movies takes forever, so I'd like all the data to be backed up because I will kill myself if I have to re-rip movies. I'm guessing this means I'll want to set up RAID 1 or something? This would be taken care of by the SATA controller(s), correct?

People worship the Norco 4020/4220, so I would consider using one. If I win the lottery and fill it with 20 1.5TB+ hard drives, can I split them into two groups of 10 in RAID? I'd have 10 drives for data, and the other 10 to backup that data. What would be the best configuration for this?
 
i would not go with raid 1 however i would look to go WHS with replication

or if you have a big enough collection ftp/xcopy/robocopy it to another machine at regular intervals
 
if you're planning on using WHS merely enable duplication on the folder containing your ripped movies

no faffing around with raid

job done

AFAIK if a drive died in the raid 10 array the side containing that failed drive would be a gonna. if that is the case, if a drive on both side of the 10 array died you'd be (insert explitive here)

with WHS if a drive dies, tell WHS it won't be returning, replace, have WHS rebuild database. job done.
 
I'd like everything contained in one machine.

If not RAID, then what are some reasonably priced non-RAID SATA II controllers?
 
GJSNeptune said:
I'd like everything contained in one machine.

If not RAID, then what are some reasonably priced non-RAID SATA II controllers?
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So wait, you want to use the norco as an entertainment box?
 
GJSNeptune said:
A WHS box.
Click to expand...

Heres what to do:

Norco 4020 or 4220 depending on what you want the 4020 has SATA(will accept SAS drive) Backplane better airflow thus queiter fans, while latter has miniSAS backplane, better drive trays, but louder fans.

Supermicro SASLP-MV8 - pcie 8ports, no raid, miniSAS cables makes cable mgt easy.

Any SATA or SAS drive you have laying around.
Any mobo, cpu, ram combo you have laying around

I ran my WHS on a PIII 733mhz for about a year, and it worked good.
You dont need quad core or anything expensive.
I suggest at least 2gb ram.

If you want higher transfer rates, I would suggest upgrading the NIC
 
In these Norco cases, do you have to use one of the 20 bays for the OS drive? Also, I see that most people have a slim optical drive in their configurations. Is there an advantage to having one permanently installed? I plan to connect a spare optical drive to install WHS and leave the box without an optical drive.
 
if you're using the server to rip dvds would it not be useful to have a dvd drive in the server?
 
GJSNeptune said:
In these Norco cases, do you have to use one of the 20 bays for the OS drive? Also, I see that most people have a slim optical drive in their configurations. Is there an advantage to having one permanently installed? I plan to connect a spare optical drive to install WHS and leave the box without an optical drive.
Click to expand...

There is one hidden drive for the system drive.

The optical is great to have for whatever comes your way, it's like having a spare tire on your car.... you never know when you gonna need it... and when you do, you're glad you put it in there.
 
I'm not going to have a rack, so if I need to connect an optical drive for whatever reason, I can open up the case and hook one up.
 
GJSNeptune said:
I'm not going to have a rack, so if I need to connect an optical drive for whatever reason, I can open up the case and hook one up.
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Thats the same as saying "don't worry, I'll just drive the flat tire to the tire shop"


Believe it or not, it's easier to replace an optical drive on a real server than it is in non-racked component.


Optical drives are cheap, it's just good advice to keep one on you, so you don't need to do anything when the time comes. It's really up to you, that was just my advice. I like to have a super clean wiring job, so having to toss in an cable, run power to it would mean that I would have to unbundle my neat wire job... so that's one of the main reasons why I just prefer to have one already pre-installed.


Why is it that you ask for advice and when we give you advice you snap back at it?
 
Ockie said:
Thats the same as saying "don't worry, I'll just drive the flat tire to the tire shop"
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Similes are like pure uselessness.

Ockie said:
Believe it or not, it's easier to replace an optical drive on a real server than it is in non-racked component.

Optical drives are cheap, it's just good advice to keep one on you, so you don't need to do anything when the time comes. It's really up to you, that was just my advice.
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Slim drives aren't that cheap. Still, I don't foresee any need to have an optical drive permanently installed. If I need to mess with BIOS or something, I can probably manage it with a thumb drive if I don't feel like opening up the case and connecting an optical drive temporarily.

Ockie said:
Why is it that you ask for advice and when we give you advice you snap back at it?
Click to expand...
When did I snap?
 
GJSNeptune said:
Similes are like pure uselessness.
Click to expand...

If you don't like to listen to advice, then don't ask it.

GJSNeptune said:
Slim drives aren't that cheap. Still, I don't foresee any need to have an optical drive permanently installed. If I need to mess with BIOS or something, I can probably manage it with a thumb drive if I don't feel like opening up the case and connecting an optical drive temporarily.
Click to expand...

12-16 bucks is expensive?
 
Ockie said:
If you don't like to listen to advice, then don't ask it.

12-16 bucks is expensive?
Click to expand...
I still don't see where I snapped about someone's advice. A simile isn't advice.

Where are you finding slim drives for $16?
 
GJSNeptune said:
I still don't see where I snapped about someone's advice. A simile isn't advice.

Where are you finding slim drives for $16?
Click to expand...


Ebay, tons of them. Any slim drive will work. I'll even sell my spare DVD-RW slim drive for $20 shipped if you are interested... I have a few of them.
 
I don't want to get ahead of myself. Doing all my research first. Then robbing banks.
 
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