Media Server: Software or Hardware RAID, Windows or Linux?

[Time2Kill]

I'm getting ready to setup my HTPC system but I need to get all my media into a central server. I'm planning on a huge RAID 5 array, 8x400gb disks, but I dont know how I should go about it. What are the advantages to running software/hardware raid and using Linux or Windows.

I want something that I can easily add storage to down the road, and if a drive fails, that I can easily replace it and not run into any issues. Any recommendations on what I should do? It will mainly be for serving DVDs and recorded TV shows throughout the house via gigabit network.

 

[drizzt81]

Linux: less capital investment (money), but -unless you are a guru already- most likely more time investment; more RAID levels supported in software; more customizable if you want a special solution

Windows: more capital investment (money), but less time investment; 'only' supports RAID-0/1/5; no nested RAID levels; less customizable.

Hardware: more capital investment, less time investment; depending upon the amount of cash investment, can be less flexible than software alternative, but can match the software on most terms, if you have the right controller; small amount of CPU overhead for RAID-5 writes; could be more portable, since the RAID controller is likely to be in charge of the array, therefore you may be able to migrate the array 'easily' between Linux and Windows, provided that the filesystem is compatible; moving from one machine to another (same OS) is a "breeze" provided that you connect all the HDDs to the same ports as before.

Software: more time investment (likely), less capital investment; it is likely to be more flexible in terms of setup and expansion, but that depends somewhat on the OS; likely a "large" amount of CPU overhead when compared to HW RAID-5;may support more RAID levels than Hardware, once again depends on controller; Software RAID arrays are very likely to be bound not only to a single OS, but also to a single machine, it is likely that moving an array from one machine to another is difficult and may lead to data loss.

 

[Time2Kill]

I was under the impression that software raid under Linux made the array easily portable to another Linux machine and made it easy to add/remove drives etc.

 

[unhappy_mage]

I was under the impression that software raid under Linux made the array easily portable to another Linux machine and made it easy to add/remove drives etc.

Portable, yes. I've moved an array between controllers with no issues. Remove and then re-add drives, yes, although it'll then rebuild the array. Add drives I haven't checked, since I only bought 3 and thus can't add a drive to a raid 5 array.

Is your goal here just a storage machine (with a "display" machine elsewhere), or a machine that stores the data and plays it back as well? Either way, I'm going to recommend Linux for either application. MythTV does a good job of making media accessible, and software raid is plenty for media-playback stuff. Even if you get stuck without DMA (like me, temporarily) it won't be a problem unless you've got a few users hitting the same share. Most video is less than 1MB/s, and you'd have to do something *completely* wrong to get that .

HTH

 

[Time2Kill]

The goal of this machine is just to be setup in a server rack to serve media to several other PCs in the house. Havn't decided yet wether I want to run SageTV or MythTV. I'm leaning towards SageTV since most of the computers are Windows and I won't be able to switch them to Linux anytime soon.