NAS Overhaul - Refresh Time!

[VenomousDesigns]

It's been a few years since I stuck my head in here after the fantastic help I had building my own NAS (http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1546329) - its still going strong but I have unfortunately run out of space haha!

My Setup:

CPU: Intel Quad-Core Xeon X3440 2.53 GHz, 8MB Cache, 2.5 GT/Sec, Socket LGA 1156
MB: Supermicro X8SIA-F
RAM: Kingston KVR1333D3E9SK2/4G 2x2GB 1333MHz DDR3 ECC Reg CL9 DIMM
PSU:Corsair AX-850
Controller: SuperMicro AOC-USAS2-L8e
Misc: HP SAS Expander
HDDs: 11xSamsung F3 1TBs + 4xSamsung F4EG 2TB
Case: Norco 4224

Two of the Samsung 2TB F4EG are running as PPU in my FlexRAID setup.

Since then I haven't done much to the system, the FlexRAID has unfortunately stopped working and I thought it was time to take a look at what I need to do to bring the system into the New Year!

From what I can see the system hardware is running/should be fine - but things I need to look at are:

1. Expanding Space - more HDDs. Do I need to replace what I have now, or can I simply add to my Norco? All those years ago, Samsung was the 'bees knees' but since their sale I have heard mixed reviews about Hitachi and Western Digital - really my only options now.

What is the 'go to' storage HDD these days? WD Green 3TBs?

2. As my FlexRAID has stopped functioning, I need to look at either repurchasing FlexRAID and rebuilding my 'storage' or look at another option - XFS/Solaris and alike. Since I've been AWOL for sometime, any of the gurus have any input on this?

My OS HDD is just a 300GB Samsung I had laying around, I'm thinking I may purchase a SSD to run whatever OS I decide on. Keep in mind I already have a Server 2008 R2 license, but more than happy to switch to Linux as mentioned above if deemed the way to go now.

Thanks for your help as always - glad to be back !

 

[Dangman]

1) No real need to replace anything since you still have room for 7 to 8 more hard drives. For the hard drives, the WD Red 3TB drives are popular. I'm not sure if your controller supports newer 4TB+ hard drives.

2) There's a lot of options out there. But the two main ones I see around the forum these days are:
- SnapRAID
- ZFS.

Both are very solid options so it really comes down to which one has the least troublesome features for you. Though ZFS is often dismissed outright due to its greater complexity and relative inflexibility in terms of HDD expansion, I still highly recommend reading this article first before dismissing it:
http://arstechnica.com/information-...-and-atomic-cows-inside-next-gen-filesystems/

Other options I see from time to time:
- UnRAID: Apparently it's been getting some performance improvements. Which addresses the second reason why I rarely recommended it (first being that you had to pay for it)
- Storage spaces. Comes bundled with WIndows 8.1 and Windows 2012 R2, it functions like the old drive extender feature of Windows Home Server but better in every way. Simple to use.

 

[MAGAT]

just curious. what happened to your flexraid? why would you have to repurchase it?

 

[snakethejake]

Sorry, but this statement is completely incorrect. Storage spaces has more in common with ZFS than it does with drive extender. And that's not a bad thing, but it is way more complex than you are stating and has been created as an enterprise grade storage solution.

For instance, you can't expand it one drive at a time unless you are simply spanning (striping) the drives with no redundancy. To expand, you must add the same number of drives as your initial array. So if you started with two drives mirrored, you must add two more drives to add usable space for the volume.

You will need to understand storage pooling concepts and how your aggregates are laid out on the drives in the pool. There really is a lot to consider when using it and it should be researched and planned out thoroughly, just like a ZFS array. You can even add SSDs for write caching, and on Windows Server you can also use SSDs for storage tiering to cache reads; all very similar to ZFS.

It really can't be compared to drive extender in any way, and actually was never meant to be a replacement.

Jake

1)
- Storage spaces. Comes bundled with WIndows 8.1 and Windows 2012 R2, it functions like the old drive extender feature of Windows Home Server but better in every way. Simple to use.

 

[VenomousDesigns]

1) No real need to replace anything since you still have room for 7 to 8 more hard drives. For the hard drives, the WD Red 3TB drives are popular. I'm not sure if your controller supports newer 4TB+ hard drives.

2) There's a lot of options out there. But the two main ones I see around the forum these days are:
- SnapRAID
- ZFS.

Both are very solid options so it really comes down to which one has the least troublesome features for you. Though ZFS is often dismissed outright due to its greater complexity and relative inflexibility in terms of HDD expansion, I still highly recommend reading this article first before dismissing it:
http://arstechnica.com/information-...-and-atomic-cows-inside-next-gen-filesystems/

Other options I see from time to time:
- UnRAID: Apparently it's been getting some performance improvements. Which addresses the second reason why I rarely recommended it (first being that you had to pay for it)
- Storage spaces. Comes bundled with WIndows 8.1 and Windows 2012 R2, it functions like the old drive extender feature of Windows Home Server but better in every way. Simple to use.

Thanks so much for the reply - I'm seeing that SnapRAID is a good option without the hassle of completely relearning, rebuilding and alike that comes with ZFS.

I'll need to look at more closely at SnapRAID vs FlexRAID to see if I should just stick with what I have after I add more drives.

Basically from what I understand (and is the same with FlexRAID) if I move to the WD 3TB HDDs, my PPU will need to match that - which is fine because my two PPU drives currently are broken so I'll just format and move them to 'Data Drives'. From there in a perfect world I'd like to:

1. Be able to have individual HDDs still, I don't care for a 'pooled' solution - I have a program which I use to index my HDDs - so that 'feature' that some desires is not required. I believe both Flex/Snap do this?

2. Snapshot RAID is fine because my Data is quite static - I just use it for backup of my Movie collection, Family items and alike. Again I believe both do this?

From what I can see, both provide similar implementations (correct me if I am wrong) just with FlexRAID being able to do both Realtime/Snapshot while SnapRAID is simply the later. Also to factor in costs, SnapRAID is free.

just curious. what happened to your flexraid? why would you have to repurchase it?

I had FlexRAID back in the day it wasn't commercial - the license/application expired LONG ago and I have just been meaning 'to get around' to it ever since. The excuse of running out of space has prompted me to look at what 'new' solutions are out there.

 

[Dangman]

Sorry, but this statement is completely incorrect. Storage spaces has more in common with ZFS than it does with drive extender. And that's not a bad thing, but it is way more complex than you are stating and has been created as an enterprise grade storage solution.

For instance, you can't expand it one drive at a time unless you are simply spanning (striping) the drives with no redundancy. To expand, you must add the same number of drives as your initial array. So if you started with two drives mirrored, you must add two more drives to add usable space for the volume.

You will need to understand storage pooling concepts and how your aggregates are laid out on the drives in the pool. There really is a lot to consider when using it and it should be researched and planned out thoroughly, just like a ZFS array. You can even add SSDs for write caching, and on Windows Server you can also use SSDs for storage tiering to cache reads; all very similar to ZFS.

It really can't be compared to drive extender in any way, and actually was never meant to be a replacement.

Jake

I withdraw my earlier statement.

 

[VenomousDesigns]

Would love to hear back from others with their input .