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Hey guys, Im looking for some advice for setting up a server to use for storage and backup at home. Additionally, Id like to run Apache to have a light web server as well. The goal is to have a system to support two MacBook Pros and a Mac mini. Data is mostly photos, music and documents so Im currently targeting in the ~1.5TB available range.
The first question is selecting a reasonable backup strategy. Since this is a home application, Im not too concerned with uptime, I just need the data to be safe. One option would be to have one disk for primary storage, a second for backups in the same machine, and a third disk to swap out with the backup so one copy could be stored in a safe place. An alternative Ive heard of is a mirror with two disks and then swapping one of those periodically for a backup but this sounds potentially dangerous trying to rebuild an array on a regular basis. Has anybody tried either of these methods? Im leaning towards a FreeBSD zfs system so the redundancy of the mirror would be nice for self healing.
The second question is for hardware. Right now, I have an AMD 3200+ machine that is not being used for anything. The problem is, it has an Asus KV8 SE Deluxe that doesnt support hot swapping of SATA drives. Can anybody recommend a SATA card (PCI) that would add this and work well with FreeBSD? My other choice is to upgrade to a modern system. I saw the FreeBSD handbook recommends better than a 486 and 24MB of RAM. Im guessing zfs and a few other options would be much happier with more than that though. Any advice for a minimum configuration that could be expected to perform reasonably well and last for about ~4-5 yrs?
Thanks for your help, Ive seen an impressive amount of experience in this forum and Id appreciate any advice or comments you care to pass along.
The first question is selecting a reasonable backup strategy. Since this is a home application, Im not too concerned with uptime, I just need the data to be safe. One option would be to have one disk for primary storage, a second for backups in the same machine, and a third disk to swap out with the backup so one copy could be stored in a safe place. An alternative Ive heard of is a mirror with two disks and then swapping one of those periodically for a backup but this sounds potentially dangerous trying to rebuild an array on a regular basis. Has anybody tried either of these methods? Im leaning towards a FreeBSD zfs system so the redundancy of the mirror would be nice for self healing.
The second question is for hardware. Right now, I have an AMD 3200+ machine that is not being used for anything. The problem is, it has an Asus KV8 SE Deluxe that doesnt support hot swapping of SATA drives. Can anybody recommend a SATA card (PCI) that would add this and work well with FreeBSD? My other choice is to upgrade to a modern system. I saw the FreeBSD handbook recommends better than a 486 and 24MB of RAM. Im guessing zfs and a few other options would be much happier with more than that though. Any advice for a minimum configuration that could be expected to perform reasonably well and last for about ~4-5 yrs?
Thanks for your help, Ive seen an impressive amount of experience in this forum and Id appreciate any advice or comments you care to pass along.