New Server

S

Shaun_Dark_Lord

Weaksauce
Joined
Oct 1, 2008
Messages
74
Hi All

This is my first ever worklog!

I was inspired by Ockie's Galaxy 4.0 project to update my own little server to something a bit beefier. I know he has since moved onto rack mounted cases, but I felt that the Lian Li 343B was a lot more expandable, and could last me a fair while.

I suppose I should start by giving some info on my current server;

Oldserver.jpg


It's essentially an old workstation - P4 3Ghz, Abit IS7 Mobo, 4GB DDR400, 2x 80GB Mirrored for OS, 2x SIL3114 Soft RAID controllers with 4x 500GB WD RE connected to one, and 4x 1TB WD RE2 connected to the other. PSU is a Tagan 1300W and the case is a Supermicro SC760. It's running Server 2000.

It has been very reliable, but has always been a bit of a bodge. The "RAID Controllers" are cheap and nasty so I've always mirrored everything, which meant i only had 3TB of usable space. The IS7 motherboard doesn't have any PCI express slots, and it feels wrong putting a PCIX card in a PCI33 slot. The case isn't really big enough - I could wait for 2 1/2" drives to reach a reasonable capacity, but I think they'd still ba a lot more expensive than 3 1/2" drives.

A week ago, I ordered some new parts (Click for piccies);
1x Areca ARC-1260 16 Port SATA2 PCI Express RAID Controller.
1x Intel S5000VSASATAR Motherboard
1x Intel L5335 2Ghz Quad Core CPU
4x Crucial 4GB (2X2GB KIT) 667MHZ DDR2 240PIN
3x IcyBox Icy Dock SATA II 5 bays
1x Tagan 1300W BZ MODULAR 80% ENERGY EFFICIENT PSU
10x Western Digital WD RE2-GP 1TB 5400RPM Up To 7200RPM 16MB S300 GREEN POWER DRIVE
1x Lian-Li PC343B Case

I'm still waiting for the Motherboard, CPU and Drive Caddies to be delivered.

I already have two WD Raptor 150's which i plan to use as the Main OS drive.

My plan;

The two Raptors will run from the Mobo RAID controller in RAID1, and I'l install Server 2003 64bit on these.
Two of my old 500GB drives from my old server will also run from the Mobo RAID controller, and I'll use those for VMWare.
I'll split the 10 1TB drives into two 5 Disk RAID 5 Arrays, giving me 8TB of useable storage.

I'm hoping to mount the Raptors and 500GB drives somewhere within the case so that I have one of the ICY Dock's free for future expansion.

According to the spec sheet, I can supposedly get the ARC-1260 to spin down the drives when not in use to save power. Is there a down side to this?

I'm also thinking about ordering a 1GB ECC SODIMM for the ARC-1260.

The Case is currently at work, avoiding any questions from the wife. Once the last few parts have been delivered, I'll post some more piccies.
 
I hope that RAM is FB-DIMM or you won't be getting very far.

Love the case!

/me luvs server builds :p
 
This looks like quite an upgrade. Why two RAID5 arrays? Keep the pics coming!
 
Ahh common, you know you want to go rackmount! ;)

Good choices on the case :D
 
mrweasel - Yes - RAM is ECC FB

Concentric - My thinking is that unless I'm copying from one array to the other, only 5 disks will need to be spun up at one time. I'm open to other suggestions.

Ockie - Am happy to have the support of the Storage King - No - scrap that - Storage God...........
 
Nice build. If you can get the drives to spin down stick with the raid5, otherwise I would go with raid6.
 
That's the big "if" at the moment - The Spec sheet for the ARC-1260 says;

"Support spin down drives when not in use to extend service life (MAID)"

But I can't see anything similar in the manual. That could be because this is a new feature that was introduced by a firmware update after the manual was printed, or it could be a misprint. Unless someone has the same card, and can tell me for sure, I'll just have to wait until I can power it up.
 
I found the spin down option on my Gaming PC's ARC-1212 - Was very simple to setup. Think I might nab the four 1TB drives from my old server, and order one extra, and max out the new server - 12TB useable space.............
 
looking good, keep it coming,

what are you plans for os etc?
 
OS will be Server 2003 64 bit. Only apps it will run are TVersity so I can share my media with my PS3 and VMWare for my "Downloads".........
 
i guess i'm gonna have to start saving up my pennies to get into the big leagues with you guys... my server is nothing compared to what you all have. those raid cards are serious expensive and for my setup i'd need a new case AND a new motherboard to even support adding that card and more drives.
 
Well I'm hoping that this initial investment will last me a looooong time. I'm more than doubling my current storage capacity, as well as giving myself plenty of room for expansion if needed.
 
i hear ya on that one... there are some more "cost" effective ways i could do some of this, i guess, but i'm with you... might as well make the big investment and not have to do anything else for awhile.
 
centurion said:
i hear ya on that one... there are some more "cost" effective ways i could do some of this, i guess, but i'm with you... might as well make the big investment and not have to do anything else for awhile.
Click to expand...

Once you get bit by the storage bug, that "and not have to do anything else for a while" comment gets thrown right out the window :p
 
Ockie said:
Once you get bit by the storage bug, that "and not have to do anything else for a while" comment gets thrown right out the window :p
Click to expand...

i guess that explains why it feels like i just shot up a bunch of heroin...
 
boatload of WD 320s (15+)
some seagate 500s
wd 640 aaks
maybe few veloci raptors
+ prob more ( need to clean up and take inventory)
 
Woohoo - The final parts are in stock, and should be with me in the next couple of days!!!!!!

I took the case home on Friday, and decided to drop the PSU and fans into the case, as well as take some photos;

The monster case next to my tiny CM Stacker;
Worklog01.jpg


Worklog02.jpg


Worklog03.jpg


The Tagan 1300W PSU;
Worklog04.jpg


Mmmm - Cables - And for some reason, Gloves?????
Worklog05.jpg


PSU and Fans Installed;
Worklog06.jpg


Worklog07.jpg


Ideally, I'd like to leave unused drive bays empty, ready for future expansion - That means the OS and VMWare HDD's will need to be mounted somewhere else. I have a spare HDD cage from my CM Stacker, and am thinking of mounting it somewhere above the PSU. Only problem is figuring out how to mount it and still be able to remove the drives if I need to............

Here's the caddy;
Caddy.jpg


Hopefully I'll be able to post some proper build shots this weekend.
 
What do you reckon to throwing away the caddy, and screwing the OS and VMWare drives directly to the top lid?
 
I almost have all the parts - Just waiting on the 1GB RAM for the RAID controller.

New toys;
Worklog08.jpg


The Intel S5000VSASATAR Mobo;
Worklog09.jpg


The RAID license key for the Mobo's onboard RAID controller;
Worklog10.jpg


Key Installed;
Worklog11.jpg


CPU in place;
Worklog12.jpg


Posts fine - All ready for building;
Worklog13.jpg


I have encountered one potential issue. The ICYBOX drive caddies have had a redesign - Which is a good thing - Now all the SATA leads lock into place, and they've got rid of the SATA power connectors, which have a tendancy to come loose.

But, my PSU has 12 SATA connectors, and only 6 Molex connectors - I'm gonna have to use a lot of splitters!

Here's how the backplane originally looked;
Worklog15.jpg


Here's the new version;
Worklog14.jpg


Tagan do supply some SATA-Molex adapters - I'll have to see how many splitters I need to buy when I get home from work.
 
Shaun_Dark_Lord said:
I almost have all the parts - Just waiting on the 2GB RAM for the RAID controller.

New toys;


The Intel S5000VSASATAR Mobo;


The RAID license key for the Mobo's onboard RAID controller;


Key Installed;


CPU in place;


Posts fine - All ready for building;


I have encountered one potential issue. The ICYBOX drive caddies have had a redesign - Which is a good thing - Now all the SATA leads lock into place, and they've got rid of the SATA power connectors, which have a tendancy to come loose.

But, my PSU has 12 SATA connectors, and only 6 Molex connectors - I'm gonna have to use a lot of splitters!

Here's how the backplane originally looked;


Here's the new version;


Tagan do supply some SATA-Molex adapters - I'll have to see how many splitters I need to buy when I get home from work.
Click to expand...

where did you buy that raid key from? i believe that's the same one i need for my s5000vcl.

also, how much did that board set you back?
 
That's stupid that they make you pay extra for something already there.

[nice build [the old one [it looks a lot like an old one of mine, except mine was ghetto [dual $20 power supplies, 10x 8GB hdds [it was when 80GB ones were around $100]]]]]
 
Ya - I wasn't too happy the forst time I bought an Intel board supposedly with onboard RAID. I was even less happy to discover that it's just a software RAID controller, to wouldn't work with Netware.

But they are reliable boards, and that's the important thing.

Back to the build - It's started!!!!!!!!!

I decided to mount the two VMWare drives above the existing drive bays - I had to move a couple of bits of metalwork, but the space that was left looks like it was meant to house a drive;
worklog16.jpg


The OS drives are going to be mounted on the floor of the case;
worklog17.jpg


Lotsa holes;
worklog18.jpg


The VMWare drives bolted in place - Can't imagine how they could fit any better;
worklog19.jpg


OS Drives in place;
worklog20.jpg


One slight issue I had was the ICYBOX drive caddies - Lian-Li assumed that all 5 1/4 drives would use floppy/cdrom screws, but the ICYBOX's use HDD screws - as a result the large bag of mounting screws supplied with the case were useless. As a result, the Drive cages are only screwed in on one side - They seem secure enough, but it would have been nice if Lian-Li had thrown in a few more bigger screws just in case.

The ICYBOX caddies in place;
worklog21.jpg


I had just enough power connectors for the drives, and only had to use splitters for the fans;
worklog22.jpg


Another issue - This case wasn't really designed for server motherboards - So the S500VSASATAR covers up the cable routing hole, and the CPU fan will prevent me from filling up with drive caddies :(

Motherboard, CPU & lotsa RAM;
worklog23.jpg


Still posting happily;
worklog24.jpg


I'll hopefully get the OS installed tonight, and add the RAID controller, and lotsa drives over the weekend. Not sure how I'm going to route 15 SATA cables now that the motherboard is blocking the main cable route..................
 
The 1GB of cache for my RAID controller should be arriving on Monday.

Everything is hooked up now - But as it's 1:20AM, I'll post pics tomorrow.

RAID arrays are building now - Gonna take some time............
 
Looking good :)

BTW, you mean that this case wasn't designed for EATX boards?
 
Watercooling would solve the issue. Just use a 2x120mm rad at the back of the case on the other side.
 
Elledan - Nope - The PC-343B isn't really a EATX chassis. Maybe one day they'll make a "PC-353" which will be a little deeper to fit an EATX mobo, and a little wider so that it fits nicely in a 19" rack...............

nlancaster - Stop the crazy talk - This is server - ie needs to run 24/7 for the next few years - I've not seen a watercooling system that can guarantee that kind of reliability - I'll stick with traditional cooling.

Apologies for lack of photos - My broadband has only just come back up.

RAID arrays still building..............
 
Yeah, when I had WC it developed leaks every few days, then again I had just learned to solder plumbing, and commercial blocks were way too expensive. but, still performance was amazing, but reliability, not so much... Dangit, now I wanna buy a commercial block and use it, I needs to retain money, must resist urge to spend!
 
I would say it's finished, but there are now another 5 1TB drives on the way - Decided I could do with some backup space...........

Here's what I did over the weekend;

HDD's mounted in caddies;
Worklog25.jpg


Lots of messy cabling;
Worklog26.jpg


I labelled all the cables as I connected them to the RAID controller - Made things a lot easier, as I could try to concentrate on neatness whilst still being able to connect the drives in a sensible order.

All tidy;
Worklog27.jpg


Not overly tidy, but it will do;
Worklog28.jpg


I hadn't realised just how pretty the Tagan PSU is - Shame it will never see the light of day;
Worklog29.jpg


Arrays building;
Worklog30.jpg


The arrays took almost 24 hours to finish initialising - During which time I setup VMWare Server 2.0 - Really impressed with the new version - Love the fact that remote management can all be done through a browser now.

I've just started the final file copy from my old server.

Spin-down is working as expected - there's a couple of seconds wait while the drives spin up, but that's nothing to worry about, as the speed on the RAID5 array blows the socks off my old server's software RAID1.
 
Very nice build. Glad to hear the spin-down of the drives it working correctly. It will help with power consumption greatly. And, those Areca controller cards take forever to initialize. A RAID10 on a new Exchange server I built took over 8 hours. Now, what do you have that takes up 8TB? :)
 
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