{Project} Spicy's File Server

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SpicyChronos

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Joined
Dec 8, 2008
Messages
30
Hello all,

Let me introduce myself.

I've been lurking for a while, reading up on Ockie's Galaxy series servers, and drooling at all that space. It has inspired me to design and build my own huge file server for my home.

I've been with computers since the Atari 8-bit line came out. Upgraded to the Atari ST line, then in 1995 started with a Pentium 75 overclocked to 100MHz.

I've been building, tearing apart, and rebuilding PCs for a long time now. Fixed friends computers, worked for one of the big retail chains for a while in the Squad. I enjoy troubleshooting a non-working / functioning computer and get it to work and be better than before.

Now about my project:

I currently have a small file server running FreeNAS with a few hard drives in it,
2x 300GB Segates in RAID 0 for 600GB of storage on a Promise Fastrack TX2 card
2x 750GB Seagates on a standard Promise ATA133 PCI card
for a total of approximately 2.1TB
Processor is a 750MHz AMD Duron
512MB memory
100M LAN


I am finding that with all my files, movies, MP3s, etc. and on a 100 Meg LAN it is getting full, and slow to move, copy, and burn information from the server. I want to expand my space, and also clean up the office where the server sits. Right now it is on a roll around rack, with it's side panel off with an external 24V fan blowing across the hard drives to keep them cool, but it also causes a lot of noise. This is something I want to reduce.

My Idea is to build something with pleasing aesthetics, and will be functional too.

I'm not going to use any type of case, this is all going to be hand crafted. Made out of wood, stained and varnished to make it look like a piece of furniture.

The dimensions I plan on using are 22" by 24" by 24". So almost a cube, but narrow slightly.

I want to put a door in the front to access the buttons, knobs and for access to the hard drives for future repair / replacement, etc.

I am having custom hard drive and power supply racks and brackets made by a friend.

So The specs of this system will be:

MB : Intel Server Board SE7501HG2
Processors: Xeon 2.66GHz x2
Memory: 3GB
IBM ServRAID SCSI card
and the current cards from my previous server.

I do plan on adding more hard drives down the line, and will go with SATA and SATA RAID cards, Either Adaptec or 3Ware, etc.

Here are some of my designs for the hard drive racks.




So, I am waiting on these to be fabricated, then I'll head to the local Home Depot or Lowes and get some wood, nails, glue, etc and start the construction of the cabinet.

Thanks for letting me flesh out my idea, and I will try my best to keep this updated, and provide lots of pictures.

-Spicy
 
"2x 300GB Segates in RAID 0 for 600GB of storage on a Promise Fastrack TX2 card
"

Would would you have them in Raid0?
 
I wanted to have the most space at the time, the RAID 0 setup is something I had for a long time, This file server has been upgraded several times in the past from 80 GB x2 Stripe set, to 160GB x2 stripe set to the now 300GB x2 Stripe set. The 750GBs were added about a year and a half ago. but I did not want to RAID those two, since that would have been a lot of data lost if one of them went bad. Each 750GB drive is a whole partition, which works out nicely at the moment.
 
An Update...
The friend who is making me some brackets, etc, has completed a few of them. I'll take some pictures here in a little bit and get them on. Both are for mounting the power supplies. I plan on using a standard ATX for the MB Boot Drive, CD/DVD Rom / Burner, etc and cooling fans. The 2nd power supply is a awesome little thing I won off of eBay. It's a Lambda Ultraflex series power supply, Rated at 400 Watts. with two 30Amp 12 volt lines and 2 17Amp 5 volt lines. I can bridge them to get 60Amps and 37Amps respectively. This will power all the hard drives that I plan on installing.

I plan on doing a lot of custom wiring to the hard drives for power, I plan on detailing what I do here soon.

I'll keep you all updated. Thanks for reading!

-Spicy.
 
Hello again,

Well here's some more pics of what I'm doing, and what my current server looks like. It's all ghetto setup right now, but it works. HA! :D

What we have here is my small work desk that I'm currently trying out my new server motherboard. Bonus points if you see some old school hardware in the picture. :p






Next we see my ghetto-riffic file server currently running.




Now some pics of the brackets that were finished, and what they go on.






And finally some drawings i've made up in MS Visio, converted to JPGs, for part of my new cabinet that I will be constructing to house it all.




Well then, I hope to have the hard drive brackets / racks by tomorrow night, otherwise it won't be until after the 5th of January. But I'll continue working on the cabinet, and get some stuff started on that.

Thanks again for viewing!

-Spicy
 
Quick Update...

My friend at work has completed the two hard drive brackets, and they turned out better than I thought. I'll post pictures tonight after I get home from work.
 
Another update....

Here are some images of the hard drive brackets/racks that my friend at work crafted for me.



Next here is the SCSI Drives mounted to the 1.6' spacing bracket with a temp power supply, hooked up to my IBM ServRAID SCSI card.

The drives are Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM ST150176LC

Right now it's setup in a RAID 5 configuration, all 6 drives are being utilized.

Space available after format is approx 238GB



With the holiday here, I have a few weeks off from work, so now I'm gonna start tackling the actual cabinet.

-Spicy
 
Hi All,

An update, with some bad news and some questions...

The Lambda Ultraflex power supply I was planning on using, is defective. One of the 12V rails is dead. I'm trying to locate a replacement 12V 17A module for it. If I can find one cheap, I'll still use this power supply, otherwise I am looking to use two standard ATX power supplies.

The Question I have is, I saw on another work log / project, I'll find it again here soon, they had some problems with a company providing a dual ATX power supply bracket for the case they was using. Someone drew it up in Auto cad, and made one for them.

I'd like to see if I can get the CAD file for this, or a drawing to get to my friend who works with metal, and see if he can whip me up one.

I have not started on the fabrication of the actual case yet, due to the power supply being bad. I was worried about making the 120mm fan holes, then I remembered that I have a RotoZip. Goes to show ya, when you move, and things get put into boxes what treasures you find a year later. haha

-Spicy
 
Ha! I found it. It's with Ockie's Galaxy 4.0 Build. He was upset that when he ordered his case, it did not come with the dual PSU bracket, as it had shown on the website. Now for some more reading.
 
tags please:)

and i'll be watching this thread closely, good luck
 
The breakdown of images..... Classic view in Imageshack really, really helps. haha :D

This one is a closeup of the 1.6" spacing hard drive bracket
p1010115ra0.jpg


Here we have the normal 1" spacing close up shot.
p1010114rd5.jpg


Here are the two brackets. The 1.6" will hold 9 drives, and the 1" will hold 16 drives. :cool:
p1010113ah5.jpg


I have 6 of the slots full of the 1.6" bracket with Seagate Barracuda 50GB drives. These are SCA 80 Pin drives with 80Pin to 68-Pin adapters. These are also hooked up to a temp power supply. These drives connect to a IBM ServeRAID card, which provides me all types of RAID array options. I chose RAID 5 at the moment. It gives me about 240 (238) GB of space.
p1010119zc9.jpg

p1010116ej9.jpg


The ServeRAID card installed into my Intel Server Motherboard.
p1010118qi7.jpg


The Intel Server MB, temp setup. Don't mind the old school Atari 1050 Drives in the background. I fiddle with the old 8-bit stuff on the side.
p1010104xj8.jpg

p1010106fz3.jpg


The PWM fan controller I whipped up from schematics on the web. Not the best looking thing, as I was just experimenting, and this is the final result. I hopefully will build another one, in a nicer looking package, and put it into a box with connectors, etc.
p1010105ti0.jpg


The Ghetto FreeNAS server setup. The fan is 24V connected to a 24V power supply. I have it open like this to keep it running cool. No need for a heater in the office, with this, my PC and my wife's PC running all at the same time.
p1010107ru2.jpg

p1010108zm2.jpg
 
:confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused:

Bleh,

I'll play with this later.

I think I'll go outside, and enjoy this thing called the sun. I hear it's really bright, and warms you up.

[UPDATE}
As you can see, I got it figured out.

Still I think I'll go outside and enjoy the sun again, The poor garage is needing some TLC. I also want to make room to work on my cabinet.
 
SpicyChronos said:
How do I add my pics to my worklog as actual images, not links to imageshack?
Click to expand...

copy the actual image link into your clip board, and then surround it with tags

the actual image link will not have any ?'s or php references in the URL

Example (on my imageshack page):

INCORRECT URL: http://img181.imageshack.us/my.php?image=clipboard02el9.jpg

CORRECT URL: http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/2362/clipboard02el9.jpg

Just open the actual image and then right-click on it, and copy image location/copy image link (depending on your browser). That's the URL you put inside the tags
 
Thank you Reality. I started playing around with options on the imageshack website and found the classic mode. I can now add IMG tags with full blown sizes.

-Spicy
 
Interesting project...
How is it that you have 6 drives plugged into your controller with 1 (!) cable?
Also, why SCSI? Isn't that the predecessor to SAS, and isn't it related to IDE/PATA? Will you really get good speeds out of it?

-darkmatter08
 
darkmatter08 said:
Interesting project...
How is it that you have 6 drives plugged into your controller with 1 (!) cable?
Also, why SCSI? Isn't that the predecessor to SAS, and isn't it related to IDE/PATA? Will you really get good speeds out of it?

-darkmatter08
Click to expand...

Hey Darkmatter08,

SCSI has a few different levels. The current level I'm using allows up to 16 devices/drives per cable. I'm currently using Ultra2. It's rated at 40 MB/s if all devices are at Ultra2, otherwise it will slow down to the lowest level, and everything will run at that speed. It is slower than current SATA and ATA drives, but I got em cheap, and decided to use them up. The RAID controller I got cheap too, and it'll support three cables, so 15 x 3 = 45 drives. 1 connection is used for the controller itself. If I can get SCSI drives cheap i'll add them to my server. I do plan on using PATA/SATA drives as long as I can get them. I'm not stingy on what I get. I'm just trying to utilize all the storage space I get, no matter what size drive it is.

To be honest, I'm sort of on a tight budget on this, so anything used / free / etc. will help out.

Tax returns are gonna help out with this, after the bills are paid, so I will work at it while I can, but it's sort of on a back burner at the moment.

What kills me is the outrageous shipping I see when I create a shopping cart on the various websites that I want to order from.

All I want to get now is two power supplies, a bracket for the two power supplies, and 4 120MM fans with grills.

Otherwise I'm ready to start cutting wood, and assembling it.

Thanks for letting me blow off some steam.

-Spicy
 
I feel your pain, SpicyChronos. I'm working out the details for a new project myself, and my main concern is using existing/free parts and material. It sucks to be poor :p
 
I see...
I never knew all the intricacies of SCSI. Because it is a little bit older, I think that you will be able to pick up the items for a reasonable price.
I sometimes get into a similar situation - when I work on a project, I feel like I have to use all the older parts I have, because having them lie around seems like such a waste.
Whatever way you decide to do this, you will be getting reasonable speeds out of this machine. Good luck on buying your parts.
Another question: what OS will be running on this? Earlier you said you had a freenas machine, but you never mentioned what would run on this.

-darkmatter08
 
I'm leaning towards WHS for the OS.

I see this being helpful with backups, etc. And I will be able to remote desktop into it, and offload some redundant tasks, ie, file copying, bit torrent, Usenet, etc... instead of using my desktop PC to run these, or perform these options through the network, it'll be faster on the local server.

I think I'll be putting this on the back burner for a while, until I can come up with some funds to finish it.
 
My recomendation would be to ditch those SCSI drives and get one large SATA drive or if you want performance, look at some SAS drives. You can pick sas drives up for dirt cheap and you will not only take up a fraction of the space, but you will also save a ton on cooling and electric bills.
 
Ockie said:
My recomendation would be to ditch those SCSI drives and get one large SATA drive or if you want performance, look at some SAS drives. You can pick sas drives up for dirt cheap and you will not only take up a fraction of the space, but you will also save a ton on cooling and electric bills.
Click to expand...

Hey Ockie, Thanks for the advice. I will plan on using some sort of SATA / SAS type setup in the future.

This beast right now is gonna use up all my existing hard drives that I have laying around, and such. I was inspired by your work with your Galaxy series systems, and this system over at another modding website...

http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=602130

So for right now, I want to do it this way, and when I get going with the SATA / SAS setup, I'll replace as needed. I just wanted to play, and experiment, etc. plus i'm a poor geek waiting for his tax refund. hahaha :D
 
thebeephaha said:
Can you send me a link to that DIY PWM controller???
Click to expand...

Hi Thebeephaha,

Here is the website I used to make my PWM controller.

http://solorb.com/elect/pwm/pwm1/

The reason I used this one, is it will work with 12V and 24V fans.

I thought I had a few 24V fans laying around, but found out I only had one. So I'm using the circuit with 12V fans.

It works well. It might be something with my fans, but when I adjust the pulse/speed, my fans have a noticeable whine. I haven't tried this with other brands of fans, so experiment, etc.

Enjoy!

-Spicy
 
A question about power supplies....

Since I'm not going to use the Lambda Ultraflex power supply, and my friend at work is making me a dual ATX power supply bracket. I was wondering if having a single rail power supply for the hard drives would be better than multiple rails?

I want to get the best bang for my buck, and was wondering what some of you have used for your multi hard drive setups? I'm thinking of at least a 650W just for the drives, and something like a 400W for the MB.

Thanks!
 
Single 12V rail, you mean? Doesn't hurt a thing. In fact, having multiple rails can more often lead to wasted capacity and limitations with expansion options, hence more and more PSUs reverting to a single 12V rail design.

What are these HDDs rated for anyway?
 
Elledan said:
Single 12V rail, you mean? Doesn't hurt a thing. In fact, having multiple rails can more often lead to wasted capacity and limitations with expansion options, hence more and more PSUs reverting to a single 12V rail design.

What are these HDDs rated for anyway?
Click to expand...

Well according to Seagate's information.. on the ST150176 series drives are:

Starting currents will be .76A for the 5V and 2.6A for the 12V

Then Idling currents are .66A and .71A

Then peak typical use current draw is .78A and 1.15A

So it looks like i'll be looking for a single rail 12V power supply for my hard drives.
I do plan on using all sizes and types in this cabinet.
 
Hello All,

A small update.

My metal working friend has made me a dual power supply bracket, and it looks pretty good. I just have to make mounting holes to attach it to the case.

I'll post some more images soon. I got the tax refund, and went and spent some money.

I have a 750W power supply, four 120mm cooling fans, four standard/generic fan grills and a bunch of 36" Ultra 133 IDE ribbon cables coming my way.

I need a few more pieces of wood for the cabinet. Then I'll hopefully start the buliding of the cabinet.

I still need to get some sort of OS. I do like the FreeNAS setup I have, but with going WHS, I'll get the backup scheduling, and i'll be able to run programs on the server to help off load tasks from the other PCs.

Pictures coming soon.

.
 
Okay as promised, the pictures.

NewEgg came through again. Fast shipping and free too! :D

Items received....

Cooling fans. 120MM with colored LEDs (don't really need the colors, but they were cheap, and free shipping.) I might modify them to remove the LEDs

p1010138dt8.jpg



750W Single 12V Rail power supply.
This will be the power supply for the hard drives

p1010139zk6.jpg


Well Well, the curious cat Sandy coming to investigate and inspect the merchandise. He says it's all good to go! :)

p1010141uz2.jpg


and finally the hard drive bracket my metal working friend made. I owe him a big bottle of Jack Daniels for all his hard work.

p1010148lw6.jpg


I'm currently trying to get some 3Ware Escalade 8 port sata cards. Then I'll pick up some 1 or 1.5TB hard drives to add to the server.

Any good or bad words about the 3Ware cards?

Thanks for looking!

-Spicy
 
Hi All!

An update today.

I was able to acquire two 3Ware 8506 Escalade 8 port SATA cards.

Now I need some Hard Drives and the OS.
 
Theres nothing wrong with SCSI...have fun. The Ultra2 stuff you're using is actually ultra2 wide (68-pin) The spec is actually 80 MB/s :) That Ultra 2 stuff, and now Ultra 3 also is dirt cheap. It just can't handle today's capacities for digital media. Alot of the U320 stuff is getting cheap too except for drives that are 72GB plus.

Sata stuff is great and new and high capacity, but its also still very $$$$$, especially raid controllers.

If you can get SCSI stuff free have fun!
 
Hey Thanks!

I love playing around with SCSI stuff. I just wish I could find a big ol' stash of it. I've kept my eye open all over the place to see if it's for free or dirt cheap anywhere, besides eBay. I check out the local flea markets, but nothing interesting there. I might have to travel to Charlotte, NC area to see if I can find some better deals, etc.

Or if anyone reading this, has some SCSI drives and cables they would like to part with, I am reasonable to pay for shipping, etc. Please send a PM.
 
Sweet!

I looked around and found a sweet deal on Craigslist.

Gonna be able to pick up some more SCSI items on Friday.

I'll post what I get then,
 
I bit the bullet and ordered two 750GB SATA drives to start another RAID array, a copy of WHS and some SATA cables.

The 3Ware 8 Port SATA cards came in the mail yesterday. They're marked the same model, but the SATA connectors are different, and some of the layout on the PCB is different. I hope they work! I should at least install them, and see if I can get into the BIOS and update it if needed, etc.

I'll post some pictures tonight, when I get home.

This weekend for sure I plan on working on the woodwork. I want to get this done. I hate leaving projects hanging.
 
Okay, as promised... Photos again...

Here we have the collection of 9 SCSI drives, part of the Craigslist deal I got last week.

These are smaller drives, might not even use them for the new server, but I could use them in one or more of the older Compaq servers I got with the deal.

I don't have pics of the Compaq servers yet, they are sitting in the garage right now, no room to bring one in, and experiment, but I was told that they all work, before being retired. Though one is suppose to be salvage, parts only.

A lot of 9.1GB and a few 18GB drives.

p1010153ka2.jpg


If I did use them, I'd have to get more of the 68 pin to 80 pin converter connectors



One of the 3Ware SATA RAID cards

p1010157jb4.jpg


The other 3Ware SATA RAID card

p1010158tl8.jpg


As you can see, they are a little different from each other, one has all the SATA connectors on one side, while the other has them on both sides of the board.

I've plugged them in and both work. One was a little finicky to start up. It kept on reporting that it was not compatible with the current BIOS. I think it was just some dirty contacts. re-seating the card a few times got it to work.

Updated the Firmware to the latest revision.

Now just need some SATA drives to try em out fully. Should be by Friday, as Newegg is shipping me two drives as I type this.

Fun Fun!! :D
 
One says 'Copyright 2004', the other 2002, I guess it's just a newer revision :)

Glad to hear it all works :D

BTW, is that a coffee stain on that bottom drive in the picture? :eek:
 
It some sort of mark on the plastic case the drive is in. It could be a stain, or just dirty from an old label. All the drives look clean.
 
Woah! It's been a while...

Well let me update here... I completed cutting the wood, cutting out the areas for fans, power supplies, buttons and a small 4x24 LCD display. I am currently staining and varnishing the wood. I'll snap some photos tonight.

I had to send off one of my 750GB drives back to WD due to it failed. It looks like the drive was dropped from New Egg, and I didn't see it. The drive detected, let it run overnight, and in the morning it was dead. I received the replacement drive a few days ago.

Everything is getting closer to being finished, I'm getting excited to start using this system.

I'll try and keep it updated a little better.
 
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