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What HDs and setup for a file server

C

cnick79

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Oct 5, 2004
Messages
1,836
Can anyone recommend some hard drives and how to configure them for a file server. I was thinking about two 250 GB Maxtor Maxline III's and putting them in RAID 1. The mother board I plan on using is my old Asus P4C800E Deluxe because it has onboard RAID 0/1 but I might go with something else instead. What do normal file servers use? Should I use RAID 5 instead?

This server will run Linux and house my music, videos, pictures, ISO's, etc and I'll probably do some programming on it.
 
*tumble weed drifts by*

Nobody can recommend hard drives and how to RAID them for a file server?
 
Normal file servers generally use RAID 5 since it's much more efficient than RAID 1. Your question hinges really on how much you want to store. If you're using 250 GB drives, you'd have 250 GB available if using two drives in RAID 1, 500 GB if using RAID 5, but you'd need 3 drives to do this. RAID 0, while utilizing 100% of available disk space, has no place in a file server.
 
I agree, we need more info. How much capacity do you need? What are your performance requirements? What is your budget?
 
First let's do some research into RAID levels so we can understand the pros/cons of each level. http://www.prepressure.com/techno/raid.htm

I would start the decision process by asking yourself these questions:

How much space do I expect to need?

What performance level do I need from this subsystem?

What sort of fault tolerance do I need from this subsystem (How critical is the info on the drives)?

How much $ do I have to devote to this project?

How many Disks can my system accomodate?


Answer these and come back to us, You'll be glad you did the research.
 
This file server is basically housing my mp3's, videos, pictures, etc. It's nothing critical and wont be used very often. Performance isn't much of a big issue. I think the main concern is data recovery should a drive fail. Price isn't a issue here but should be within reason for the type of project it is. I currently have about 100gb worth of data to store. I don't want to have to worry about increasing HD capacity anytime soon. I plan on using the Asus P4C800E Deluxe mobo. Minimum space I'm looking at is 200gb. I don't object to adding a PCI card that supports RAID 5 if it's a better solution.
 
I guess for now I'll pick up two drives (250gb each) and mirror them. When the time comes I need more space I'll buy another and use RAID 5. Does it matter if the drives are IDE or SATA?
 
I just put together a RAID 5 with six 300GB Seagate Barracuda's, a 3Ware 9500S-8, and new power supply to feed it all for around $1600 on NewEgg.

-Larry

cnick79 said:
Can anyone recommend some hard drives and how to configure them for a file server. I was thinking about two 250 GB Maxtor Maxline III's and putting them in RAID 1. The mother board I plan on using is my old Asus P4C800E Deluxe because it has onboard RAID 0/1 but I might go with something else instead. What do normal file servers use? Should I use RAID 5 instead?

This server will run Linux and house my music, videos, pictures, ISO's, etc and I'll probably do some programming on it.
Click to expand...
 
cnick79 said:
Can anyone recommend some hard drives and how to configure them for a file server. I was thinking about two 250 GB Maxtor Maxline III's and putting them in RAID 1. The mother board I plan on using is my old Asus P4C800E Deluxe because it has onboard RAID 0/1 but I might go with something else instead. What do normal file servers use? Should I use RAID 5 instead?

This server will run Linux and house my music, videos, pictures, ISO's, etc and I'll probably do some programming on it.
Click to expand...

I have the same project :d and here for me a list of the potential candidates:

Hitachi t7k250

Maxtor maxline III

Samsung p120

Western Digital WD2500JS SATAII Caviar Special Edition

Western Digital WD2500KS SATA II 16MB Raid Edition

I am interested particularly in WD KS because its MTBF is particularly high, there are also the seagates 7200.9 and NL35 but as they are not yet available even if it is certain that later on I would test them ;)
 
Use software raid 1; if by some chance the motherboard goes out, you can use the drives on another controller with software raid. If you use the "hardware" raid, you'd have to replace the motherboard with the same model, or at least match the controller. Linux software raid is often faster than hardware raids, at least for 0 or 1.
cnick79 said:
I guess for now I'll pick up two drives (250gb each) and mirror them. When the time comes I need more space I'll buy another and use RAID 5. Does it matter if the drives are IDE or SATA?
Click to expand...
Not especially, but beware - the only good way to move between raid levels is to backup, reinitialize, and restore. This means it's probably best to start with as many drives as you need now, rather than try to expand later.

 
The paramount question it is to know the model of the disc which it is necessary to take for a file server... ;)
 
For a simple home file server, I would say to not even use a PC and just buy a pre-made NAS from someone like Maxtor/Western Digital. They use quite a bit less power than a full PC, and you don't have to worry about an OS getting corrupted, drivers, viruses, spyware, fans breaking...etc etc etc.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833164201

That item is an external enclosure, use any drive you want and instant file server, or NAS, as they are commonly referred to in the industry ;)

There are other brands on the Egg as well, just do a search for NAS
 
firstly I have already a PC dedicated for a use of the file server type, ... I have never to ask for opinion on the configuration which I was to have but only on the model of the disc that I was to take

Please do not be so hasty to dismiss advice from other members that is offered in good faith. - DL
 
cyph3r said:
I have the same project :d and here for me a list of the potential candidates:

Hitachi t7k250

Maxtor maxline III

Samsung p120

Western Digital WD2500JS SATAII Caviar Special Edition

Western Digital WD2500KS SATA II 16MB Raid Edition

I am interested particularly in WD KS because its MTBF is particularly high, there are also the seagates 7200.9 and NL35 but as they are not yet available even if it is certain that later on I would test them ;)
Click to expand...
Of those, you should get the MaxLine. WD2500KS is a desktop drive. Right now, Maxtor has the best line up of mid-line storage drives, although both Seagate and WD are attempting to eat into their market share. Maxtor is the longest established player in that market though.
 
DougLite said:
Of those, you should get the MaxLine. WD2500KS is a desktop drive. Right now, Maxtor has the best line up of mid-line storage drives, although both Seagate and WD are attempting to eat into their market share. Maxtor is the longest established player in that market though.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your opinion ;)

For the moment I must say that I am tried enough by the WD because it is supposed being designed for a use of the server type, the maxline really does not attract me because the two only discs with which I had problems are maxtors... but I still have a little time to choose and so meanwhile the nl35 ou/et the 7200.9 are available to the sale, I believe that I would crack :cool:
 
Are you going to RAID your drives? I'm set on 2 Maxtor Maxline III's and RAID 1 running Linux.
 
Remember it takes a mininum of 3 identical drives to do raid 5....
3* 250GB = 500GB RAID volume

 
cnick79 said:
Are you going to RAID your drives? I'm set on 2 Maxtor Maxline III's and RAID 1 running Linux.
Click to expand...

Yes, but I cannot still which disc take
 
Slow or not, for $87 this thing has a purpose. Neet toy!

-Larry

Eickst said:
For a simple home file server, I would say to not even use a PC and just buy a pre-made NAS from someone like Maxtor/Western Digital. They use quite a bit less power than a full PC, and you don't have to worry about an OS getting corrupted, drivers, viruses, spyware, fans breaking...etc etc etc.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833164201

That item is an external enclosure, use any drive you want and instant file server, or NAS, as they are commonly referred to in the industry ;)

There are other brands on the Egg as well, just do a search for NAS
Click to expand...
 
My two cents...

I went over and over and over on this myself last month when I set up my 6 drive RAID-5 in my home server.

I've used Maxtor, Seagate and WD drives. In fact, the 7 old, mixed-size single-volume drives that came out of the server were a mixture of all 3 manufacturers.

They ranged from 3-7 years old, the oldest being a Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 7200rpm 20gig. That thing started in my Mac back in, oh, 1997!

In the last 10 years, I've personally only had ONE hard drive failure. A Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 7200 RPM 40 gig. Developed bad blocks at 4 years old.

All of my drives have been 24/7 drives, but were well cooled and fed.

I settled on six 300GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.8's.

They aren't the fastest (but plenty fast). They aren't the coolest (but damned close), and they are amazingly quiet. Six of these running in the lower cage of my Lian-Li PC70 Server Case make nearly NO noise whatsoever.

It was just a balance of cost, previous experience, knowing how easy it is to get a Seagate Drive replaced, cool running, and quiet.

Since it is for a home file server, and even though I'm wired for gigabit, the network will never allow full performance from any drive I put in there so having the last bit of speed from a drive was not needed. Not that the Seagates are slow. They aren't. They just aren't the fastest.

Cost, coolness of running and noise ARE very important, and overall the Seagates won out here.

All that said, I still have a slightly warm place in my heart for Maxtor. At one time they made an absolutely incredible drive, the MXT series. Most will remember them as the MXT-540 and MXT-1240. They were particularly popular with Mac users running RAID-0's for pre-press work.

These were the first high-spindle-speed drives (6300 RPM) and provided transaction rates that were simply through the roof, even still beating most of today's top drives. They were AMAZING for data-base systems.

Alas, that was the last good drive Maxtor made for a few years. After their losses on the MXT series (it was said that every MXT basically shipped with a $100 bill wrapped around it). From this point, Maxtor went on it's "Consumer Grade" kick and for a few years, you couldn't give a way a Maxtor drive.

Then the DiamondMax Plus series came out and started turning things around for them again.

-Larry

cyph3r said:
Yes, but I cannot still which disc take
Click to expand...
 
I agree with LArry that if you want to look past Maxtor, your next stop is Seagate, followed by WD, then Hitachi. Hitachi makes fine drives, but htey don't have any aimed at the nearline market. Same goes for Samsung.
 
Last time I set up a home file server for a friend I went with this route. We had a motherboard with built in raid that we ran a raid 1 on for the boot drive. The boot drive was 2 40 gig maxtor drives I picked up for 30 bucks for both new. We then set up 4 200 gig drives in raid 5 using a pci card. This way the os is on a different drive(in are case drives) so if we manage to somehow kill the os on it we can format it no need to worry about the data raid and the data is on raid 5 which is the best way to go if you can.
 
If you have a problem with another member, address it in private or contact a moderator. We will not air personal disagreements with other members in public. Since this post has nothing constructive in it, this is all that will remain of it. - DL
 
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