OK, since I've officially started collecting the parts to build a 1.5TB RAID fileserver, I think I'll start a log thread. Should come in handy documenting what I do so I can write up a nice webpage after it's all said and done. Here are the instructions I'll be using as a starting point: http://www.finnie.org/text/terabyte/ My configuration: 19" Rackmount case (bought, in transit) AMD 2000+ processor MB with onboard LAN/video (bought, in transit) 10/100/1000 Ethernet card (bought, in transit) Highpoint RocketRAID 464 card (already acquired) 512MB or 1GB RAM 8 x 250GB EIDE hard drives (for RAID array) 1 small hard drive (system) (I've got a few spares lying around) I can't recall the actual prices, but I'll update with those later, in case anyone want to try and replicate this. I'll also track construction, OS installation, setup, etc - and any problems I encounter along the way.
Bought: case - $90 shipped PC Chips M825G motherboard - $30 shipped RocketRaid 464 RAID controller - $100 shipped 10/100/1000 ethernet card - ~$15
Did you see this? http://www.engadget.com/2006/04/27/seagates-barracuda-750gb-drive-reviewed/ And, of course, there's an external... http://www.engadget.com/2006/04/28/seagates-750gb-pushbutton-back-up-hard-drive/ $559 doesn't seem too bad for that.
Lets see... 8 drives at $590 is $4720 for 4.5TB of RAID storage (2 parity drives). Now I just need to find a SATA RAID controller... Yeah, I've heard about those, and boy wouldn't I love an array of 'em, but the price to build a RAID array is just too high. I can get my 8 250GB EIDE drives for a little more than the cost of one of those Seagate monsters.
Correct. 8 250GB EIDE drives in two 4-disc RAID5's, that are then joined together in RAID0, so I'll lose two drives to parity. However, since there are only 4 channels on the controller card, I'm splitting the two RAID5 arrays into "master drives" and "slave drives".
A few items arrived today... My configuration: 19" Rackmount case ($90 shipped, on hand) AMD 2000+ processor PC Chips M825G motherboard ($30 shipped, on hand) 10/100/1000 Ethernet card ($15, on hand) Highpoint RocketRAID 464 card ($100 shipped, on hand) 512MB RAM ($35 shipped, in transit) 8 x 250GB EIDE hard drives (for RAID array) 1 small hard drive (system) (I've got a few spares lying around) 450-500W Power Supply -------------------------- Total so far: $270 Still need power supply, processor, and 8 250GB EIDE drives.
Naw. I do host my own web and email services (rather than buying them), and provide those gratis to a few friends, but basically the file server is for my own purposes. The main reason for the large array size is I hope to use the box as a media server / network-attached-storage for MythTV. IE, I can put all of my MP3 files on the server so they are available on any box on my LAN. I can rip DVDs and store them on the server so when I want to watch a DVD I just pull up that file rather than rummage around for the disc and risk it getting scratched. And for MythTV, I can record TV (including high def) to the file server and watch it from client computers on my LAN. Additionally, home directories will be on the file server, meaning that if I set everything up right users will have roaming profiles in both Windows and Linux on my network, even tho I don't really have multiple client computers yet. I will be moving my web server and mail server installations from the machine they are on now to the new file server. I intend on recycling the current fileserver into a MythTV backend (and I'll set up a build thread for that when I'm closer to being ready).
One group of urban children challenges another by approaching the other group and dancing. If the second group of children does not have the prowess to match the moves, then they are said to have been served. If, rather, the second group counters the measure successfully, then it's on. Invariably, someone will you the phrase "y'all suckas got served."
BTW, I would think that this setup would be totally adequate for a small business. You can store a lot of business documents on 1.5TB. Really, tho, this system should be supplimented by some kind of off-site backup, tape or otherwise.
I've read good things about Seagate. I'm tempted to get one of the smaller drives 250 or 300 MB for $200 as an external drive for my laptop. The price looks pretty good, and all I'm looking to use it for is as a media storage drive. Might get two if only to have a backup in case of failure. If any of the more technially inclined individuals here have any thoughts, please chime in and tell me I'm an idiot.
You're not an idiot. Seagate drives seem to be just as good or bad as Western Digital or Maxtor drives. Supposedly the 7200.8 series had a bad batch that gets them bad responses every time a rebate for one of those drives pop up. I have two 160gb 7200.7 series drives that seem to operate nicely. I've had the best luck with Maxtor, worst with Western Digital. For external storage I purchased my own enclosure. I also have a USB to IDE converter that has paid for itself for a workstation recovery. Wow.. 1.5TB... And I thought my 160 + 2x120 + 2x200 was an ungodly amount of space...
Nice! What capture card are you using? What distro are you building it with? I just did an install with KnoppMyth and it was pretty much flawless: http://mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html It's improved quite a bit in the last couple of years. Previously I installed MythTV using Jarod Wilson's Fedora based howto: http://www.wilsonet.com/mythtv/ I'm using a standard-def Hauppauge 150 card.
Foos, With this new system, could you turn on your TV and get a user logon screen similar to what Windows has? (Press 1 for User1, 2 for User2, etc.??) 1.5TB DVR, each user has their own portion of the drive. You'd never need to worry about deleting a program someone else recorded and hasn't watched yet. Only problem is you'd need about 5 tuners to make everybody happy and have the system work ideally. Something like this would work wonders in apartments with more than 3 roommates or even houses with 2 or 3 kids. Two tuners just isn't enough these days. I do like the idea of a recorded program (TV, DVD, mp3, whatever) being watched on any TV with a box attached. Live TV?? What's that?
The MythTV questions will be addressed in another thread down the road - this server is only as big as it is to accomodate the MythTV recordings. It won't have any actual tuners itself; the storage will be shared via NFS. RAM showed up yesterday, and I won the processor (2400+) on an eBay auction. I think I'm going to pick up a power supply today locally, and go ahead and order the required drives from NewEgg.
Picked up a Thermaltake TR2-430W powersupply locally for about $50. A few bucks more than it would have cost to get it shipped from NewEgg–but I can also install it this weekend. I’m still waiting for the processor + heatsink + fan to ship (it should ship today), but otherwise everything is here, save the 8 drives for the RAID array. My better judgement is saying “it’s not too late to back out with only a minor expense” every time I go to hit [checkout] on NewEgg–$667 shipped is a good price, but it’s still a lot of coin. I’ve already started to piece everything together. Case, RAM, and motherboard are all in place. I’ll probably hook up the power supply, all the LED and switch cables from the case (need to print out the relevant parts of the motherboard manual), the system HDD, the RocketRAID card, a CD/DVD ROM, and the GiGE card this weekend. That’ll only leave the proc and the 8 RAID drives.
I haven’t yet, but I will start–I just got a new Nikon D50 camera as well (anybody want a Sony Mavica CD1000 before it goes on eBay?).
Not really. I'm just trying to mask my disappointment about not deficit spending on a motorcycle by deficit spending on other toys that my wife finds less likely to kill me. On that note, I've got some *very* lightly used motorcycle gear for sale as well as the old camera.
Installed the power supply, which looks like a pretty good one. Lots of power connectors (9, in fact, plus two SATA), some good heft to it. Hooked up the case to the motherboard, and installed the two cards (GigE and RAID). Put the system drive (a 40GB Maxtor) in the case, but I didn't have an IDE cable long enough to reach, so I'm going to have to go get one. So, I should be able to hook up the system drive on one IDE channel, temporarily hook up a CDROM on the other IDE channel (for the OS install), install Ubuntu, pull the CDROM, and install the RAID disks - once the processor arrives. I'll take a picture of the inside of the case after I get the processor installed. I'll post photos up on my website after I get a few of 'em, and I'll link them here. The most interesting photo will probably be the output of "df -h". I've been working out the partition plan for my new system - how many, how big, which drive, and where on the file system. I can't seem to figure out where I put it, but I'll post it here when it's finalized. Or nearly so, in case someone has any suggestions.
OK, so here is my tentative partitioning plan: swap - 2GB, on RAID array /var - on hda; logs go here, so make it big! /usr/local - on RAID array, size TBD /tmp - on hda, should be several GB. /home - on RAID array, fill the balance (ie, put MythTV data in /home/mythtv ?) /boot - must be on hda, as primary partition (hda1) /etc - on RAID? or backup to RAID? Need to ensure this data is kept safe. / - on hda I also want to make sure my MySQL data and HTTP data are kept safe, probably on the RAID array. Rather than moving partitions, it might make sense to modify the setup of those programs to put data storage in a folder on one of the partitions on the RAID array. So, when I do my OS install, I need to ensure I have the following partitioning: hda1 = /boot, ~100MB hda2 = /var, ~10GB hda3 = /tmp, ~10GB hda4 = /, ~19.9GB Then, the RAID array should be partitioned like so: mda1 = swap, 2GB mda2 = /usr/local, 10GB mda3 = /etc, 1 GB mda4 = /home, 1487GB Thoughts? Opinions? I'll probably have to issue quotas for users to ensure that MythTV doesn't slurp up the entire partition and cause problems for desktop users, since I've currently got Application Data, My Documents, and the like stored in /home/username.