Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions
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My general rule of thumb (very general, lots of exceptions) is that if you have a real hardware RAID controller* that you use it, when you don't, you use software RAID.
*Real meaning not FakeRAID, has a real cache (128MB or larger, 1GB or larger is best), has a real offload processor and supports blind swapping.
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It was an amazon glitch I think. It was only 250€ instead of the 700€ average price in other shops. Went up straight after I bought it. I could actually still return it and go all the other way to upgrade the rest of the hardware for software raid. But I kind of settled for this route already.
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@marcinozga said in Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions:
I questioned choice of Windows on spiceworks, and his reply was that he was more familiar with it. However, using client OS for server role is just silly - I doubt $800 windows server license is in play here.
That should be a factor, too. Using Windows desktop here is silly and limiting. Using Windows Server is expensive and impractical (unless you are ultra rich or just looking for excuses to get Windows experience.) Using Linux or a BSD or a Solaris variant would all be "server class" options with zero actual cost and all give lots of good career growth and education opportunities.
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@Dashrender said in Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions:
@scottalanmiller said in Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions:
@wirestyle22 said in Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions:
@DustinB3403 said in Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions:
@wirestyle22 said in Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions:
With that size I would seriously consider using software raid. Something like CentOS w/ ZFS using Striped Mirrored Vdev’s (essentially Raid 10).
Why when there is a hardware raid controller would you effectively downgrade to software raid? Unless there are limitations on the card (like a number of supported drives or some
I think Raid Controllers are a waste of money unless you absolutely have to use windows in which case you have no other good choice. They don't make the raid controller listed anymore so if that thing breaks hes going to lose all of his data. You have to install the exact same raid controller with the exact same firmware for that to work too. With software raid you don't have to deal with that headache and the overhead on the processor is almost non-existent in the modern day.
The key benefit (other than fixing a Windows deficiency of course) is that good hardware RAID offers blind swap. That's not a trivial feature.
And Scott beat me to it - exactly, blind and hot swap is awesome, assuming your RAID controller supports it.
Software RAID does hot swap... if your hardware supports it. Hardware RAID needs supporting hardware, too. So that would be equal.
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@geertcourmacher said in Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions:
It was an amazon glitch I think. It was only 250€ instead of the 700€ average price in other shops. Went up straight after I bought it. I could actually still return it and go all the other way to upgrade the rest of the hardware for software raid. But I kind of settled for this route already.
Not saying that you should return it, but why would hardware need to be upgraded for software RAID? Unless you are running an overburden Atom processor or are trying to run in only 1GB or less of RAM, I don't see software RAID being hardware hampered.
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@geertcourmacher said in Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions:
I was thinking to eventually add Plex somewhere down the line. Right now both my media pc and work pc are much more powerful than the server.
The server is based on the AM1 platform, I just switched out the terrible 2650 (2x1.45) for a slighlty better 5150 (4x1.60). Should be ok for x264, yet I don't know about x265 and whatever may come.
Building my Kodi library has taken a while do, I'd assume the same process would wait for me with Plex (with foreign language movies not being scrubbed correctly from databases, etc...)Plex should be able to read the media in your Kodi library if it is stored as standard MP4 / AVI files, etc. You shouldn't have to re-rip your entire library just to switch from one to the other.
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@scottalanmiller said in Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions:
@geertcourmacher said in Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions:
It was an amazon glitch I think. It was only 250€ instead of the 700€ average price in other shops. Went up straight after I bought it. I could actually still return it and go all the other way to upgrade the rest of the hardware for software raid. But I kind of settled for this route already.
Not saying that you should return it, but why would hardware need to be upgraded for software RAID? Unless you are running an overburden Atom processor or are trying to run in only 1GB or less of RAM, I don't see software RAID being hardware hampered.
Blind swap is definitely a thing but does the benefit outweigh the cost for a home server? I don't think so but I'd love to hear your opinions.
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@dafyre said in Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions:
@geertcourmacher said in Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions:
I was thinking to eventually add Plex somewhere down the line. Right now both my media pc and work pc are much more powerful than the server.
The server is based on the AM1 platform, I just switched out the terrible 2650 (2x1.45) for a slighlty better 5150 (4x1.60). Should be ok for x264, yet I don't know about x265 and whatever may come.
Building my Kodi library has taken a while do, I'd assume the same process would wait for me with Plex (with foreign language movies not being scrubbed correctly from databases, etc...)Plex should be able to read the media in your Kodi library if it is stored as standard MP4 / AVI files, etc. You shouldn't have to re-rip your entire library just to switch from one to the other.
Not to mention that MKV's (as you mentioned they will be) are natively supported by Roku (and most others) meaning no transcoding. That dramatically reduces the hardware requirements of your server.
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@wirestyle22 said in Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions:
@scottalanmiller said in Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions:
@geertcourmacher said in Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions:
It was an amazon glitch I think. It was only 250€ instead of the 700€ average price in other shops. Went up straight after I bought it. I could actually still return it and go all the other way to upgrade the rest of the hardware for software raid. But I kind of settled for this route already.
Not saying that you should return it, but why would hardware need to be upgraded for software RAID? Unless you are running an overburden Atom processor or are trying to run in only 1GB or less of RAM, I don't see software RAID being hardware hampered.
Blind swap is definitely a thing but does the benefit outweigh the cost for a home server? I don't think so but I'd love to hear your opinions.
In his case he already spent the money. If nothing was spent already - then sure avoid it, save the cash.
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@wirestyle22 said in Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions:
@dafyre said in Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions:
@geertcourmacher said in Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions:
I was thinking to eventually add Plex somewhere down the line. Right now both my media pc and work pc are much more powerful than the server.
The server is based on the AM1 platform, I just switched out the terrible 2650 (2x1.45) for a slighlty better 5150 (4x1.60). Should be ok for x264, yet I don't know about x265 and whatever may come.
Building my Kodi library has taken a while do, I'd assume the same process would wait for me with Plex (with foreign language movies not being scrubbed correctly from databases, etc...)Plex should be able to read the media in your Kodi library if it is stored as standard MP4 / AVI files, etc. You shouldn't have to re-rip your entire library just to switch from one to the other.
Not to mention that MKV's (as you mentioned they will be) are natively supported by Roku meaning no transcoding. That dramatically reduces the hardware requirements of your server.
MKV is just a container, it's what's inside of it that may need transcoding.
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@Dashrender said in Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions:
@wirestyle22 said in Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions:
@scottalanmiller said in Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions:
@geertcourmacher said in Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions:
It was an amazon glitch I think. It was only 250€ instead of the 700€ average price in other shops. Went up straight after I bought it. I could actually still return it and go all the other way to upgrade the rest of the hardware for software raid. But I kind of settled for this route already.
Not saying that you should return it, but why would hardware need to be upgraded for software RAID? Unless you are running an overburden Atom processor or are trying to run in only 1GB or less of RAM, I don't see software RAID being hardware hampered.
Blind swap is definitely a thing but does the benefit outweigh the cost for a home server? I don't think so but I'd love to hear your opinions.
In his case he already spent the money. If nothing was spent already - then sure avoid it, save the cash.
I would actually return it. It's still wasted imo. Buy slightly better hardware or an extra hard drive. Take the wife out to a nice dinner. Something.
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@marcinozga said in Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions:
@wirestyle22 said in Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions:
@dafyre said in Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions:
@geertcourmacher said in Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions:
I was thinking to eventually add Plex somewhere down the line. Right now both my media pc and work pc are much more powerful than the server.
The server is based on the AM1 platform, I just switched out the terrible 2650 (2x1.45) for a slighlty better 5150 (4x1.60). Should be ok for x264, yet I don't know about x265 and whatever may come.
Building my Kodi library has taken a while do, I'd assume the same process would wait for me with Plex (with foreign language movies not being scrubbed correctly from databases, etc...)Plex should be able to read the media in your Kodi library if it is stored as standard MP4 / AVI files, etc. You shouldn't have to re-rip your entire library just to switch from one to the other.
Not to mention that MKV's (as you mentioned they will be) are natively supported by Roku meaning no transcoding. That dramatically reduces the hardware requirements of your server.
MKV is just a container, it's what's inside of it that may need transcoding.
Yes but he mentioned MP4 and MKV. Both Native. Both capable of direct play provided the encoding is correct.
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If I understand correctly, you're looking to set up a "NAS" basically, right? If that's the case, I would recommend looking into something like FreeNAS/NAS4Free/OpenFiler. These are *NIX distributions geared towards the system being a file server. There are other features built in that you may or may not benefit from, but it may be worth it over running Win10 on the box.
I've had very good success with software RAID under linux. mdadm has served me well. I've done RAID 1, RAID 5*, and RAID 10 and all performed nicely.
*Avoid RAID 5 like the plauge. I had an older PPC G5 Xserve running Debian set up in my garage not doing anything important. Those things could only hold three 3.5 inch drives. If I was able to put a 4th drive in I would've totally gone RAID 10.
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@anthonyh said in Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions:
If I understand correctly, you're looking to set up a "NAS" basically, right? If that's the case, I would recommend looking into something like FreeNAS/NAS4Free/OpenFiler. These are Linux distributions geared towards the system being a file server. There are other features built in that you may or may not benefit from, but it may be worth it over running Win10 on the box.
I've had very good success with software RAID under linux. mdadm has served me well. I've done RAID 1, RAID 5*, and RAID 10 and all performed nicely.
*Avoid RAID 5 like the plauge. I had an older PPC G5 Xserve running Debian set up in my garage not doing anything important. Those things could only hold three 3.5 inch drives. If I was able to put a 4th drive in I would've totally gone RAID 10.
FreeNAS and NAS4Free and BSD based. OpenFiler is Linux based, however, it's abandoned project. It hasn't been maintained for years. And even then, it wasn't any good.
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@marcinozga said in Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions:
@anthonyh said in Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions:
If I understand correctly, you're looking to set up a "NAS" basically, right? If that's the case, I would recommend looking into something like FreeNAS/NAS4Free/OpenFiler. These are Linux distributions geared towards the system being a file server. There are other features built in that you may or may not benefit from, but it may be worth it over running Win10 on the box.
I've had very good success with software RAID under linux. mdadm has served me well. I've done RAID 1, RAID 5*, and RAID 10 and all performed nicely.
*Avoid RAID 5 like the plauge. I had an older PPC G5 Xserve running Debian set up in my garage not doing anything important. Those things could only hold three 3.5 inch drives. If I was able to put a 4th drive in I would've totally gone RAID 10.
FreeNAS and NAS4Free and BSD based. OpenFiler is Linux based, however, it's abandoned project. It hasn't been maintained for years. And even then, it wasn't any good.
My bad. You're right. My brain erroneously clumps BSD/Linux/UNIX together from time to time.
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@scottalanmiller has an article about FreeNAS. It's a good read. http://www.smbitjournal.com/2015/07/the-jurassic-park-effect/
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@coliver said in Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions:
@scottalanmiller has an article about FreeNAS. It's a good read. http://www.smbitjournal.com/2015/07/the-jurassic-park-effect/
Where's my popcorn? I need it for when Scott comes back and reads that other post.
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@Dashrender No kidding! lol
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@scottalanmiller said in Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions:
@geertcourmacher said in Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions:
I do not insinst on Windows if there is a good reason for not using it, at all. I know it's not the best OS by far, although for my normal usage it kind of is (Office Suite, few decoding tools, some Games); but that's not on the server, of course. I wouldn't have bought a licence though.
So the thing with Windows is, beyond it being really expensive, is that its software RAID is kinda craptastic. Software RAID on its own is great, as a concept. And there are great implementations of it like MD RAID (from Linux) and ZFS (from Solaris and FreeBSD.) For home use, whatever, Windows is just fine. But it's also not free. Using Linux with MD or FreeBSD with ZFS would give you a really good software RAID option that Windows does not.
Linux or FreeBSD are also generally considered much better for use as a media server.
There goes my post, but at least I didn't post nearly the same and embarrass myself. I'm can't be bothered to read other people's posts when I get keyed up about answering something.
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@wirestyle22 said in Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions:
@scottalanmiller said in Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions:
@geertcourmacher said in Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions:
It was an amazon glitch I think. It was only 250€ instead of the 700€ average price in other shops. Went up straight after I bought it. I could actually still return it and go all the other way to upgrade the rest of the hardware for software raid. But I kind of settled for this route already.
Not saying that you should return it, but why would hardware need to be upgraded for software RAID? Unless you are running an overburden Atom processor or are trying to run in only 1GB or less of RAM, I don't see software RAID being hardware hampered.
Blind swap is definitely a thing but does the benefit outweigh the cost for a home server? I don't think so but I'd love to hear your opinions.
Probably not for home, I was just saying that hardware RAID comes with some important benefits most of the time.
