Dear All,

thanks for joining this thread.

I am looking to build a home file server with an Adaptec 51645 Raid controller. Only for media files, mostly backuped up BD discs (most of them proper movies with on avg. ~10GB per file; with some backed up TV series with smaller files of say around ~1GB).* There are no small files on the storage space itself, except a few text or nfo-files.

I have a total of 6x3TB WD Red and HGST NAS (all SATA) in the system, plus a small 2.5" for the OS. So far I was running them as JBOD's with Win10 and remote access from within the home network. The server doesn't run anything aside from remote desktop. It's only used for Kodi, and that is installed on the clients.
While the data can be replaced, it is quite a bit of work. I cannot afford to have a proper backup that requires x2 storage space, hence I opted for Raid6 as at least an additional level of security over JBODs. My only experience with RAID, however, led to near catastrophic failure (in this case it was fake Intel Raid10; so yes, my own fault) so I want to be certain to make the right choices before starting the setup. I eventually plan to extend the drive count, the controller would support up to 20 (16 internal, 4 external).

Drives are connected via SFF8087> 4 x SATA adapters; New Data is written onto the system less than once a week; data is accessed about once a day.

1. Is the setup ok as above with Win10 as its OS? I am most familiar with Win (historian by trade, rather than IT), but I would change if it is more secury. If any other OS has more capabilities, I probably won't be needing them, however. Anything else I could have missed (wrong cables, etc...)? I have a 120mm fan next to the card as it got very hot even before setting up a Raid.
2. Given the usage scenario, is it better to have it running 24/7 or start it up once a day? So far I did that via WOL, but if 24/7 is better under RAID, I will of course go for that.
   2a) If "shutdown" is an option; should I just shutdown Windows or activate energy savings on the Raid controller? There are 3 options on the controller; Normal, Standby and Power-Off.
3. OS: I have a few 2.5" drives I don't really need. Should I install Win10 on a seperate disk or as part of the array?
   3a) If it is seperate, should that drive still be plugged into the RAID card or rather into a normal mb-SATA port? I currently have it setup as the latter, but I'm open to any chances.
   3b) Assuming seperate (and either plugged into SATA ports on MB or the Raid card), would a RAID1 make sense for the OS, would a backup be better, or does neither make sense? There's no additonal software on the OS and settings are only adjusted to whatever makes sense regarding energy-savings, so overall, having to re-install wouldnt be an issue if this disk breakes, as long as it does not affect the array on the card.
   3c) If it is seperate, is this the correct boot order: 1) OS 2.5", 2) Adaptec Raid Card?
   4)Any advantage of using the Raid Bios (CTRL+A) to set up the array over the Adaptec graphical interface under Windows?
4. Write Cache: Without battery module or UPS is write-through correct?
   5b) Should I get a UPS? They are fairly cheap, a lot cheaper than the battery module actually.
5. Stripe size. A lot of options. Given that the data is primarly very large (there are some small text files though, but other than that only large mkv's; overall number of files is still only a few thousand). Does it matter?
6. Creating Array: Build / Verify, Clear or Quick init?
7. After having initialized the array, is it correct to simply format it via Windows ? File system as NTFS, with cluster size matching the stripe size?
8. Any other settings in Win10 that I need to be aware of that could jeopardize the array or are generally unhealthy, i.e. shut-down timers, energy saving features, disk shutdowns etc...or is all taken care off by the raid card anyway?
9. Anything I missed regarding array creation?
10. Should I try to test the stability/rebuild time by pulling a drive or is this unecessary stress?
11. Will the card automatically monitor the health of the disks and report it - assuming I manage to set it up correctly - or should I rely on another piece of additonal software?
12. Futureproof: If my understanding is correct, expanding the array means it has to be rebuilt entirely. Would it thus be better to do a large rebuild only once; i.e. the next step would be to add 6-8 more disks, or 3-4 at a time (thus causing 2 rebuilds?) I think its the former, but better to be sure.
    13a) In order to really utilize the savings from Raid6 over a backup, I want to get to at least 10 drives. After that, I would be open to build a new array. Would that be more advisable and can this be done on the same card (since I have a total of 20 ports including the external) ?
13. Does the controller scrub automatically or do I have to set it up? If so, how often given that I only write about once a week? I could further reduce that to once a month.

Questions 4 (A: use Raid Bios rather than Windows), 5 (A:Yes, write-through), 5b (A: Both if possible, UPS doesn't protect against failed PSU) have already been answered over at spiceworks, but if you disagree I would of course like to hear your opinion too.

Thanks a great deal in advance for hopefully replying to the many, many questions.

"*" Just in case you wonder, I'm fortunate enough to live in a country where private backups are still legal.

Seems that GTA V with the latest update has finally gotten rid of the cheaters/modders. Anyone here still playing it?
Got a bit hooked during the last weeks, and buying it on kinguin it should be quite cheap by now.

Other than that I will probably always be in love with Age of Empires, particularly AOE III still has a reasonable amount of players should you care about RTS.

Certainly at least one familiar face, thanks indeed for linking to my original thread;) I am here due to recommendation from SAM (since I couldn't post without moderation over at spiceworks).
I got a free Win10 via an upgrade from 7, hence no Windows tax (well, you know, having paid for it at some point of course but not now).
Your guess regarding SMB is correct, that is indeed how I have been accessing the files via Kodi so far.

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.

@NattNatt said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:

@geertcourmacher said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:

Seems that GTA V with the latest update has finally gotten rid of the cheaters/modders. Anyone here still playing it?
Got a bit hooked during the last weeks, and buying it on kinguin it should be quite cheap by now.

Other than that I will probably always be in love with Age of Empires, particularly AOE III still has a reasonable amount of players should you care about RTS.

Still playing from time to time, I want the new Company stuff to be available in private sessions though...

What you can do is enter a public session and make your internet connection delibertely laggy for a few seconds. Run a speed test, connect to a vpn and cancel and you will end up in a public session alone. Alternatively, sometimes you will find sessions that are populated by only a few companies, not bothering with each other.

Having said that, I lost a lot of in-game money with pickups. I won't do a delivery in a full session, though.

@Breffni-Potter; online isn't that bad. Some servers are, and there's too many kids in general, but it can also add to it if you get a nice crew and don't already have a ton of real life friends playing the game.

Thanks a lot for the warm welcome.
And also for the incredibly fast respones. I'm quite amazed, really. I wish I could give something back.

Just a little update for those interested.

I have now utilized 2 60GB SSD's as a software-based Raid0 with Win10 installed and I keep an Ubuntu stick by the server. Every now and then I boot into Ubunto just to see whether everything is accessable and it seems to work fine.
According to Adaptec all new Raid cards should be compatible with mine, so the biggest risk remaining to me seems to be user error.

I don't post this to disregard your great advice; I am sure there are better options, but I had to fill the server rather quick to escape the situation described above and hence didn't have the time to get aquainted with entirely new OS's, or whole notions of virtualization (for the next update I shall, however, try to do this your way).

The server is actually running anything but 24/7 - I only turn it on every other day for a few hours at most. Whenever I have to move more than a few gigabytes I turn on write-cache - I figured as long as I'm copying it from my main PC there is no risk involved. Afterwards I turn it off again.

The issue with the WD Red's being recognized as Sata1 keeps reoccuring - and changing with every reboot - but I haven't seen any negative impact given my usage scenario.

I installed the best fan I am aware of blowing air directly at the card (140mm Noctua Industrial) and with 1300RPM I get up to 62° (shaving off 20° compared to an 120mm fan I had installed before), if it runs at 2000RPM I could get it down to 52°, but the noise is unbearable.

The only thing that's left that I haven't figured out is regarding scrubs. I have two options that seem similiar on the controller. One is called background consistency checks; which can be set to anything; even a few hundred days (I set this to 180 days so it hasnt ocured yet). The second is called verify and fix, which can be set at a maximum of once a month. If I don't run either, it means the controller doesn't scrub at all?

@NattNatt said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:

@geertcourmacher said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:

Seems that GTA V with the latest update has finally gotten rid of the cheaters/modders. Anyone here still playing it?
Got a bit hooked during the last weeks, and buying it on kinguin it should be quite cheap by now.

Other than that I will probably always be in love with Age of Empires, particularly AOE III still has a reasonable amount of players should you care about RTS.

Still playing from time to time, I want the new Company stuff to be available in private sessions though...

What you can do is enter a public session and make your internet connection delibertely laggy for a few seconds. Run a speed test, connect to a vpn and cancel and you will end up in a public session alone. Alternatively, sometimes you will find sessions that are populated by only a few companies, not bothering with each other.

Having said that, I lost a lot of in-game money with pickups. I won't do a delivery in a full session, though.

@Breffni-Potter; online isn't that bad. Some servers are, and there's too many kids in general, but it can also add to it if you get a nice crew and don't already have a ton of real life friends playing the game.

Seems that GTA V with the latest update has finally gotten rid of the cheaters/modders. Anyone here still playing it?
Got a bit hooked during the last weeks, and buying it on kinguin it should be quite cheap by now.

Other than that I will probably always be in love with Age of Empires, particularly AOE III still has a reasonable amount of players should you care about RTS.

Just a little update for those interested.

I have now utilized 2 60GB SSD's as a software-based Raid0 with Win10 installed and I keep an Ubuntu stick by the server. Every now and then I boot into Ubunto just to see whether everything is accessable and it seems to work fine.
According to Adaptec all new Raid cards should be compatible with mine, so the biggest risk remaining to me seems to be user error.

I don't post this to disregard your great advice; I am sure there are better options, but I had to fill the server rather quick to escape the situation described above and hence didn't have the time to get aquainted with entirely new OS's, or whole notions of virtualization (for the next update I shall, however, try to do this your way).

The server is actually running anything but 24/7 - I only turn it on every other day for a few hours at most. Whenever I have to move more than a few gigabytes I turn on write-cache - I figured as long as I'm copying it from my main PC there is no risk involved. Afterwards I turn it off again.

The issue with the WD Red's being recognized as Sata1 keeps reoccuring - and changing with every reboot - but I haven't seen any negative impact given my usage scenario.

I installed the best fan I am aware of blowing air directly at the card (140mm Noctua Industrial) and with 1300RPM I get up to 62° (shaving off 20° compared to an 120mm fan I had installed before), if it runs at 2000RPM I could get it down to 52°, but the noise is unbearable.

The only thing that's left that I haven't figured out is regarding scrubs. I have two options that seem similiar on the controller. One is called background consistency checks; which can be set to anything; even a few hundred days (I set this to 180 days so it hasnt ocured yet). The second is called verify and fix, which can be set at a maximum of once a month. If I don't run either, it means the controller doesn't scrub at all?

Not really a backup. For the purpose of creating this array I had to fill up every hard drive I could find. I know you're probably crinching right now, but I actually had to delete backups for that, so for the moment even my critical data is not backed up. Only a few more hours, though. *fingers crossed

The improved speed is indeed impressive, but I'd only feel the difference right now, as I am filling up the array. And even then, I won't get to use all of the improved speed (it's either limited by the network, or worse, usb 2.0). I've actually gone ahead and left it enabled despite the fact that I don't have a battery just for filling up the array. I figured, hopefully not wrongly, that I can't lose any data as long as I don't delete it from my external drives/work pc even if the first power failure in 5+yrs were to occur.

@wirestyle22

Yes, indeed the controller negotiates the speed. I couldn't find an easy way to adjust that though.
Google search only led me back to this thread
But if its to do with WD Red's, I'll just have to live with it I guess.

Temperature: The controller gots really hot with temperatures of up to 78°C. It still reports as normal, but it seems really hot to me. I probably shouldn't compare this to a normal pc, but I actually doubt that I could cool it much better with air; I suspect the heatsink is just too small. Temps dont really drop much when inactive. Water cooling is probably not feasible, or even available.

Scrubs: I have two options that seem similiar on the controller. One is called background consistency checks; which can be set to anything; even a few hundred days. The second is called verify and fix, which can be set at a maximum of once a month. If you the specifics, all the better, but if you don't, given the very rare writes, what would be a good number of days/months to run scrubs?

@scottalanmiller said in Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions:

@geertcourmacher said in Raid 6 Amateur File Server Setup Questions:

Mind if I ask you what speaks against the approach of having the OS not on the array? You said performance, number of ports, etc...

Waste of Performance, waste of capacity, extra effort...

Ask the question the opposite way, given that splitting arrays causes huge losses in capacity and performance, what factor would make it a consideration? Try to answer the "pro" of going against standard best practices instead of only looking for the cons of following them.

Again, I'll take your word for granted, so no questions there. But, I'm not really wasting any capacity by attaching a 60gb ssd I already own (own it twice, in fact, and I find it too small for anything). I'm not wasting a slot since the ones on the mb aren't used at all (wouldn't be wasting a slot on the controller either, since I probably won't ever attach 20 drives). No extra effort too.
That leaves performance. If I'm fine with the write, and the read is maxed out anyway - would you still advice (not on principle, but in my case) against it? I've read your article on Raid1 + Raid 5. Am I wrong that my scenario deviates from standard industry use enough?

As for drive performance, I just provided what I though would be my only usage scenario. Does this give you more info or what tool should I use to measure the IOPS?

With write-cache enabled (just for test purposes)

Mind if I ask you what speaks against the approach of having the OS not on the array? You said performance, number of ports, etc...

Just as a trial I threw in a small SSD connected to the motherboard rather than the controller. It produced the results above; write is not great, but for my purpose OK (and could you really expect much more with RAID6?; Read could have actually been even better; I think 115MB/s should also be close to the maximum of what my Gigabit ethernet can do, right?).

I think with the way I write, that is I copy it over from my main pc, I could even risk enabling write-cache. That would mean that in the event of power-failure the data currently written is lost, right? The likelihood of that happening during I copy something over is almost zero, but even if it happened, I would still have the data on my pc. (Write performance is not so critical, so I won't be doing it, just out of interest).

I have also booted the entire thing with Ubuntu on a stick and I could access the array with no issues.
So it almost seems like a panacea for me; I could switch OS later on, while taking full advantage of the energy conservation options of the controller (switching drives off etc...). The OS would still run on the SSD, instead of having 6 disks spinning up and down for access to the OS alone.
I'm probably missing something though.

The issue with drives only being recognized at 1.5GB/s has returned. I think I can rule out a bad cable since the drives are attached to a 1-4 splitter cable (SFF 8087 to 4 SATA) and there is no pattern of, say, one cable producing bad results. I haven't changed any of the cables, and yet the speed seems to change every reboot. Write-performance seems not be impacted (still got around 10MB/s when 5 out of 6 where recognized as SATA I; next time I get 4/6 recognized as SATA II).

Although I rebooted thrice after the firmware update, the issue seems to be gone now. I didn't change anything though. I coulnd't find any firmware uppdate for the drives, except the lcc update, but none of the drives were affected by this.

I've built the array now with a stripe size of 512KB, hopefully not too much (I consulted the web; let's see whether that actually holds) It was the second highest, 1024 would have also been available (down to 16).

Just ran a quick test and got transfer rates of about 11MB/s write and 115MB/s read. The write penality is probably within range?!

Firmware update was succesful. The drives are still not recognized at 3GB/s, but this seems to change arbitrarily. At some point I had one or two of the 5 WD drives recognized as 3GB/s, now I'm down to 0 again (all show 1.5GB/s); the only stable one is the HGST. A few other drives I tested got 3GB/s too.