Chaz042

First thing I checked sadly. on the MSI mobo I have, it's all in one mode, RAID only or AHCI only.

Also, looks like this was posted to the wrong forum, should probably be under, "CPUs, Motherboards, and Memory" of hardware, or "Servers and NAS" for RAID. Sorry ?

Hello everyone, while troubleshooting an issue with my GPU, I was forced to clear my BIOS settings, after doing so, my issue was fixed but my OS failed to boot due to a failed RAID 0 group. Based on what I could see, my SSD is fine, and the data is there... well half. Does anyone know how to place the drive back in to the RAID group, option 4 for Recovery is grayed out? While I have backups of my OS and important data is not stored on this RAID, I'd like to avoid the multiple hours of work to get this recovered and to reinstall all of my games, also I have a 1TB data cap. I've tried disconnecting the drives to delete the group from Intel RST, however, I forgot that the RAID info is stored on the drives, at least IIRC. Any help would be appreciated. Relevant Specs below. Picture of Intel RST attached. System Specs: CPU: i7-4790k Motherboard: MSI Z97I AC LGA 1150 Intel RST Version: 13.0.0.2075

Yea, you'd think a server tech would know this...

A NAS is a server, just not an enterprise server like a Dell PE R720/1950 or HP DL380.

A NAS is basically a software service running on a device/server. The cheap NAS units for $150 ~ $400 are servers that just have enough power for hosting file sharing services, they're more than likely running an ARM CPU instead of an x86 desktop/server CPU like Intel/AMD, leading to low performance, low cost, and low power consumption. However, when you get into the $400 ~ $1000+ range for a NAS, it's usually running an x86 desktop/server CPU, this is where you get advanced services because it's just a standard PC without standard I/O like VGA, DP, HDMI. With DiskStation Manager on Synology devices, you can run a Plex server, CCTV DVR, email server, VPN server, web server, Active Directory server, virtual machines running Windows Server, Windows 10, Linux. At the high-end of Synology's device lineup, there's the FS & XS Series, these are servers just running their own DiskStation Manager OS. If you want to put your own server together as a NAS, it's much cheaper to buy used enterprise gear if you want to do some work, you'll also get more performance per $. A good resource for hardware and software is r/homelab's wiki on Redit, https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/wiki/index For daily backups, you could do a setup with highend equipment for the core of your use, then back it up to a cheap device like the DS115j with an 8TB drive. For setting up the software of the backup, there are thousands of scripts using a number of tools to help you. Also, you could also do hourly incremental backups if you really need it. TL:DR: A NAS is a server, most NAS devices after $400+ you can use it like an enterprise server hosting services. An enterprise server as a NAS can do anything a NAS device can do, but better with more flexibility on hardware upgrades, I/O card, and OS.

GG

Hey, Just got my fist MikroTik device a few weeks ago, the Mikrotik CRS317-1G-16S+RM, 16 port 10gig switch. Any tips I should know?

We have a Teamspeak and Arma 3 server where we play semi-serious/casual Dynamic Recon/Combat Ops, looking to expand our group to full-on custom Zeus missions if possible. Please contact me on via LTT or Steam: Chaz042 Thanks.

Based on my past experience, you're gonna wanna shoot above 8GB of RAM, 16GB if possible. For CPU, you're gonna want a high clock speed above 3.0Ghz more in the 3.5Ghz range with 6~8 cores, or 2 quad cores at this speed would also work. For bandwidth, your gonna want 200Mbps~400Mbps, bandwidth caps are another hurdle later on if you have one. Then for storage, you're gonna want 15GB~20GB of storage per server, more if you have a lot of custom maps and content so 2x 128GB SSD in RAID 1. Note: there are ways of using one server directory to run multiple servers then logging the data to different files but if you're new to hosting/server work, don't attempt this to start. Finally, for the OS, use a Linux server distro with no GUI such as Ubuntu or CentOS.

Just an FYI, I believe Microsoft Imagine's license forbids the use of its software in a production environment, where a development environment is okay, please check into this!

@Matthew45985 I'd like the see the final as well, please update when you can.

If you get off every list, give it a few days, it should return to normal in a lot of cases, you're playing the game of propagation now. Below is a list of the pages to get started. Good luck with Spamhaus, I've never had to deal with them but I've heard stories in the past where basically it was extorsion to get your IP(s) removed. Barracuda: http://www.barracudacentral.org/rbl/removal-request SORBS/DUHL: http://www.sorbs.net/overview.shtml Spamhaus: https://www.spamhaus.org/sbl/delistingprocedure/ Just a heads up, in the future, have a spare system on a different IP block or different ISP where you can do a manual failover in the event something like this happens again. It sounds like you are just starting out but email is the lifeblood of a lot of business, the next time this happens you could lose all your clients. Best of luck.

@Jelly Boy After 5 years in IT, please don't change the DNS settings on the client side..... It should only be done on the router or server side. By changing the DNS on the client side it can break netbios name resolution. This is if you are on your own network, if you're on a college or business network, it may cause you to lose access to internal resources depending on firewall and DNS rules, you may even lose full internet access. Another issue while adding the rest of the issues on top, the router or firewall may redirect your DNS request to whoever else they normally use without you knowing. Changing your DNS servers won't speed up your internet, just the resolution of DNS names to IP addresses. Also, Open DNS isn't even the fastest or easiest to remember, Google is 8.8.8.8 (Primary) and 8.8.4.4 (Secondary), another good option is Level 3, although, they do resolve names to their own service when no record is found, not good . 4.4.4.3, 4.4.4.4, and 4.4.4.5 to my knowledge, they also have 2 other servers at 209.244.0.X, he's a list.... https://www.lifewire.com/free-and-public-dns-servers-2626062 With all that's been said, we still haven't covered IPv6, you have IPv6 and fail to change these servers as well, then you fail. IPv6 I believe is served over IPv4 in almost every case if your ISP gives you IPv6 and your router has it configured. If you want the best DNS servers for you, use this tool by GRC's "DNS Benchmark Domain Name Speed Benchmark tool" here: https://www.grc.com/dns/benchmark.htm I don't think it supports IPv6 however . TL:DR: You shouldn't change your DNS on your PC/Phone it can break stuff. OpenDNS is not always best depending on ISP. IPv6 will also need to be changed if you go this route and you have IPv6 enabled. Use this tool for the best IPv4 DNS servers.

When running cabling across a building or house, always use A to A or B to B. TIA/EIA-568 A to A should be used for vertical runs, i.e. MDF on floor 1 to IDF1 on floor 2. TIA/EIA-568 B to B should be used for horizontal runs, i.e. IDF1 on floor 2 to a desktop on floor 2. Straight Through vs Crossover patch cables TIA/EIA-568 A to B or vice versa should be used as a crossover cable to connect same type devices, i.e. switch to switch, PC to PC, router to router, PC to router. (Also check out Auto MDI/MDIX) TIA/EIA-568 A to A and B to B should be used as a straight through cable to different type devices, i.e. switch to router or switch to PC. Hope I gave some useful info.

Frontier, as well as other DSL providers, should have the ability to bond the 2 or more DSL connections, in fact, I believe most DSL modems from Frontier/Verizon have 2 RJ-11 jacks to be used in bonding. This ISP grade bonding method is better than other methods because no additional equipment is needed*, no external server/VPN is needed, it may be cheaper than 2 full DSL connections, you would only have 1 IP address, and it's ISP supported. There are two issues with bonding however, first, you'll need to be connected to a CO or Central Office that has a DSLAM that supports bonding. Now, the second issue is the worst part, good luck getting ahold of a person that knows WTF you're talking about, it seems like only the older techs/engineers know anything about this option, sales is kinda useless. *You may need a different modem. Best of Luck

What is your cap and ISP? Also what's your speed, at least 5Mbps up at least I'm guessing?

The NetApp DS4243 is a good choice for this, you can get one for $200+- with 4x PSUs and 2x IOM3 controllers. There are a few trade offs that @BenChurchill would need to accept before using this method however. Higher power usage due to older drive shelves not handling larger drives, like the DS4243 can only take up to 3TB drives. Also more power = more heat you'll need to get rid of. More rack space, again, due to the drive size constraints, you'll need more drives, and more drives = more physical space. In NYC, space costs $$$$$, so unless @BenChurchill has a 24U~45U server rack already setup or space reserved/available for the rack, 5U+ of space may be unreasonable. The cost per TB is typically lower the higher the capacity the drive is, meaning, you may incur higher cost when buying the storage. @leadeater @Jarsky I would like to hear your opinions on the NetApp DS4243, do you know of anything else that's used that doesn't have a 3TB limit while being reasonably priced or something new that's sub $1000?

I was always under the idea that Supermicro was prices similarly to HP and Dell, this is actually really competitive.

Are you talking about the Dell C2100 by chance? The C2100 is a good server but with a few issues. The "C" stands for Cloud because they were sold in batches of 100s for web/cloud hosting use. The cloud line is designed with no to little reliability in mind because they are meant to be in huge clusters where the reliability comes from the cluster and not the hardware itself. Another factor is long term driver and BIOS update support, C2100 support was weak, however, the Dell R510 has released almost 8 years ago and it's still getting updates for parts like the iDRAC which was last updated on 7/25/2017, it has way more support. Also, take my thoughts with a grain of salt, I maybe a little biased because I got a Dell C1100 / CS24-TY Cloud server a few years back and it had non-standard rails, no support for ECC RAM, no BIOS updates because the BIOS was custom to the hosting company, and firmware on the software based RAID controller was also custom. It made ESXi 5.5 very hard to install, and anything newer than ESXi 6.0 won't work. Also to my knowledge, the server was less than 3 years old when I bought it and Dell offered 0% support for it.

@BenChurchill If you're looking for new, your best bet is most likely 45 Drives, anything else that's going to support 24+ drives will be $10,000+ $4,000 for an enterprise system. Other solutions like Direct Attached Storage/Drive Shelves start round $2,500, and the entry level solutions also start with 12 HDD bays, so you'll need 2, and you still need a server to process everything. Now, if you want to talk about used enterprise equipment, you could get away with 2 or so Dell R510 with 12 3.5" bays. Using these servers you can create a storage cluster with GlusterFS. I found this overview on the subject from 45 Drives actually, http://45drives.blogspot.com/2016/11/an-introduction-to-clustering-how-to.html. You can get a Dell R510 on eBay starting around $250~$350. I personly have used www.savemyserver.com in the past and I couldn't be happier, and all their servers have a 2-year warranty. A custom Dell R510 12 bay starts at $190, however, at the moment, there configuration page for it is bugged. If you were to go the Save My Server route, I would say get 32GB (4x 8GB) of RAM, 64 (4x 16GB) if you really want, 2x X5670 (2.93GHz 6Cores/12Threads), no RAID card, IDRAC 6 Express, DVD if free, no PSUs, no drive trays, no rails, and bezel. The PSUs, drive trays, rails, and bezel can be found on eBay for much cheaper. Next, the Dell R510 has 1 x8 PCIe 2.0 slot, and 2 x4 PCIe 2.0 slots and you still need an SAS HBA card that works with the hot swap backplane, can't really help you with this part, but I'm sure someone here has a bit of experience with HBAs. Lastly, you may want to think about upgrading your network to support 10Gbps uplinks to the servers, SFP+ NICs can be found for $15~$100 on eBay and 48 port gigabit switches with 10Gbps uplinks can be found starting at $90, but 10Gb this is a different topic altogether. Edit: Pricing info was off, thanks @GDRRiley

If the ability to effectively utilize a caching server for content is available, it's not overkill, especially if gaming services like Steam, EA, etc are offered. A caching server would also prevent repeated usage of the WAN connection to get the same data like updates and static web content (Not via SSL). What is the budget, internet speed, and what services are going to be offered, just web browsing or something else? What is this, 2002? A proper firewall with an IDS/IPS would prevent issues anyway and should be used regardless to protect the Cafe from abuse and legal issues. A proper firewall can also rate limit clients to X speed in and out of a network i.e. the WAN, so 100Mbps is a thing of the past. Also 1Gbps uplinks may be fine depending on the use case, not saying 10Gbps is needed, hell, get 3 48Port Gigabit switches with 4 uplinks and just put them in a LAG, 4Gbps backbone to the core/firewall. Let's just wait till OP responds to get more info.

LOL, the end of life on the Cisco 2950 series for software was 2009, end of hardware support, if you had a really long service contract, was 2013.

.....Well, most homes in my area are running less than 25Mbps for an entire house, and after paying for 75Mbps Down and 15Mbps Up from Comcast for the last 7 years, and now just getting 85Mbps Down and 12Mbps Up, yes, yes it is. But in reality, you should be fine, 300Mbps back to 100Mbps isn't that much for one person.

Got it for $95.