LTT Storage Rankings

[Pancake]

 

Hardware

CASE: Synology DS1813+

UPS: APC 2200XL

CPU: 2.13GHz Intel Atom D2700

RAM: 4GB DDR3

HDD 1:  4TB Western Digital WD4001FAEX-00MJRA0

HDD 2:  4TB Western Digital WD4001FAEX-00MJRA0

HDD 3:  4TB Western Digital WD4001FAEX-00MJRA0

HDD 4:  4TB Western Digital WD4001FAEX-00MJRA0

HDD 5:  3TB Western Digital WD30EFRX-68AX9N0

HDD 6:  3TB Western Digital WD30EFRX-68AX9N0

HDD 7:  3TB Western Digital WD30EFRX-68AX9N0

HDD 8:  3TB Western Digital WD30EFRX-68AX9N0

 

Software and Configuration:

Synology DSM with SHR across the 8 drives which gives 21.64TB of usage capacity.

Usage:

Linux ISOs, Lot's of Linux ISOs

Backup:

Pfft

Photos:

 

 

Protects 1 failure? Are you not scared of a second failing when rebuilding from the first? 

[vandidant]

check this

 

Silly hillbilly..., hates Seagate, has a lot of Seagate products. The only way that video can be justified is if every single one of those drives failed within a very short period of time (like within a month) and his organization ceased to buy any more Seagate products when the failures began occurring. Or, he is just blaming Seagate because he hates his job.

 

Obviously, it wouldn't make sense if his organization kept buying Seagate in spite of any problems that were so eloquently presented by our simple hillbilly friend of few words.

[gcs8]

Hardware
CASE: NORCO RPC-4220
PSU: PC Power&Cooling 910W
MB: SUPERMICRO MBD-X8SIL-F-O
CPU: Intel Core i3-540
HS: Stock Intel heatsink
RAM: 8GB ECC Unbuffered DDR3 1333

RAID CARD 1: Intel RAID Controller Card SATA/SAS PCI-E x8 (SASUC8I)
RAID CARD 2: Intel RAID Controller Card SATA/SAS PCI-E x8 (SASUC8I)
HDD 1-20: SAMSUNG EcoGreen F4 ST2000DL004 2TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"


Software and Configuration:

Still running of FreeNAS 8.0 RC1 iirc, it was built back in April of 2011, I export out the zvol over iSCSi to my main rig.

 

Usage:
 

Big ass anti bitrot storage for hoarding. 

Backup:

CrashPlan.

Additional info:

3KVA APC UPS just incase.

Photo's:

 

I think thats everything.

[mr_pants66]

Hardware
CASE: Silverstone DS380
PSU: SeaSonic 300W 80+ Certified SFX Power Supply
MB: Asrock C2750D4I
CPU: Intel Avoton C2750
HS: Stock heatsink with Noctua 60mm NF-A6x25 on top
RAM: 32GB ECC DDR3 1600
HDD 1: 5x 3TB Western Digital Red WD30EFRX
HDD 2: 2x 2TB Western Green WD20EZRX


Software and Configuration:
The server is running Freenas, it has the RED drive array set up in raid 5 for safty and storage. the Green drives are set up in raid 1 for backups.
I have set the fans up to be managed by the aquaero 5 lt water cooling controller, this (through a set of adapters) is controlled by one of the front usb ports allowing me to monitor and change the fan speed from another PC.
 
 
Usage:
I use this as a base for my PLEX library that is then accessed by Raspberry pi's and by mobile devices around the house.
The Green drives are for backing up my PC and my wifes PC.
 

Backup:
Less than I would like.
 

Additional info:
Freenas is installed to a usb that I have placed inside the server to keep it from getting broken.
All the fans that came with the case have been replaced with Industrial NF-F12s from Noctua.
I am possibly going to be adding an SSD to cache to but I am not sure about when.

 
Photo's:

Warning Large pictures

 

You can see the USB I have Freenas running on in this shot.
I have put it here not just to show it off, but so I can get at it with ease if there is a problem.
 



The CPU fan is zip tied to the 24pin to keep it from falling off the heatsink.
 

Little bit of ghetto sleeving there.
 

The aquaero 5 lt screwed to the back of the case
 

And why not have a booty shot.

[SanMadJack]

Get ready for this Frankenstein array:

 

 

Hardware
CASE: Rosewill RSV-R4000
PSU: SeaSonic 300W 80+ Certified SFX Power Supply
MB: ASUS F2A55-M LK Plus
CPU: Athlon X4 740
HS: Stock heatsink
RAM: 16GB DDR3 1333
HDD 1: 1x 160GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 ST3160812AS
HDD 2: 1x 160GB Wester Digital Scorpio Blue WD1600BEVS

HDD 3: 1x 2TB Toshiba DT01ACA200

HDD 4-6: 3x 2TB Seagate Barracude ST2000DM001

HDD 7-10: 4x 4TB Seagate NAS HDD ST4000VN000

 

Software and Configuration:
The two 160GB drives are set up as an LVM RAID-1 array containing the OS and software. The remaining drives are set up as a RAID-Z2 ZFS array. Due to parity space loss and the fact that all disks in a RAID-Z array must be the same size, only 12TB out of the 24 TB is usable. The only acceptable alternative was to use mirrors, which would have cost me half the space anyway, so I went with the route that gave me more tolerable disk failures. Once I upgrade all of the disks to 4TB, the pool will expand and allow 24TB of usable space out of the 32TB total physical space..
 
 
Usage:
This acts as a general file server, and a database server for Kodi, which my wife and I use from the media center and from our tablets. It also functions as an Owncloud server for my wife, several friends, and myself. When I'm in the mood to do so, it also acts as a web app test and development environment.
 

Backup:
Critical files are backed up to Amazon glacier or Github. Everything else is expendable (ripped DVDs and such).
 

Additional info:
For a time it ran off of a 16GB ssd that I took from an Acer chromebook, but it did not survive always-on operation in the long run. It currently contains 1.35 TB of ripped DVDs and BluRays re-encoded to h.265. I kept track of the pre and post-conversion sizes in a spreadsheet, because that the kind of thing I do: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tc1O7iDLTXQLhZSqI_WKDtLyPZ111BHGzFTV8CyOCxU/edit?pli=1#gid=0

 
Photo's:

http://imgur.com/a/9dLeC

[pyromaniac]

Hardware
CASE: Synology DS1813+
RAM: 4GB DDR3 1333
HDD 1: 7x 4TB Seagete st4000DM000
HDD 2: 1x 1.5TB Seagete  (replacing soon)

Software and Configuration:
SHR Raid

Usage:
Backups + Storage of Linux Distro's

Backup:
Photos offloaded to external 750gb Drive

Additional info:
<3 it

 

[Stakacs]

Update #4

6/15/2020

 

Hardware
CASE: SuperChassis 846E1-R900B

BACKPLANE: BPN-SAS3-846EL1

PSU: SuperMicro PWS-920P-SQ 920W 80 Plus Platinum

RAID CARD: 9305-16I 16-PORT SAS 12GB/S
MB: SuperMicro h11ssl-i
CPU: Epyc 7401P
HS: Noctua NH-U9
RAM: 128GB (4x32GB PC4-2400) SK Hynix

GPU: Quadro P2000
SSD: Toshiba 1.92TB PX04SRB192 SAS3
HDD 1: 5x 8TB HGST HUH72808CLAR8000
HDD 2: 4x 6TB HGST HUS726060AL5210

HDD 3: 2x 6TB  HGST HUH728060ALE600

HDD 4: 2x 6TB Seagate ST6000NM0235

HDD 5: 5x 4TB IBM-SSG S7CR4P0

HDD 5: 1x 4TB HGST HDN724040ALE640

 

Software and Configuration:
 Unraid Linux Server.io Nvidia Build

 

Usage:

My server is used primarily as a media server running PLEX, storage for media, backups and hosts several websites

 

Additional info:

1000/1000 fibers

 

 

 

 

UPS - Tripplite Smart750RMXL2U + Tripp-Lite BP24V36-2US 24VDC 

UDMP

Cloud key for off-site management of other networks

8 port POE switch

Unifi NanoHD

Unifi 

 

Photo's:

 

 

  

 

 

Edited December 12, 2020 by Stakacs
Spec Update

[Blade of Grass]

I was wondering about upgrading my switch too, had a drunken ebay moment and bought a Netgear ProSafe GS724Tv2 which I was expecting to terrible... Surprisingly it's not bad at all still need something with a faster fabric though as latency falls to pieces when it's running above 10gig

I'd recommend looking at HP gear, from my experience they work pretty well. Look at the HP 1810 and 1910

[Prisoner627]

Hey guys, I'm fairly new to the forum but I've been watching LTT videos for a while now. Thought I would share my home server.

 

Hardware
CASE: Rosewill RSV-L4500 - 4U Rackmount Server Case
PSU: Corsair AX850
MB: Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3
CPU: Intel Core i7 2600K
HS: Stock Intel Heatsink
RAM: 16GB DDR3 2133 G.SKILL Sniper Series
RAID CARD 1: LSI MegaRAID SATA/SAS 9240-8i 
SSD: 120GB OCZ Agility 3
HDD 1: 4x Seagate STBD4000400 4TB
HDD 2: 4x Seagate ST4000DM000 4TB

Software and Configuration:
My server is running Windows 7 Ultimate and I'm using LSI MEgaRAID Storage Manager

All 8 drives are configured in a single RAID 5 array

Usage:
General purpose file server for my movie and TV show collection as well as an assortment of games for PC and various consoles/emulators. It also serves as my Plex media server that is accessed from my 2 Media PCs and Xbox One, DC++ server, Team Speak server, and personal FTP server.

Backup:
Most of the data is on this array alone as it is not really that important... just games, movies, and TV shows. All my personal files such as documents, pictures, home videos, I have in a few places locally as well as a few different cloud locations.

 

This server along with my FiOS router and PC office area gigabit switch are on an APC Pro 1500 UPS

 
Additional info:
This is my first ever attempt at RAID, I kind of went in blind with only doing a small amount of research on my own. Some of the hardware might seem a bit overkill for a storage server but that is because they are old parts from my previous main gaming rig. Figured putting them to some good use is better than collecting dust in the closet.  I have had the setup for about 2 years now and it is chugging along just fine!

 

Side note: I'm still in an apartment at the moment so I don't have an actual rack yet but that is going to be one of my first purchases after I get my house. Currently my server doubles as a stand for my main rig so I can easily see it and all it's glory from my desk   (3rd pic below)

Photo's:

 

 

[Pancake]

Nice tidy setup, you do realize that the chance of the whole array failing when rebuilding is extremely high with RAID5 and those large drives though right? 

[Prisoner627]

Thanks. I have been told this quite a few times but like I said, this was my first attempt at RAID and did not really know much about it before hopping into this build. I've considered splitting it into 2 arrays with 4 drives each but I just haven't had the time to mess with it much. What would be the ideal setup with the hardware I already have? I'm open for suggestions.

[Pancake]

Thanks. I have been told this quite a few times but like I said, this was my first attempt at RAID and did not really know much about it before hopping into this build. I've considered splitting it into 2 arrays with 4 drives each but I just haven't had the time to mess with it much. What would be the ideal setup with the hardware I already have? I'm open for suggestions.

 

RAID6 would be better, but I am honestly not a fan of RAID or ZFS

 

I use Stablebit DrivePool and it can easily max out a 2GB/s link with my current configuration and usage (Just media and files, no VM's or Databases)

 

Pro's 

 

• You can add and remove drives of any size any time you want, with almost no configuration. SO you can grow as your data does
• You can configure it PER FOLDER for protection against 1 or any higher number drive failure, I love that its per folder or for the whole pool. I don't feel the need in having my movies redundant as they are not important and they are backed up, so this saves me a bunch of space
• If you pull the drives, you can get the data from each drive just by plugging into into any machine and looking in the hidden folder. No need for the software, or any of the other drives
• Read striping on duplicated folders
• Supports any hardware config
• The Stablbit Scanner software protects and avoids bitrot, and will move data off failing hard drives automatically. Its awesome!
• You can have an SSD write cache 

 

The ONLY downsides I can see, is that its $20, so not free. And that you are limited to the speed of the drive the data is on, so if you have data on one drive, its as slow as one drive. 2 x Drive = almost 2 x speed 

 

The support is fantastic too, and you can speak to the maker of the software 

[username6465]

Hardware

freenas server
CASE: n/a
PSU: zm 600gt 80 plus Bronze

MB: asrock b75-pro3
CPU: intel i5 2500k
HS: stock
RAM: 8GB DDR3 1333
SSD: ocz 60gb ssd (it over 4 years old)
HDD 1: 4x 2TB Seagete barracuda
HDD 2: 2x 2TB wd green

 

failed back up server

CASE: n/a
PSU: Don't know
MB: gigabyte ga-880gm-ud2h
CPU: amd Athlon II X4 640

HS: stock
RAM: 8GB DDR3 1333
HHD OS: 1x 80gb drive from a old dell (from my old job)
HDD 1: 10x 1TB Seagete barracuda
HDD 2: 4x 1TB wd green

HDD 3: 1x 1TB toshiba 9f13180

RAID CARD: areca arc 1220

Software and Configuration:
freenas

Usage:
Everything   need to get same better server

Backup:
The raid card in the back up server failed no backup and more

Additional info:
I'm using the intel processor because it was free from my old job, I am planing to upgarde and redo all the server and setup same rending fram server .And upgrade all the fileserver to a 50tb back up server and a 20tb fileserver with a 1tb caching server on a 10gb network

Photo's:

The drivers from the old server and for the caching serve

 

[username6465]

RAID6 would be better, but I am honestly not a fan of RAID or ZFS

 

I use Stablebit DrivePool and it can easily max out a 2GB/s link with my current configuration and usage (Just media and files, no VM's or Databases)

 

Pro's 

 

• You can add and remove drives of any size any time you want, with almost no configuration. SO you can grow as your data does
• You can configure it PER FOLDER for protection against 1 or any higher number drive failure, I love that its per folder or for the whole pool. I don't feel the need in having my movies redundant as they are not important and they are backed up, so this saves me a bunch of space
• If you pull the drives, you can get the data from each drive just by plugging into into any machine and looking in the hidden folder. No need for the software, or any of the other drives
• Read striping on duplicated folders
• Supports any hardware config
• The Stablbit Scanner software protects and avoids bitrot, and will move data off failing hard drives automatically. Its awesome!
• You can have an SSD write cache 

 

The ONLY downsides I can see, is that its $20, so not free. And that you are limited to the speed of the drive the data is on, so if you have data on one drive, its as slow as one drive. 2 x Drive = almost 2 x speed 

 

The support is fantastic too, and you can speak to the maker of the software 

I was think of drive pooling is it any good

[Tomasu]

Heard about this topic on the WAN Show Thought I'd brag a little about my tiny little NAS box (mrbig), and the backup for it (boris).

 

Mr Big:

 

Hardware
CASE: Lian Li PC-Q25B
PSU: Seasonic G 450W (I think)
MB: Intel DBS1200KP mITX LGA1155 C206 Server Motherboard
CPU: Intel Core i3-2120 @ 3.3GHz 
HS: Noctua NH-L9i
RAM: 16GB Kingston 2x8GB DDR3-1333 CL9 ECC
RAID CARD 1: IBM M1015, Flashed with "IT" firmware
SSD: OCZ Vertex 30GB
HDD 1: 5x 2TB Seagate ST2000DM001
HDD 2: 2x 2TB Western Digital Red WD20EFRX

RAID 1: 11TB 7x2TB md RAID5 "data"

 

Software and Configuration

Running OpenMediaVault 1.16 (Debian Wheezy Based NAS distro)

 

Usage

Mainly used to store media (videos, music, photos), a apt mirror, and "random downloads" folder for all computers on lan.

 

Backup

Backed up nightly to a secondary 5x3TB RAID5 array in another box.

 

Photo's

 

 

Boris

 

Hardware

CASE: Antec 900
PSU: Antec Trupower 
MB: Supermicro X9-SCM-FO

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 

HS: Silenx Tower HS (no fan)
RAM: 16GB Kingston 4x4GB DDR3-1333 CL9 ECC
RAID CARD 1: IBM M1015 (not flashed with 9211-it firmware)

HDD 1: 5x 3TB Seagate ST3000DM001

HDD 2: 3x 1TB Seagate ST31000524AS
HDD 3: 2x 500GB Seagate ST3500418AS

RAID 1: 500GB 2x500GB md RAID1 (system LVM vg0)

RAID 2: 12TB 5x3TB md RAID5 (backup for mrbig)

RAID 3: 1.8TB 3x1TB md RAID5 (currently unused LVM pv, may be extension for vg0, or new volume group for virtual machines)

 

Software and Configuration

Running Debian (Sid) Linux, with a primary 5x3TB md RAID5 array, and a secondary 3x1TB RAID5.

 

Usage

Backup for Mr Big's "data" volume.

 

Backup

Primary RAID5 Array is NOT backed up, it IS the backup.

Secondary RAID1 Array is used as the system drive, and as a destination for the nightly rsnapshot backups of all machines on my lan.

Rsnapshot backups are duplicated to two (or will be, currently just one, need to fix the S3 destination) remote sites.

 

note, formatting looks a little borked in the preview, but is fine in the editor, not sure what's up there?

[Helly]

Hardware

CASE: Antec P183 Performance One
PSU: Cooler Master Realpower Pro 520W Modular
MB: Asus Sabertooth 990FX
CPU: AMD Phenom x6 1090T
HS: Scythe Ninja 2 plus Rev. b
RAM: 8GB OCZ DDR3 PC16000 CL10 Gold
RAID CARD 1: Areca 1880i
RAID CARD 2: Areca ARC-1200

HDD 1: 2x 150GB Raptor
HDD 2: 8x 2TB WD Red
HDD 3: 1x 2TB Toshiba

 

Software and Configuration:
At the moment the server is running Windows 7. It needs a reinstall but i can't be bothered to do it right now.

My main array is the 8x WD's running in RAID-6 (on the 1880i). giving me a total of just under 11TB of usable space.

My 2nd array are the raptors on the ARC-1200 running in raid-0 as boot drives. The toshiba is used for my game recordings and REALLY needs a backup, but i don't have any space/spare HD's to store them atm.

The 2TB reds will be replaced with 6TB reds ASAP. I'm just waiting for the price to drop a little cuz i'm not spending more then 2100 euros on drives and even that's pushing it.

Usage:

Storing my media files (movies and tv shows). currently just under 7TB.

Backup:
There is no backup. These drives will become the backup as soon as i get the new ones. Yes i know this is not smart

 

 

I'd post pictures but i don't have any... will see about adding them later... or when i get the 6TB drives.

[alpenwasser]

Okidoki, finally got around to this. Awesome to see so many additions!

I apologise if I don't write an essay about every entry, there are a bit
too many new ones (which, again, awesome!).

 

-snip-

Sorry to hear about your troubles, updated your entry. Cache SSDs have been counted.

 

Wow, a lot of work went into this thread!

Yup, indeed. Thanks for noticing (and I'm not merely talking about my efforts).

 

Knowing my luck, I finally get on the list, and you'll change the minimum to 20TB or something

Added you to list. We have been thinking about changing the criteria, and will
do at some point, with 6 TB, 8 TB and 10 TB drives being or becoming a reality.
However, we will probably be going in a different direction and instead of
simply raising the minimum capacity, we will add a minimum number of drives
required.

We haven't decided on the specifics yet though, since for now it's not an
immediate problem. We'll likely revise the rules with the upgrade to IPB4,
since then the script will need to be rewritten anyway.

 

- snip -

Updated.

 

- snip -

- snip -

Added you guys as well, thanks for participating!
 

Just replaced my motherboard and CPU with this : Asrock Asrack Avoton C2750

8 Core @ 2.4ghz Atom - Avoton
12 SATA ports on board
I kept my Adaptec 32105 with 12 Ports
2 Intel Gigabit NICs with teaming support or fail over
1 IPMI management port
only 3 USB 2.0......
Passive cooled


went from 210watts to 130watts so its a nice improvement.
I guess the PERC 5i was consuming around 30 watts
Dont feel the difference in speed so that's a good thing!


Running on Windows Server 2012 for now.

I now have a Total of 24 ports , which is a little low. im going to get an 20+ controller soon

Nice, that is one sexy piece of hardware. :wub:

 

- snip -

- snip -

Added your systems as well, nice!
 

Its actually just 2 Ikea nightstands

Hey, it works and looks awesome, don't knock it!

 

Holy! I won't leave this thread!

Few ever do, it seems to be a rather difficult task.

 

- snip -

- snip -

- snip -

- snip -

- snip -

Added your systems, thanks for the contributions!
 

First post, thought I would make it count!

And you did!

 

Hey guys, I'm fairly new to the forum but I've been watching LTT videos for a while now. Thought I would share my home server.

Welcome, and thanks for sharing!

 

- snip -

I've added both your systems since I'm assuming you'll get the backup running again
at some point.

 

Heard about this topic on the WAN Show Thought I'd brag a little about my tiny little NAS box (mrbig), and the backup for it (boris).

Much appreciated, thanks!

 

- snip -

 

Excellent, thanks for posting!

---

And with this update we have officially 100 systems in the official ranking table!

Thanks everybody for contributing, it wouldn't work without you. :wub:

[RabidPancakes]

Apollo

 

 

Hardware:
CASE: Fractal Design Node 804

PSU: Corsair CS450

MB: Supermicro X10Sl7-F-0

CPU: Intel Core i3 4150

HS: Stock

RAM: 16GB Corsair DDR3 ECC

Network: Build in dual gigabit

RAID CARD: LSI 2308

HDD: 8 x 3TB WDC WD30EFRX

UPS: Cyberpower CP1000PFCLCD 600W

 

 

Software and Configuration:
OS: FreeNAS 9.2.1.8

RAID config: RAIDZ2 across all 8 drives

File system: ZFS

File system capacity: 24TB total, 15TB after RAID

 

 

Usage:
Backups for all computers in house (few work computers and gaming computers) as well as a timemachine backup for my Macbook. Media storage and playback. (About 1.5TB of media).

Backup:
Backups of important files every night to offsite server, as well as a complete backup (full 2TB) uploaded to CrashPlan constantly.

Photo's:

[alpenwasser]

- snip -

I see we've named our servers identically.

Welcome to the madhouse, added you to list.

[Whiskers]

Hardware

CASE: Fractal Design Define R4 w/ Window, Titanium Black
PSU: Corsair AX750
MB: MSI Z77 MPOWER
CPU: Intel Core i7 3770k @3.5GHz
HS: Intel Stock Cooler
RAM: 16GB (2x8GB) Kingston HyperX Beast (DDR3) @2400MHz

SSD: Samsung 840 EVO 500GB

HDD 1: 4x Western Digital Blue 1TB
HDD 2: 1x Western Digital Green 3TB

HDD 3: 3x Western Digital Green 1TB

 

Software and Configuration:

The OS for this machine is Windows 8.1, and the 4x WD Blue drives are in a RAID array via Flexraid. The 3x 1TB Green drives are connected and can be powered, but are not currently active as I only have enough SATA ports on my motherboard to hook up one of them. I will be purchasing a PCI-E to SATA II 4-port adapter soon in order to have them all be usable.

Usage:

Whilst this machine was initially built to be a gaming rig (which explains my component choice ), its primary role is that of a storage server. It is operational 24/7, serving media files to other devices in my home. I'm planning to move all of my storage requirements to a dedicated server at some point in the future which will be a lot more power efficient and allow me to have a much higher storage capacity.

Backup:

Critical files and documents are backed up to a separate machine with ~750GB of storage.

 

Photos:

[tycheleto]

Finally gotten around to posting this, although most of the changes were done months ago. Still in the process of setting up new features since I'm currently serving my military commitment and so can only work on it during the weekend. Got a new 24 port Mikrotik switch so starting to explore more into servers and networking.

 

 

 

Original post at: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/21948-ltt-10tb-storage-show-off-topic/?p=657061

 

Hardware
CASE: Fractal Design Define Mini
PSU: Seasonic G-360
MB: MSI H77MA-G43
CPU: Intel Pentium G2020
HS: Stock Intel Heatsink
RAM: 8GB DDR3 1600
SSD: Corsair Force GT 60GB SSD
HDD 1: 1x 2TB Seagate Barracuda Green ST2000DL003
HDD 2: 3x 3TB WD Red WD30EFRX

HDD 3: 2x 4TB WD Red Pro WD4001FFSX

 

Total HDD Capacity: 19 TB

Total Usable Capacity: 15 TB

 

Software and Configuration:
My server is running Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter with FlexRAID Transparent Raid(tRaid) for pooling/array, with the array formatted as ReFS.

The array has the three 3TB WD Red Drives and one of the 4TB WD Red Pros as data drives, with the last 4TB WD Red Pro as a parity drive(13TB Usable, 15TB Total). The last 2TB Seagate is an extremely old drive( 46000+ power on hours and counting) still using NTFS and is just used for Misc storage/Backups/iSCSI to boost my main rig's storage
The array currently has the one 2TB Seagate drive and two 3TB WD Red as data drives, with the last the 3TB WD Red as a parity drive (8TB Usable, 11TB Total).
 
Usage:

 

Home Server is used for mainly music(~2TB), Videos(~2TB) and Backups (~2TB+). Most computers access the server via SMB/Windows Server shares with no software. Server used to run Emit Free/Air Playit Server for access on Android/iOS, and runs Plex for videos, but I have not installed this since changing to Windows Server, and will see if I need it in the future. It also has Minimserver+Bubbleupnp for music streaming. It handles backup for 4 other Windows Computers, and also acts as a bit of shared storage for documents and pictures. Am learning to configure Windows Active Directory and iSCSI to help manage the shared storage and give the server more purpose.

 

 
Backup:
Currently no backup of entire server. However, most data is replicated in at least one other location to prevent hardware failure from causing data loss.
 
Additional info:
Status as of Dec 2013: Server is still fairly unstable even after a few months of experimentation. First tried unRAID for a while, but write performance wasn’t sufficient. Moved to Real Time Raid for FlexRAID, but kept having errors, to the point I was recalculating my entire parity at least once every 2 or 3 days. Moved to tRAID to see if it improves stability, but still a work in progress as tRAID is still in the RC stage. Waiting for tRAID to reach full release before I finalize the software setup.

 

2014 April Update: Server has been very stable past few months, had a period where it stayed on for 48 days in a row. Transparent RAID is being continuously updated, so getting small performance increases every now and then. Just had a disk failure last week, which made me realize that I had my drive labels wrong, and had to reconfigure the entire array, but should be good now.

 

2015 March Update: Server had another Seagate drive fail in the past year, which means all except the extremely old 2TB Seagate Barracuda Drives have failed. They just don't seem to be as reliable since they switched to 1TB Platters. As such, have moved to WD Reds/Red Pros, which seem much better for the array. Was having a weird issue where one of the Red Pros kept dropping out of the array, yet it was passing all tests. Hasn't occurred since the switch to Windows Server so will monitor it for a while. Have a 1TB WD Black I might want to add to the server to make it a nice round 20TB, and I'm trying to get a small 60GB or 120GB SSD for a transparent raid landing disk, but haven't found the time to get one yet. Hopefully soon.

 

Photo's:

[alpenwasser]

- snip -

 

 

- snip -

Added and updated, respectively,

[MG2R]

<dat epic SSD mount>

I repeat: dat epic SSD mount

[Danny91]

33  Danny91           22.0 TB Logic Case SC-4324 

 

Just an update i'm up to 26 TB now

7 x 3 TB

2 x 2 TB

1 x 1 TB

 

Further update to this;

 

I am now running an I5 -3570K rather than my I3-3225.

Ive moved over from flex raid (snapshot raid) to transparent raid (real time raid)

Still running a Raid 6 equivilent of 2 parity disks

 

However i now have

1 x 1TB landing drive

2 x 2TB in the pool

11 x 3TB 9 data and 2 parity

This brings my total up from 26TB to 37TB

 

 

Thanks

[Sidiox]

-snip-

 

I see you finally got around to building it!

Looks good, but the case really doesn't suit it as a server imo.

 

(can't wait till I get my 4TB drives!)