LTT Storage Rankings

[alpenwasser]

I think the minimum amount of storage should  raise as you can get 8TD dirt cheap now.

The primary point of the limit is to prevent people from posting their normal

desktop or gaming machines which just happen to have some storage in them,

nothing more. As long as this thread isn't spammed by non-storage builds

which just happen to have some terabytes built in we'll likely leave the limit

where it is.

Also, many markets don't have access to 8 TB magic yet, including where I

live. Heck we don't even yet have builds making use of 6 TB drives on the

list, and those have been available for a few months now. Once 8 TB drives are

actually being used by builds in the list we might revisit the topic, but so

far 4 TB is the largest size people are using.

There's also the possibility of introducing a minimum number of drives, but we

shall see. After all, a build using 20 × 1 TB drives will possibly be more

interesting than a machine with three 8 TB disks, despite having lower storage

capacity, and in the end that's what this topic is all about: Interesting

storage builds.

[unijab]

Hardware

CASE: Rosewill Blackbone

PSU: Corsair CX600

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7 GHz

RAM: 32GB - G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 

MB: ASRock H170M Mini-ITX

 

RAID CARD: LSI 9211-8i, Flashed with "IT" firmware

HDD 1: 1x 500G WD Blue 2.5"

HDD 2: 6x 1TB  WD Red 2.5"

HDD 3: 4x 3TB WD Green 3.5"

 

 

Retired Hardware:

MB: EVGA Z68 SLI

CPU: Core i3-2105

HS: Zalman 92mm 

RAM: GSkill 16GB DDR3 1067

GPU: EVGA 01G-P3-1302-LR GeForce 8400 GS 

HDD 2: 6x 500G WD Black 2.5"

 

 

 

Software and Configuration:

My server is running CentOS 6.6 and im using mdadm to make my array.

The OS drive is the WD Blue (encrypted with luks).

My main array consists of six 500G 1TB drives in RAID 5.

The WD Green drives will be in RAID 5 and used as storage for backups.

 

Usage:

I use the storage for iscsi targets that my hypervisor machine uses for VMs, mostly for school work. 

 

Backup:

Important stuff is put on an external USB drive. 

 

 

Photo's:

 

The LSI 9211 & and GPU

 

The make-shift cage to hold the 6 WD Blacks

 

 

These just got here this week. 

 

 

 

So I used the 5.25" bays to put the 3TB drives... and the fan is held there with bread ties.

 

 

 

 

 

Update:

 

I replaced all my 2.5" 500G WD blacks with 2.5" 1TB Reds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Update 2:

 

Just a refresh with new hardware.

Skylake stuff !

 

Hardware:

Intel Core i3-6100 3.7 GHz

32GB - G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 

ASRock H170M Mini-ITX

 

 

 

 

[alpenwasser]

- snip -

Very cool to see some 2.5" drives. I would have loved to pack my server

full of those, but dear lord, the cost would have been astronomical.

Welcome to the list!

[dangerous1]

Merry Christmas! This year, I only got a few more drives. I had one three-year-old WD 2TB fail gracefully (no data loss). I'm now up to over 90TB usable or 103.5TB nominal. I'm surprised no one has passed me since I'm not adding much space anymore.

 

Here's my update, I tried to bold the changes

 

Hardware
CASE: Lian Li PC-A70F with Lian Li EX-23NB, EX-34NB, Sans Digital HDDRACK5, Mediasonic 4-bay Probox, and 8-bay Probox

PSU: Corsair RM 750
MB: Asus P8P67 Pro
CPU: Intel i7-2600k at 4.43ghz
HS: Noctua NH-C12P SE14
RAM: 16GB DDR3 1600
HBA: Intel SASUC8i, some cheap 2x sata pcie x1 card, Mediasonic 2x esata card, Supermicro SAS2LP-MV8
SSD: OCZ Vertex 3 120GB

HDDs: 1x WD Green 6tb ($210)

            2x Seagate 5tb ($120)

            2x WD Green 4tb

            5x Seagate 4tb

            14x WD Green 3TB 

            1x WD Red 3TB

            5x WD Green 2TB (1 died)

            1x Seagate 2TB

            1x Samsung 2TB

            1x 500GB single-platter Seagate (Scratch)

 

Software and Configuration:
Windows 7 - All JBOD. I use junctions to merge the drives, works perfectly for me. 
 
Usage:
I use the storage for movies and series, I have media players around the house that access it. I also have a 150/170 home line, so I can stream it to any remote location or to my mobile devices.
 
Backup:
What is this "backup" you speak of?
 
Additional info:
Most 3TB drives were bought for $110 or less in 2011 and 2012 and most 4TB drives were bought for $130 or less in 2013. 5TB were $120 and the 6TB was $210 (ouch) in 2014.
 
Photo's:

 

 

[565465464]

Nice build and merry christmas! I wish I had that much storage

I would recommend changing the text color because is some of it is impossible to read on Tapatalk.

[Jonathan Yonke]

Hardware

CASE: Norco RPC-4020

PSU: Rosewill Hive-650

MB: Supermicro X10SLL-F

CPU: Intel G3220 3.0 GHz 2C/2T

HS: OEM Intel

RAM: 2 x 2GB Crucial DDR3L ECC 1600

HBA: 2 x Supermicro AOC-SAS2LP-MV8 

HDDs: 2TB/4TB Hodgepodge

OS: Unraid 5.06 

Size: 32TB

 

Usage: General Home File Server, Movies, TV Shows, Music, Home Videos, Pictures, ESXi VM Backups. 

Backup: Crashplan (Home Videos, Pictures, ESXi VM Backups)

 

 

[alpenwasser]

Merry Christmas! This year, I only got a few more drives. I had one three-year-old WD 2TB fail gracefully (no data loss). I'm now up to over 90TB usable or 103.5TB nominal. I'm surprised no one has passed me since I'm not adding much space anymore.

- snip -

Nice, first >100 TB system, and first system to use 5 TB and 6 TB drives.

Also, I think looney is working on something...

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/257439-planning-new-100tb-storage-server/

 

 

gonna build mine once i start earning again..... i have planned my own cloud i have already purchased a refurb core2duo and an old used mobo from ebay,and also a 8500gt ...   would get a raid card and a ton of drives in may 2015

 

Splendid, looking forward to the results

 

- snip -

Nice, I have tallied the raw capacity of your system at 38 TB, let me know if that is not

correct (the 32 TB from the pool, plus the 4 TB parity drive, plus the 2 TB cache drive).

Welcome to the list!

Also, yay, we're >2000 TB.

[TJStamp]

Hardware
CASE: Sharkoon T9 Value
PSU: Corsair AX750
MB: AsRock 970 Extreme4 AM3+
CPU: AMD FX-8320 8 Core 3.5 GHz
HS: Cooler Master Seidon 120 M

RAM:  32 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 MHz

Flash Disk: SanDisk Cruzr 16GB
PCI-E Slot 1: TBS 6280 Dual Tuner DVB-T2 Tuner Card

PCI-E Slot 2: Dell SAS 6 I/R PCI-E 8 port

PCI-E Slot 3: TP-Link Gigabit NIC

PCI-E Slot 4: Dell SAS 6 I/R PCI-E 8 port

PCI-E Slot 5: Intel Quad Port Gigabit NIC

PCI Slot 1: ATI Radeon 7000 32 MB GPU

PCI Slot 2: TP-Link Gigabit NIC

SSD Storage: 2x SanDisk Pulse SSD

HDD Storage: 12x Seagate Barracuda / Samsung EcoGreen F3 2 TB HDD

Nominal Capacity: 24.2 TB

Drive Cage 1: Cooler Master 4-in-3

Drive Cage 2: Cooler Master 4-in-3

Drive Cage 3: Cooler Master 4-in-3

 

Software and Configuration:
This system is running VMWare ESXi 5.1 U1. Storage is provided by a Virtualized SAN/NAS appliance called OpenIndiana with Napp-It for web based ZFS storage management running on top. VMWare Passthrough provides the virtual appliance direct control of the PCI-E SAS cards, in turn connected to the various disks in JBOD mode.

 

The appliance has an iSCSI SAN array made up of 4x 2TB Seagate Barracudas (two mirrored pools of 2 drives) with an SSD providing a high speed write cache. This provides high speed storage to all of the virtual machiens running on the host system. Usable capacity of 3.8 TB

 

  pool: iSCSIStorage state: ONLINEconfig:	NAME        STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM     CAP            Product	iSCSIStorage  ONLINE       0     0     0	  mirror-0  ONLINE       0     0     0	    c5t4d0  ONLINE       0     0     0     2 TB           ST2000DM001-1CH1	    c5t5d0  ONLINE       0     0     0     2 TB           ST2000DM001-1CH1	  mirror-1  ONLINE       0     0     0	    c5t6d0  ONLINE       0     0     0     2 TB           ST2000DM001-1CH1	    c5t7d0  ONLINE       0     0     0     2 TB           ST2000DM001-1CH1	logs	  c5t3d0    ONLINE       0     0     0     126 GB         SanDisk SDSSDP12

		NAME		SIZE		Seq-Write	Seq-Read

	iSCSIStorage	3.62 TB		252 MB/s	402 MB/s

 

 

The NAS array is a simple RAIDZ1-0 pool of 8x 2TB Drives. This system currently has a hardware limitation of 2TB drives due to the old SAS cards being used. This provides some redundency without too much overhead and still provides enough throughput to saturate a gigabit NIC. FileSharing via Appletalk, SMB/CIFS/NFS with DLNA streaming enabled (no transcode ability on the appliance itself)

 

  pool: library state: ONLINEconfig:	NAME        STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM     CAP            Product	library     ONLINE       0     0     0	  raidz1-0  ONLINE       0     0     0	    c3t0d0  ONLINE       0     0     0     2 TB           ST2000DM001-9YN1	    c3t1d0  ONLINE       0     0     0     2 TB           SAMSUNG HD204UI	    c3t2d0  ONLINE       0     0     0     2 TB           SAMSUNG HD204UI	    c3t3d0  ONLINE       0     0     0     2 TB           SAMSUNG HD204UI	    c3t4d0  ONLINE       0     0     0     2 TB           SAMSUNG HD204UI	    c3t5d0  ONLINE       0     0     0     2 TB           ST2000DM001-1CH1	    c3t6d0  ONLINE       0     0     0     2 TB           ST2000DM001-1CH1	    c3t7d0  ONLINE       0     0     0     2 TB           ST2000DM001-1CH1

	NAME		SIZE		Seq-Write	Seq-Read

	library		13.6 TB		182 MB/s	339 MB/s

 

Usage:
This build was designed to centralize 4 old servers and a couple of different NAS devices which were clogging up my hallway into one single easy to manage and expandable machine which could be hidden away out of sight. It was also something of a home-lab project for testing out technologies I wasn't familiar with like VMWare and ZFS. The Host has a primary role as a home storage server but with the additional CPU power and memory installed along with features like AMD IOMMU it also has the power to run all of the other servers as well. This has given a substantial saving on the monthly power bills, and is expandable enough that it should not need replacing for many years. Currently the VMWare host is running a virtualized firewall appliance (PfSense), an ubuntu based CCTV recording server (zoneminder), a windows based download machine restricted to only use international VPN access, a windows based server for whole-home automation and power monitoring and a Mythbuntu based TV tuner appliance for recording and streaming HD television feeds to various networked devices.

 

 

Backup:
Currently all data can survive the failure of a single drive. I am looking at increasing redundency to provide 2 drive reslience on both storage arrays. I'll have to replace both SAS cards before I can do that though.

Photo's:

 

This was the first build of the server, with some Silicon Image raid cards and stock cooling, needless to say it has had a couple of upgrades since that point:

 

I first built some active cabinet ventilation as the new server would go into a cupboard:

 

by Docklandsboy, on Flickr

Server Cupboard cooling - vents built by Docklandsboy, on Flickr

Vents installed by Docklandsboy, on Flickr

Finished ! by Docklandsboy, on Flickr

 

Then on with the server build:

 

Laying it all out by Docklandsboy, on Flickr

24 TB anyone? by Docklandsboy, on Flickr

cable management... by Docklandsboy, on Flickr

About to power up by Docklandsboy, on Flickr

More tidy cabling... by Docklandsboy, on Flickr

Drive cages by Docklandsboy, on Flickr

All Done by Docklandsboy, on Flickr

[chris]

quick question about the requirements

if I have two servers in the same rack and the overall storage is 10TB, and all of the storage drives in one server are connected to the other server over iSCSI, and are then in RAID (such that the second server has access to all of the storage drives and overall there is only one volume), would that still count or would it count as two smaller builds?

[alpenwasser]

- snip -

Very nice system, will add you tomorrow.

How has OpenIndiana been for you? Curious about that. 

 

quick question about the requirements

if I have two servers in the same rack and the overall storage is 10TB, and all of the storage drives in one server are connected to the other server over iSCSI, and are then in RAID (such that the second server has access to all of the storage drives and overall there is only one volume), would that still count or would it count as two smaller builds?

The condition is that the drives need to be controlled off the same motherboard, so I think it would

count as two smaller builds. @looney, opinions?

Also, my first post in 2015, happy new year!

[chris]

Very nice system, will add you tomorrow.

How has OpenIndiana been for you? Curious about that. 

 

The condition is that the drives need to be controlled off the same motherboard, so I think it would

count as two smaller builds. @looney, opinions?

Also, my first post in 2015, happy new year!

 

Happy new year :3

[TJStamp]

How has OpenIndiana been for you? Curious about that.

Also, my first post in 2015, happy new year!

 

Still a few minutes of 2014 left to go here in London, Happy New Year though!

 

I really like OI's tiny footprint and native zfs support but sadly it lost it's lead dev last year and isn't being developed for much anymore, it's also different enough from regular linux OS's that there's a bit of a learning curve to using it... had a massive fight getting teamed 10gig virtual NICs and jumbo frames to work on it but got there eventually. The other OpenSolaris builds like OmniOS look to be the best of the true ZFS distros going forwards.

[looney]

Very nice system, will add you tomorrow.

How has OpenIndiana been for you? Curious about that. 

 

The condition is that the drives need to be controlled off the same motherboard, so I think it would

count as two smaller builds. @looney, opinions?

Also, my first post in 2015, happy new year!

yes, the storage does not need to be bound to a single chassis but it has to have a single controller or motherboard connecting it all.

[alpenwasser]

I really like OI's tiny footprint and native zfs support but sadly it lost it's lead dev last year and isn't being developed for much anymore, it's also different enough from regular linux OS's that there's a bit of a learning curve to using it... had a massive fight getting teamed 10gig virtual NICs and jumbo frames to work on it but got there eventually. The other OpenSolaris builds like OmniOS look to be the best of the true ZFS distros going forwards.

Very interesting to hear. I've never used it, but did at some point look into it because

the thought of native ZFS support rather appeals to me. I've been using ZFS on Linux for

about 18 months now, and for the most part have had good experiences with it, but native

support just has that special kind of appeal. Then again, due to the various opensource

ZFS projects now falling under the OpenZFS umbrella I'm not sure how significant the

differences will be going forward. I doubt they'll be bringing integrated encryption any

time soon, which is something that I'd really like. I don't really feel like fiddling

around with the available solutions for Linux + ZFS + encryption. I'm not very experienced

with drive encryption, so the chances of me doing something wrong and accidentally losing

all my data are too high for my tastes. Integrated encryption which you can just enable

and not need to tinker around with rather appeals to me for that reason.

In the long run I'll probably be looking into FreeBSD again. I ran it on my laptop for a

few months in 2012, but just didn't have the time to get comfortable enough with it to use

it on a production machine. Since my dad uses our server for his work, I can't just tinker

around to my heart's delight, it kinda needs to be working.

 

Oh, also finally added you to the list, sorry for the delay. I do rather like your box I

must say.

yes, the storage does not need to be bound to a single chassis but it has to have a single controller or motherboard connecting it all.

[Green_man_5]

Hardware
CASE: Fractal Design Node 304
PSU: Corsair RM-550
MB: Asus H87i-plus
CPU: Intel i3 4130T
HS: NZXT respire T40
RAM: 8GB DDR3 1333
RAID CARD: HPT Rocket Raid 2720SGL
SSD: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB SSD
HDD: 4x 4TB WD Red WD40EFRX



Software and Configuration:
OS is Windows Home Server 2011 

I have my 4 drives in RAID 5 so 11TB usable storage

Usage:
My server has 2 main functions:

• nightly backups for all the PC's in my home
• Plex server for all my movies and TV series

Backup:
I currently have no backups for it, and it is something that ill have to look into for the future.

Additional info:
when my current gaming pc gets a cpu and motherboard upgrade ill use my i7 for my server so i can continue to contribute to the F@H (cpu was bottlenecked with running plex transcoding and a small private minecraft server). and going from a m-itx motherboard will alow me to add a TV tuner or 2 or to add a gpu for game streaming without my main pc on and to help folding

Photo's:

Raid card management

 

Windows

 

[alpenwasser]

- snip -

Yes, 2048 TB and >800 drives, wohoo!

Also, you wouldn't by any chance have pics of the actual machine? Pretty please?

Doesn't need to be the prettiest thing ever, just makes the thread more interesting to have actual pics of hardware in here.

[Green_man_5]

i agree that pics make the thread better but it would probably take me an hour to open and close the thing, its that tightly packed, im not looking forward to adding more drives

 

Yes, 2048 TB and >800 drives, wohoo!

Also, you wouldn't by any chance have pics of the actual machine? Pretty please?

Doesn't need to be the prettiest thing ever, just makes the thread more interesting to have actual pics of hardware in here.

[alpenwasser]

i agree that pics make the thread better but it would probably take me an hour to open and close the thing, its that tightly packed, im not looking forward to adding more drives

Haha, with that case, I'm not surprised about that.

Also, >1k posts in thread, yay!

[IdeaStormer]

I have been wanting to see who else would of caught this faux pas but no one else! You should all have your tech card revoked! :angry:

 

Its not 2000 Terabyts but 2 Petabytes! Once you pass 1 Petabyte, Terabytes is irrelevant. Come on man its like I don't know you guys... :wacko:

 

[alpenwasser]

I have been wanting to see who else would of caught this faux pas but no one else! You should all have your tech card revoked! :angry:

 

Its not 2000 Terabyts but 2 Petabytes! Once you pass 1 Petabyte, Terabytes is irrelevant. Come on man its like I don't know you guys... :wacko:

 

Lol.

Well, we could try to be properly thorough and start calculating in binary prefixes instead of

base 10 prefixes (KiB, MiB, GiB, TiB, PiB instead of KB, MB, GB, TB, PB). :blink:

But I reckon since HDD manufacturers advertise in base 10 prefixes (at least last time I checked,

because of course then the number is bigger, and bigger is better!) that might get horribly confusing

sooner rather than later for some people.

EDIT:

You know what? Bytes. Everything is going to be in bytes. Screw prefixes! And no thousand

separators anywhere either!

Edited January 2, 2015 by alpenwasser

[Saku]

Long time lurker and 1st post . It's very inspiring to see everyone's build and had a great time reading through all these 50 pages. Here's what I have.

 

Hardware
NAME: Yuuki

CASE: Supermicro 846E1-R900B
PSU: Dual redundant PSU 900W (included with the case)
MB: Supermicro X10SLM-F
CPU: Intel Pentium G3220
HS: Stock Intel heatsink
RAM: Kingston KVR16E11/8 8GB
RAID CARD: LSI MegaRaid SAS 9271-4I
SSD: Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB
HDD 1: 4x 6TB WD Red WD60EFRX 

NAME: Asuna

CASE: Norco 2U Case
PSU: Antec Earthwatt 500W
MB: EVGA nForce 610i
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4300
HS: Stock Intel heatsink
RAM: 2 x OCZ DDR2 1GB RAM
RAID CARD: Areca 1220
SSD: Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB
HDD 1: 6x 3TB WD Red WD30EFRX

 

Software and Configuration:
Asuna is running on Windows 8.1 with RAID 6 array, on the other hand, Yuuki is running on Debian 7 with RAID 6 array + lvm2. Asuna has a total of 18TB advertised space while Yuuki has a total of 24TB advertised space.

Usage:
Currently I use both to store any data which includes photos, documents, anime series etc. Asuna has SABnzbd + sickbead (anime version) installed so it automatically downloads anime series.

Backup:
I have crashplan for online backup and I only backup important files such photos and documents.

Additional info:
Eventually, I will retire Asuna and move all HDDs to Yuuki once I got it configured and is comfortable enough with linux.

Photo's:

[alpenwasser]

- snip -

Very nice, welcome to the list (and the forums, of course)!

[looney]

-snip-

very nice, it seems supermicro will take over norco

[Saku]

Very nice, welcome to the list (and the forums, of course)!

 

Thank you

 

very nice, it seems supermicro will take over norco

 

It will  . I have been a fan of supermicro chassis (846-E series) since the expander is included with the case. I got mine (used) from ebay back on Nov 2014 for US$299 + shipping. At the price, it's just an awesome deal B).

[NWArkGuy]

Kind of a newbie to the forums and long time builder/tech

 

Hardware:
NAME: WilhelmFile

CASE: Antec 900
PSU: PC Power & Cooling Silencer II 750 Watt

MB: ASUS M2-N32 SLI Deluxe
CPU: AMD Athlon X2 4400+
HS: Stock AMD heatsink
RAM: 4 GB
RAID CARD: None
SSD: None [ Plan to add one within the next few months ]
HDD 1: 1 TB WD Black WD10 01FALS-00E8B

HDD 2: 3 TB WD Green WD30 EXRX-00DC0B0

HDD 3: 3 TB WD Green WD30 EXRX-00DC0B0

HDD 4: 3 TB WD Green WD30 EZRX-00MMMB0

 

Software and Configuration:
This is my old game rig from about five or six years ago.  This is running Windows 7 as the OS.

Usage:
I use it mainly for a file, print, BOINC, and general server for my home.  Basically, this is my secondary computer that I use whenever I need to burn a disc or store various media files [ software, audio, video files ] off from my main/HTPC rig.

Backup:
Manual to optical discs [ blu-ray or DVD depending on file size ]

Additional info:
Whenever I retire my main computer, I normally move that equipment to being my file server. 

Photo's: