Storage Advice Needed

[Darren]

So I'm a Networking / Programming guy, storage is a mystery to me. I can safely rule a NAS device out since I love tinkering with things and rule Windows Home Server out because I'm a Unix guy, but I could be swayed to if properly convinced. I like the idea of something rackable but it looks expensive, little expansion as far as storage goes etc. RAID5 seems ideal for a 4 disk setup which I'm looking at, 1 drive can fail and I'll be okay. Does this mean I have to expand in sets of 4 or can I add a single drive at a time and it will scale? Probably be looking at some Enterprise grade (Constellation/RE4s) unless WD Reds are quite recommended and have a good track record...

 

Oh and quiet would be good.

 

Help? :)

 

Cheers guys.

[WoodenMarker]

I'm pretty sure you can just expand per drive at will. I recommend the WD Red 3TBS (specifically the 3TB) because they are near silent. The other capacities can have flimsier casings that can rattle.

[looney]

First you will need to decide what kind of RAID system you want to use, there are 3 options:

1. Dedicated hardware RAID-controller, very expensive but fast, it has a build in chip and ram that will handle all the calculations.
2. Normal consumer hardware RAID-controller, less expensive, it will use CPU power and system ram for calculations.
3. Software, just get a dumb SATA or SAS controller (HBA) or use your motherboards sata connectors, then you will use software to set up the raid. (like the linux freenas distro, or flexraid on windows)

1 is fasted 3 is slowest, 1 is most expensive 3 is least expensive.

personally i went for a software setup, i only use my data server for media and backups, and using anything other than software raid for something like that just seems silly.

 

some more questions for you:

• What will the array be used for.
• What size HDD do you plan to use.
• What is your rough budget.

[WoodenMarker]

<p>First you will need to decide what kind of RAID system you want to use, there are 3 options:</p>

<ol>

<li>Dedicated hardware RAID-controller, very expensive but fast, it has a build in chip and ram that will handle all the calculations.</li>

<li>Normal consumer hardware RAID-controller, less expensive, it well use CPU power and ram for calculations.</li>

<li>Software, just get a dumb SATA or SAS controller (HBA) or use your motherboards sata connectors, then you will use software to set up the raid.</li>

</ol>

<p>1 is fasted 3 is slowest, 1 is most expensive 3 is least expensive.</p>

<p> </p>

<p> </p>

<p>personally i went for a software setup, i only use my data server for media and backups, and using anything other than software raid for something like that just seems silly.</p>

<p> </p>

<p> </p>

<p>also some more questions for you:</p>

<ul class="bbc">

<li>What will the array be used for.</li>

<li>What size HDD do you plan to use.</li>

<li>What is your rough budget.</li>

</ul>

Nice and simple breakdown. Me like.

[Darren]

Cheers for the replies. Software based seems like a good idea, FreeNAS looks awesome. I'll just be using it for storage of media and backups myself. I have really got a budget, as I will add to it over time. I haven't decided on size of drives either. Larger drives just mean I have a higher cost up-front which I don't mind.

[Darren]

 

First you will need to decide what kind of RAID system you want to use, there are 3 options:

1. Dedicated hardware RAID-controller, very expensive but fast, it has a build in chip and ram that will handle all the calculations.
2. Normal consumer hardware RAID-controller, less expensive, it will use CPU power and system ram for calculations.
3. Software, just get a dumb SATA or SAS controller (HBA) or use your motherboards sata connectors, then you will use software to set up the raid. (like the linux freenas distro, or flexraid on windows)

1 is fasted 3 is slowest, 1 is most expensive 3 is least expensive.

personally i went for a software setup, i only use my data server for media and backups, and using anything other than software raid for something like that just seems silly.

 

some more questions for you:

• What will the array be used for.
• What size HDD do you plan to use.
• What is your rough budget.

 

 

Alright now I have some specific answers.

1) Media / Backups. Potentially running OwnCloud.

2) Probably going to bite the bullet and grab say, 4x3TB Seagate Constellation CS drives. Probably go RAID so I can have a redundant drive.

3) None as of this point. I'll just expand storage as I need it.

 

I might just go with a Micro-ATX build. Going to wait til Haswell CPU & MoBo's drop before I buy into that hardware.

[WoodenMarker]

Alright now I have some specific answers.

1) Media / Backups. Potentially running OwnCloud.

2) Probably going to bite the bullet and grab say, 4x3TB Seagate Constellation CS drives. Probably go RAID so I can have a redundant drive.

3) None as of this point. I'll just expand storage as I need it.

 

I might just go with a Micro-ATX build. Going to wait til Haswell CPU & MoBo's drop before I buy into that hardware.

Or you could get a bunch of seagate barracuda 3TB's and set up a raid 6 with more drives so that you could have 2 drives fail and not have a problem while saving some money on the side and getting more storage space.

[looney]

Alright now I have some specific answers.

1) Media / Backups. Potentially running OwnCloud.

2) Probably going to bite the bullet and grab say, 4x3TB Seagate Constellation CS drives. Probably go RAID so I can have a redundant drive.

3) None as of this point. I'll just expand storage as I need it.

 

I might just go with a Micro-ATX build. Going to wait til Haswell CPU & MoBo's drop before I buy into that hardware.

I would not use constellation CS drives for simple media storage, constellation is nice if you have a high I/O array that is used for multiple iSCSI targets or something like that.

For media they are a bit overkill.

I would get barracudas, they also work fine in RAID 24/7 whilst being a lot cheaper.

Again the main question is what kind of RAID (expensive hardware RAID, normal hardware RAID, software RAID)

In your case i would use software RAID as you don't need the high I/O for media storage.

[Darren]

Again, thanks for the advice guys.

 

Going to wait for the Haswell drop for the motherboard & CPU. Should I do RAID5/6? I understand the added protection of RAID6 but do drives really fail that much? Just means I'd have to buy drives in ratios of 3:2 to keep the parity, rather than 4:1 for RAID5.