File Server Raid and OS Questions

Kouzelnik · March 4, 2018

Hey there, I built a new computer not too long ago, got a gtx1070 right before the spike w00t w00t, but onto my real question, I want to get rid of my HDDs 1TB 7200rpm drive and a 2TB 5400 drive in my new computer and run off the 750GB of solid state drive space I have. I would like to keep things like games, financial documents, and sentimental things like photos and the such secure/safe. I am hoping to set up some sort of File Server, and possibly do some home streaming, or maybe setting up a mincraft server for local or light online use, but mostly for redundant storage. And if its possible have it accessible from the internet. I am going to be using either ac wifi, or gigabit switch. And my internet is 100 Mb/s.

So here are the options I have, my mobo supports RAID 0, 1, 5, 10. I am not planning on doing 0 for sure, and I am pretty sure 5 or 10 are probably my best bet. I like the idea of 5 as my the main purpose is to keep things safe and secure, and from what I understand the performance wont be much less if any and I like the idea that if a drive fails my information isn't lost. I am hoping to use a total 4-6(probably 4) drives either 1 or 2 TB each. Would raid 5 or 10 be able to do what I want? And would either one be better for my intentions? Also I have 24GB of ddr3 ram, how much would I need for a this type of server(I would like to use some to either upgrade our HTPC or my mom's PC)? And would ram speed make much of a difference?

I have a Windows 10 key associated with the hardware already so I could just keep Windows 10 and use that or I could use some sort of special software for NAS, or other server software, but I wouldn't want to buy a new operating system, I know there are options like freeNAS and the like but would that be able to do home streaming or be set up as a simple game server, and if not is there a free, not super convoluted software that I could use? If I used Windows 10 I am assuming I could still use it as a desktop for guests when the come over correct? But could I make my folders available over the internet or use it for a server for games? And if I can get access to my folders online would I be able to do so securely and/or allow only specific folders to be accessible online?

Sorry for the long post, thanks in advance for any advice you can give me.

Cyanara · March 4, 2018

Are you buying these hard drives, or do you have them lying around? 1-2TB per drive adds up to very little these days. If you're buying them, just get two larger ones and mirror them (RAID1). Less power consumption, double the read speed, no write performance penalty, substantially less risk of drive failure.

If you already have the drives, RAID5 parity should be fine for such moderately sized drives. Remember that you will always be limited to the capacity/speed of your smallest/slowest drive if you are using mixed drive types.

I'd recommend looking at Storage Spaces. It's built into Windows (which means you can continue to use that as a flexible and familiar OS for your server) and, unlike your motherboard's RAID, can be moved to any other computer at any time. Literally, you just unplug the drives and plug them into any other Windows 10 computer and your RAID will automatically work. It's pretty awesome, and helps keep your data that bit safer from hardware failure. Just select Parity for RAID5 or Mirrored for RAID1.

RAM barely matters with RAID, but if you have it, you might as well use it. Minecraft may well love RAM. Probably see if you can find a more specific forum regarding Minecraft servers. I suspect that will be the most demanding thing you'll run and therefore what your hardware should be based around.

How do you want to access your files remotely? If in a browser, something like OwnCloud is probably the way to go. Run one of their pre-made VM packages in your preferred VM software. You can then set up accounts and stuff through a browser GUI. You'll have to move any existing files into the folder structure it creates. Anything outside of that won't be visible to it.

If you just want to do Windows shares and can put software on the external computer you are using, Hamachi or SoftEther VPN make stable remote access quite easy and let you access files quite seamlessly.