[Guldan]

I am getting closer to my final goal, here is my setup as it stands

Phenom x3 gaming system - 3x640gig in raid0 - This system stores everything (games, media, docs) and is for my daily use.

Core i3 Media Frontend / Backup Server - 1x64gb SSD 1x1000gb Sata - This system has Mediaportal installed on autoload, shark007 and everything a frontend needs. Runs everything flawless.


I basically backup my OS images and Data seperately to the HTPC (i3) and once a week or so using acronis which I can have running while at work, I have about 700gb of data currently


I am thinking a better way to do this is replace my 3x640gig on my gaming pc with 1 SSD and take ALL my hard drives from both systems and put them in a freenas box with raid5.


I was considering running ESXi on my HTPC and having 1 freenas VM and one frontend for Mediaportal however the case can't hold all the hard drives I want..


Whats the best choice here? help me compile my thoughts. What I would love is a minimalist freenas box, something that can hold 5-6 3.5 HDDS but runs very quiet and I can put it right below my htpc in my cabinet...


Sorry for long post!

 

[Andrew Hornfeck]

I built a FreeNAS box a couple o' years back with 8 250GB HDDs, 4 JBOD and 4 RAID5. It works just fine although in todays market I realize a single $69 2TB HDD would replace the storage capacity, its 24/7 power consumption, and the heat you generate (and fan noise) from all of the HDDs.


Consider whether you need a RAID5 before you go setting up a FreeNAS


PS if it's a NAS you should strongly consider placing it someplace OUT OF SIGHT and not in your HTPC cabinet

 

[Guldan]

I would love it to be in my cabinet but it will probably be too loud (with the needed cooling). I just like the idea of having everything in once place for easy management.


I don't need raid5 actually, doesn't it have some way of self healing but not a raid5? I have about 6 hard drives total that can be in an array

 

[kenoka]

I went with unRAID rather than FreeNAS/RAID5. I like the fact that it provides redundancy, but doesn't stripe data. That means if I lose two drives at once, or lose one while rebuilding another, I only lose those two drives rather than the whole array. You can also add drives of any size at any time, as long as the parity drive is at least as large as the largest data drive. It also runs well on cheap, older hardware. It functions perfectly as a media/backup server.

 

[Guldan]

Hmmm FreeNAS doesn't have redundancy? It might be better then just to have say my 1tb + 3x640gb as storage and buy a 2tb as backup then sync them


I don't want to pay for an unraid license to be honest.. What i'm doing right now isn't too bad its just not very scalable, requires backup over my network and I only have a 1tb backup.


To fully utilize my i3 system It should be doing more then just being a frontend, I'll probably buy a 2tb WD Green and transfer all my media to it.. have the backup done locally.


Can only fit 2 3.5 HDD's in my lian-li is the limitation there

 

[Somewhatlost]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Guldan /forum/post/19549668


Hmmm FreeNAS doesn't have redundancy?

um, FreeNAS is a NAS OS, no it doesn't have redundancy... its just an OS...

FreeNAS does support RAID 1,5 both of which do have drive redundancy (its what the R is there for in RAID)

note, Redundancy is not a backup plan... its just a convenience... ie one single drive fails, you can just fix it... no need to pull out the backups to restore...

2 drives fail, you start from scratch... all data is gone...


also note: all the drives in a RAID array need to be the same size...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Guldan /forum/post/19549668


I don't want to pay for an unraid license to be honest.. What i'm doing right now isn't too bad its just not very scalable, requires backup over my network and I only have a 1tb backup.

that is unfortunate as unRAID really is a very nice setup... single drive failure redundancy, mix and match any drive sizes, no striping so even if 2 drives fail you only lose the data on those 2 drives, easily scalable, just add another drive (any size) when needed...


as for the What i'm doing right now isn't too bad... well, um that's a matter of opinion...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Guldan /forum/post/19549668


To fully utilize my i3 system It should be doing more then just being a frontend, I'll probably buy a 2tb WD Green and transfer all my media to it.. have the backup done locally.


Can only fit 2 3.5 HDD's in my lian-li is the limitation there

if your frontend machine is doing what you want/working then it is fully utilized don't mess with it...

only bad things can come from piling more duties onto a front end machine...

 

[tmservo]

Freenas does do ZFS and Software redundancy.


Here for a second, I thought this would be a thread about MS's decision to pull the plug on Drive Extender in WHS2

 

[Guldan]

Nice post somewhatlost, Answers some questions swirling around my head. I'll probably just add a 2tb green drive to my frontend htpc...


Part of the issue is i'm trying to decide if I want to KEEP TV series on my drives, if i do thats going to take up an enormous amount of space and my backup has to reflect that as well.


Just thinking out loud here I'll figure it out.. Mediaportal has been pretty amazing, the more I get used to it. and my i3 + SSD htpc is a breeze


Thanks guys

 

[Andrew Hornfeck]

I too have a (64GB) SSD and run MP 1.1.1 on my HTPC... I have 4 HDDs, 2x2TB and 2x1TB. If I were limited to having 2 HDDs in my system I think I'd punt on the SSD in favor of a second 2TB HDD. I don't find I had such a great improvement when I installed it as I thought I'd see... Also, while you may not build a 'server' you can add an external HDD via USB or have one (or more) shared from another (PC) on your LAN.

 

[JoshDorhyke]

unRAID works really well as a storage device. I have not once regretted moving my media storage drives out of my old HTPC into an unRAID box and then building a new small and very quiet HTPC. That unRAID box sits in a corner in my basement and just plain works.


Some people just won't build a server. They would rather stuff extra drives in their different systems and share them between each other.