building a NAS / streaming server

[CharlesA]

@CharlesA
Am I assuming correctly that you are talking about a software RAID, rather then a hardware RAID?

Running a cheap hardware RAID card on my box. Haven't really messed with software RAID all that much.

[a2j]

my RAID6 server can do over 100MB/s reads. That is more than enough to play 8+Gb video files. Sometimes, 1Gbs network is the bottle neck.

[rubylaser]

my RAID6 server can do over 100MB/s reads. That is more than enough to play 8+Gb video files. Sometimes, 1Gbs network is the bottle neck.

Gigabit ethernet is capable of 125 MB/s. Bluray movies tend to max out bitrate around 40 Mb/s (or around 5 MB/s). Unless you have defective hardware, gigabit ethernet is not the bottleneck for a streaming media server, unless you're trying to stream high bitrate content to ALOT of users.

[aeiah]

I almost tend towards the FreeNAS, due to the web interface, which seems pretty nice and clear, and has almost only relevant options to set regarding to the task at hand. While an Ubuntu server might be more flexible, I don't think it would be needed.

you could look at the capabilities of webmin, but you're probably right, you might not need the added capabilities of a full linux server, ubuntu or other. all you're really doing is creating a file storage server after all and FreeNAS is probably a good bet

[maikel.b]

Hello,

Consider to use an Ethernet card with 1000M-bits.

And use 2 or 1 good router, then you will be able to stream without any problems.

Kind regards.

And don´t forget to buy this stuff

[Linux&Gsus]

Thank you all that is great info. Thumbs up.

RAID 01 is not as robust as RAID 10, they're opposites.

Yes, that's right, they are very different. But at first I thought I can't do what I want/need to do with RAID 10, hence my thoughts regarding RAID 01. I'm not overly familiar in this area, so it took me a 2nd look to realise that there is actually no problem with having 6 or 8 disks as one big volume. So, yes, RAID 10 is more robust.

Running a cheap hardware RAID card on my box. Haven't really messed with software RAID all that much.

I see. So the controller card is doing most the processing for the RAID, if I understand that correct. I'll definitely go with a software RAID.

Does anyone know, is there much difference in processing needs for RAID 0, 1, 5, 10?

you could look at the capabilities of webmin, but you're probably right, you might not need the added capabilities of a full linux server, ubuntu or other. all you're really doing is creating a file storage server after all and FreeNAS is probably a good bet

I know Webmin, use it all the time. It's far more capable then I need in my little network at home. However, this isn't so much about me and since I thought the NAS doesn't need all the other general server capabilities and possibilities it might be easier for a person who is used to MS to not have all the extra stuff in a web interface. Also prevents from playing around where people shouldn't.
So, for plain storage of data FreeNAS actually seems more attractive to me, in this case. Unless there is a point I'm missing. But I guess it would do the job just fine.

Hello,

Consider to use an Ethernet card with 1000M-bits.

And use 2 or 1 good router, then you will be able to stream without any problems.

Kind regards.

And don´t forget to buy this stuff

I'm planing for 2 Gigabit interfaces, the server room has 4 Cisco Gigabit switches, I think that isn't the issue.
Rather, I'm getting a little more worried about the Terminal Server, which has to process all that information, incl. network throughput.
Of course, the popcorn needs to go on the shopping list. I doubt, though, that the average computer shop would have that.




Now, I have another few hardware questions.
After having established that there isn't much processing power needed, I thought that a Atom based system should be able to handle the task just fine. However, I'm having trouble finding a suitable board. Is that just me, or is there nothing available on the consumer market?
Please note, that is in Australia, I don't now about others countries, but only Australian shops are relevant here.
I found 1 board with an integrated Atom D525 (Dual 1.8GHz), that can handle 8GB RAM, has 4 SATA connectors, Gigabit LAN, and 1x PCI port. All others have even more limitations like max 4GB RAM, or only 2 SATA connectors.
However, I'm looking into 2 network interfaces and minimum 6xSATA better 8xSATA. So, I am either limited to 4xSATA with adding another network card, or I only have the onBoard LAN and add a SATA controller.
Is there anything I'm doing wrong in searching, or is something a little more capable simply not existing?

Speaking of SATA controller.
From what I hear, if a hardware RAID card breaks it needs to be replaced with the exact same model, otherwise the RAID is very likely lost. Is that the same with simple SATA controller cards, without RAID? Can they just be replaced by any other controller or does it need to be the same? And how about a RAID card when it's just used as SATA controller with software RAID?

Regarding hard drives.
I read somewhere that WD Caviar Green are not recommended for any RAID configuration. Is that true (why?) or is that rather a marketing comment to get people to buy drives for a few bucks more?


Sorry for the tons of questions. You might have noticed that I'm kind new to all this. My "server" needs, so far, could all be covered with any plain old hardware, with a HDD or 2.
So, I'm not entirely familiar with all aspects of this kind of stuff.

Thanks for any advice and help. It's highly appreciated.

[CharlesA]

I see. So the controller card is doing most the processing for the RAID, if I understand that correct. I'll definitely go with a software RAID.

Does anyone know, is there much difference in processing needs for RAID 0, 1, 5, 10?

I doubt it's doing any processing at all, since it is a fairly cheap card and doesn't have any on-board memory and processors.

I just got it because it was cheap, had a linux driver and I didn't want to bother with using fakeRAID on the mobo or inside the OS itself.

Not sure on processing needs, but I do know if you use RAID 5, it needs to calculate parity, so it might take a little bit more processing power then RAID 1 or 10.

Please don't use RAID 0, unless the data you have is either backed up or you don't care about it, since if one drive goes out, you'll lose the whole array.

EDIT: I think the hardware raid card has to be replaced with either the exact model or one very similar otherwise it won't see the array.

In my case, I didn't want to deal with that if I swapped motherboards and the management tools for that were pretty much "set it in the BIOS and pray" since the software to configure it for Windows only - so I'd have to use mdadm anyway. Going hardware was just less work for me.

[Linux&Gsus]

RAID 0 will kinda be the last option. Unless the storage space is really needed I'd prefer something like RAID 10 or 5. My problem, though, seems to be that I have trouble finding affordable hardware, specifically motherboards, with enough SATA connectors.
6 SATA Might not so much be a problem with a full sized board, but something small, Atom based, I can't find more then 4x.
Less then 6 drives is pretty much out of question, I'd say. In this case I don't see that a RAID 10 would work, as I'd "lose" 50% of the storage. So, with 2TB drives it gives 6TB storage, this might be a bit tight. RAID 5 gives 10TB. If RAID 10 I'll need at least 8 drives. Meaning, I almost don't get around a controller card.
However, I was hoping to build that on a budget as much as possible, since there might be another machine needed to build a HDD backup server.
Time will tell, I guess.

[CharlesA]

RAID 0 will kinda be the last option. Unless the storage space is really needed I'd prefer something like RAID 10 or 5. My problem, though, seems to be that I have trouble finding affordable hardware, specifically motherboards, with enough SATA connectors.
6 SATA Might not so much be a problem with a full sized board, but something small, Atom based, I can't find more then 4x.
Less then 6 drives is pretty much out of question, I'd say. In this case I don't see that a RAID 10 would work, as I'd "lose" 50% of the storage. So, with 2TB drives it gives 6TB storage, this might be a bit tight. RAID 5 gives 10TB. If RAID 10 I'll need at least 8 drives. Meaning, I almost don't get around a controller card.
However, I was hoping to build that on a budget as much as possible, since there might be another machine needed to build a HDD backup server.
Time will tell, I guess.

Yeah the size factor would cause problems too. I found that out when trying to build a "cheap" HTPC (which failed miserably)

Are you wanting to run a micro ATX/Atom board for a reason?

With 6 to 10 drives, I wouldn't think space would be a problem for a full sized ATX board.

My home server is running a Core2Duo with 6GB of RAM and a 4TB RAID5 array - the drive array cost more then the rest of the components, but when I got them, 2TB drives for around 200 bucks a piece.

[Linux&Gsus]

Well, I was thinking about an Atom based system after realising that I really don't need any processing power. So, why waste power and money on something like an Athlon, Phenom, i3, etc. if an Atom will do the job just fine. After some research, most of those NAS devices one can buy have an Atom processor, as well. But as I said, I can't find a suitable board for that. I guess that I'll have to go back to the Core2Duo or Athlon type CPU.

But even for those motherboard I can't find anything beyond 6 SATA connectors. As far as I know I can only have 1 device per connector, not like with the IDE where I have 2 drives on one connector. And yes, all my desktop type computers are still IDE.

Price for HDD, I hear you. Here they are around AU$200.
I found a Seagate Baracuda 2TB for AU$195, Baracuda Green for AU$210
Western Digital 2TB Caviar Black for AU$336, Caviar Green AU$206

Do you happen to know if it actually true that WD Caviar Green are not suited for any RAID configuration? I was reading that somewhere but I'm not sure if I should believe that or if it's to get people to buy more expensive drives.