Looking for the best OS for an upgradable & multipurpose server.
#1
Brick 
So, as the title states, I'm reaching out to the community for some insight on what might be my best path for a home server. I'll try to make it plain & simple so everyone can get a grasp at what I'm aiming to do so you all can give me your best suggestion on what I should do. Also a note, this will be a lengthy OP.

So, currently I have a 1TB external HDD attached to one of the computers on my home network, it's about three quarters full right now. But that's it, no backup or redundancy at all. A few years back I had a HDD crash that had all my music on it, no backup at all, so a backup or redundancy is important in this system I'm building.

As I stated earlier, this HDD is attached to one of the computers on my home network, but that comes with issues & conflicts. I'm quite proficient in home networking & generally making things work the way I want them to. So I have all the files accessible on the two 360°, two original XBox with XBMC, three computers (plus any my friends bring), etc. The issues is that it all goes through this one computer, which means a) it always has to be on, & b) if I'm streaming anything off it the lag kills anything going on that computer (like games or other streaming media e.x. youtube, pandora, etc.). So a stand-alone box is a must at this point.

To remind you my 1TB external is nearly full, I know the simple answer is just buy a bigger drive. But I would like to build something that could expand as a go. Also, I would like to use the storage aspect as more than just a big bucket. For music, movies, shows, & what-have-you, sure that's a good solution, but I'd like to store data that only certain users could access. This basically sounds like I'm talking about a combination of a RAID array & a NAS, which I kind of am, but hear me out.

I would also like to do more than be a giant data bucket (with possible smaller buckets inside of it), this thing is going to be on 24/7 & it's not going to be in constant use as a data bucket. I'd like to take advantage of the processor when I can. I'm not just looking to build a Media/NAS server, but host a few server programs like ventrilo or minecraft.

Also, before anyone tries to flame out about running a game server below a certain upload speed, I know what I'm doing...this is for LAN purposes only.

So, to start is the exoskeleton for this ever-growing behemoth. I'm looking at the NORCO RPC-4020 since it's built to be very expandable. All the guts are still up in the air, though for CPU I'm looking at a mid to high end dual core, or a low to mid end quad core, preferably in the AMD family. I have my reasons against Intel, but if it comes down to it, I'll go for it. The HDD aren't really a concern, I know for the most part they need to be the same size & all that jazz, but it's not really important at this point.

All that junk I can figure out myself though, that's not what I'm here for. The issue is how I string everything together & get it to do what I want it to do...the OS is what I'm talking about. I've read & researched & watched videos on them all, but no one really goes into detail about what you can & can't do for each platform.

I've looked into unRAID, comparable to a RAID level 4 (but not really), how easy it is to set up & expand the storage when you want to. But that's it, as far as I found, it's a giant expandable bucket, but does it do anything else? Can I have certain directories accessible by some users but not other & other directories that can be accessed by everyone? Can I host a small, simple server on it like minecraft, or ventrilo? Could I run other non-server apps on it, like BitTorrent, so I don't have to have two computers on when I want to D/L something while I sleep? One of the turn-offs for unRAID is the price for the licens, not that price is all that crazy with the system I want to build. Also, I've read that it's not really ideal for arrays larger than ten drives, though the pro version can support up to twenty

I've also looked at freeNAS, which can be run in RAID 5/6/10 (which are the three RAID levels I've been looking at). I know it can give multi-user permissions to various directories, just like a normal NAS. I can also run server software on it as needed, but support is iffy at best. Though, I think in the end this is what I'll end up with.

I've also looked at WHS, but I really don't want to buy another MS licence, though I've kept the option open a crack. I've also took a quick look at Openfiler, but I don't think it's as versatile as I need it to be. I know there are a few other options, but I haven't really done any research into them. Maybe run a server distro of linux? I'm not really sure how well that might go for me.

Final notes:
I would like to start out with three or four 3TB drives, with the ability to expand up to twenty total HDDs (yes, that's over 50TB of storage depending on RAID level), plus a small SSD for the OS & various programs I might want to run. In the end the system needs to handle a medium to heavy load & full capacity, streaming a movie, encoding a cd, DL a show, wandering around minecraft with a friend or two on LAN. I know that's mostly hardware dependant, but even if I get the proper hardware to handle the load, which OS can deal with the high demand I might put on the system? Also, that's just a scenario of what possibly might go on at once, but not what will always happen.

Final rundown:
  • Expandable (start with 4HDD, over time end with 20)
  • Media Server (transcoding & serving multiple devices, not just XBMC)
  • NAS (user specified & unspecified directories)
  • RAID (shite ton of storage in one place)
  • App/Game Server (BitTorent, minecraft, ventrilo, rumored XBMC server?)

So, after that page turner...thoughts, ideas, yada-yada-yada?
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#2
Seems to me,..you've probably done more homework that any other person I've seen.
In my opinion,..I'd recommend unRaid,.....and yes I did read your critique,..but....

Right now,,..you're only running with one hard drive.
Taking that leap from one HDD to 20-3TB HDDs is a HUGE leap,..and I VERY expensive leap!
I know you'll start with the jump to 3-4 drives initially.

My second choice would be WHS,..and with Windows 8 almost being released,...perhaps you should factor that in too.
Even still,..I'd go with unRaid.
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#3
Hi that is a lot of great research, I went through a very similar thing Used WHS, FreeNas and like you just a regular PC. After acouple years I built a fit for purpose (needed a small web server, all data storage, Streaming(using twonkey), automated torrent download(rtorrent, rutorrent gui and flex get) ubuntu server. I use the LVM system in ubuntu to make my 7 terabytes into smaller buckets(movies, tvshows, pictures, documents, backups, torrents and Music). That allows me easy backups and allowing people access to certain things. To keep things easy I use the Webmin admin alot, its a lazy mans way out at least for the LVM stuff most everything else is done throught the Comand line. This all run over a GIGabyte network.

I edited also my back up strategy is I spread the backups out My Dads and Sisters PC's using CrashPlan. they each get a different incremental back up a night from my server and then they sync the difference between themselves. This Does not include Movies and only some of the TV shows.

ASRock E350M1 AMD E-350 APU (1.6GHz, Dual-Core) AMD A50M Hudson M1 Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo
2 x Kingston 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500)
LIAN LI PC-Q11B Black Aluminum Mini-ITX Tower Computer Case
2 x Seagate Barracuda Green ST2000DL003 2TB 5900 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5"
1 x Seagate Barracuda ST3000DM001 3TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5"

I found I didn't like the way WHS handled the Storage aspect of things, in my opinion it wasted too much space.

HTPC 1 - ZOTAC IONITX-G-E Intel Atom 330 4 gig ,60 gig SSD, XBMCbuntu, Harmony 1100
HTPC 2 - Pivos XIOS - Linux XBMC
HTPC 3 - RaspberryPi B -Raspbmc
Server - ASRock E350M1 AMD E-350 APU 4 gig Ram, 11 TB, MySQL, shared thumbnails
SABNZBD - sickbeard - Couch Potato - headphones

Rocketfish WirelessHD Adapter (model RF-WHD100)
benq W100
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#4
I'd recommend moving to the Norco 4224 if already spending that kind of money on a case.
If I helped out pls give me a +

A bunch of XBMC instances, big-ass screen in the basement + a 20TB FreeBSD, ZFS server.
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#5
$35 WHS 2011 for me (or even Win 7 if cost isn't an issue) with FlexRaid or SnapRaid.

Easy and very versatile for a HTPC server. Can do more than just "serve" if you want it to. Needs change and I like to be ready.
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#6
(2012-08-29, 04:30)assassin Wrote: $35 WHS 2011 for me (or even Win 7 if cost isn't an issue) with FlexRaid -SNIP-.

Easy and very versatile for a HTPC server. Can do more than just "serve" if you want it to. Needs change and I like to be ready.

Do you always go with both Protection and Pooling with Flexraid for WHS 2011?
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#7
i use debian with software raid 6 and lvm for years now,
also freebsd is a strong choice with zfs filesystem
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#8
@GortWillSaveUs:
I do my best with researching something that's quite costly. Plus, this is going to be a long term project, the biggest leap is what OS to use since I'll be stuck with it once this takes off. I've looked into WHS & though it has a familiar UI, I've read that many people didn't really like how it handled the space it was given (like Scooby_too pointed out), also Win8 isn't really a factor for me at all. I want to be confident that if one (or two, for RAID 6) drives fail, my data will still be there. I've looked at unRAID as an option, & I like some of the features it gives me but all that faith into the parity drive, it's a little much for me.

@Scooby_too:
Though initially I didn't do any research into LVM, after a quick read through I'm going to have to say no. Sure, it can string a group of disks together, similar to RAID 0, & can provide some backup feature, similar to RAID 1. But it cuts into a major factor, which is maximum space. With a maximum pool of twenty drives at 3TB a piece, 60TB total, half of that would go to backup only giving my 30TB in the end. That's why I strayed away from RAID levels 0, 1, 0+1, & 1+0...& yes, I do realise that LVM is none of those, just similar. Those solutions, though they provide some sort of backup solution to protect my data from HDD crashes, will lower my ceiling significantly.

@thethirdnut:
Why would I spend $100 more on a case that only gives me four more bays than the last? If anything, I might want a case with less bays, not more. It would take me years to fill the case I already have, maybe buy a pair of HDDs every year...& if I'm starting with four, that would be eight years (or ten with your case) down the road.

@assassin:
I've looked into WHS a few times as an option, but the fact that it doesn't support RAID natively is somewhat of a turnoff. Also Win7 is a big no-no, partially because cost is an issue, but why would I run a GUI centric OS that eats away at my cycles on something I'm going to shove in a closet? I think you've mistaken my intention, I'm not building an HTPC that's also a server, I'm just building a server. Something that hosts my files & maybe transcodes them if need be. But I would like to run other server software on it as well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I think I wasn't clear enough in the OP, but I guess that's my own fault. I'm building this box to host my media files but also to be a backup of my PC files, as well as be a server for various applications. I covered most of this in the replies above, so I won't repeat it all again for everyones sake.
In the end, I think I'm going with FlexRAID for my RAID solution, it seems like the easiest path that will let me do everything I want to do on this box (also, it's on sale for $60). Can anyone suggest a LINUX server kernel I can use? I've only started doing some research into that, but I like to source ideas together.
Also, if anyone has an idea for a better server case, I would like to hear it. My max bay size is twenty, minimum is ten, & I would like them to be hot-swappable. Anything priced under the current case I have (which is $300 for the RCP-4020) would be awesome, since every dollar I can save can be used in the hardware that goes into it.
I'm going to start looking into MoBo's in a few days, after I narrow down my CPU choice. Something in the mid to high end duel core AMD is what I'm looking into now. I took a quick look into Intel, but I never really liked Intel, but if I had to...the i4 or i5 looked promising.
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#9
(2012-08-30, 20:42)BigBouncingBob Wrote: @GortWillSaveUs:
I've looked at unRAID as an option, & I like some of the features it gives me but all that faith into the parity drive, it's a little much for me.

Actually, unRaid is probably your best option for retaining data (or a majority of it if you lose a drive,..or even two drives)
I could understand your concerns if we were talking Raid5 where the data if spread across all of the drives,....lose 2 drives and you're toast.
But in unRaid,...you have different options as to how the data id written to the disks.
Losing the Parity drive is perfectly okay. You will not lose any data. Simply replace the Parity drive, and you have redundancy again.
Now if you lose 2 drives,...yes you will lose some data,..but not all data.
The data is still on each of the individual drives.
Yes, it will be a pain to copy data off, replace 2 drives, and start the unRaid again,..

But with any redundancy plan,...you're always dealing with odds,..and the odds are, you won't lose 2 drives at exactly the same time.
Is there a chance sure. But I still walk outside when it rains even though there's a chance I'll get struck by lightning.

I think you'll do fine with FlexRaid. Good luck! Smile




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#10
Why do you need RAID from the OS? I use FlexRaid with WHS and it works great. Its completely independent the of the OS or motherboard.
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#11
(2012-08-30, 21:21)assassin Wrote: Why do you need RAID from the OS? I use FlexRaid with WHS and it works great. Its completely independent the of the OS or motherboard.

Sorry, I shouldn't have said RAID OS, I should've said RAID solution...or something along those lines.
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#12
RE: more $$ on a case.

Because it's about the only piece of hardware that won't one day become obsolete.
If I helped out pls give me a +

A bunch of XBMC instances, big-ass screen in the basement + a 20TB FreeBSD, ZFS server.
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#13
(2012-09-01, 18:55)thethirdnut Wrote: RE: more $$ on a case.

Because it's about the only piece of hardware that won't one day become obsolete.


++1,000
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#14
I am also in the middle of the decision making process and at this moment what i can think of is:
- coolermaster silencio (got it already)
- MSI-z77-gma-45 mobo
-core i5 3475 (read a lot of assasins feedback lately and myself owning 3 e350m boards is enough information to step off the AMD path)
-start with 16gb ram

And then start using VMware esxi..

As vm's for nas i think Ubuntu server w/ snapraid or nas4free..tried unraid bit i don't want realtime raid and file sharing on the free version is a joke.

Amahi could also be a option but in the end it's esxi underneath.
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