2012-08-28, 11:05
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:
So, after that page turner...thoughts, ideas, yada-yada-yada?
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?