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BinaryData

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Mar 9, 2010
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Hey Guys and Gals!

It's been forever since I've been on here! School and work does that to a fella! :(

So here's what I'd like reviewed to see if I screwed up anywhere.

Server/Host: Supermicro 2U Server X8DTN+
RAID Controller: MegaRAID SAS 9260-4i
HDDs: Seagate 3TB SATA (SAS is too expensive!)
RAID Level: 6

This is for my TVShow, Movies and Anime Collection. I know that 30TB is absurd amount of space for a single person, however I don't like using blurays or DVDs to play shows. It's a long and tedious process but I encode all of my own media. I'm new to RAID, and Storage, especially these kinds of setups. I know I'll need a RAID Controller with 4 SAS Cable slots, 1 Cable = 4 HDDs.

Critique it as much as possible. I plan on purchasing this on Monday.
 
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leo2kp

leo2kp

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With 512mb cache and no controller battery, I'd like to see it attached to a UPS if you don't already have one. Your writes are going to take a hit using RAID6, but you're probably not concerned about that as a media server (reads are more important). I would make sure that those Seagates will work in a RAID array with TLER support. How much content are you planning on streaming at one time? If the server has multiple NICs, you might need to look in to teaming the ports. Otherwise you might have trouble streaming Blue-ray-level content to more than one or two devices at a time. Teaming can be tricky though and your switch or router, and server OS needs to support it.
 
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BinaryData

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If I remember correctly, I can buy an external back up battery for it. Hmm.. I don't know if these drives support TLER, I'm trying to keep the cost below $150 / drive.

Well, most of it will be local, and I'll have an SG300-20 Port Cisco SMB Switch. I'll have a battery backup for these, and a back up. It has dual 1Gbit NICs, but I can also purchase a Quad Gigabit NIC for it.
 
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BinaryData

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The problem with this is, I don't have the storage capacity for it, not to mention that can be easily stolen. I've already had one NAS stolen from my old house. I had a 8 Bay QNAP with 3TB drives. Anyways, I've been told to go this route, but in reality it's not going to have the expansion capabilities I need. It sounds like overkill, but it's also a learning experience too. I don't get to work with these sorts of things on a normal basis.
 
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leo2kp

leo2kp

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I figured he knew what he wanted. Some media streaming services require a host server. I personally run a PE2950 as a fileserver and will be upgrading to a R710 in the very near future with 8TB total disk space (5.5TB after 1024 conversion and RAID5 parity). I do a lot with it including mess around with media servers, LAN party game server, FTP host, things you may not be able to do with a simple NAS. As long as he's aware of the electricity bill increase, the more power to him!
 
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BinaryData

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I live in Washington State, I pay about 6 cents per K/W. Power isn't a problem, haha.
 
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leo2kp

leo2kp

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My UPS reports about 300 watts idle for the 2950 and my network, which includes a Cisco small-business managed PoE switch, modem, and D-Link AC-3200 router, which equates to about $10/month. I'd say it's a worthy investment.

When I set up my 2950, I threw 2TB WD RE SAS disks in there. Two of them came with firmware version 2 and two with version 7. The two with version 2 firmware both timed out on command within a few months and I got them replaced under warranty. The two I got back were on version 7 and have not had a problem since. So with 10 disks in your array, hopefully you won't run in to any issues but obviously you have a much higher chance of encountering something. If you do, make sure to check Seagate's site for firmware updates, they might fix any strange issues you get.

Good luck to you, hope it all works out well.
 
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BinaryData

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I'll post back if I have any issues. I wanted a 36 Bay with 3TBs, but that is Overkill.. :p
 
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noidea_77

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I think I got the point know. Keep in mind, that you need a case with a SATA-multiplier-backplate, if you want to use more then four drives with the MegaRAID controller. Here si an example of a relatively small server plus HDD cases with backplate for SAS/SATA: http://www.ebay.de/itm/HP-DL180-G5-Storage-Server-12x1TB-12TB-SATA-VMWARE-ESXI-P800-RAID-/161924911138?hash=item25b37a1022:g:aCoAAOxy4YdTWrNV
 
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BinaryData

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The server I'm looking at comes with a backplane. Supermicro 2U

I'm staying away from SFF Drives, the cost is way more than I'd like to pay, and I don't get the size needed. I'm sure you can get battery back ups for the RAID Controller, right?
 
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noidea_77

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Well, you are down to 8 drives with this case: "SAS826A Backplane is partitioned and only 8 of the 12 bays will be seen by the raid card". And yes, you can buy a battery pack for the raid controller, but that leads you to nothing, because you still need an exact copy of the server to recover he cashed data from the controller. Use the write through method for the raid instead and you don't need the battery pack.
 
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BinaryData

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Eh, I thought I could just upgrade it. Trying to find something that supports more than 8 Drives is starting to become a pain.

I'm trying to find something between 12 - 16 Bays for less than $300, with or without a RAID Card. I can upgrade the RAID Card to something else, if need be. Drives will be 3 or 4TB Drives. Kind of hard to figure this out when you don't work with the internals much. I rack these things at work, not work on them :(
 
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noidea_77

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Don't get me wrong, but that's why i insisted on the details. ;) For 16 Bays you need a backplate that splits four SFF connections from the raid card to for drive slots using four multipliers.
I think a http://www.chenbro.com/en-global/products/RackmountChassis/3U_Chassis/RM31616 with the 6Gb/s 16-port 3.5" mini-SAS Backplane(80H10331604A0) should do the job.
 
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BinaryData

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Well... I haven't bought that Chassis yet. I think 12 bays will be plenty, and I can always upgrade the drives to a larger size after backing my contents up to Amazon Cloud (Unlimited Plan rules!).

So, I'll need to buy that server, or one similar to it, and upgrade the backplane to support 12 drives, and buy a RAID Card that'll support 12 Drives.

Right? God this hurts my head, haha. So not as easy as building my desktop.

Edit:
Would this work instead?
Supermicro 3U 15 Bay

I think I'd need to upgrade the RAID Card, but it looks like the backplane supports 15? I have the money now, and I need to get this purchased within the next week. So I can start filling it with HDDs and getting everything ready.
 
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