File Server

[Jonny]

Hello everyone, I work in a small office with 2 other people. We do design/illustration type work and have a lot of large files. (Some graphic files are close to 1 GB large.)

I want to setup a file server with a good backup system. The system does not have to be too crazy fast as it is only the three of us accessing it, but I do want a Raid/Backup setup that is going to absolutely guarantee no loss of data.

Say that I wanted 600 GB's of backup, how would I go about setting this up? I have heard about Raid 5, is this something I would use? Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

Thanks all!

 

[phaxmohdem]

I would suggest a 3Ware Hardware RAID controller for SATA with 3x 300GB Seagate 7200.8 SATA Hard Drives configured for RAID 5. The RAID card should have instructions for setting up your RAID stripes and stuff.

Edit: Something like this perhaps? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16816116022

My file server at home is running on a cheap Socket A Mobo and AthlonXP 2500+ CPU and is more than fast enough for multiple people. For you that is about as much processor power as you would need, however if you want rock solid stability I would recommend a high end Socket 754/939/940 motherboard and low end A64/Opteron Processor (or even a good Intel Motherboard/Midrange Northwood P4 Processor). Your bottle neck will be Ethernet bandwidth, should you all be writing /reading from it at the same time. I'd get a mobo (or add in card) with Gigabit Ethernet and a good quality gigabit switch to compliment all your machines. Trust me even at 100Mbps Ethernet Transfering 1-5GB files takes what feels like an eternity. Gigabit = sweet.

 

[Jonny]

Thanks for the information phaxmohdem! That's exactly what I was looking for. Do you have any recommendations on a motherboard? (I'm thinking of getting an Intel Pentium D 820, 2.8GHz)

Can I get a motherboard with a raid 5 controller built in or am I better off getting an addon card?

Thanks again.

 

[ValuedCustomer]

Originally posted by: Jonny
I'm thinking of getting an Intel Pentium D 820, 2.8GHz

I wouldn't do that if I were you. Do a search for "Pentium D 820" in these forums and see what I mean. -- I'd go w/ a socket 940 if I had the $$

 

[DaveSimmons]

If it's really just a file server (not running mail server, web proxy, etc.) then even a Sempron 2800+ $75 CPU is plenty fast. That, 512 MB or 1 GB RAM, a $60 Chaintech vnf3 nforce3 motherboard, the 3Ware RAID controller and you're set.

But note that RAID5 is only a drive-failure strategy not a backup strategy. Aside from drive failure you should have a strategy for:
- human error (deleting / overwriting files)
- file system corruption (OS error)
- fire, water, electrical damage
- break-in / theft

You need a tape drive, set of external hard drives, or DVD burner and lots of blanks to create an actual backups, preferably off-site.

 

[phaxmohdem]

Originally posted by: Jonny
Thanks for the information phaxmohdem! That's exactly what I was looking for. Do you have any recommendations on a motherboard? (I'm thinking of getting an Intel Pentium D 820, 2.8GHz)

Can I get a motherboard with a raid 5 controller built in or am I better off getting an addon card?

Thanks again.

I think you're just better off getting a solid mobo and the add-on card. For pure file serving purposes a dual core cpu is quite honestly overkill, unless you have tons of concurrent users and connections, or are using one core to render or something in the background. Evn so I would also advise against the Pentium D chip, as the heat output will most likely aid in shortening the lifespan of the Hard Disks, which is what we want to prevent. Not to mention the ongoing electrical bill costs associated with a server up and running 24/7. Here is what I would recommend for you:

Good File Server:
Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813186055
Processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103397
RAM: (Two of These) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820221008
HDD's: (Three of These) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148064
RAID Card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16816116022
Power Supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817151023
video Card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121194

Cheap File Server:
Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128292
Processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819104245
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820144310
HDD's: Same
RAID Card: Same
Power Supply: Same
Video Card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814164054
Gigabit Adapter: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833129126

 

[EatSpam]

Originally posted by: ValuedCustomer

Originally posted by: Jonny
I'm thinking of getting an Intel Pentium D 820, 2.8GHz

I wouldn't do that if I were you. Do a search for "Pentium D 820" in these forums and see what I mean. -- I'd go w/ a socket 940 if I had the $$

The D 820 isn't a bad deal, if you hit ebay. The chips appear to be going cheap.

 

[phaxmohdem]

Originally posted by: EatSpam

The chips appear to be going cheap.

For a reason

 

[Jonny]

Thanks again phaxmohdem and others! Much appriciated!

Couple of questions:

If I get a 64 bit CPU - is it even worth getting the 64 bit version of Windows XP?

If I go for a socket 940 CPU should I get a MOBO that supports dual CPUS?

If I get a Raid 5 card and I get three 300 Gig drives, that gives me 600 gigs? What if I wanted to added another 300 gig drive later, how would this affect things? Just wondering about upgrading in the future.

DaveSimmons - thanks for your comments on backup. Don't worry - I will definately have an offsite backup of some type as well. I actually have three external USB 2 hard drives. An 80 gig, 120 gig, and a 320 gig. Can I make use of these drives in anyway for an automated backup?

Should I get a mobo that doesn't have any raid built in already? Or doens't it matter if you have two taid controllers in a system?

Are there any mobo's that come with raid 5 built in? Is this recommended?

Sorry - lots of questions. Maybe I should do some more research. Thanks again for all your help!!

 

[RichUK]

just get a NAS setup if its only going to be for network storage

 

[DaveSimmons]

> If I get a 64 bit CPU - is it even worth getting the 64 bit version of Windows XP?

No point, driver support is less stable and you aren't going to install over 4 GB RAM.

> If I go for a socket 940 CPU should I get a MOBO that supports dual CPUS

No! Like I said above, file serving reallly does not load the CPU. Seriously, even a 2000+ CPU will mostly be twiddling its thumbs in boredom waiting for more work.

A socket 754 Sempron 2800+ is way faster than you need, but it's the sweet spot for a budget chip.

> Should I get a mobo that doesn't have any raid built in already? Or doens't it matter if you have two taid controllers in a system?
> Are there any mobo's that come with raid 5 built in? Is this recommended?

You can disable any onboard RAID in the BIOS. Onboard / software RAID would probably be fine for your application since you'll have plenty of spare CPU power to run it.

The only reason to pay extra for hardware RAID is if it's more reliable. I haven't shopped for SATA RAID5 cards / motherboards so I can't recommend anything specific for this.

just get a NAS setup if its only going to be for network storage

As long as it's cheap, has a gigabit port, and can work with a backup strategy this is another good choice.

 

[RichUK]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons

just get a NAS setup if its only going to be for network storage

As long as it's cheap, has a gigabit port, and can work with a backup strategy this is another good choice.

for a small NAS setup, a simple tape drive for backups (bearing in mind that you have to use NFS and CIFS protocols for backups) there is no need for tape libraries, also have the NAS running on single Linux node, this would do the trick just the basic services you need to run, as it is not a fully blown database/PDC/Exchange server etc, you wont need to go all out with say fibre optic transmission media just a gig NIC would do .. this is depending on the needs of you file sharing that is.

NAS will be perfect for what you need, or you could go all out with a fully fibered up SAN, with say 8 NAS nodes

and yes the hardware needed to run file storage servers, what ever model you choose, does not require a high performance processors or RAM, just good transmission media and an efficient raid array and OS.

 

[n0cmonkey]

http://www.dell.com

 

[Satyrist]

As an addendum to this thread,

What if I was looking at the same variety of duties, (filesharing, which admittedly this setup would be more than a bit overkill for) but also having the box do double duty as a dedicated gameserver as well, at the same time? (BF2, UT2K4, DC, FEAR, etc)

Would going 64-bit dual core (A64 x2) (and the addition of using a 64-bit aware/compliant OS) be of any advantage there, (filesharing and dedicated gameserver) or is there no advantage?

I'm currently using my older NF2 (2500+ barton, 1gb cheap pc3200) for such a task, though it'd have to be for one task, or the other...It'd introduce too much lag/pingspikes in my limited experience.

 

[prochobo]

Originally posted by: Satyrist
As an addendum to this thread,

What if I was looking at the same variety of duties, (filesharing, which admittedly this setup would be more than a bit overkill for) but also having the box do double duty as a dedicated gameserver as well, at the same time? (BF2, UT2K4, DC, FEAR, etc)

Would going 64-bit dual core (A64 x2) (and the addition of using a 64-bit aware/compliant OS) be of any advantage there, (filesharing and dedicated gameserver) or is there no advantage?

I'm currently using my older NF2 (2500+ barton, 1gb cheap pc3200) for such a task, though it'd have to be for one task, or the other...It'd introduce too much lag/pingspikes in my limited experience.

Ok, both you and the OP need to understand that fileservers or even game servers for that matter do not require high end hardware. I run a 7 drive fileserver while having a CS:S and UT2k4 (both at the same time) server running on a 1.8 P4, 1GB RAM. Everything runs fine till someone starts leeching (slowdown will happen with any server during this).

The main thing you need is a good RAID card, a gigabit card, and some good drives. If you want high end, get SCSI, but again, that's not needed.

 

[Satyrist]

I was talking about using a dual-core cpu though.

The P4 in your post is using a single core...With hyperthreading instruction sets.

I'm not looking to flame, I'm not sure that it's necessarily a straight apple-apple comparison there. (But likely I do not have the whole story behind the technologies, so please excuse me in any event.)

 

[theMan]

you should probably use RAID 10. just get a nice cheep sempron 2800+ system.

 

[CrimsonChaos]

Originally posted by: RichUK
just get a NAS setup if its only going to be for network storage

I agree. I just bought a small NAS device for our home network, and it works great. All computers can access it simultaneously without any problems.