Installing Flexraid on HTPC Running XBMC

[Xonim]

I can't try this just yet because we still have our HTPC setup as our DVR until next week, so it's still running 7MC+MB. I want to take my existing HTPC hardware, add a few more hard drives, and setup Flexraid on the box.

I've done as much reading on Flexraid as I can, and it seems most people have it setup on a server separate from the HTPC. Is there a reason for that? Would there be problems running Flexraid for 3x 2TB + 1x 1.5TB + 2TB Parity on a box running XBMC on a SSD?

To this point I haven't played with sleep modes, the HTPC is always on. I'm okay with that if putting it to sleep would cause Flexraid problems, though I'd prefer if I could get it setup to resume XBMC/Flexraid properly, and wake-on-lan if I try accessing it from another device. Thoughts?

i3-2100
Asus P8H67-M LE
4GB RAM (need upgraded to do both?)
400w Seasonic fanless PSU

 

[tivo1]

Have you also looked at FreeNAS and unraid...

just some other very popular options that are outthere...

But i have a simple ubuntu file server setup running in raid6, sharing my media to anywhere in the house... the hardware required for a file sever can be quite low end...
No need for all the extra video and audio gear.. which leaves my XBMC in a very little box

 

[cybrsage]

I use SnapRAID with Elucidate as the front end GUI. They are both open source and completely free.

 

[Xonim]

I actually looked at unRAID, I like the idea, but I feel that the license is too expensive. I've got 6 disks already, so I'd probably have to spring for the higher license. Once I found Flexraid, I pretty much stopped looking at unRAID.

Didn't really look at FreeNAS all that much because I didn't think it had parity, but it looks like it does. However, I don't know Linux at all. It's completely foreign to me.

Going to be dropping all my drives in the box this weekend and doing a flexraid trial. Wife didn't give the okay for a separate server, so guess they're staying combined for now whether I like it or not.

 

[jtvang125]

The reason most people go with a separate htpc and server is because they want to keep the htpc relatively small and quiet since it'll be by the tv. Most small cases will not fit many hard drives and if you go with a bigger case noise starts becoming an issue because you need to cool the large number of hard drives with more fans.

 

[tivo1]

The FreeNAS looks pretty easy to set up (even for a linux noob)... there are some vids here: http://www.freenas.org/features/videos

I would love at some point to see someone actually do a comparison between them all..

Im all about hardware raid... but would like to be able to recommend one of the others above the rest to some friends..

This is also the first I've heard about SnapRAID.. looks interesting also.