Storage Help Needed

[snoturtle]

Hi All

I am in the process of trying to plan to separate my storage from my server machine
I am doing this mainly to lessen any issues and to move to lower power devices

My current server machine is
i5 2500k
16 gb ram
Dell h200 sas adapter
MSI z77a-g41 motherboard

Total of 12 drives with ~20TB of storage

Currently running Windows 8 with a Windows Server 2012 Essentials running as a VM for backups

I have a couple of drives that are showing cation under smart for pending sector count and had an issue the other day where the box locked up and now 3 other drives are showing reallocated sector counts

Ideally I would like to move the VM to its own i5 nuc and consolidate storage into something lower powered.

Most of the storage is used for tv shows and movies that get streamed around the house

I have been looking at picking up an inexpensive NAS machine, probably an Lenovo EMC ix4-300d as it seems to offer the basics of what I need. As I don't need it to transcode anything as I everything is stored in .mpg which the fire tv's seem to do just fine with.

Even looked at the Gen7 and Gen8 microservers but those almost seem overkill to just serve files.

Either that or build a small machine and put FreeNAS or something like that on it.

Is this a good plan?
Is there something else I should be looking into?

Thanks for any help or opinions

 

[nicolachel]

Would suggest backing up your stuff(probably not all can still be backed up at this point) and ditch the drives with "pending sector count" unless it is part of a redundant array in which case just ditch it.

There is a pretty long thread on 1st page of this forum about building or buying NAS, why not take a look

btw. what is the server doing normally if not serving files? You might want to look into consolidating both into an all in one hypervisor box, haswell or newer CPUs should be able to crank out the horse power when needed and will idle at lower power levels.

 

[snoturtle]

Anything that is important is backed up elsewhere so not too worried about that

Though I am curious if the reallocated sector count after the lockup the other day is actually a drive issue or if it something else since 3 did it at the same time.

The Server 2012 sole purpose at this time is backups.
It automatically backs up 3 desktops and a laptop

 

[Soulkeeper]

it really depends on your budget.
Personally, if I was in your situation, i'd build a relatively low priced system with enough sata/sas ports and throw linux on it.
If you want to step it up a bit, look into something with ecc support, I believe there is an entry level xeon i3. It's been awhile since i've priced those options.

 

[Soulkeeper]

Anything that is important is backed up elsewhere so not too worried about that

Though I am curious if the reallocated sector count after the lockup the other day is actually a drive issue or if it something else since 3 did it at the same time.

The Server 2012 sole purpose at this time is backups.
It automatically backs up 3 desktops and a laptop

We had that solar storm the other day, my system had a lockup too (while doing a file backup go figure) :/

 

[CiPHER]

Have you considered ZFS? Because you have issues with bad sectors, know that ZFS provides formidable protection against this and other sources of corruption/unreadable data. You could consider a small RAID-Z pool or even RAID-Z2.

I posted some motherboards suitable for a ZFS NAS build here: http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=37263522&postcount=65

 

[snoturtle]

I was considering an HP microserver with 4 new 4tb+ drives and use Freenas but the concern is that it will be double the hardware cost of a cheap nas and not give me much more functionality

Gen8 are ~400 and Gen7's can be had ~250 but can order a 1x4-300d for ~180 so maybe not double but higher cost

Maybe a Gen7 n54l with Freenas or Windows Server would be good compromise

Have you considered ZFS? Because you have issues with bad sectors, know that ZFS provides formidable protection against this and other sources of corruption/unreadable data. You could consider a small RAID-Z pool or even RAID-Z2.

I posted some motherboards suitable for a ZFS NAS build here: http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=37263522&postcount=65

 

[CiPHER]

So build your own? I've given you an overview of plenty of boards, which you can use for a $150 - $200 ZFS server.

I do not know what you are comparing against. What is a '1x4-300d' ? I suspect you compare against ARM 'computers' like used in Synology/QNAP. But that is not a 'real computer' but more or less what your phone and watch runs in terms of hardware. That limits the usefulness and lifespan of the hardware.

Also remember that because you use ZFS, you save a lot of money on expensive hardware, such as 10^-16 uBER harddrives which is quite expensive. If you do not choose ZFS, either your hardware cost goes up significantly, or you have to accept a much less resilient setup that offers far less protection to your data.

I suggest reading up on NAS, ZFS en DIY. Feel free to ask for specific stuff.

 

[snoturtle]

ix4-300d is a LenovoEMC 4 bay NAS
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7812/...4-and-lenovoemc-ix4300d-home-nas-units-review

Yes it is an ARM based unit and you are correct it is difficult to compare the ARM based ones to the X86 based one.

i think my best bet at this point is
HP N54L with 4 4TB drives with either Freenas or Server 2012
Perhaps a Gen8 if I can find one cheaper missed on Ebay the other day for 300

not sure I can build a 4 bay one for any less than just buying one