WHS Massive Storage

[thobel]

OK So with WHS 2011 coming I have 2 problems.

1) My current solution e8500 4gb ram 4x 2TB drives has passed the point of being able to allow duplication (not nough space left)
2) WHS 2011 I will need raid as I do not want multiple shares etc

First issue of Case I don't want a rack mount server. I'm interested in the Mountain Mods U2-UFO http://www.mountainm...d-top-p-79.html reason being I can fit 18 hard drives internal with additional brackets http://www.mountainm...lack-p-325.html and I can use it as my printer stand The price also does not seem so bad when you look at rack mount solutions that can handle that many drives and the added cost of 2u psu's.

My hard Drive Plan is as follows

System Drive 2x Raid 1 Drives something reliable and cheap figured I would run this off the motherboards built in controller. I have 4x 7200rpm Seagate 7200.10 Barracuda 320GB drives I used for like 1 month. Figure If I use 2 I have 2 spares for the future.

I currently have 4x Hitachi Deskstar 5K3000 2TB Drives they are cheap, fast and I have had no issues with them.
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822145475

So I figured I would add 12 More for a total of 16 2TB Drives

Raid Card to support it...

It would seem these are my choices
http://www.newegg.co...ING&PageSize=20

I don't know much abot the current state of raid I used tons of raid in the past so I'm confident I can figure it out.. Looking for some suggestions on the raid card.

Raid Config Questions: Any isses with 18 Total drives?
I was thinking about doing raid 10 I'm very much into complete redundency and never having to worry so with raid 10 I would get 16TB of usable space. Anyone have another solution that would provide a similar level of redundency with more usable space?

I know its alot but I do not want to lose my data. I have 2 cable modems load balanced with a 4g modem for failerover to give you an idea of how much I hate something not working. (mental issues maybe.. )

For the rest of the system I was thinking something like a 2500k Basic Asus motherboard.
PSU.. Never even worried about power usage of my hard drives before. What would i need for a Sandybridge system with the raid card and 18 drives?

 

[alaricljs]

The biggest reason for alot of those rackmount cases is that they come with hot-swap back planes. Once you've used them you won't want to do it the old way for any more than 1-2 drives.

The most popular rackmount for a ton of storage (and not having to worry about 2u PSUs) is the Norco 4u series - 4220 and 4224 - yes that's 20 and 24 drives, all in hot-swap spuds.


For PSU calculations, this: http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp is pretty damned good. Depending on drive RPM (5400/7200/10k) it spits out approximately 425/500/825 with a nothing video card and 8 120mm fans on a stock 2500k with 4 sticks of RAM.

BTW - something ate your links.

 

[heymrdj]

I have to agree. Get the rackmount chassis, alot better space handling, and lots of them will take normal ATX units instead of proprietary PSU's. The smallest you can get is a 2U, go to Norco's site and you'll see about half their models support ATX PSU's in a 2U factor, though you'll want/need a PSU who's fan is front back not top back because it can't breath against the roof. Other than that 3U and up will handle ATX PSU's with no issues. On the other mentioning, you get hotswap, which is hella better than the conventional mounts where you can have numbering issues and that sort of deal. With WHS 2011 losing DE, you'll want to have normal RAID modularity like any other enterprise setup.

Me personally, I'm not going from my current WHS setup to 2011 until I see some confirmed field tested third party DE softwares that have been promised lately (3 vendors are promising software DE's by 2011's launch supposedly). Curious as to total cost of WHS 2011 with the third party softwares and what features they'll bring to the table. But the only reason I love WHS so much besides clustered backup is for DE, so I want that first and foremost for Drive mixing (mix of 500, 1TB, 2, and 3TB drives.)

 

[thobel]

I have to agree. Get the rackmount chassis, alot better space handling, and lots of them will take normal ATX units instead of proprietary PSU's. The smallest you can get is a 2U, go to Norco's site and you'll see about half their models support ATX PSU's in a 2U factor, though you'll want/need a PSU who's fan is front back not top back because it can't breath against the roof. Other than that 3U and up will handle ATX PSU's with no issues. On the other mentioning, you get hotswap, which is hella better than the conventional mounts where you can have numbering issues and that sort of deal. With WHS 2011 losing DE, you'll want to have normal RAID modularity like any other enterprise setup.

Me personally, I'm not going from my current WHS setup to 2011 until I see some confirmed field tested third party DE softwares that have been promised lately (3 vendors are promising software DE's by 2011's launch supposedly). Curious as to total cost of WHS 2011 with the third party softwares and what features they'll bring to the table. But the only reason I love WHS so much besides clustered backup is for DE, so I want that first and foremost for Drive mixing (mix of 500, 1TB, 2, and 3TB drives.)

Well I just hate the looks of the rack mount server. More so if they are not in a rack. As for hotswap It's great to have but it will only come into play when a drive is failed or failing and I can't recall the last time i had a drive fail on me. (maybe I'm lucky) I loved DE but I'm fine with having raid honestly it will make disaster recovery from WHS whipe out very easy. DE was/is very cost effective though. I'm just not wlling to risk my media too many hours of time invested to lose it.

ps I think i have decided on raid 6 with 1 hot spare vs raid 10 with this raid controller
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816151035

 

[alaricljs]

Well I don't know what to tell you about the issue with looks. My server and network gear are all in a little corner of my basement and never get looked at unless there's a hardware issue. I don't have the 4224 yet, however it's on the expansion plan.

As to the raid card you're definitely picking from the top of the heap. There's an open box ARC-1680IX-24-4G for a very similar price. I don't know specifically, but I'd expect Areca would cover it for at least the remainder of the original warranty.

 

[thobel]

Well I don't know what to tell you about the issue with looks. My server and network gear are all in a little corner of my basement and never get looked at unless there's a hardware issue. I don't have the 4224 yet, however it's on the expansion plan.

As to the raid card you're definitely picking from the top of the heap. There's an open box ARC-1680IX-24-4G for a very similar price. I don't know specifically, but I'd expect Areca would cover it for at least the remainder of the original warranty.

I live in an apartment in NYC If i had a basment it would be a different story

 

[alaricljs]

Well, I suppose a UFO makes a reasonable end-table... but it's gonna be noisy.

Then there's the other answer, get the rackmount anyway and some furniture. Just google ikea rack mount server.

 

[imaheadcase]

Why are you getting WHS 2011? Why not get v1 which is what most people will still be getting?


Am i missing something here..you don't have to have multiple shares with v1 of WHS. You can keep data on one hardrive if you wish.

Anyway, i use this case. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811139003

The e8500 4gb ram you have is plenty fast for system now, no need to upgrade it. Thats what i use now.

 

[thobel]

I live in an apartment in NYC If i had a basment it would be a different story

Well, I suppose a UFO makes a reasonable end-table... but it's gonna be noisy.

Then there's the other answer, get the rackmount anyway and some furniture. Just google ikea rack mount server.

My current sysems are 980x tri 580's plus backup/"old" gaming pc 980x Tri 480's all water cooled with a total of 120.23 of rads and 23 Noisblocker HS Fans and its not so bad but their is a bit of a humm

Why are you getting WHS 2011? Why not get v1 which is what most people will still be getting?


Am i missing something here..you don't have to have multiple shares with v1 of WHS. You can keep data on one hardrive if you wish.

Anyway, i use this case. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811139003

The e8500 4gb ram you have is plenty fast for system now, no need to upgrade it. Thats what i use now.

Well
1) I do have WHS v1 currently
2) I don't belive in sticking with "old" tech at osme point MS will stop supporting WHS v1 and I won't be the guy crying baout it.
3) The e8500 is a Dell XPS desktop I can't fit anymore drives in it. I would need to move it to a new case get a new power supply to handle the added drives. I would still need a raid card, I have extra DDR3 already. So the only "unneeded items" would be the motherboard and cpu and its a tiny cost compared to the rest of the setup. I'n addition a new system will mak emoving the data safe and easy.
4) I plan on using the Old WHS (Dell XPS 420) to replace my bedroom media center thats currently on a Dell XPS 1530 Laptop

 

[BTA]

fyi there are add-ins coming out for WHS 2011 to support drive pooling and such. They are all still in beta testing though.

 

[imaheadcase]

Well
1) I do have WHS v1 currently
2) I don't belive in sticking with "old" tech at osme point MS will stop supporting WHS v1 and I won't be the guy crying baout it.
3) The e8500 is a Dell XPS desktop I can't fit anymore drives in it. I would need to move it to a new case get a new power supply to handle the added drives. I would still need a raid card, I have extra DDR3 already. So the only "unneeded items" would be the motherboard and cpu and its a tiny cost compared to the rest of the setup. I'n addition a new system will mak emoving the data safe and easy.
4) I plan on using the Old WHS (Dell XPS 420) to replace my bedroom media center thats currently on a Dell XPS 1530 Laptop[/QUOTE]
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1.) So keep it
2.) Umm that does not make sense in regards to WHS. Its not keeping "old" tech, even if they don't support it do you really think that matters? WHS is made to just work. No one is going to cry about it at all. I don't see the logic in what you are saying. Nevermind that fact new WHS does not really do anything that warrants a upgrade over old one.
3).So move the motherboard/powersupply/cpu/ram in dell into a new case. Get a simple SATA add-on card. How does a new system make "moving the data safe and easy" exactly..that is what WHS is for. lol
4) Putting newer hardware in the Media center is better idea, and makes more sense than using newer hardware in WHS. WHS simply does not need lots of hardware.

Sounds like you are just looking for a excuse to upgrade stuff..

 

[Emulex]

the ml150 can hold 16+ drives and has redundant ISS standard power supplies (same ones used in all the other proliants) you can run with 1 or 2 power supplies. they can be racked or usually are seen as towers. very much unappreciated. get some empty sleds off ebay and throw some good drives in them. i've seen them with P200/p212/p410's all are okay raid controllers and compatible with the entire line of hp proliant raid controllers. nobody wants these machines because they were sold with a core2duo and to expand it to a 2nd core2duo you'd spend $1500 lol. iirc one model expanded even to 24 drives and with 750w power supplies you should be able to use that with so many drives

 

[thobel]

Well
1) I do have WHS v1 currently
2) I don't belive in sticking with "old" tech at osme point MS will stop supporting WHS v1 and I won't be the guy crying baout it.
3) The e8500 is a Dell XPS desktop I can't fit anymore drives in it. I would need to move it to a new case get a new power supply to handle the added drives. I would still need a raid card, I have extra DDR3 already. So the only "unneeded items" would be the motherboard and cpu and its a tiny cost compared to the rest of the setup. I'n addition a new system will mak emoving the data safe and easy.
4) I plan on using the Old WHS (Dell XPS 420) to replace my bedroom media center thats currently on a Dell XPS 1530 Laptop

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1.) So keep it
2.) Umm that does not make sense in regards to WHS. Its not keeping "old" tech, even if they don't support it do you really think that matters? WHS is made to just work. No one is going to cry about it at all. I don't see the logic in what you are saying. Nevermind that fact new WHS does not really do anything that warrants a upgrade over old one.
3).So move the motherboard/powersupply/cpu/ram in dell into a new case. Get a simple SATA add-on card. How does a new system make "moving the data safe and easy" exactly..that is what WHS is for. lol
4) Putting newer hardware in the Media center is better idea, and makes more sense than using newer hardware in WHS. WHS simply does not need lots of hardware.

Sounds like you are just looking for a excuse to upgrade stuff..[/QUOTE]


I'm not sure I'm understanding you. The cost of the upgrade to me is 90% hard drives and raid card. The CPU and MB is Under $400 Everything else would need to be replaced.

WHS is based on Server 2003 it ha sbeen end of life since 2009. I'm going to bet based on prior experence addd-ons and such will begin to focus more and more on WHS v2 shortly after it's released.

The Media Center will get a new Video Card and one of my old Intel 80GB SSD's but should run find otherwise.

I don't need an excuse to upgrade my current "main rig" is a 980x with 3x 580's 3x Intel 160gb SSD's in Raid 0 My "Old Rig" is a 980x with 3x 480's all of it fully water cooled. If I want an upgrade I just do it. I'm 110% Willing to spend what I need to get the performance I want.

PS I hate the price vs performance thing..

the can hold 16+ drives and has redundant ISS standard power supplies (same ones used in all the other proliants) you can run with 1 or 2 power supplies. they can be racked or usually are seen as towers. very much unappreciated. get some empty sleds off ebay and throw some good drives in them. i've seen them with P200/p212/p410's all are okay raid controllers and compatible with the entire line of hp proliant raid controllers. nobody wants these machines because they were sold with a core2duo and to expand it to a 2nd core2duo you'd spend $1500 lol. iirc one model expanded even to 24 drives and with 750w power supplies you should be able to use that with so many drives

Thanks I figur eI may as well do it right if I'm going to do it at all. I can save a few hundred in many different ways. But if I do it right I'll have a great system that could last 4-5+ years.