Server Chasis for homemade Nas

[dhicks]

What backup s/w are you using? Something like r1soft cdp.

The server pictured above was designed to be used with a simple rsync-based script - use rsync to get an up-to-date backup of a filesystem, then run a script to de-duplicate the files and reorganise user's folders so that each user's Samba share has a bunch of links to previous days backups. Backup shares could then simply be mounted as a (read-only) Windows drive, showing only a given user's files, enabling users to simply restore there own files as needed.

Backups of virtual machines were done by shutting down the VM, setting a snapshot (all VMs ran on top of LVM volumes), restarting the VM and copying the snapshot disk image over to the backup server. VMs with large stores of data tended to have one LVM volume for the OS, backed up via a snapshot, and one for data, backed up via rsync. In the end I moved the file servers away from being VMs as I felt it was easy enough to reconstruct a simple file server from scratch if there was a catastrophic failure and just had them backed up via rsync running on the live file system. Backups were done overnight, so there was only a small chance of a file being transferred in an inconsistent state, and even then the chances are that yesterday's or tomorrow's backup would have the same file anyway.

--
David Hicks

[glennda]

Just bringing this back to life - i've been given the go ahead for 4k's of funding for the new backup server - i'm thinking the following

1 x Quad Core Xeon LGA1366
1 x 6Gb Ram
1 x Antec Twelve Hundred Tower Case
1 x 1000W PSU
2/3 x Chenbro 5 x 3.5" HDD Hot-Swap Bays (using 9 of the 12 bays)
10/15 x 2TB HDD

Can anybody recommend a MOBO + Raid Cards which will support the stuff

Although i'm contemplating just using a software raid (using ubuntu) and PCI Sata cards for extra slots - what do people think?

[synaesthesia]

Gordon bennett : 1kw psus? 20 hard drives will barely go over 200watt, 100w for mobo/cpu under load and a few here and there for cooling. You absolutely certainly will not need over 400w for a *serious* file server. The PSU's in 14bay arrays are typically around 250 watt.

I'd use the difference in cost there to look for a case that will allow either a pair of PSUs to be used (Coolermaster Stackers did, fairly sure some newer models still do) to allow for redundancy, or rather more of a server type unit complete with redundancy PSU setup.

[glennda]

I'm only going to be using it as a backup server so 1psu should be sufficient imho - i went for a large psu as I wasn't sure the power required by the HDD's + Raid cards etc.

[dhicks]

1 x Quad Core Xeon LGA1366

We have a QNAP NAS that uses an Atom processor, which might be more energy-efficient for a device left on all the time. I figure if it's good enough for a company that makes NAS devices for a living they can't be too far wrong.

1 x Antec Twelve Hundred Tower Case

Antec do do a range of rackmount cases, if you want something a bit more "server"-like - the 3U26EPS600 might be suitible, it should take 2 of those 5-bay disk caddies.

Although i'm contemplating just using a software raid (using ubuntu) and PCI Sata cards for extra slots - what do people think?

For a backup server, I'd say software RAID should be just fine. The main speed advantage a hardware RAID card would seem to offer is in the cache handling. For just writing a constant stream of data out to a harddrive, adding a hardware RAID card isn't going to make a difference - I imagine the average processor can calulate RAID-5 checksums just fine these days, too.

[glennda]

H'mm I will look into the possibility of using a lesser processor - i'm going to keep a decent processor in there as i want to be able to use the server for other things during the day - not mission critical things so i don't want the processor to be too small although maybe a quad core xeon is a bit ott - but as you mention having a software raid i think beefier processor then an Atom is required

I did look at the rack mount cases but i also have an old HP dl380 g2 which had a p3 xeon in it sitting in the store which i might strip and use as a case!

[dhicks]

I did look at the rack mount cases but i also have an old HP dl380 g2 which had a p3 xeon in it sitting in the store which i might strip and use as a case!

Wouldn't it be cheaper to just buy half a dozen harddrives and maybe an SSD for the OS? 6 3TB drives in RAID 5 would give a pretty respectable 15TB raw storage capacity (which would probably be nearer 10TB by the time you had a formatted file system on there) - just how much backup space do you need?

[glennda]

Well i currently have a 12tb backup MSA 60 which gets full in just under 2 1/2 weeks. So i'm looking at getting aprox 20+tb so i can keep the data for longer - then replicate the most important stuff to the msa 60 (sims etc)

i was thinking of getting an SSD for the os just depends on cost.

[dhicks]

Well i currently have a 12tb backup MSA 60 which gets full in just under 2 1/2 weeks. So i'm looking at getting aprox 20+tb so i can keep the data for longer - then replicate the most important stuff to the msa 60 (sims etc)

You could use the HP DL380 G2 as an additional backup rather than making a new server and using the MSA 60 as a backup-backup, so you'd have 12TB + 10TB-ish for minimal cost (i.e. the cost of 6 harddrives). That HP chassis isn't going to hold more than 6 disks anyway.

i was thinking of getting an SSD for the os just depends on cost.

You could always just use a USB memory stick for the OS.

[glennda]

You could use the HP DL380 G2 as an additional backup rather than making a new server and using the MSA 60 as a backup-backup, so you'd have 12TB + 10TB-ish for minimal cost (i.e. the cost of 6 harddrives). That HP chassis isn't going to hold more than 6 disks anyway.



You could always just use a USB memory stick for the OS.

Having thought about it i think its an ml series which has slightly more disk space. like this http://www.techtradepartners.net/sto...=1294103580846

But i'll talk to my supplier tomorrow and rip things out of the case tomorrow and have a look at what space it has.

Cheers.

[dhicks]

like this http://www.techtradepartners.net/sto...=1294103580846

Goodness. I see what you mean now. That looks as though it would take a 5-disk array in the three 5.25" slots in the front and 6 disks in the built-in array, with maybe a card reader instead of a floppy drive just to make it looks a bit less old :-)

[glennda]

Bringing this alive again as i've given up on Drobo's being amazingly cool.

Currently looking at getting this


HP ProLiant N36L (microserver)
2GB Dual Rank x8 PC3-10600 (DDR3-1333MHz) Unbuffered (for above server)
Western Digital REII-GP 2TB 3.5 SATA Internal Hard Drive x 20
RAID CARD - Intel RAID Controller SASUC8I HBA (for server/board below)
INTEL Quad Core Xeon E5520 2.26GHz LGA1366
Super Micro SuperChassis 847E1-R1400LPB (huge for future expansion)
Super Micro X8DTH-IF
Supermicro 8GB DDR3 SDRAM Memory Module

Then going to put 16 x 2tb disks in Case (leaving plenty of space for expansion ) then 4 x 2tb disk in the Microserver hidden in a spare block (although i tried to convince the caretaker to let me hide it in his house onsite!)
The HBA card supports up to 122 disks so i think should be ok with that one! Then Linux Software raid.

Going to replicate the monthly backups to Microserver.

[Butuz]

To be honest I'd go a different route. I think an 8 - 16 slot Qnap box of some sort plugged into any old workstation/server via NAS or SAS would be much more efficient and reliable as you can simply just leave the Qnap box to sort out all the raid storage stuff (as it's designed to do) and use the workstation/server to set up whatever backup software you chose.

Also you can buy another Qnap box in another building and easily set them up to automatically replicate. Basically its a much less complicated much easier to set up way of doing it IMHO.

Butuz

[glennda]

To be honest I'd go a different route. I think an 8 - 16 slot Qnap box of some sort plugged into any old workstation/server via NAS or SAS would be much more efficient and reliable as you can simply just leave the Qnap box to sort out all the raid storage stuff (as it's designed to do) and use the workstation/server to set up whatever backup software you chose.

Also you can buy another Qnap box in another building and easily set them up to automatically replicate. Basically its a much less complicated much easier to set up way of doing it IMHO.

Butuz

I did look into the qnap's but getting 2 with enough drives + the server to run the software
etc was alot more expensive from the quotes i had then the system quoted above - it works under 4k for the Main machine and £600 for the microserver to replicate to!

[zag]

To build a nice nas I would buy

- atom cpu
- small ssd for the OS

Keep it low power and you should be fine

I personally have the Qnap devices and they are awesome, I replaced my media server with one and won't ever go back.