UnRAID

[ratmice]

Anybody here using this? I'm waiting for parts to build my first UnRAID server for music/video storage/streaming needs and would like to hear opinions.

Parts list:

Case: Norco RPC-4220
• I will also get the 3x120mm fan plate.
MoBo: SUPERMICRO MBD-X8SIL-F-O
CPU: Core i3 550
Memory: Kingston ValueRAM 1GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Unbuffered (2)
SATA Expansion cards: SuperMicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 (2)
Power Supply: Corsair CMPSU-650TX
Fans: GELID Solutions FN-TX12-15 120mm Case Fan with Superior Temperature Control (3)
Cables: NORCO C-SFF8087-4S Discrete to SFF-8087 (Reverse breakout) Cable (1), NORCO C-SFF8087-D SFF-8087 to SFF-8087 Internal Multilane SAS Cable (4)

p.s. this build will allow for 20 2TB drives for a total of 40TB storage ( + one parity disk and 1 cache disk). Hopefully soon, UnRAID will allow the use of larger format disks (3TB) for a total of 60 TB.

edit: new CPU

[djoel]

Hey Matt

A bit off topic here, as the above is a bit foreing to me but would love to learn the essentials.

Hope the 3311 is doing you fine and bring lots to the table, hopefully I'll get to talk to you while you're at Bill's in the next few weeks. I would love here your opinion/ advice about music storing heck even movie burning, where to start, software and what's the easiest boob way for a tech challenge guy like me. I've been looking for the best way to store my media for some time, I have read a few thread, but I never seem to find one where they list the right hardware in a chronological order.

I'll be following this thread with great interest, being that you have list a few items, from a piratical website with reviews, and ratings.

Thanks

Dan

[Deleted]

What OS are you going to use? If Windoze 64 bit, I'd go with a bit more RAM, 2GB is just barely enough. As cheap as memory is nowadays, I'd go with at least 4GB. And, if the MoBo supports it, use the largest chip you can afford. This will allow you to expand easily to 8, 12, 16 GB if needed...

-RW-

[ratmice]

Feb 11, 2011 11:09:02 GMT -5 @rlw said:

What OS are you going to use? If Windoze 64 bit, I'd go with a bit more RAM, 2GB is just barely enough. As cheap as memory is nowadays, I'd go with at least 4GB. And, if the MoBo supports it, use the largest chip you can afford. This will allow you to expand easily to 8, 12, 16 GB if needed...

-RW-

The OS is unique to UnRAID, but it's basically a modified Slackware Linux distro (it boots of a thumb drive). It works fine with 512K RAM, but I'm throwing in 2GB so that I can run some additional SW (streaming, nicer WebGUI, transmission, etc..) The Mobo will support up to 16GB, if I decide that I need more. I need to throw in 2 RAM chips modules so that it can run in dual-channel mode, BTW.

[weigle2]

Feb 11, 2011 11:27:11 GMT -5 ratmice said:

Feb 11, 2011 11:09:02 GMT -5 @rlw said:

What OS are you going to use? If Windoze 64 bit, I'd go with a bit more RAM, 2GB is just barely enough. As cheap as memory is nowadays, I'd go with at least 4GB. And, if the MoBo supports it, use the largest chip you can afford. This will allow you to expand easily to 8, 12, 16 GB if needed...

-RW-

The OS is unique to UnRAID, but it's basically a modified Slackware Linux distro (it boots of a thumb drive). It works fine with 512K RAM, but I'm throwing in 2GB so that I can run some additional SW (streaming, nicer WebGUI, transmission, etc..) The Mobo will support up to 16GB, if I decide that I need more. I need to throw in 2 RAM chips so that it can run in dual-channel mode, BTW.

Since I'm a Unix/Linux type, I've been reading up on this for the last month. While it looks very promising, the thought of my USB device failing is a big concern, It's not cheap to get registration keys to run this, and since the GUID of the USB device is what determines your license, I am a little skeptical on how long this group will be around. Has anyone on the forum actually built and used one of these? Lots of questions on this OS and capabilities, and I hope to get answers from their forum. Let us know how this works out for you.

I will be trying the 'limited' free version just to see how it works. I would think 2 Gb's of RAM would be more than enough to run this as linux or Unix is way more efficient than any Windows OS. Look at how MS has destroyed the new version (2011) of Windows Home Server. It's now Server 2008R2, and you no longer have the drive extender that allowed you to just add another hard drive, add it to the pool, and your set.

Weigle2

[ratmice]

From what I understand, if you e-mail them with the facts surrounding your USB failure, they are willing to get you a new registration key. This is not a firm guarantee, but has been the m.o. in those types of cases.

Also there is a buy 2 get 1 additional registration deal for 30.00 combo for those that need redundancy. I personally have the first USB drive I ever bought, and it works fine. You need t buy a decent one to begin with, though.

p.s. most parts are due in today, MoBo and CPU Wed.

[djoel]

Any updates Matt.


Dan

[ratmice]

Server is built, array is running, just beginning to add drives more to it and waiting for my SW registration to allow those drives, have a couple 2TB on order.

It was a pretty simple procedure to get it up and running, I can access it from any machine in the house. Just need to learn Linux to really begin to get comfortable with it. Now comes the task of deciding on directory structures/shares/etc...to organize all my data. Not an easy task, I tell you what. Currently I have the capability for 14 drives (theoretical 28 TB of storage). I have been copying a bunch of data over just to test it out. Speed is pretty darn fast if you do the transfers on the server (all drives connected). Over the network (SMB) is another story and seems glacial in comparison - I'm sure there are ways to speed that by transitioning to an all wired network.

By the way I'm heading to NYC this weekend, what's for dinner? ;-)

[mikeldean]

ratmice, what do you think of the unRAID server now that it has been up and running for a while?

[ratmice]

Mar 26, 2011 15:35:44 GMT -5 mikeldean said:

ratmice, what do you think of the unRAID server now that it has been up and running for a while?

Sorry for the wait. I don't come here very often anymore. The server has been problem free. I am still moving stuff over to the array. Currently at about 20 TB. Currently able to steam multiple streams around the house with no obvious performance hit. New SW version on the horizon which will allow AFP shares. I use NFS shares at the moment and SMB ( windows sharing) really is a dog.

People that are worried about the USB device failing can use a USB micro SD card reader I stead as long as it has a unique GUID. The ID is tied to the read, not the removable memory, so if e memory craps out just insert a new card, and off you go. Check out their forum for more info.

The next upgrade I am looking forward to is 2 parity drives, which will allow simultaneous failure of 2 HDDs without data loss. That should really cover all bases.

I will likely use a media streamer of some kind to interface with e server, rather thatn an HTPC, just not sure which, yet.

It's a lot of fun, and you can try it out f for free. If you have an old computer lying around, just turn it into a server. It really can run on almost anything.

[dsnyder0cnn]

Apr 8, 2011 9:18:05 GMT -5 ratmice said:

Currently at about 20 TB. Currently able to steam multiple streams around the house with no obvious performance hit. New SW version on the horizon which will allow AFP shares. I use NFS shares at the moment and SMB ( windows sharing) really is a dog.

Yowzers! 20 TB is quite a lot of stuff.

This is the first that I've heard of "UnRAID". Sounds interesting, especially since RAID has caused more grief than it has prevented in my personal experience.

I have a pair of five disk enclosures that i picked up from pc-pitstop.com. These house a total of ten 2TB SATA drives and attach to a simple eSATA card in my file server. Through the magic of port multiplier cards in each enclosure, this four port eSATA card supports up to twenty drives, so I can still double my capacity (to 40 TB) before I have to start looking for another card or building another server.

While the card supports basic RAID levels, I'm using it strictly in JBOD ("just a bunch of disks") mode. I have five "data" and five "backup" partitions. Every night at 3:00am, a job kicks off to decide where to put files that have been added to the system that day to keep usage roughly balanced across the five active "data" partitions. It also does an incremental backup of each "data" disk to it's "backup" mate in the second cabinet.

I like this approach because, unlike RAID, if I just need a little more capacity, I can upgrade just a pair of drives (the "data" and "backup") rather than all of them. I can also pull a single drive and access all of the files on it in a second computer if for some reason that becomes necessary since there's no striping involved. Finally, when user error results in important files being deleted or corrupted, I can go back as far as seven days to recover them.

The backups appear as shares named "Monday" through "Sunday", so if I lost something today, I'd have a look in the "Thursday" share to recover it.

To keep things efficient, there are some directory structure limitations, but overall, the system has been working great for the last three or so years. It started as ten 400GB drives, but last year I upgraded all of the drives to 2TB models. For the next upgrade, I'll probably add a second pair of cabinets.

I've had pretty good luck with the HDI Dune HD Smart D1 as a network media player accessing files on this file server. Of the three "Smart" models, I prefer this one because I can navigate using the display without having to turn my video projector on. It does a great job playing DVD ISO's, but blu-ray (ISO or BDMV) are touch and go at best. It will play just about any other kind of file that I can through at it. High resolution FLAC, including 24-bit, 176.4kHz/192kHz stereo as well as 24-bit, 96kHz 5.1 channel work fine with audio going through the HDMI connection into the UMC-1. I don't really use it for audio playback through since I prefer the sound of my E-MU 0404.

Sorry that I can't report on UnRAID, but I thought I'd share some info about what I'm doing along similar lines. Send me a PM if you have questions.

-- David

[GreenKiwi]

I got tired of dealing with things and just got a Synology DS-1010 and absolutely LOVE it!

I'd probably get the 1510 if I were getting one now.

[Nemesis.ie]

Pedantic: I think folks mean RAM modules - each module usually has 8 or more chips on it.

/pedantic

[ratmice]

Okay, fixed the chip/module bit above.

David: Sounds like a good system you have set up there, very expandable. I agree that the draw toward UnRAID was the mix and match disk sizes, and ease of expanding the array. It's basically JBOD with parity (soon to be redundant parity). When you need more space, pop in whatever disk is cheapest at the moment, and off you go.

I will also use the array as backup storage, too. Probably using storing my Time Machine (all Macs here) backups of our various computers on the array.

I'm considering the Dune D1. I've always liked Dune products, and they perform really well out in the wild. The only downside to it is that it's geared more for video than music, if I'm not mistaken, so the criticisms I see are that the music performance is not as stellar. I clearly need to do some more research about it.