newb here! first server build

[Motorsports-X]

Full disclaimer....... i have no idea what im doing....


ok.. now that we got that out of the way.. lol ... i stumbled across this forum reaserching a project, and i think there is enough knowlege here to keep me out of trouble..

so long story short, im going to be building a home server (web, email, file share, forum, etc) and would love you guys to point me in the right direction.

now for the rest of the story.. Iam currently working with a software developer on some custom software that will deploy in beta in about 6 months. intitially, im sending the software to 250 companies (mom and pop shop type places) just for beta testing, and to get feed back, etc.. The server will be stored at my office, on a fiber connection til the beta test is done. then ill be bringing it home to fun my personal website, email etc.

so i need about 10tb of storage, and i predict the user count will be around 500, but probably never more than 200 simultaneos request. This is basically going to be databasa queries for the software test. the majority of the I/O will be from that. but in the future, i expect my forum, website, mail server, etc to get quite active.


So far, I have selected the following components

-Lian Li d8000 case (does not have sata backplans, will add (suggestions)
-WD - 2tb Red drives x 10 (raid 10 setup) are the pro drives worth the extra money??
-mother board - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813182933
-processors - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116934
- RAID Controller - ... not really sure here.. what the best way to use hard ware raid on 10tb? my first thought was http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816103258 but...maybe i should use 2 raid controllers for future growth? (still 10 bays free)
-memorry - board compatible, ill have to check prices, but how much should i need? i think maybe 128gb is enough. (64 per cpu)



so is that to much? not enough? in the future i plan to run all my home automation and media software on the unit as well, so thats why i specd the dual processor board



so once i get the hardware worked out... software? .. i know i could just go buy something prebuilt, or have someone do this for me... but ive really wanted to learn all this stuff for years, so why not now?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Building your own server isn't all that different than building a PC - except you get to play with things like dual redundant power supplies, ECC ram, and so on.

Personally, for the software you're building, I think you should probably just get an Amazon cloud instance; much less hassle, no uptime risks because of your cat getting into the wires, etc. It's also scalable in both directions based on actual user load. (Nothing like spending $XXXX on a box that is 90% idle. Great fun.)

Personal website, mail, etc., is also something I would subcontract to a data center. Preferable a separate instance/invoice to keep the business stuff separate for tax purposes.

A home automation "server" can basically be a raspberry pi, and any old i3 can handle multimedia streaming duties.

Best GB/$ right now is 3 or 4 TB drives, so you'd only need 8 or 6 of those for a 12TB RAID10.

You'd know the workload of your application better than I would, but you'd probably be fine with RAID-6. (Most applications involve a lot more reading that writing.)

 

[Motorsports-X]

Thanks for the reply...I have considered having someone else host this, but that takes alot of the fun and control out of my hands..snice this product is going to be on our business servers anyway, I'd like to just start out with my own build. Plus like i said, I really want to learn .

 

[XavierMace]

If you are planning on setting this up as a Windows server, keep in mind the memory limitations of the various versions of Windows Server. Not to mention the cost. Is this going to be an IIS/SQL Server setup or an Apache/MySQL setup? Or something else entirely? You may also want to consider VMWare so you can segregate the roles onto separate VM's.

64Gb should be more than enough memory.

12Gb SAS controller seems overkill, especially since you're just running spindle drives. I'm partial to LSI though for controllers. The Newegg reviews of that card don't exactly fill me with confidence either but take them with a grain of salt.

Also keep in mind the IOPS limitations of running just 7200rpm spindle drives. What kind of disk performance do you need out of this build?

 

[Motorsports-X]

i really have to get more info before i can coment on how they plan to power the data base. i do know everything is linux based (sorry im not really a software guy)

that raid controller was the only one i found with enough ports for the number of drives i wish to run . should i just run 2 controllers?

The software build is really very simple and doesnt access the drive very much. there is some historical data, but for the level of users i plan to have in beta, its pretty much impossible to saturate the network connection, much less the disk/raid controller. im over building the drives for my media center after the software trials are complete. i planned for 2 streaming 4k full res movies and transfer of large CAD and FEA files to my work station. (again, still probably over kill)

 

[XavierMace]

With a SAS expander you can run oodles of drives off a single controller. If used is an option, you could get an LSI 6Gb/s controller and an expander (or just two controllers) for less than half of that Adaptec. You can get good LSI cards pulled from working servers for about $100.

Regarding the disk performance, I just want to make sure we are on the same page. IOPS (Input/Output Operations Per Second) and Throughput are two very different things. You can have throughput available but still run into IOPS issues. File Transfers and Media Streaming need throughput. Database operations and Virtual Machines need IOPS.

A 7200rpm drive is usually good for around 75-100 IOPS. A 15000rpm drive is usually good for around 175-200 IOPS. A good SSD is good for 100,000+ IOPS.

On a media server you are generally doing a single large sequential transfer (IE, reading a movie file). On a database or VM, you are doing lots and lots of little transfer. For example you mentioned a forum. One user, loading one page on the forum results in many requests. It has to query the database to check his credentials. It has to query the database to read the forum topics/posts. It has to query the database to check his Private Messages. It has to read the actual ASP/PHP/etc files for the website. While each one of those operations is reading very little data, it's a LOT of little random reads. Multiply that by the number of users and it adds up in a hurry.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I built a large server in 2013 with similar specs as to the one you're building. Specs are in this post but I've since upgraded it to 160 GB of RAM and added a mirrored set of 250 GB SSDs dedicated to my firewall VM (and soon, probably others). I'm also up to 40+ VMs with around 25 running 24/7 IIRC.

I've got to run and don't have time to get into a lot of detail now, but one thing to be careful of is the HSF for the processors. At least on my motherboard, standard HSFs would not work -- Supermicro makes a "narrow" LGA 2011 HSF combo and that may be required in your case as well.

Also, I just used Icy Dock backplanes for my server and it is in a huge Xigmatek Elysium case. For the RAID controller, get a 4 or 8 port MegaRAID and just add a SAS expander to get more ports. You'll be able to save $200 or $300 that way, I think.