Server Build

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
muskie32

muskie32

Diamond Member
Sep 13, 2010
3,115
7
81
Ok, so we need a server for many TB's worth of photos and videos.:eek:

Here is what i am thinking of:

Motherboard
2x Ram
2x CPU's
Case
16-20x HDD's
1-2x Raid card
Mini SAS x4
2x CPU Cooler
OS

Am i missing anything here?
Is that a good case? Is it overkill? I picked it for how many HDD's it could store.
Do you think i should use diff. CPU's?
Should i go AMD?
Is everything compatible?
Also want it to be capable of holding up to 90TB's (lots of raw video footage)


Thanks for any help. Also, i am trying to keep this under $10,000. I have not bought anything yet. :)
 
Homerboy

Homerboy

Lifer
Mar 1, 2000
30,890
5,001
126
Is this just a storage server? If so that MB/CPU is WAY WAY WAY overkill.
Whats the ACTUAL application?
 
Homerboy

Homerboy

Lifer
Mar 1, 2000
30,890
5,001
126
Also, for the majority of the time, you're better off buying OEM for something like this versus building (unless you have exacting specs you must meet). Get a HP, Dell etc.
 
Homerboy

Homerboy

Lifer
Mar 1, 2000
30,890
5,001
126
well what kind of access? I mean there's a difference between 2 people accessing it at 10000 people.

Pure storage simply does not need much CPU power.
 
Homerboy

Homerboy

Lifer
Mar 1, 2000
30,890
5,001
126
you dont need anything "server" then.
If this is for work, I still recommend getting something OEM... and buying the support contract to reduce downtime.
 
I

imagoon

Diamond Member
Feb 19, 2003
5,199
0
0
How do you plan to build this? If you are expecting a big 16-20 disk RAID 5/6 you are going to find that odds are very high that as soon as the array has a fault it will not be able to rebuild. The math was in another thread. The user was also experiencing very poor performance (in the 30MB/s area) because the small "cheap" cards cannot handle that many disks well. You also picked large and slow SATA disks to put on the SAS controllers which will also degrade performance due to SATA-SAS encapsulation. Also you picked consumer disks which have long recover times on read errors which basically guarantee a disk issue very soon after implementation.

You are in SAN territory like IndyColtsFan mentioned above. Most of the middle of the road SAN's are limited to around 45 disks and would only give you 90TB of raw space. You would lose space due to the RAID overhead. Raid5/6 will begin be ineffective beyond 8-10 disks. To get one massive 90TB store you would likely be looking at "raid 10" of storage arrays / and about 50 to 90 2TB disks.

Plus all the connecting gear IE iSCSI / Fiber channel etc.

Another random thought: You can only software RAID across multiple SAS cards, so you might need the CPU to do all the software calcs. Your entire array could become CPU / Bus limited.
 
Last edited:
O

owensdj

Golden Member
Jul 14, 2000
1,711
6
81
If you're only going to have 5 users accessing the server you probably want to get 2008 R2 with 5 CALS rather than 10. You can always buy more CALS later if the number of users increases.
 
M

masteryoda34

Golden Member
Dec 17, 2007
1,399
3
81
$1100 for an OS !? Linux could make a fine file sever. Newer distributions like Ubuntu are not that difficult to learn. Plus, I would think with 90TB, you would really want to look into something like RAID-Z, which as far as I know, is not available on Windows.
 
I

imagoon

Diamond Member
Feb 19, 2003
5,199
0
0
masteryoda34 said:
$1100 for an OS !? Linux could make a fine file sever. Newer distributions like Ubuntu are not that difficult to learn. Plus, I would think with 90TB, you would really want to look into something like RAID-Z, which as far as I know, is not available on Windows.
Click to expand...

Yup. I mean it is a good idea to make sure his apps actually run on the machine. As a Windows and Linux 'user / admin' I really get tired of seeing this. Linux costs a lot more than $0 people.
 
Davidh373

Davidh373

Platinum Member
Jun 20, 2009
2,428
0
71
You don't need anything special. Just get a single consumer quad core with a lot of SATA ports on the mobo.

I guess it really depends on how much "many terabytes" is. If you're talking 20 something, then 8 SATA ports will do. There are even some mobos with 10, for up to 30TB. Then what I'd do is (since there are so many users) get a server 2k8 disk for 5-10 users.

Something like this

i7 950

Gigabyte UD3R

12-24GB RAM

2TB-3TB HDDs
 
Davidh373

Davidh373

Platinum Member
Jun 20, 2009
2,428
0
71
imagoon said:
There is if he actually enjoys having his data.
Click to expand...

Again, it depends on how many TBs he's talking about. If he only needs 15TBs and not 90, then he could get a 10 SATA port mobo and have 5 of the drives back up to the other 5. Obviously if he is looking for something huge, he needs a rack mounted server. As long as you build something right, it:

1. saves money
2. is exactly what you want
3. is stable.

I'm just not going to tell him he needs a giant room dedicated to a rack mounted server beast if all he needs to do is store and maybe play some video...
 
mnewsham

mnewsham

Lifer
Oct 2, 2010
14,539
428
136
I think a decent build like david suggested with a separate storage unit would be more useful.

Something like a NAS box maybe?
 
I

imagoon

Diamond Member
Feb 19, 2003
5,199
0
0
Davidh373 said:
Again, it depends on how many TBs he's talking about. If he only needs 15TBs and not 90, then he could get a 10 SATA port mobo and have 5 of the drives back up to the other 5. Obviously if he is looking for something huge, he needs a rack mounted server. As long as you build something right, it:

1. saves money
2. is exactly what you want
3. is stable.

I'm just not going to tell him he needs a giant room dedicated to a rack mounted server beast if all he needs to do is store and maybe play some video...
Click to expand...

I really don't feel like doing the math again.

http://www.adaptec.com/blog//2005/11/01/raid-reliability-calculations

With the consumer Segate drives that we were talking about, there was basically a 100% chance of a read error every 9 or so TB's of disk reads. This basically pushes the odds of a multidisk failure to 100% since the array is larger than this size. I have not found the Samsung's Sector error rate (samsung might not report it since it is a consumer drive) and can't figure out the confidence of the drive. I wouldn't trust my home data to the setup you propose let alone business.

Also this isn't for home use, he is talking about having multiple users on it.

Edit: The point is:

Read error occurs, disk drops from the array, new disk is installed, 9TB in to the rebuild another disk read errors, another disk drops -> dead array
 
Last edited:
VirtualLarry

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,587
10,227
126
Look up the Norco 4020 and 4224 cases. Way cheaper than that SuperMicro 4U case, but they don't include a PSU.
 
Davidh373

Davidh373

Platinum Member
Jun 20, 2009
2,428
0
71
imagoon said:
With the consumer Segate drives that we were talking about, there was basically a 100% chance of a read error every 9 or so TB's of disk reads. This basically pushes the odds of a multidisk failure to 100% since the array is larger than this size. I have not found the Samsung's Sector error rate (samsung might not report it since it is a consumer drive) and can't figure out the confidence of the drive. I wouldn't trust my home data to the setup you propose let alone business.
Click to expand...

Well there's your problem, Seagate blows... and another thing, who said anything about RAID?

imagoon said:
Also this isn't for home use, he is talking about having multiple users on it.
Click to expand...

Yeah... he can't possibly be talking about a family of 5 who all use computers... not at all lol...

My "home server" provides fast and easy FTP, and NAS for 3 computers simultaneously. 2 of which can be watching 1080p video, while 1 listens to music/ looks at pictures, ect. That is not to say he doesn't need something more powerful. I'd recommend what I did above, but if all he is doing is storing video and pictures (maybe some encoding), he doesn't need anything enterprise.

Lets wait before we start jabbing at each other's opinions to see what the OP actually needs. My server hasn't been running long, but it' has been up 24/7 for around 5 months now. No data corruption yet that I know of.
 
muskie32

muskie32

Diamond Member
Sep 13, 2010
3,115
7
81
Thanks for the info everyone. And no. It does not need 90tb right now, lol. I am just thinking of the future, video adds up quick :p

For right now just a bought 20-30tb's should do.

And actually, i was not thinking of putting the HDD's in a raid setup... Too much of a head ache if a drive fails...

So here is a revised list:

OS
CPU
RAM
Mobo
15x HDD's
Raid card
4x Cables
Case
CPU cooler
Any suggestions on a PSU?

Thanks

EDIT:

I can't forget the 3 SSD's for raid 5, for OS and Programs.

EDIT2:

Anyone have any info on this HDD?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145472&cm_re=3TB_HDD-_-22-145-472-_-Product
 
Last edited:
mnewsham

mnewsham

Lifer
Oct 2, 2010
14,539
428
136
by my count you have 6 sata on the MB plus 4 for the RAID card that makes 10 HDD's possible, right?
 
muskie32

muskie32

Diamond Member
Sep 13, 2010
3,115
7
81
RAID levels 0, 1, 1E, 5, 5EE, 6, 10, 50*, 60*, JBOD (* Expander is necessary)
Supports 4 direct-attached or up to 256 SATA or SAS disk drives using SAS expanders
1.2GHz Dual Core RAID on Chip (ROC)
Adaptec Storage Manager, Copyback Hot Spare management features
RoHS compliant

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-096-_-Product

Where can i get these SAS expanders?

Maybe it is a dumb question :p
 
mnewsham

mnewsham

Lifer
Oct 2, 2010
14,539
428
136
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom