Optimum Server Configuration

[bug1124]

I think I have nailed down a pretty solid layout for my new house, but I wanted to run it by the experts before committing to anymore hardware.

In my new configuration I am wanting all SD and HD MVP clients attached to the TV's. So I am having 8 rooms in the house wired for cat6. All of the wiring will come back to an upstairs closet where they will terminate at a breakout bar. From the breakout bar I will jumper into a Dell PowerConnect 2716 16 port gigabit switch.

The dedicated server I am thinking of building will be used for file serving documents, pictures, music, etc. Plus it will run sageTV as a service for all of the MVP clients. Please look below and provide feedback regarding the specs:

SERVER SPECS:
ASUS TS300-E4/PA4 5U Barebone Server Intel 3000 LGA 775 Intel Xeon - Retail
Xeon X3210 Kentsfield 2.13GHz LGA 775 Processor
Windows XP Professional SP2 OEM
4 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB Hard Drive - 7200, 8MB, Serial ATA-300, OEM
Corsair VS2GBKIT667D2 2GB Kit DDR2-667 PC2-5300 Value Select Memory Retail
1 x PVR-500 (existing)
1 x PVR-150 (existing)
1 x HDhomerun using QAM

Total load will be 3-5 SD MVPs plus 2-3 HD MVPs when they come out.

This is where my questions begin.

1.)If in the server two of the 500GB HDDs will be mirrored to store all of our important documents, images, music, etc. And the other two HDDs will be for use by Sage for TV show storage. Is it better to have two 500GB hard disks or one 1TB drive for Sage recording throughput?

2.) Are there any advanced configurations I can do to the switch (which is webmanageable) to make this dedicated sage server run better? (i.e. Would it be better to use both network cards in link aggregation mode and attach the HD homerun to the switch OR use one network card for the HD homerun and the other to the switch?

3.) Do I need a seperate OS hard drive or can I put the OS on the mirrored array with my data files? I ask because it would have to be IDE or I would have to switch to a single Sage recording drive.

4.) Is there anything else I can do to my layout hardware, software, whatever to better optimize it for long term stability and reliability?

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by bug1124

SERVER SPECS:
ASUS TS300-E4/PA4 5U Barebone Server Intel 3000 LGA 775 Intel Xeon - Retail
Xeon X3210 Kentsfield 2.13GHz LGA 775 Processor
Windows XP Professional SP2 OEM
4 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB Hard Drive - 7200, 8MB, Serial ATA-300, OEM
Corsair VS2GBKIT667D2 2GB Kit DDR2-667 PC2-5300 Value Select Memory Retail
1 x PVR-500 (existing)
1 x PVR-150 (existing)
1 x HDhomerun using QAM

Total load will be 3-5 SD MVPs plus 2-3 HD MVPs when they come out.

ASUS TS300-E4/PA4 looks good for an out of the box server solution, but you could strech that $600+ a bit further if you were willing to get your hands dirty and build a box yourself from seperate components. I just built a new server for ~ $500-600 (for the parts included in the TS300) that has those specs and more many more (the most relevant being 8 SATA on the MB, and 6 well cooled HD slots in the case), but it took a few days (3-5) of work on my part to get it up and running well.

Hard drives – 2×300, 3×400 SATA (~1.8Tb)
Motherboard – ASUS P5K DELUXE/WIFI-AP LGA 775 Intel P35 $225
Capture Cards – nVidia DualTV $90 , HDHomerun $169
CPU – Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (4×2.4 GHz) $295
RAM – 2 GB (2×1024mb) G.SKILL DDR 800 $88
Video Card – Gigabyte silent heatpipe 6600 $114 (this is pointless overkill, but I had it laying around already. I plan on replacing this with a much cheaper/cooler card once the HD extender comes out and I can reclaim my SageTV client as a game machine )
PSU – Antec NeoHE 500 $100
DVD – Plextor 12x SATA DVD+/-R $29
Network – Onboard GigE (PCI-E) for Network, Onboard GigE (PCI) for HDhomerun
Case – Antec P180 (Silver) $79

Originally Posted by bug1124

1.)If in the server two of the 500GB HDDs will be mirrored to store all of our important documents, images, music, etc. And the other two HDDs will be for use by Sage for TV show storage. Is it better to have two 500GB hard disks or one 1TB drive for Sage recording throughput?

With that many tuners, having a second hard drive to help out can't hurt.

Originally Posted by bug1124

2.) Are there any advanced configurations I can do to the switch (which is webmanageable) to make this dedicated sage server run better? (i.e. Would it be better to use both network cards in link aggregation mode and attach the HD homerun to the switch OR use one network card for the HD homerun and the other to the switch?

Silicon dust says that as long as you are running gigE you shouldn't have a problem running the HDHR over your existing network, but if you've got the extra LAN port I say why not run it on its own, I am

Originally Posted by bug1124

3.) Do I need a seperate OS hard drive or can I put the OS on the mirrored array with my data files? I ask because it would have to be IDE or I would have to switch to a single Sage recording drive.

I've never used RAID so someone else will need to weigh in on this one.

Originally Posted by bug1124

4.) Is there anything else I can do to my layout hardware, software, whatever to better optimize it for long term stability and reliability?

Nope, that configuration looks pretty good to me, especially sticking with XP.

[bug1124]

Good advice...I have no issues with building it from scratch as long as it is better in the end. The price actually just went up about $100 on that server so custom is sounding better to me now. Time isn't a concern since I have a couple more weeks before the house will be properly wired.

[bug1124]

Do you have more details about your burner? Specific model number...I can't find anything for the $29 range.

How do you have your hard drives arranged? You say no RAID but what do you do for backups? Which of your drives are recording and which are data?

Thoughts between the two video cards below? One is ATI and the other NVIDIA. Are there any concerns with using one of these since it will be a headless server? Other suggestions?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127292
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127273

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by bug1124

Do you have more details about your burner? Specific model number...I can't find anything for the $29 range.

How do you have your hard drives arranged? You say no RAID but what do you do for backups? Which of your drives are recording and which are data?

Thoughts between the two video cards below? One is ATI and the other NVIDIA. Are there any concerns with using one of these since it will be a headless server? Other suggestions?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127292
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127273

Yeah, don't worry about the burner, I got that 2 years ago in a crazy good sale. Just go with a reputable brand on sale and you should be good. I'd almost recommend going with IDE to save those precious on-board SATA slots for future hard drives.

All of my HD's are in standalone configuration.

1x300 = OS (20 gig) / Data (Remaining)
1x300,3x400 = Recording

I don't raid anything because I have everything I care about backed up to encrypted thumbdrives that I keep in a fire safe and I do weekly ghost images of the OS drive to DVD-RW's.

As for the video card, for a headless server you'll want two things...

1) No Turbo Cache! It allows the video card to use system memory for its own purpuses which wouldn't do anything aside hurt the performance of a headless server (I doubt it would affect it much, but its pointless all the same). I know a lot of nVidia's low end cards use it (like the one you linked) and you can tell because either they'll say it in the description or the advertised memory for the card is much higher than the actual on board amount. (Advertised as 512mb but only has 128mb onboard)

2) (This one is just my opinion) Fanless. Small fans on cheap gfx cards are usually crappy, loud, and run the risk of going bad. Why bother when there are fanless alternatives, all they do is add a little extra heat to the case but if a low end gfx card is pushing your system over the edge heat wise then you have bigger problems anyway. (Also, the case i'm recommending has 3x120mm fans included with the option to add 2 more so air flow isn't an issue)

[bug1124]

Is there such thing as a low end card that doesn't have the turbo cache/shared memory thing? Could it not just be disabled or the card's drivers left off the system?

[evilpenguin]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125073

Here's a good one that doesn't have it. Hell, at that price I may buy one