to raid or not

[stevech]

FreeNAS - software RAID based on BSD Unix. Just FYI. I haven't used it.

SecondCopy - low cost software that watches folders/files and dupes them when they change. Excellent.

My Sage setup presumes my most likely failure is a drive's head crash or motor, based on my long history with hard disks. So I use a $70 ASUS AMD dual core 3800 motherboard with hardware RAID 1 and two 500GB disks, C: boot and V: video 64KB blocks. Second Copy (software) watches folders on network PCs around the house and makes copies as needed, storing these on USB drives. I want really important stuff on a grab-and-go USB drive having had to do a brush fire evacuation recently. Also: TruCrypt for financial data backup on USB hard disks.

And this stuff runs on XP Pro. I considered WHS but decided it was not at all preferable to me versus the above.

[toony]

That seems to essentially be mirroring specific folders and files. Unfortunatley my setup is over 4 terabytes at this point and growing rapidly. I can not afford to mirror all my drives, so having parity using Flex Raid is much more economical. I also need a more powerfull server as I will not only be running sage but in time I will be running a 16 unit cctv security camera system through it. So unfortunatley I will be needing a more robust system with major hard drive ability.

[stevech]

Originally Posted by toony

That seems to essentially be mirroring specific folders and files. Unfortunatley my setup is over 4 terabytes at this point and growing rapidly. I can not afford to mirror all my drives, so having parity using Flex Raid is much more economical. I also need a more powerfull server as I will not only be running sage but in time I will be running a 16 unit cctv security camera system through it. So unfortunatley I will be needing a more robust system with major hard drive ability.

Leo Laporte, of PC talk show fame, speaks of his RAID5 built to protect him from data loss. Then his RAID5 >controller< failed, he said, and he lost it anyway.

Nothing better than backups to different file systems and physical places.

[Skirge01]

Emphasis added:

Originally Posted by stevech

Leo Laporte, of PC talk show fame, speaks of his RAID5 built to protect him from data loss.

If he actually made this statement, he doesn't understand the purpose of RAID. I've said it before and I'll say it again, RAID is meant to allow users access to a system and it's data during a--usually single--hard drive failure (i.e. uptime). Backups are meant to protect important data from loss in any scenario.

FlexRAID fills the gap between the two scenarios by offering uptime (since you can still access data not affected by the failure) and potential restoration of non-critical data during a--usually single--hard drive failure. Again, the "selling point" of FlexRAID is that it's meant to protect data which isn't critical, but which you'd still prefer not to lose. If I lose a day's worth of recordings or 1TB worth of ripped movies, I'd be upset at having to find them or rip them again, but it wouldn't be the end of the world.

[toony]

Well I ordered my new server parts, they should be here mid next week

SUPERMICRO X7DWE
8 gig 4Gx2 Crucial memory
Xeon E5410 2.33G
Athena 850 power supply

I have everything else already. Also ordered an HD200 and WHS, So I should have some idea how things are working within the next 2 weeks.

[S_M_E]

Originally Posted by toony

Well I ordered my new server parts, they should be here mid next week

SUPERMICRO X7DWE
8 gig 4Gx2 Crucial memory
Xeon E5410 2.33G
Athena 850 power supply

I have everything else already. Also ordered an HD200 and WHS, So I should have some idea how things are working within the next 2 weeks.

WHS is a 32-bit OS, it can't use 8G of RAM.

[toony]

Originally Posted by S_M_E

WHS is a 32-bit OS, it can't use 8G of RAM.

Then I guess it won't use 8" gig.... for now...

"Microsoft have confirmed that it is in development and will be based on the Windows 7 codebase (or to be precise, Windows Server 2008 R2). That means it’s going to be x64 only, guys - if your home server is not 64-bit compatible, you won’t be able to upgrade without new hardware."

http://www.wegotserved.co.uk/2009/01...s-home-server/

[S_M_E]

Originally Posted by toony

Then I guess it won't use 8" gig.... for now...

"Microsoft have confirmed that it is in development and will be based on the Windows 7 codebase (or to be precise, Windows Server 2008 R2). That means it’s going to be x64 only, guys - if your home server is not 64-bit compatible, you won’t be able to upgrade without new hardware."

http://www.wegotserved.co.uk/2009/01...s-home-server/

WHS v2 won't be here until 2010-ish. I'm looking forward to it too...

[Skirge01]

I hope that 8GB is buffered memory and not regular memory. The X7DWE only uses FB-DIMMs. You're gonna love that mobo, though! Kinda cool seeing those two CPU sockets, even if it is overkill. ;D

[toony]

Originally Posted by S_M_E

WHS v2 won't be here until 2010-ish. I'm looking forward to it too...

Now I'm not sure if your being a smart ass, lol, I know it's a ways off but I need to upgrade what's the harm?

[toony]

Originally Posted by Skirge01

I hope that 8GB is buffered memory and not regular memory. The X7DWE only uses FB-DIMMs. You're gonna love that mobo, though! Kinda cool seeing those two CPU sockets, even if it is overkill. ;D

The memory was listed as tested on the supermicro website with that motherboard, so it better work!

[S_M_E]

Originally Posted by toony

Now I'm not sure if your being a smart ass, lol, I know it's a ways off but I need to upgrade what's the harm?

I'm being serious, I really am looking forward to WHS v2 (I even started a thread here about it) and I never said you can't buy whatever you want but the post I quoted said 8G and WHS (not v2) so I mentioned that you can't use 8G with WHS. Don't get bent out of shape just because you bought too much ram 2 years early...

[toony]

Originally Posted by S_M_E

I'm being serious, I really am looking forward to WHS v2 (I even started a thread here about it) and I never said you can't buy whatever you want but the post I quoted said 8G and WHS (not v2) so I mentioned that you can't use 8G with WHS. Don't get bent out of shape just because you bought too much ram 2 years early...

HAHA

[toony]

Everything came today! mobo, proc, mem, pwr sup.... very excited. That is one serious motherboard.

I'll keep things updated, got to read again WHS thread.

Still waiting on my HD200 though.

[toony]

Well I have everything set up and running...

Took a while had to install WHS twice, not sure what happened but it just stopped working... it's fixed so I won't go into detail.

I found out the hard way the the Win-TV 500 does not work with more than 3gb ram installed, and of course I only have 4gb sticks... SO I tried the Win-TV 1250 and it seems to be having the same issue with the 4gb mem. I posted a new thread asking for some help on that one. If worst comes to worst I will have to get some 1gb sticks tomorrow.

The Xeon fan is loud! I notice it throttles and when on full rpm it's crazy, though it seems to run at about mid rpms and it's still loud.
Can one control the fans? I tried speed fan but didn't work.

Also all my case fans are only 3 pin so I can control them so I am going to swap them with 4 pin fans, but I have to look into that first.

Onward and upward!

[SWKerr]

I have found the best way is to manually control them. Turn it down low to where it is quite enough for you and then make sure the temps are in the correct rage. You can get them for 3 and 4 pin. about $3.

Ebay:
Fan Cooling Speed Controller 3 Pin
http://cgi.ebay.com/Fan-Cooling-Spee...d=p4634.c0.m14

[Skirge01]

Originally Posted by toony

The Xeon fan is loud! I notice it throttles and when on full rpm it's crazy, though it seems to run at about mid rpms and it's still loud.
Can one control the fans? I tried speed fan but didn't work.

Also all my case fans are only 3 pin so I can control them so I am going to swap them with 4 pin fans, but I have to look into that first.

toony, I guessed that this would be the case with the Xeon, so I never even installed the stock heatsink/fan. I've got my WHS hardware build posted over at Missing Remote, if you want to see what I did with this mobo.

[toony]

Originally Posted by SWKerr

I have found the best way is to manually control them. Turn it down low to where it is quite enough for you and then make sure the temps are in the correct rage. You can get them for 3 and 4 pin. about $3.

Ebay:
Fan Cooling Speed Controller 3 Pin
http://cgi.ebay.com/Fan-Cooling-Spee...d=p4634.c0.m14

Thanks SWKerr, I picked up a 3 fan controller today, I am a going to set it up later.

[toony]

Originally Posted by Skirge01

toony, I guessed that this would be the case with the Xeon, so I never even installed the stock heatsink/fan. I've got my WHS hardware build posted over at Missing Remote, if you want to see what I did with this mobo.

I took a quick peek, I will look closer later. I was actually thinking water cooling, but I have to see if there are any systems made for the xeon. I would imagine anything is better than what comes stock, noise wise.

I still have some other things to deal with first. I got a work around going for the tv tuner cards, I had to lower the ram in the msconfig to 2gb, won't let me put 3gb for some reason, now my tuners work. Still looking to see if Hauppague have a proper fix for the HVR 500 and 1250....

Also have to start looking for a pci-e sata card, I found some but not sure which 4 port ones to go with.

Other than that WHS rocks! love the web interface.

[toony]

HAHA !!!

I thought I would push the new server a bit to see what it would do.

I have an ftp transfer going at 390mbs
serving to hd200 with ts bluray
serving to hd100 dvd
demuxing an m2ts bluray to ts
recording 2 tv shows
changing an audio file from dts to ac3

Not even breaking a sweat... cpu running at 24% !!!

It spiked for a second when I started the hd stream at 35% thats it