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vanilla slimfast posted:SAS stands for "Serial Attached SCSI" and basically yes it is an interconnect that has the bandwidth to support multiple SATA channels simultaneously
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Apr 2, 2011 18:59
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jeeves posted:I just noticed a lot more PCI-E controller cards having internal SAS ports than SATA ports. Which is good because apparently according to this cable an internal SAS port supports 4x SATA, meaning a card with 1x internal SAS (much more common than 4x internal SATA) would theoretically support 4x SATA? Yep, you nailed it. I have this set up with a PERC5i at work. 8x 2GB sata drives hanging off it for my first disk backup stage.
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Apr 2, 2011 20:53
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What's the current consensus on the best deal in NAS boxes? I'm looking for something for less than $600 in total (so hopefully it'd come with hard drives, or be fairly cheap without). I'd be using it for backing up old family photos, some documents, and 750mb slide scans, so something fairly reliable would be good.
atomicthumbs fucked around with this message at 06:07 on Apr 3, 2011 |
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Apr 3, 2011 05:50
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atomicthumbs posted:What's the current consensus on the best deal in NAS boxes? I'm looking for something for less than $600 in total (so hopefully it'd come with hard drives, or be fairly cheap without). I'd be using it for backing up old family photos, some documents, and 750mb slide scans, so something fairly reliable would be good. How much total storage are you looking for? Synology seems to be what everyone on here is going with for simple storage. They have a few different models depending on what you need. Take a look at the DS211j and the DS411j.
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Apr 3, 2011 16:49
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Goon Matchmaker posted:I picked up a PERC H700i and two SFF-8087 cables. The card doesn't seem to be able to see the 3 sata drives I have attached to it. All of Dell's documentation seems to indicate that the card can support SATA drives so I'm not understanding why it isn't working. Any ideas? Quoting myself. The A02 firmware which has been out for a while unlocks the H700 to where it'll recognize non Dell devices. I've got some older SATA 1.5GBps and 3.0GBps drives I'm trying to get it to recognize but it just won't. Is this because the H700 only supports SAS/SATA 6.0 GBps? And isn't SATA supposed to be backwards compatible?
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Apr 3, 2011 22:32
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vanilla slimfast posted:SAS stands for "Serial Attached SCSI" and basically yes it is an interconnect that has the bandwidth to support multiple SATA channels simultaneously The most practical use for SAS in a home environment is a 2 port PCI-E SAS card, which will drive 8 SATA drives.
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Apr 4, 2011 04:56
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FISHMANPET posted:The most practical use for SAS in a home environment is a 2 port PCI-E SAS card, which will drive 8 SATA drives. Even better
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Apr 4, 2011 05:05
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FISHMANPET posted:The most practical use for SAS in a home environment is a 2 port PCI-E SAS card, which will drive 8 SATA drives. Yeah, when I spent my evening researching PCI-E controller cards, there are WAY more SAS cards than straight SATA cards. I was glad to find out that 1x SAS ports basically mean 4x SATA ports.
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Apr 4, 2011 05:34
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I currently backup my home server to an external 2TB disk in a USB enclosure (JMicron). The backups are about to surpass 2TB though and I'm going to order a 3TB drive. Will I have any problems with the OS (Linux) seeing the 3TB disk through a USB enclosure?
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Apr 4, 2011 15:39
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lilbean posted:I currently backup my home server to an external 2TB disk in a USB enclosure (JMicron). The backups are about to surpass 2TB though and I'm going to order a 3TB drive. Will I have any problems with the OS (Linux) seeing the 3TB disk through a USB enclosure? Research this based upon your specific OS, but it is definitely based on the OS of where it is linked to, and not on whether or not your enclosure is new. Like WHS runs on Win2003 and thus will never see a drive above 2.1, regardless of whether or not it is in an external enclosure.
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Apr 4, 2011 20:24
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jeeves posted:Research this based upon your specific OS, but it is definitely based on the OS of where it is linked to, and not on whether or not your enclosure is new.
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Apr 4, 2011 20:47
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jeeves posted:I was glad to find out that 1x SAS ports basically mean 4x SATA ports.
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Apr 4, 2011 20:54
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dietcokefiend posted:Massive differences but below are the key things: You almost have me sold on the DS411...I take it this thing can do torrents, streaming, backups, etc with too much hacking? Would you say you are satisifed with the speed? Are there any other comparable Synology models that are perhaps faster? My current unit is a D-Link DNS 323, which was servicable in 2005, but is way too slow today. Basically, I am looking for a bulletproof, solid, and fast NAS that can do torrents and streaming without breaking a sweat.
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Apr 5, 2011 00:00
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Star War Sex Parrot posted:1x mini-SAS can usually be fanned out to 4 SATA. You're going to confuse a lot of people if you start saying 1x SAS = 4x SATA. I'm glad you corrected me then, as I didn't know that there was such a thing as mini-SAS and SAS.
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Apr 5, 2011 01:29
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I'm going to be building a ZFS NAS box in a custom case. I'm undecided on OS still between ZFSGuru or one of the OpenSolaris based systems. I've done a ton of reading, but I'm sure I've missed some sort of incompatibility or am doing something stupid still so I want to get some input before purchasing anything. Here are the parts I'm looking at currently: GIGABYTE GA-H67N-USB3-B3 MiniITX i3-2100T 2.5GHz 35W 10x 2TB Seagate Green or Samsung F4 5400RPM 9 Drive Raid 6 + Hot Spare 2x4GB - Mushkin Enhanced Silverline Intel SASUC8I to use for 8 sata ports 32GB Corsair SSD for the OS 128GB Crucial SSD for ZFS cache Silverstone 450W PSU I need the smaller form factor for my case design 2x Areca mini-SAS => Sata Breakout Cables (Due to right angle bracket). I like the extra cache on the Seagate drives, but am concerned about the 4k sector size. Is this something I should worry about? What else have I overlooked?
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Apr 5, 2011 04:20
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Bonobos posted:You almost have me sold on the DS411...I take it this thing can do torrents, streaming, backups, etc with too much hacking? Would you say you are satisifed with the speed? Are there any other comparable Synology models that are perhaps faster? My current unit is a D-Link DNS 323, which was servicable in 2005, but is way too slow today. Basically, I am looking for a bulletproof, solid, and fast NAS that can do torrents and streaming without breaking a sweat. Well its the DS411+, don't forget the plus  It will do all that stuff and more with no hacking needing. Torrents are even nice and streamlined, finally adding https RSS feeds with DSM 3.1. I am not sure you can get much faster without link-aggregation, so unless that is what you are looking for the DS411+ is top of the food chain on the Synology side for single-LAN connected NAS's. I run four 2TB or 3TB drives in it on a regular basis (constantly flow of new HDDs to try out) and it constantly pegs my gigabit LAN connection when I ask it to. Software is second to none. I tried the Ubuntu route for a few years prior to my first Synology and I don't know if I can ever go back. Web interfaces that look pretty and have iPod/iPhone apps blow my old SSH-interface out of the water any day of the week. You can still do telnet/SSH if you want to, but the Synology DSM software is by far the best NAS software I have ever seen.
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Apr 5, 2011 05:04
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dietcokefiend posted:Well its the DS411+, don't forget the plus Sounds like this is exactly what I am looking for. Would this be a better set up than say, a mac-mini with a a bunch of externals attached in terms of usability? It sounds like it should be, using internals and all. Final question, what kind of fans does this have? 80mm or 120mm? how loud is the unit? Finally, does it allow you to mix/match different size drives? I assume it lets me do basic nas stuff like jbod and raid, etc.?
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Apr 5, 2011 19:56
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Aredna posted:I'm going to be building a ZFS NAS box in a custom case. I'm undecided on OS still between ZFSGuru or one of the OpenSolaris based systems. I have no idea why you've paying for the price premium of a miniITX motherboard and 10 hard drives + 2 SSDs when even a custom case in a mini ITX form factor will face the problems of cooling so many hard drives in a small space (unless you've got a spectacularly awesome design I guess). MicroATX will get you pretty similar power consumption and no mini ITX mark-ups to where it'll likely be not worth mini ITX even for a 24/7 on system. I'd just go with one of those Norco 4U cases if you need that much storage and swap out the fans if you're concerned about noise.
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Apr 5, 2011 22:56
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Bonobos posted:Sounds like this is exactly what I am looking for. Would this be a better set up than say, a mac-mini with a a bunch of externals attached in terms of usability? It sounds like it should be, using internals and all. Well with a mac-mini outside of hosting off the internet 2.5" drive directly, you will be limited in external storage speed to FW800. FW800 tops out around 66MB/s in the real-world for most stuff: http://macperformanceguide.com/Storage-Drive-SATA-vs-Firewire.html The other issue is you won't have RAID unless you get something like this to connect to the firewire connection: http://www.g-technology.com/products/g-speed-q.cfm All of the 4-bay Synology units have two 80MM fans on the back. They are very quiet and do a great job of cooling. The software also allows you to scale cooling abilities to fit different profiles (2.5 vs 3.5 drives, cool vs quiet, etc). I want to say drive noise is louder than fan noise. You can mix and match drives no problem. Just know that optimal configurations are equal drives.
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Apr 5, 2011 23:40
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necrobobsledder posted:The asize=n setting is what you should be looking for when tuning the 4k sector size on any OS that supports ZFS on 4k sector sizes. Thanks, I've definitely got of reading and learning to do on the software side. I should have explained more about the case. I'm actually going to be building it myself in the shape of the Nebraska logo. I originally went with miniITX to make sure everything was as small as possible, but I think I can fit a microATX board in it now that the layout is getting close to complete so I'll revisit that tonight. I was originally targeting 10TB of usable storage (6+2), but the shape of the case made it so that 10 drives fit just as easily as 8 drives. I'm definitely concerned about cooling and I'll be posting the design on a few case modding forums for feedback prior to building it. I want to make sure my hardware list is finalized prior to posting it in case something comes up that will require some redesign of the layout.
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Apr 6, 2011 21:21
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Aredna posted:I was originally targeting 10TB of usable storage (6+2), but the shape of the case made it so that 10 drives fit just as easily as 8 drives. You could use a sata backplane system like this so all you have to worry about is mounting that instead of individual drives. This would also solve some power and cooling issues as it has it's own fan and a single power hook-up. Also if you need to swap drives or replace a dead one it's so much easier than having them internal mounted. I got one a few weeks ago and it is a huge improvement all round.
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Apr 6, 2011 21:43
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HERAK posted:You could use a sata backplane system like this so all you have to worry about is mounting that instead of individual drives. This would also solve some power and cooling issues as it has it's own fan and a single power hook-up. Also if you need to swap drives or replace a dead one it's so much easier than having them internal mounted. It says four 3.5" drives in three 5" drive bays. So do you use that as a free-standing little fake NAS, or do you have that mounted in a case taking up 3 drive bays? (Vertical or horizontal?)
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Apr 6, 2011 22:24
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Bonobos posted:Sounds like this is exactly what I am looking for. Would this be a better set up than say, a mac-mini with a a bunch of externals attached in terms of usability? It sounds like it should be, using internals and all. The big advantage of going with a NAS is that the Mac is pretty limited as far as soft RAID setups, at least right now all it has built in is concatenation, mirroring, and striping (or combinations of them)...and doing that over FW800 is pretty slow since the bandwidth will shared among all the drives. As mentioned another option is a hardware RAID box, although I'm not sure which ones (other than the slow rear end Drobo) do the fancy multi size drive stuff. I'll probably wait for a Sandy Bridge + Thunderbolt Mac mini and figure out my options then, hopefully there's some TB adapters or more boxes to choose from by then.
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Apr 6, 2011 23:15
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jeeves posted:It says four 3.5" drives in three 5" drive bays. So do you use that as a free-standing little fake NAS, or do you have that mounted in a case taking up 3 drive bays? (Vertical or horizontal?) Mounted internally so I've got 5 drives in the space of 3 x 5.25" bays.
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Apr 6, 2011 23:31
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HERAK posted:Mounted internally so I've got 5 drives in the space of 3 x 5.25" bays. Nice. That's actually pretty nice, since thin atx cases with like three to five 5.25" drive bays are much easier to come by than cases with huge hard drive cages. Where do you buy those from, for future reference? That brand isn't finding search results on newegg.
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Apr 7, 2011 08:46
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jeeves posted:Nice. That's actually pretty nice, since thin atx cases with like three to five 5.25" drive bays are much easier to come by than cases with huge hard drive cages. Amazon UK. There should be similar versions on Newegg, or there always is ebay.
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Apr 7, 2011 11:04
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I'm needing to build a new file server. My Acer EasyStore H340 and it's 4 bays just isn't enough to meet my storage needs anymore. Are there any good cases, preferably cube type and similar construction to the antec P180 series cases (quiet, etc), that I can buy and build my own file server with? Bonus points if I can get some sort of hot swap bays to put in it.
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Apr 7, 2011 13:21
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I run a PC shop and we are ceasing sales of all Synology devices, effective immediately. We are seeing unrecoverable array crashes on multiple devices, clean out of the box. Our customers are down and we're losing tons of revenue and goodwill because our customers think we're too dumb to deploy a NAS. 5 out of the last 5 devices I have built have all experienced array failures WITHOUT any hard drive SMART errors less than three months out of the box. Two of them couldn't even build the array first time around. For a home server, if you want to gently caress around with it and can deal with downtime, they have lots of cool toys. But, we can no longer recommend them for business / anything important.
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Apr 7, 2011 15:12
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That's why I stopped using ReadyNAS devices but in the end this is why ZFS was invented, hopefully BTRFS can catch up. They all use relatively low end components and it's a complete bitch to get repairs done quickly and within the warranty period.
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Apr 7, 2011 15:16
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Jonny 290 posted:I run a PC shop and we are ceasing sales of all Synology devices, effective immediately. We are seeing unrecoverable array crashes on multiple devices, clean out of the box. Our customers are down and we're losing tons of revenue and goodwill because our customers think we're too dumb to deploy a NAS. 5 out of the last 5 devices I have built have all experienced array failures WITHOUT any hard drive SMART errors less than three months out of the box. Two of them couldn't even build the array first time around. Thanks for letting us know. I was considering one of these for some important and semi-important stuff at home but I think I may just roll my own now.
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Apr 7, 2011 15:25
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Jonny 290 posted:I run a PC shop and we are ceasing sales of all Synology devices, effective immediately. We are seeing unrecoverable array crashes on multiple devices, clean out of the box. Our customers are down and we're losing tons of revenue and goodwill because our customers think we're too dumb to deploy a NAS. 5 out of the last 5 devices I have built have all experienced array failures WITHOUT any hard drive SMART errors less than three months out of the box. Two of them couldn't even build the array first time around. I bought a DS211 for use at work a few months back and we encountered this same set of problems. Support was very responsive but couldn't figure out what the problem was so we just sent it back and built a NAS in-house that has been rock-solid. Its a shame because the interface is so nice and most people dont seem to have problems. Conversely, we are an all Mac shop.
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Apr 7, 2011 15:25
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Jonny 290 posted:I run a PC shop and we are ceasing sales of all Synology devices, effective immediately. We are seeing unrecoverable array crashes on multiple devices, clean out of the box. Our customers are down and we're losing tons of revenue and goodwill because our customers think we're too dumb to deploy a NAS. 5 out of the last 5 devices I have built have all experienced array failures WITHOUT any hard drive SMART errors less than three months out of the box. Two of them couldn't even build the array first time around. Welp... Guess I'm glad I started spec'ing out my own then, heh. As others brought up earlier, finding a good case is difficult. I do like the look of this one though, and it's not too costly. 8 hot-swap bays, no PSU included (I've got spares I could use to start) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811192058 Rest of the build is an atom 330 mobo w/ 4gb ram (hey it's cheap) and a 2gb CF card w/ adaptor for the OS Anyone have any opinions on FreeNAS versus OpenFiler? edit: also, I'm not that familiar with ZFS but see it mentioned a lot. Is it really the bees knees for large storage arrays? vanilla slimfast fucked around with this message at 16:32 on Apr 7, 2011 |
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Apr 7, 2011 16:29
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Don't spend $270 on a computer case. Ever. Think of the additional storage you could buy with a $40 case and $230 bucks cash.
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Apr 7, 2011 16:33
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vanilla slimfast posted:Welp...
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Apr 7, 2011 16:49
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Jonny 290 posted:Don't spend $270 on a computer case. Ever. True...true. I do have two old standard cases sitting in storage from old machines that died. I suppose a 5.25 to 3.5 raid cage would be a much better use of money... Dijkstra posted:I plan on using ZFS but most of the recommendations I've seen say you should use a processor with a little horsepower, (like Pentium IV or above at minimum) especially if you are going with double-parity. I would think a dual-core 1.8ghz atom would be beefy enough, no?
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Apr 7, 2011 17:39
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vanilla slimfast posted:I would think a dual-core 1.8ghz atom would be beefy enough, no? I think I recall someone talking about ZFS CPU requirements earlier in this thread, and it seems like the atom wouldn't be enough. Hopefully someone who has more experience will chime in.
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Apr 7, 2011 17:49
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vanilla slimfast posted:True...true. I do have two old standard cases sitting in storage from old machines that died. I suppose a 5.25 to 3.5 raid cage would be a much better use of money... I missed that it was dual-core, sorry. But I'm not sure, I've seen lots of forum posts in other places with people not recommending Atoms for ZFS at all but maybe someone here has tried it.
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Apr 7, 2011 17:51
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I am glad I held off on making my own Mini-ITX NAS (or buying a now-overpriced Mediasmart series to turn into a NAS), as I found this Proliant Microserver which seems to fit the bill quite well. It has 5 drive bays (if you count the CD bay as one), and even an internal USB port for running something like FreeNAS off of a USB key. Also 2x PCI-e ports (16x and 1x) seem to definitely make it quite a nice little machine. Anyone have any experience with these as a NAS? It seems pretty nice. I just hope that 40mm fan on the PSU isn't loud as poo poo as the only real free space I have where I don't have to worry about housemates turning it on and off is my bedroom. Also, people seem to say it that the eSATA port on the back doesn't have a port multiplier. What does that mean? Do eSATA multipliers let you chain various external things together in a daisy chain, and if you don't have a multiplier only one device can be attached at once-- or what? jeeves fucked around with this message at 21:52 on Apr 7, 2011 |
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Apr 7, 2011 21:40
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jeeves posted:Also, people seem to say it that the eSATA port on the back doesn't have a port multiplier. What does that mean? Do eSATA multipliers let you chain various external things together in a daisy chain, and if you don't have a multiplier only one device can be attached at once-- or what? That's pretty much the gist of it. An eSATA with multiplier support can run a single eSATA cable to one of the 5-bay enclosures and run all drives in it on that cable.
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Apr 7, 2011 21:54
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jeeves posted:I am glad I held off on making my own Mini-ITX NAS (or buying a now-overpriced Mediasmart series to turn into a NAS), as I found this Proliant Microserver which seems to fit the bill quite well. It has 5 drive bays (if you count the CD bay as one), and even an internal USB port for running something like FreeNAS off of a USB key. Also 2x PCI-e ports (16x and 1x) seem to definitely make it quite a nice little machine. That looks pretty spiffy, not gonna lie. I have no experience with it, but had I known about it I would have considered it instead of my Chenbro pedastal-based server. A SATA port multiplier just means that the single SATA channel can be used to connect multiple devices through one port, like some external enclosures with a JBOD mode, which just passes on control of all of the individual drives to the host computer. FakeRAID enclosures also need port multipliers, even though they represent one logical volume.
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