[Novalug] best hard disk setup for home file server?

William Sutton william@trilug.org
Tue Oct 13 12:30:55 EDT 2009


Out of curiosity for those of us who haven't done it before, how do you 
mount 8 2.5" drives in 2 optical bays? :-)

William Sutton

On Tue, 13 Oct 2009, Bryan J Smith wrote:

> 8 drives would fit nicely in two optical bays.  ;)
>
> Your choice.  I've just noted failure rates of 2.5" v. 3.5" and
> I know my experiences aren't alone.  ;)
>
> I've been in IT departments that stopped considering anything
> other than 2.5" drives except for non 24x7 systems (like
> nearline or PCs that could quickly be replaced whole).
>
> Just not worth it to me.
>
> --
> Bryan J Smith - mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org
> http://www.linkedin.com/in/bjsmith
> Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Richard Ertel <richard.ertel@gmail.com>
> Date: Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:00:38
> To: Megan Larko<larkoc@iges.org>
> Cc: Novalug<novalug@calypso2.tux.org>
> Subject: Re: [Novalug] best hard disk setup for home file server?
>
> @John:
> i'll take the calling my configuration "weird" as a compliment.
> actually, the idea of using the remaining 500 gigs on each drive as
> another array came from this list, i just then combined them into LVM
>
> @Bryan:
> unfortunately, my storage needs are 3+ TB, so the sheer number of 2.5"
> disks required (with redundancy) at 500 GB per disk is what, 7 disks
> for RAID-5 and 8 disks for RAID-6? i ran a 8-drive server in the past,
> didn't like having that many to worry about. for me, 4 disks is a nice
> number and that works out well with 3.5" disks and my current storage
> needs.
>
> @Megan:
> thanks for the info about external enclosures and netbooks. yeah, my
> previous servers have been made with 160 gig drives, 250 gig drives,
> 500, 750, 1TB... over the past 6 years or so. and these 2 damn
> identical seagates are the first to ever fail. i still use some of the
> 160 gig drives in other machines. all always been 24/7 too.
>
> On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 11:51, Megan Larko <larkoc@iges.org> wrote:
>> Richard Ertel wrote:
>>
>> Ouch!   I feel your pain.
>>
>>> in light of the current problems i am having with my home file server,
>>> i want to reconsider my choice for how i configured hard disks in my
>>> server.
>>>
>>> as said before, i currently have two 1.5 TB drives and two 1.0 TB
>>> drives, all standard 3.5" internal disks.
>>>
>>> four 1.0 TB partitions are in RAID-5 configuration, and the remaining
>>> two 500 GB partitions are RAID-1. these two arrays are combined via
>>> LVM into one logical volume of 3.5 TB.
>>>
>>> my current situation has the new brand new 1.5 TB drives dying, which
>>> of course kills all my data. they are identical drives (seagate), same
>>> model number, maybe same manufacturing batch. both dying at the same
>>> time.
>>
>> A co-working in my office tried to use the 1.5Tb capacity drives when they
>> came out some months ago and he also had them only a short period of time
>> before they had a simultaneous failure.   As the disks were under warranty
>> he exchanged them for drives of a smaller capacity (1 Tb).
>>>
>>> does anyone have any experience RAIDing external USB drives in linux?
>>> should i expect reliability to increase if i move all 4 drives to 4
>>> external SATA to USB enclosures (5.25" enclosures with fans)? are
>>> these enclosures suitable for 24/7 operation? would read and write
>>> speed suffer (all transfers are over gigabit network)?
>>
>> I have personally not created RAIDs of external USB drives.  I have found
>> that even with fans, many external enclosures become uncomfortably (for me)
>> warm.  I really think the external USB enclosures were not designed for 24/7
>> generally.
>>>
>>> if all those USB drives running through a USB hub to a server is ok,
>>> then what about ditching my tower and running them all to a netbook as
>>> a server? i've seen that argument made once before, citing built-in
>>> ups (battery), built-in monitor, low power draw and other factors as
>>> big benefits to a netbook as server.
>>
>> My ASUS EeePC 700 netbook does not run for too many hours (8+) without
>> getting warm.  A two-fan notebook cooler helped this issue.  Just
>> mentioning.....
>>>
>>> or am i worrying too much and what i have on my hands is just a fluke,
>>> and in the future i should mix drive manufacturers/models to avoid
>>> simultaneous failure?
>>
>> I would continue to use similar manufacturer and models in RAID units.   I
>> think the particular drives you have just are not "ready for prime time".  I
>> have done very will with 500Gb and 1Tb drives by Hitachi and Western Digital
>> in 24/7 rack-mounted data server systems.   That said, perhaps an old tower
>> with a motherboard allowing multiple drives and good PSU and fans would be
>> an option for you?  It could run a small OS eliminating the netbook on all
>> the time and use NFS or SAMBA to share the drives with other computers on
>> your network.  It can have a better pipe than just USB2.0.
>> If the data is to be on-line 24/7 might as well put it into a box designed
>> to run all the time.
>>
>> Enjoy your day.
>> megan
>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> Novalug@calypso.tux.org
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>>
>>
>> --
>> I will now bring you up to speed on the situation.
>> We know nothing!
>> There, you are now up to speed.
>>
>> ---Steve Martin as Inspector Clouseau
>>   Pink Panther 2
>>
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