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

William Sutton william@trilug.org
Tue Oct 13 12:48:13 EDT 2009


nifty

William Sutton

On Tue, 13 Oct 2009, Bryan Seitz wrote:

> Adapters adapters adapters!
>
> Something like:
>
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816119012
>
> Cheaper ones available but you get the idea.  A unit with a fan would probably
> be a good idea.
>
> On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 12:30:55PM -0400, William Sutton wrote:
>> 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
>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Novalug mailing list
>>>>> Novalug@calypso.tux.org
>>>>> http://calypso.tux.org/mailman/listinfo/novalug
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> 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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>
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>
> --
>
> Bryan G. Seitz
>



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