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

Bryan J. Smith b.j.smith@ieee.org
Tue Oct 13 14:32:35 EDT 2009


That's exactly what I did.  I transitioned to 2.5" drives with 3.5" drives in
the new system.  I haven't bought any new 3.5" drives since late 2006 /
early 2007 and everything has been 2.5".  I've been 100% 2.5" since
2007, except the externals and a couple of systems.  By the end of last
year, any system I cared about had 2.5" drives because of 3.5" failures.  ;)

I'm seeing 2.5" 500GB drives for $70 when you catch a sale.  That should
drop soon as 640GB is just hitting (just released in volume at the end of
September).  Heck, I bought my 2.5" 500GB drives for $90 in 2008
December so $90 is _not_ a deal!  ;)


I don't know why you feel the need to mix'n match drives in the same
volume group.  Why not just keep them separate?  I _only_ make my
volume groups of drives of the same model-sizing.  You're just adding
more points of potential failure.



----- Original Message ----
From: Richard Ertel <richard.ertel@gmail.com>
To: William Sutton <william@trilug.org>
Cc: Novalug <novalug@calypso2.tux.org>; novalug-bounces@calypso2.tux.org
Sent: Tue, October 13, 2009 1:19:16 PM
Subject: Re: [Novalug] best hard disk setup for home file server?

OK so say i want to ditch these two 1.5 TB 3.5" drives in favor of
2.5" drives... in order to keep costs low, i'd want to use them along
with my two reliable 1.0 TB 3.5" drives.

500 gigs seems to be the sweet spot for 2.5" drives right now, at $90
or less per drive.

option: add FIVE 500 GB drives to system (would have to get an add-on
SATA controller), partition the 1 TB drives into two 500 gig
partitions each, then put all NINE 500 gig partitions into a RAID-Z2
array yielding 3.5 TB of usable space. (Z2 to account for two
partitions on the 1 TB drives)

a) would this work? am i insane? am i cheap?

b) when space upgrade is desired and the new sweet spot for 2.5"
drives is 1.0 TB, how should the array then be made? use LVM to
combine two 500 gig drives into a 1 TB volume and then RAID-Z the 1 TB
partitions (presumably four new 1.0 TB 2.5" drives plus four 500 GB
drives = 6 partitions in array = 5 TB)?

On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 12:48, William Sutton <william@trilug.org> wrote:
> 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
>>>>>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
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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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>>
>> --
>>
>> Bryan G. Seitz
>>
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