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[tunetyme]

I have decided to build a file server for music and video.  This is primarily for Media Center.  I would like to avoid Microsoft and Intel if possible.  I think Linux would be fine but which version is best for this application?

Currently I have about 1.25Tb of music and 2Tb of video.  I have 7 1Tb drives (half for back up).  5 are Samsung (very quiet, no failures).  I plan to have at least 2 internal Icy Dock removable drives (trayless) and possibly an external 4 bay Icy Dock (ESATA) for additional online storage.  I don’t want to put a monitor on this sever unless absolutely necessary.  I have a PC that will be co-located with it.

I will need to size my DSL pipe to be able to have at least 3 off site PC’s able to download/play movies.

I have a 150n router for the house.  Is that adequate for playing movies?  What is the best (reasonably priced) DNLA box that I can connect to my stereo/home entertainment center?

What size tower?
Power requirements
Mother board
CPU (AMD)
Ram
Operating system disc
Video (if needed)
Audio (if needed)

Reliability is the most important aspect of this design.  I am not looking to build the most expensive system nor the cheapest. 

Tunetyme

[221bBS]

Take a look at this

http://www.lime-technology.com/

[tunetyme]

Looks promising.  I do insist on the trayless Icy dock drive bays.  I am not sure I will ever get to 15 drives but then I never thought I would fill a 1Tb drive with music.  Currently they are out of servers.  Have you or anyone set one of these up with Media Center?

Tunetyme

[221bBS]

Currently they are out of servers.

They've been out for some time, but 2 people from the forum have been building servers for other members. They have now started their own companies.

store site
http://www.queegtech.com/

forum post
http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=11293.0


store site
http://www.greenleaf-technology.com/

forum post
http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=12310.0

Have you or anyone set one of these up with Media Center?

I have not but I'm about to either buy a server from the above people or build one myself.

[tunetyme]

Has anyone used the unRaid software with MC?

I still need to size my pipe to the outside world.

[221bBS]

Looks like a few people use Unraid

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=46435.0

[newsposter]

AFAIK, freenas is pretty much the only DIY nas setup that supports dlna "out of the box".  All of the rest require you to play around with twonky or mediatomb or something like that to get it loaded and running.  If you have access to windows home server, there is a dlna plugin for that too.  And then there are the large number of standalone packages (MC included) that will run on windows server and desktop machines.

Googling <linux dlna server> brings up a couple of dozen prospects.  Most/all of these with the exception of freenas require a fair amount of end-user config and setup for dlna.

If you can live in the windows world on your 'server', using MC as the server and client side software is a combo you really can't beat with other products.

How do you want to set up your machine?  Failsafe storage and serving of media files or ??  Do you want/need it to do anything else?

By excluding all things msft and intel you are giving up a lot of the best performing options.  Likewise, limiting yourself to linux and amd you are setting yourself up for what *could* be a more complex and lesser-performing system.

Best to look at all of the options on the merits of the final, installed and working system, not on blue-sky views of the individual components.

[tunetyme]

Newsposter:

I have had too many bad experiences with both Intel and Microsoft to use them anymore.  I would rather have some time invested in configuring the system than deal with them.  Their support solutions are always the same reload all your software.

I have decided to go with unRaid.  Others have successfully set the system up.  I am using the above suggested company queegtech.com to build the system.  Their price is very close to what it would cost me for the components and it is thoroughly tested.  They have joined this forum so we can ask questions as they arise and they are downloading MC to test and preconfig for MC.  What more can you ask for?  I will check on the DNLA capabilities.

The primary function is to be a storage system that will allow me to have access from multiple systems.  I really appreciate your observations and I will investigate it thoroughly. 

I will continue to post on the progress as I expect to have the system in 2-3 weeks and I plan on a week to get through all the set up and uploading of my files.

Tunetyme

[221bBS]

I decided to build my own Unraid server. Looks like it will cost about 1k to build a 24 HDD server. This will be my first attempt at building a computer so wish me luck 

[tunetyme]

221bbs

I looked at building my own and then I discovered Dave at
http://www.queegtech.com/
The way I calculated it, their price was not much more than the costs for all the components.  I found the price to be so attractive that I am ordering one right now.  I have been using Icy Dock tray-less drive bays and love them.  What's nice is everything has been stress tested before it's shipped.  I am able to configure it the way I want.  I have opted for 8 removable drives plus there is 3 extra bays for internal drives.  Dave sizes everything, from power to the the case and everything in between.  If it was a windows system I'd build it myself.  With any Linix system there is a lot more prep work that has to be done.  It would take me a least twice as long to get set up right.  I have ordered all SATA 3 interfaces for future enhancements.  One of the keys is to make sure you have a good power supply that has enough connections for all your power needs.  If nothing else you can learn a lot from Dave.

Check out the website and let me know what you think.

Tunetyme

[221bBS]

221bbs

I looked at building my own and then I discovered Dave at
http://www.queegtech.com/
The way I calculated it, their price was not much more than the costs for all the components.  I found the price to be so attractive that I am ordering one right now.  I have been using Icy Dock tray-less drive bays and love them.  What's nice is everything has been stress tested before it's shipped.  I am able to configure it the way I want.  I have opted for 8 removable drives plus there is 3 extra bays for internal drives.  Dave sizes everything, from power to the the case and everything in between.  If it was a windows system I'd build it myself.  With any Linix system there is a lot more prep work that has to be done.  It would take me a least twice as long to get set up right.  I have ordered all SATA 3 interfaces for future enhancements.  One of the keys is to make sure you have a good power supply that has enough connections for all your power needs.  If nothing else you can learn a lot from Dave.

Check out the website and let me know what you think.

Tunetyme

I was very tempted to use either Queegtech or GreenLeaf myself. They seem to have a very good reputation on the unRaid forum and the prices for their servers are very nice. But I decided to build my own server because I wanted to learn how, otherwise I would have bought it from one of them. For the past couple weeks I've been researching, researching, researching... Not easy especially since this will be the first attempt at building a computer.

[tunetyme]

A few things that I learned is that you max out at 22 drives for unRaid arrays.  There are some funky things that you need to be aware of.  The normal method is to have the flash based software linked to your reader.  If one has a problem then you have to go through hoops to get your software up and working.  Which one is it the software or the reader?  QueegTech developed a special reader (approved) to circumvent the problem.  Unlike a windows system this will need some exhaustive testing on the front end.  Be sure to use an approved board and processor as unRaid is not guaranteed to work with any board or processor.  You won't need a lot of horsepower but you do need reliability.  You will need to clear the drives as well.  This process takes about 20 hours.  You can do multiple drives at the same time.  Your parity drive needs to be as large or larger than you largest drive.
I opted to add a cache disc as well since I will be moving large volumes of data to the server from time to time.  Last but not least is properly sizing your power supply and making sure you have enough power connectors.

I've told you more than I know.  Good luck.  If you talked to Dave let him know that Tunetyme sent you.

Tunetyme   

[221bBS]

I'm almost done ordering all the components I need for my server. I decided to go and build a 24 HDD server which will one day be able to hold 20 hard drives for storage, 1 hard drive for parity, 1 hard drive for cache and 2 hard drives for storage outside unRaid. I base my server on a design made by Rajahal, he's the one who opened GreenLeaf Technology. He also helped me a lot on the forums by answering every post I posted  Total cost including shipping so far is $881.38. This does not include the fan upgrades I might add, UPS or hard drives.

[tunetyme]

That's great!  Keep me posted on how it goes.  I expect mine to be here in a couple of weeks.

[221bBS]

I posted my server specs on the unRaid forum:
221bBS: Norco RPC-4224 (first build)
still a work in progress

[tunetyme]

221bBS:

Your server looks good.  You must have a ton more data than I have.  My server is up and running.  I have copied all my files over to my server.  That was along process since I used my cache drive.  I wanted to emulate how additions would be made.  In hind sight,  I could have left a single directory to emulate copying through the cache drive.  I've learned a lot these past couple of weeks.  Here are a few pics. 

oops! I can't figure out how to insert them.  Any ideas?

I used an Azza helios 910 case with an Antec 525 power supply.  I have 2 Icy Dock 4 in 3 drive bays for 8 removable drives and 3 fixed drives.  I am using all Samsung drives because they are very quiet and run very cool.  The highest temp I have seen was 33 degrees Celsius.   I used the fixed bays for my cache and parity drives leaving the 8 removable drive bays for data.  I opted for the MSI 880GMA-E45 (6 Sata III onboard), the AMD Sempron 145 and unRaid 4.7 pro.  $1,102 configured, tested and delivered.  I also bought a KVM switch for $29 so I can use my PC's screen and keyboard.  I estimate I have about $400 in 5-2TB and 1-1Tb Samsung drives.

I Plan to play with this for awhile and learn more about Linux before I work on the network piece.  There are a few add on packages that I plan on using and I want to have everything nailed down before I start playing with the network.  I am still in a steep learning curve right now.

Tunetyme

[221bBS]

My server is up and running.  I have copied all my files over to my server.  That was along process since I used my cache drive.  I wanted to emulate how additions would be made.  In hind sight,  I could have left a single directory to emulate copying through the cache drive.

I was planning on using a cache drive but decided not to since I don't want any of my files unprotected.

Here are a few pics.

oops! I can't figure out how to insert them.  Any ideas?

I like to use PhotoBucket. They automatically generate the codes you need. All you need is the url of the image and wrap the url with the following

Code: [Select]

[img][/img]
example:

Code: [Select]

[img]http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/SHat221bBS/Avatars/SherlockHolmes100x100.png[/img]

which will result in

I Plan to play with this for awhile and learn more about Linux before I work on the network piece.  There are a few add on packages that I plan on using and I want to have everything nailed down before I start playing with the network.  I am still in a steep learning curve right now.

I'm pretty new to networking and have no experience with Linux/unRaid so I'm in the same boat as you.

[tunetyme]

I was planning on using a cache drive but decided not to since I don't want any of my files unprotected.

What is unprotected?  I copied my files and did not move them.  So I still have the originals.  I used the cache drive because it is faster.  Secondly, if you copy your files over without the parity drive then it takes forever to have parity calculated.  They key is to copy in chunks, (what will fill 1/2 to 3/4's of your cache drive) and then flush it (button in unmenu) to your Data drive and it calculates parity on the fly.   

You can overflow the cache drive.  If you do it takes a lot of time to figure out what you are missing.  I finally figured out to copy about 500-750GB at a time, flush it and move on to the next chunk.

After all my files were on the data drives, I checked the size of major folders and compared them to the originals,  they all came down to the bit.

[221bBS]

What is unprotected?  I copied my files and did not move them.  So I still have the originals.  I used the cache drive because it is faster.  Secondly, if you copy your files over without the parity drive then it takes forever to have parity calculated.  They key is to copy in chunks, (what will fill 1/2 to 3/4's of your cache drive) and then flush it (button in unmenu) to your Data drive and it calculates parity on the fly.   

You can overflow the cache drive.  If you do it takes a lot of time to figure out what you are missing.  I finally figured out to copy about 500-750GB at a time, flush it and move on to the next chunk.

After all my files were on the data drives, I checked the size of major folders and compared them to the originals,  they all came down to the bit.

I don't want to bother with deleting originals after moving files from the cache drive. Since most of the files on my server is managed by MC I just run Rename, Move or Copy at the end of the day.