• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Compact File Server

J

Jaheed

n00b
Joined
May 31, 2010
Messages
47
I have been looking for a good case option for a medium capacity (call it 20-30 TB) file server. The big limiting factor is that it has to be somewhat portable, rugged, generally not loud. The volume is easy enough to fix with good fans, but trying to find a server case that will support a minimum of 12 or so drives in a generally small area has been a pain.

This box will be used as a media server aboard an aircraft carrier, so it needs to be transportable through narrow hallways and down ladders, while being rugged enough that a bump or repeated vibrations will not destroy it.

Any ideas are greatly appreciated.
 
I have a Lian Li PC-V354 case and even with 8 hds it's already heavy. When fully loaded it's not something you'd considered "portable"....so imagine adding 4 more drives = really heavy LOLZ

Now this is a rugged, portable case. It only hold 4hd thou. I imagine you can mod it to add a few more

Lian Li TU-200
tu200-05.jpg
 
It's for an aircraft carrier. They have a full machine shop there. Have the shop make a custom case if necessary.

But like I keep telling people - THERE IS NO NEED TO HAVE THAT MUCH DATA ON LINE.

Put what fits into a small case and then put any additional hard drives into external cases (USB 2 is fast enough).

---

My case has 11 hard drives. It is easy enough to carry. A bit clumsy on ladders but doable.
 
A bit more info.

We have a lan setup between various state rooms that accounts for about 80 different personnel.

The current portable sff desktop I have is about maxed on storage at 4 TB. It is at this point full, and I have various data spread across my large file server at home, and various externals.

Essentially I want to build a box that will allow me to easily transport maybe 20 or so TB of data (more is always better).

I had initially planned on building something based on zfs, but I cant seem to find a mini-itx case with a bunch or 3.5" or 5" bays.

I would also be willing to consider some setup that has a SFF with esata to an external enclosure or two for a total of 8-10 drive bays. in the interest of portability, this may be my best bet. However I have not found a good setup for this.

If the box could also output 1080p, all the better, but the main priority is essentially a large file server that will allow network video streaming, and support the collection of personally recorded videos from the other network participants for the "best of" cruise videos that we make.

I appreciate all the help so far.
 
Hows that?

Quanmax Industrial KEEX-2030 Atom 3.5" Mainboard (Intel Atom N270)
2GB Crucial DDR2 PC2-5300 SODIMM
Highpoint RocketRAID 2680
Serener 120w DC-DC PSU
8x 2TB Western Digital Caviar Green 3.5" HDD
320GB Western Digital Scorpio Black 2.5" HDD
30GB OCZ Vertex Series SSD
 
Danny Bui said:
Duct-tape two of these cases on top of one another?:
$120 - Lian Li PC-Q8B mITX Case

Or duct-tape the above case with this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816111164

Just throwing it out there. I'm not aware of any small case capable of 12 drives.
Click to expand...

I have the PC-Q08B, and stock you can fit 6x3.5" and 1x2.5". If you get creative, you could get a 4,6, or 8x2.5" drive cage for the 5.25" bay. Depending on what you put in the PCI-e slot, you could fit a couple of 3.5" drive beneath it any maybe a couple 2.5" drive. You'd have to get a custom mount for that location though.
 
I love it, but I don't have the time prior to cruise to build a complete enclosure of that complexity. I would prefer to go generally off shelf, but I am happy to do case mods as necessary.
 
jin0 said:
Now this is a rugged, portable case. It only hold 4hd thou. I imagine you can mod it to add a few more

Lian Li TU-200
Click to expand...

Wow, that's an amazing case. The perfect lanbox methinks.

@OP: Buy that case, stick in a couple of 3TB drives (5x, 1 in the CD drive bay) and run them in ZFS RAID-Z1 or RAID-Z2. You'd have a little less than 12TB or 9TB of usableish drive space depending on which redundancy you choose.

If you wanted, you could stick a SAS controller in the PCI-e slot (+ whatever adapter cables are needed) and buy a second case + PSU and use the second case as an external enclosure. Then you could have another 12TB of space..

Man that's a great case.
 
So, I have given it a bit of thought, and I figure, I may as well do a smaller box. It will be more easily portable, and I can always add more storage on via an external, or just building another SFF server. I am thinking of the LIAN LI PC-Q08B, mostly because of its availability and the large number of bays. The fractal design case is also nice, but looks to be harder to assemble, and costs a bit more.

Some things:

This would be the first atom or neo system I have built, and I don't know all that much about it; I am assuming that either has the oomph to run zfs. The pricing seems to favor AMD, as the only atom mobo with 6x sata rings in a full $70 more than the neo board.

USB 3.0 or Esata. If I do decide to add on an external enclosure, which works better?

Money isn't tight, but I have no desire to spend more of it than I need to; eg. I don't want to buy 4 gb of ram if it serves no purpose in this sort of system.

Also I may be able to save a bit on the PSU, but as the brands that I usually use don't really make anything it the low output range, I am not sure who else makes a good small PSU.

Without further ado:

LIAN LI PC-Q08B Black Aluminum Mini-ITX Tower Computer Case
Item #: N82E16811112265
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
$109.99

6
SAMSUNG EcoGreen F4 HD204UI 2TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Item #: N82E16822152245
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
($79.99 each)

SeaSonic SS-300ET Bronze 300W ATX12V V2.3 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply - OEM
Item #: N82E16817151086
$39.99

2
COOLMAX 6" Cable Model SATA POWER ADAPTER - OEM
Item #: N82E16812104652
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
($3.99 each)

Rendition by Crucial 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Laptop Memory Model RM51264BC1339
Item #: N82E16820148364
$24.99

ASUS E35M1-I Fusion AMD E-350 APU (1.6GHz, Dual-Core) AMD Hudson M1 Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo
Item #: N82E16813131732
$124.99

OR...

ASUS AT5NM10T-I Intel Atom D525 (1.8GHz, Dual-Core) Intel NM10 Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo
Item #: N82E16813131731
$94.99

But If I go with the ATOM, I also have to purchase a SATA card. Value and expandibility wise, the AMD platform looks better.
 
Jaheed said:
So,

ASUS E35M1-I Fusion AMD E-350 APU (1.6GHz, Dual-Core) AMD Hudson M1 Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo
Item #: N82E16813131732
$124.99

OR...

ASUS AT5NM10T-I Intel Atom D525 (1.8GHz, Dual-Core) Intel NM10 Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo
Item #: N82E16813131731
$94.99

But If I go with the ATOM, I also have to purchase a SATA card. Value and expandibility wise, the AMD platform looks better.
Click to expand...


neither bords has 6 sata ports :) so you might want 5 hard drives, unless you still plan on buying a 2 port pci-e card..
 
xDezor:

Does the atom not have the power to handle the processing demands, or are there other issues? Does the Neo work, or does it suffer from the same issues.

I could do a more impressive processor I suppose, but I do like the mITX form factor for this.

Also, The only reason I didn't go with that drive is that I was somewhat turned off by the very large number of 1 star reviews on newegg claiming that they were DOA. If there is no reason for concern, I am always happy to save $60 buck on the build.

dashpuppy:
Unless I am missing something, the ASUS E35M1-I page on newegg says it has 6, and the photo looks to have 6 as well.

Also, yes, that is exactly what I want to build.
 
Jaheed said:
xDezor:

Does the atom not have the power to handle the processing demands, or are there other issues? Does the Neo work, or does it suffer from the same issues.

I could do a more impressive processor I suppose, but I do like the mITX form factor for this.

Also, The only reason I didn't go with that drive is that I was somewhat turned off by the very large number of 1 star reviews on newegg claiming that they were DOA. If there is no reason for concern, I am always happy to save $60 buck on the build.

dashpuppy:
Unless I am missing something, the ASUS E35M1-I page on newegg says it has 6, and the photo looks to have 6 as well.

Also, yes, that is exactly what I want to build.
Click to expand...

my bad, i had 6 tabs open, and copied the wrong one :)

Nice board btw, but crappy network card :(
 
You think it would be sufficiently crappy that I would want to avoid the mobo or use a pcie board (which would prevent me from utilizing future esata expansion options).

Also do you know if an AMD NEO dual core has the power to run FreeNAS or FreeBSD with ZFS; Further, 2, 4, or 8 gb of ram?
 
Jaheed said:
You think it would be sufficiently crappy that I would want to avoid the mobo or use a pcie board (which would prevent me from utilizing future esata expansion options).

Also do you know if an AMD NEO dual core has the power to run FreeNAS or FreeBSD with ZFS; Further, 2, 4, or 8 gb of ram?
Click to expand...

should, i ran free nass on a low powered atom and it ran fine, 2-4 gigs ram is perfect and 6 onboard is fine.

freenas8 is what i run now, however i have it now on a over powered i3 with 8 gigs ram ( soon to be sold ) and buying supermicro board or something close to the board you have, i just want dual nic's is all & rackmounted.

Dash.
 
Jaheed said:
You think it would be sufficiently crappy that I would want to avoid the mobo or use a pcie board (which would prevent me from utilizing future esata expansion options).

Also do you know if an AMD NEO dual core has the power to run FreeNAS or FreeBSD with ZFS; Further, 2, 4, or 8 gb of ram?
Click to expand...

it comes down to how much performance do you want...the nic can lower overall transfer rates and/or get over loaded if there is to much traffic what i would say is use the one onboard and if its proving to be a bottleneck the get a pci/e card.

ZFS can use as much ram as you can give it, it uses it as a read cash, and more ram (in theory) can increase transfer rates to a point but like before, get what you think will be good and add if it becomes a bottleneck.
 
Final question of the night:

What do I boot this thing off of? I guess I could do USB, but I would kinda like to have the boot device be internal to the computer. Also, will USB 2.0 have any speed issues?

I have a couple of 2.5 in drives lying around, but I will need another sata controller if I go that route, was thinking about:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002R0DZWQ

Or I guess I could drop in a SSD, but not sure if I would see any performance gain from that either.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
FreeNAS, FreeBSD. I would prefer the first for its simplicity, but if I need any of the features that BSD can provide, I may go that route.
 
Jaheed said:
FreeNAS, FreeBSD. I would prefer the first for its simplicity, but if I need any of the features that BSD can provide, I may go that route.
Click to expand...

freeNAS is freeBSD, its just a special packaged distro with a web interface, it can do anything FreeBSD can do just with a little CLIing ;) Just make sure the hardware you buy is supported by the OS or you will have loads of headaches.

EDIT: with the USB drive you will get basic functionality and with their switch to a plugin architecture it may be better to go with an HDD if you want some plugin only futures (not sure if they will install on USB or not)
 
Jaheed said:
Also, The only reason I didn't go with that drive is that I was somewhat turned off by the very large number of 1 star reviews on newegg claiming that they were DOA. If there is no reason for concern, I am always happy to save $60 buck on the build.
Click to expand...
The reason those drives end up DOA is because of newegg's shipping policies imho. The large number of DOA's is also because of the massive volume of those drives sold. There's a gigantic thread in the data storage forum about that drive, I suggest you take a look at it.

p.s. I just noticed that newegg seems to have raised the price back up to $99... so I guess you missed that opportunity. :-/

And I don't actually have any real world experience using Atom's in ZFS file servers. I just know that Jason (creator of the freebsd based ZFS file server) suggested to go with a cheaper, more powerful AMD solution. You'd have to check with someone else though on the specifics.

What threwput are you looking at? You said the LAN reaches 80 or so clients, correct? How many simultaneous streams are you looking at?

If you have the space, I'd also recommend adding an intel NIC like others have suggested.
 
You can see my build log here for my 12TB server using the PC-Q08. Found a nice SilverStone modular PSU that fit without issue. Easy enough to modify some of the cables to clean up space too. A 300W PSU should be fine.

Depending on the OS you want to run, you may need more SATA ports. I'm using 6 data drives, and then one OS (ZFS) & one optical off a PCI-e card. FreeNAS I think you can just run off a USB, so no issues there.
 
Jaheed said:
Final question of the night:

What do I boot this thing off of? I guess I could do USB, but I would kinda like to have the boot device be internal to the computer. Also, will USB 2.0 have any speed issues?

I have a couple of 2.5 in drives lying around, but I will need another sata controller if I go that route, was thinking about:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002R0DZWQ

Or I guess I could drop in a SSD, but not sure if I would see any performance gain from that either.
Click to expand...

I used this controller, it was cheap ($30), two SATA ports, and supported under OpenIndiana. Let's me dedicate my 6 onboard SATA ports to the data drives. Make sure whatever controller you go with is supported, and anything ZFS based will need to be an HBA (host bus adapter). EDIT: That card uses the Sil3124 chipset, which is supported under Solaris

What I'm thinking about doing is adding two 3.5" drive cages to the bottom of the case, underneath the PCIe slot. Not sure how exactly to mount them, but doing that would give me 8 data drives, and I'd get a proper 8 port PCIe card to connect them all to. Then, I'd have the original 6 ports free on the motherboard to use. If I removed the optical drive, and used a 6x2.5" adapter in the drive bay, then I could have a mirrored pair for the OS, and then 4 more data drives.

With that setup, using 3TB drives and a RAIDz2, you'd have ~16.75TB of usable space, plus another ~3TB with the new 2.5" data drives. That's nearly 20TB in that case!
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Some of it has been ordered (stuff that I don't think will change in price between now and September); but I will be out of town starting next week, and wont actually have the opportunity to build the computer until I return.

I haven't ordered the drives, or the mobo, in hopes that they may run a sale on something and I can save a bit of scratch. Not too worried about the cost, but I figure if I can't actually work on it until I get back, may spend the extra time fishing for a bit of savings.
 
So now That I am back home, i am looking to buy the rtest of the components for this thing.

As I would like to have a few more SATA ports, I looked at port multipliers and saw this:

Addonics 6-port Serial ATA 5 x 7-pin Serial ATA/300 Serial ATA 1 x 7-pin Serial Controller ATA AD5SAPM

http://www.amazon.com/Addonics-6-port-Serial-Controller-AD5SAPM/dp/B0031X58H8

I have heard that many sata controllers are incompatible with port multipliers, so I was curious if there was any way to tell if the mobo's controller would work with it?
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Jaheed said:
I have heard that many sata controllers are incompatible with port multipliers, so I was curious if there was any way to tell if the mobo's controller would work with it?
Click to expand...
You have to check the specifications or manual for that SATA controller and see if it states port multiplier support.
 
Ok, I ordered, with a few changes. Used the 3 tb Hitachi drives on sale on new-egg for $110.

Also jumped up to the mobo/processor from raiderj's build. Figure about $1100 total for a ~14 tb or so of storage. Hopefully I can get it built and post pics before I have to go out of town again.
 
I have a similar "smaller scale server". It has a Sempron 140 unlocked to dual core (same power usage as single core mode), Asus M4A785-M board, 2x1GB DDR2, Seasonic 300W Bronze PSU, 6x2TB Samsung drives, running Lubuntu 11.04 off a 16GB USB flash drive (also tested this with unRAID on a 1GB USB Firefly and FreeNAS 4GB PNY Attache, both worked fine, 8GB would actually be enough for Lubuntu) Intel PCI-e Pro1000 NIC. All drives are connected to the 6 SATA ports on the motherboard.

Power measured with a Killawatt, ~130W very briefly at post, idles at 64W on desktop, 43W with drives spun down. NIC uses 2W. 1 large fan in front (1W), just the PSU fan in the back. BIOS power settings were tweaked based on K10Stat settings I tested. I think it'd run even less watts with an inexpensive MSI 785/890 board instead of the Asus. If I could find a better smaller PSU with enough leads, I'd try it, but this Seasonic works pretty good/easy. I did use a molex to SATA adapter because the PSU has only 4 SATA connections.

My Intel DH61WW board with a i3-2100 idles at 24W with a WD blue 320GB 2.5" drive, 2x4GB RAM, an older, more inefficient Seasonic 330W PSU. It would be in the teens with a good pico power supply setup. Only 4 SATA ports on the board or I'd use it for the server. I do have a 2 port Sil3132 based card, but I'll use it elsewhere.

http://translate.google.com/transla...100&hl=en&rlz=1C1CHKZ_enUS440US440&prmd=imvns
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top