I think I'm moving in this direction. Did you consider FlexRaid and Unraid also? If so, what made you pick SnapRAID over them?
cheapest motherboard + CPU with ECC for running freenas for doing backups?
- Thread starter NeverDie
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Also, what do you mean when you say it is not a realtime RAID?
I'd like things to be as simple as a Drobo, but with high data integrity and protection against bitrot.
It is snapshot RAID, meaning that it's designed for data that doesn't change frequently (media files, bulk storage, etc. ). Id encourage you to look at the comparison chart. SnapRAID
Also, there are very few things as simple as the Drobo setup, but it does not provide bitrot protection or more than three levels of parity.
The message is, no matter which way you choose to go, there are some trade offs either in flexibility, checksumming, simple GUI, etc.
Also, there are very few things as simple as the Drobo setup, but it does not provide bitrot protection or more than three levels of parity.
The message is, no matter which way you choose to go, there are some trade offs either in flexibility, checksumming, simple GUI, etc.
I researched both, but settled in SnapRAID. It's free vs. paid for the other two, Andrea (the developer) is very active, it supports 6 levels of parity, it can use data disks with existing data, it is very lightweight, and with a pooling solution like AUFS or mhddfs, it can still saturate a gigabit connection.
Does it work well with WHS 2011? If so, it sounds like there's then no need for Stablebit or its scanner? If so, I guess WHS 2011 + snapraid will be my answer over at least the near-term.
ZFS sounds great on paper, but the reality is overwhelming, and so it's just not a near-term solution for me. I need something simpler that still "just works."
SnapRAID has limited built-in disk pooling. Stalebit provides data redundancy through copies and provides pooling. On Windows you are going to want a pooling solution to go along with SnapRAID. I typically use Drivepool, but then turn off all of it's balancing features to prevent the constant changes from making SnapRAID work hard to recalculate parity parity.
I'm afraid that this may be complicated for you to setup on Windows if you are thinking that FreeNAS is too complicated. SnapRAID does not have a GUI, it will require to you edit a configuration file to set it up.
Do you happen to know whether the same is true of flexRAID?
So far flexRAID is the only solution I've found that is comfortable recommending RDM instead of vt-d for running under ESXi: Storage deployment on VMware ESXi: IOMMU/Vt-d vs Physical RDM vs Virtual RDM vs VMDK - FlexRAID
That would make flexRAID perhaps the only solution for virtualizing using an avoton or rangeley motherboard, since the intel atom doesn't support vt-d.
FlexRAID does have a GUI which is nice, although it is paid software. Also, FlexRAID only partially checksums data (look at the comparison chart for a description).
Personally, I don't like the idea of RDM with bulk storage as I like to have direct disk access. But, if the developer supports RDM and you would like to use an Avoton/Rangley vs a E3 Xeon then go for it. I really like the flexibility that vt-d provides, so I would definitely lean that way myself.
At the moment I don't know enough to have a preference. I have a Supermicro C2758 motherboard (the one Kennedy gave a 9.9 "awesome" rating), as well as a supermicro E3-1230V3 motherboard. However, what's decidedly not "awesome" about the C2758 motherboard is the lack of vt-d. Very frustrating for such an expensive combo board! A C2550 combo motherboard (like Asrock's) might be very good (lots more SATA ports than the "awesome" board) and would use less power and at almost half the cost, but again, it can't do vt-d. Lack of vt-d is a major stumbling block, and I don't know of any low-power alternatives.
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The C2758 are awesome boards, but they just don't support vt-d. The E3-1230 V3 is also great, but I'm confused now... I thought this was hardware to build an inexpensive backup server. Where did we get off to talking about virtualization?
What the heck, how do you folks find these cheap Xeons?! That model isn't even listed in Intel ARK if you just list out the E5-1600 series. I love this forum!
Late night Ebay shopping and bored watching tv.
Last year, I make a low ball offer on 6 x E5-1607 cpu, Seller counter offered with 6 x E5-1607 $100 each shipped. My ADD kicked in and got distracted, it was sold at BIN price of $135. I kind of regret a little bit, then I shifted my attention to E5-26xx CPU.
Last year, I make a low ball offer on 6 x E5-1607 cpu, Seller counter offered with 6 x E5-1607 $100 each shipped. My ADD kicked in and got distracted, it was sold at BIN price of $135. I kind of regret a little bit, then I shifted my attention to E5-26xx CPU.
Ebay best offer seems like way to go thenLate night Ebay shopping and bored watching tv.
Last year, I make a low ball offer on 6 x E5-1607 cpu, Seller counter offered with 6 x E5-1607 $100 each shipped. My ADD kicked in and got distracted, it was sold at BIN price of $135. I kind of regret a little bit, then I shifted my attention to E5-26xx CPU.
In most cases it will come down to a couple of things: Access to more ram (E3 tops out at 32GB, E5 256+) and more PCI-e lanes (useful for running multiple HBAs).
Since we are talking about "cheapest motherboard" here. Few times a year, you will find fire sale for E5-24xx, E5-16xx and E5-26xx cpu on Ebay.
Combined with cheap server motherboard, you will have decent server for less than the cost of 1 Intel I5 or E3 cpu.
Are these random times of year or is there a season? Less than i5 would put us in the sub $200 ballpark?
There is no definite time of the year, deals comes in a batch.
Last 30 days, there is whole bunch of Tyan dual LGA1356 motherboard for around $100-$130.
see Tyan dual LGA1356 board, 2 x Intel I350, 2 x Intel 82574L, dedicated IPMI port for $99 + shipping
Tyan S7045GM4NR Intel Xeon Dual LGA 1356 Server Motherboard | eBay
or search Ebay for LGA1356 1356 motherboard | eBay
I need 2 to 4 boards, so I make a best offer on 2 boards with another seller for $110 each shipped.
Loaded it up with the cheap $75 E5-1428 or E5-2418 cpu that group purchased last year.
Cost with 1 single CPU $75 + Server Motherboard $110 = $185 or 2 CPU for $260.
I am stressing testing one board now for the last 6 hours and it is looking good.
No one mentioned mdadm on a Linux flavor? Bare stripped Debian is my choice. Ubuntu is all kiddy pretty, and the scripts tailored around Ubuntu made some mdadm services not work right on boot.
Make an array, make a filesystem, share it via nfs/samba/ftp/http/vpn/ipsec/whatever you need, done.
Expansion? Add drive(s) to array, grow array, resize filesystem, done.
I'm running a 20tb array on a box with 512mb.
If you don't need stupid amounts of cache, the no worries. I can easily saturate 600Mbyte /sec with $30 sata cards.
I Budget build, I hate spending money.
Make an array, make a filesystem, share it via nfs/samba/ftp/http/vpn/ipsec/whatever you need, done.
Expansion? Add drive(s) to array, grow array, resize filesystem, done.
I'm running a 20tb array on a box with 512mb.
If you don't need stupid amounts of cache, the no worries. I can easily saturate 600Mbyte /sec with $30 sata cards.
I Budget build, I hate spending money.