Home Server Help

[ShutterBug365]

Hi

New member here, going to take a while to look around and read many great threads.

I am at a crossroads with my home server at the moment and wanted to ask for some advice if possible.

Currently got a Windows 10 Pro server (G4500, 8Gb Ram) working away nicely in the corner of my study, its working that well I cannot remember the last time I had to touch it apart from the renewal of anti-virus and firewall and a cleaning of the fans. It currently runs 4 x 6TB Wd Red with a 128GB SSD as the Operating System drive. The motherboard only has 4 slots so 1 of the 6TB is on a PCI Sata Card.

Usage wise it is for a family of three, 2 basic point and click users and myself. The other users struggle with the difference between the server and the internet router.

We have two Amazon Fire Boxes which I have installed Kodi on and we are using that to access MKV files from the server and so far it is handling everything thrown at it. Streaming to two devices and handling file transfers without issue.

The issue is one of storage capacity, when is it not I suppose, currently I have a very basic setup that is probably not the most efficient or cost effective but it is simple.

1 x Wd Red holds all our personal files on it which as we are all three photographers includes many thousands of RAW files and these are growing constantly. This is backed up using a programme called GoodSync to a 2nd Wd Red on a daily basis. I am studying a Computer Science degree, write my own websites and we have our Outlook PST files on the drive so plenty of changes each day.

1 x Wd Red holds the media for the MKV files this is then backed up to a 2nd Wd Red on an as and when required basis using GoodSync. These are nearly full and more storage is required, hence the crossroads.

I do have a license for StableBit Drivepool that I used to use and for some stupid reason that I cannot think of stopped using it when I added an extra 2 x 6Tb drives into the system. I think the plan was to eventually have two pools one for media and one for personal as the data grew which could then be backed up to other pools.

As mentioned I have probably gone about this totally the wrong way and if so please tell me.

As I see it currently I have a few options:

• Just add a 12TB drive and use it for the media and use the 2 x 6TB as the backups
• Add 2 x 6TB, drivepool them together etc.
• Move to something else
  • Synology, QNAP perhaps

As mentioned my motherboard has no more free slots, and at the moment there is 1 x PCI slot free that I could add another Sata Card to and 1 Sata Port on the current PCI Sata Card.

Any advice, thoughts would be appreciated. I am trying to read about RAID but trying to learn two programming languages this year is already making the brain hurt.

Many many thanks & Happy New Year.

Paul

 

[Unfadingpyro]

In my opinion, I would forget about RAID. Kinda. There are a lot of different technologies around now that offer RAID like redundancy, without the potential headaches involved with it.

I'm currently using Un-RAID for storing most of my data files and media (Photos, Ripped DVD, Music, etc). It allows for easy expansion of the pool and still provides protection against a drive failure. Even if multiple drives fail, you only lose the data on those drives, unlike the whole pool with RAID.

It looks like Drivepool provides a somewhat similar function with being able to mark folders to have automatically duplicated to multiple disks, but at the cost of reduced capacity.

I would get an LSI 9211-8i card and flash it to IT mode to replace your current SATA card. That will give you 8 SATA ports to use for future expansion, as long as your case has the room. Then just use Drivepool since you already have the license for it.

 

[gregsachs]

Even easier than drivepool might be win 10 storage spaces, which lets you set up a "drive" as single or duplicated copies. The problem you will run into with either, I think, I a chicken/egg problem of a drive must usually be wiped to add it to a pool. Goodsync is just doing copy, right, not a real backup with different versions?
I'd think about something along the lines of the following:
1: Migrate to a pool of some sort. I like spaces but use it with Hyper-v. I believe it works very similar on windows 10. This was natural for me as I started with home server V1, which had pooling. Either way, move to a pool that lets you tag drives or folders as duplicated, and others as non-duplicated.
2: Look at a true backup program for version control; I like duplicati. Lots of options. The thing I'd worry about with the cloning is if you get a corrupt file, it will get copied in a corrupt fashion. With a backup program, you may be able to revert to the prior version.

 

[TeleFragger]

Ill be the one to say run stablebit. You got it so why not. Love mine. Can throw any size drives in the pool.
I have an ssd for server 2016 with essentials roles
3x 2tb wd blacks
2x 4tb wd blacks

I get it wd blacks not ideal. Ive learned lately go reds but they work and i havent touched my setup in a few years.

I just added a 500gb ssd for stablebit ssd optimizer as im going to 10gb.

I like stablebit for one thing... system goes down, move drives into another system and accessible.

I started messing with freenas but i dont know enough to trust it. Stablebit drive pool is the best $20 ive spent on my setup...