Image/Data Server for Home Use and On-Line access

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HapShipley

New Member
Aug 18, 2018
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Waynesboro PA
I found an On-Line Used Server Outlet; The Server Store, which I believe has a system that would work as a Home Data/Image Server so that my On-Line Families could access to Up/Down load Images for our Family Book. So I went searching On-Line for Server Forums that might have useful info, which I came across this site. The system of interest is the, Supermicro 6016T-NTF W/ X8DTU-F 4x LFF 1U Server, also selected the Dual Intel Xeon Processors L5640 12M Cache 2.26GHz Six Core and 24GB DDR-3- 1333 ECC RAM, will use four- WD 1TB Caviar Blue 3.5” SATA 7.2K 64M Drive.

Question, is this too much of an overkill just for an Image Server or am I missing something else.
I do like Supermicro MB's, using one for a home built Workstation mainly for Photo work; C7P67.

Thanks

Hap
 

Rand__

Well-Known Member
Mar 6, 2014
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Hi Hap,
welcome to the Forum.
Whether this is too much depends on how large your family is - this box will have the compute power to serve a few dozen people easily.
It will lack disk IO capabilities for that with the 4 sata drives (depending on how many different images they are looking at), but most likely the internet speed will limit the rate anyway.

So (forgive me for making fun of you) - yes this is way overkill.

If you need a system for online image sharing most NAS systems can do it quite good, no need to have a server for that (again depends on amount of data and users).
If you provide a bit more background information we can provide better recommendations...
 

K D

Well-Known Member
Dec 24, 2016
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This server is probably way over kill and being a 1u server is going to be noisy. How exactly are you planning to share the photos? Do you plan to host a website? Like @Rand__ mentioned most of the NAS systems in l Synology have built-in photo sharing ability and are more easier to manage. Quieter too.
 

HapShipley

New Member
Aug 18, 2018
6
1
3
Waynesboro PA
Thanks for the respond. The amount of data, be it word doc’s, pdf’s, scanned in news print and images, could get rather large since I am covering family members across the USA. Another reason why I needed a system that could be connected through my cisco small business firewall to the Internet. I don’t understand what the limit is about IO capabilities are since I thought this is a server which provides access to storage devices- HD's. I have not thought about Hosting a Web Site or using SmugMug. I can see where the NAS would work with little effort on my part, I just need to understand how it connects through my firewall and or do I need to setup Tunnel access on the Cisco system.
 

Rand__

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Mar 6, 2014
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storage io is limited if you have a lot of random IO (many different files being accessed at the same time) since hard drives are not good at random io due to mechanical constraints.

if you want to present your data via public webpage (password protected) you can pass through the appropriate ports to whatever devices serves it.
But I'd recommend to have ppl vpn in as to not expose anything to the public internet
 

Rand__

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Mar 6, 2014
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I think most ppl here would opt for Synology, but both will be suitable I guess. Be aware that faster harddrives (7200 RPM) have more IO capability but get hotter and are louder; so need really depends on the number of concurrent users you will have (and their willingness to wait for files;))
 

HapShipley

New Member
Aug 18, 2018
6
1
3
Waynesboro PA
That is true about access HD's, forgot about the end user demands on a mechanical devices, even running at 12K. I was also thinking a long the same line of using only vpn access through my router to this system; which I believe working behind the wall would be for the best also, I did read some system will not work if the computer is not on-line, which leads me to think the NAS is working through the computer and not connected to the router. I am now looking at the Synology as well, just hard to pinned down the size I might need, slots needed, future expandable, speed of HD and best rated for 24/4, do I need to be concern for streaming, software updates, etc.
 

Rand__

Well-Known Member
Mar 6, 2014
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Basically if the vpn endpoints terminates at your router/firewall then the NAS can be accessed without computer from the outside.
If the vpn terminates at the computer then o/c that needs to run..
An alternaative is o/c to have router -> firewall -> (NAS|Computer).
Eg you can put internet/vpn facing services on a separate port on the NAS (given 2+ ethernet ports) and have it run partially in DMZ mode (limited service exposure to vpn).

Software updates - if you run a firewall/vpn server thats the main point to keep up to date assuming the remote users are unlikely to do harmful things/be infected. If you can't trust the latter then keeping the NAS up to date would be a good idea.

Re sizing etc - you will need to come up with requirements (ideally from the nas point of view), so for example

-You upload new baby pics of your daughter every couple of days - all the relatives are going to access these when they are online. Usually its 5-10 pictures
=> Small files, high concurrent access, potentially random IO, would profit from caching (ram or explicit cache)

-Your family pictures are on this box an the relatives are browsing those every now and then for fun
=> Small files, no concurrent access, heavy random IO, might profit from caching if accessed often enough, else slow

-You have an extensive BlueRay Collection that you share with the relatives. Some access via Smart TV in 4K, some from a mobile device while on the road.
=> Large files, concurrent access, streaming access (HDD ok), might need transcoding capabilities (eg Plex or Kodi app on the box)

etc...

Apps - do you want to offer specific services on the box (gallery, video streaming, document/file sharing (or even collaborated editing))... for most of that there are apps/plugins (in Syno i am sure, WD no idea) that you can run ...
 

HapShipley

New Member
Aug 18, 2018
6
1
3
Waynesboro PA
Lots of useful info, maybe I should have asked which model you would pick and go from there, thanks tho and I am looking into the Synology models as well.