Just completed my WHS build

[Supercat]

Build’s Name: Recycled Server
Operating System/ Storage Platform: WHS 2011
CPU: Q6600 Core2Quad
Motherboard: Asus P5Q-E
Chassis: Old Antec Case
Drives: 2 x 640Gb (non-matching drives) 2 x 2Tb Green Hdds
RAM: 4 x 2Gb DDR2
Add-in Cards: PNY Quadro NVS-290 PCi-E x1
Power Supply: Antec TruePower 550W
Other Bits: none as yet

Usage Profile: Media server - Backups - CCTV - some sort of Satellite streaming

Other information… Not as big and powerful as others but its my first server!
I was after buiding a server a few months ago so bought a S775 mini-itx board and used my core2quad to power it. On board graphics and 6 sata ports. Added a SSD and M1015 raid card. Not sure what happened but this machine has now become my main rig.

So a couple of months later I still have my old machine in parts and cannot sell for the price I want, so I decided to reuse old parts and build a new server.

Just built this and will be installing OS soon but before I do a few questions if I may. The server will be headless after install (sitting in garage).

1. I kept my SSD and raid card in my main rig so I can get 6GBps. Seems silly to keep a raid card in my machine to run 1 x 120GB SSD. The card can only do RAID 1, 0 and 10. What do you guys think?

I figured I am going to use software mirroring which is similar to RAID1 so dont need it in my server.

2. Server mobo has 2 x LAN, what can I use this for? Redundancy or can I use some sort of video over Cat5 technology to administer as it will be headless in garage.

3. I am on the look out for a cheap gigabit switch, anything I need to be aware off?

4. Anything I need to take into account before install of OS? ie not sure about mirroring sytem drive.

Many thanks for listening and I will be waiting for your knowlegable replies before I begin install.

 

[S-F]

1. You would only need to move that card over if you ran out of SATA ports IMO.

2. If you have a switch that allows you can aggregate those ports but there probably isn't much benefit to this as gigabit speeds will probably be all your drives can give and link aggregation doesn't double your throughput for a single file or user but it can give gigabit to two locations at once. It also provides redundancy.

3. Cheap won't allow link aggregation. You may spend 2 x more for a good switch but you will get lots of features as well as 3 x more ports.

4. I personally mirror my system drive. When a system drive dies it is time consuming to have to start from scratch.

Good Luck!

 

[Supercat]

Many thanks S-F. Good advise. Mobo has 8 sata ports of which I will be using 4 straight away. So 4 spare is good enough for me - for now.

If my 2 system drives are equal in capacity and spin speed - but not from the same manufacturer, will this slow things down in a mirroring scenario?