Anthony, I'd also add to Jim's comments that once you have one big central drive you can use someting like XBMC to have a very nice interface on all your HTPCs in the house and accessibility to all your content.
--------- Brian On Mon, Feb 24, 2014 at 9:42 AM, James Maki <jwm_maill...@comcast.net>wrote: > That's how I started! :) But the desire for ease of use for my family (if > it's not in plain sight, they can't find the drive, folder or location of a > desired movie or TV show) and it just got "out of control!" A couple of > drives here. A Sans Digital tower there. A new HTPC in the family room. > Gigabit network hooking upstairs bedroom to the main computer downstairs. > You name it, it got added. I ended up spending lots of time "cataloging," > especially when adding drives. The pooling aspect of FlexRAID allows me to > have one BIG drive with a folder for Blu-rays, one for DVDs, and another > for > recorded TV shows. Previously, a desired file might have been on one of 4 > computers and any one of the approximately 30 drives. I did compromise > awhile back and create 8 and 10 TB JBODs on the Sans Digital towers and > internal in the main HTPC. This made it slightly easier to catalog. > > Of course, all of this ignores the "building computers, etc." is fun factor > of this hobby. :) > > If nothing else, I have learned lots about SAS (which had intimidated me > before), building my own NAS, and a little about Server software. Always a > fun (if not occasionally, frustrating) experience. > > To Brian: I am doing exactly that-One big drive with 3 shared folders. The > multiple pool idea was to facilitate doing smaller Updates/validates that > could be done overnight rather than over 3 or 4 days. Once I get the drive > set up as desired, I will give the parity backup another try and see if > once > it is set if the periodic updates of a static pool are quick. Thanks for > the > input and feedback. > > Jim > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: hardware-boun...@lists.hardwaregroup.com [mailto:hardware- > > boun...@lists.hardwaregroup.com] On Behalf Of Anthony Q. Martin > > > You guys are so sophisticated! I'm just stringing all my drives off a PC > with > > external enclosures (10 drives inside the box, 8 more in two four-bay > > enclosures). Using 3 and 4 TB drives (greens, mostly, from WD and > seagate). > > Mine or just NTFS mount volumes all shared over my GB network. That way, > > I can just navigate to any drive and any folder to play my rips from my > other > > HTPCs. Easy setup. If a drive goes down, I just re-rip as I have all > the > optical > > discs as backup. Poor man's setup. Lazy man's setup. :) Raid is too > > complicated for my brain and I don't see my use as super critical. > Ripping to > > mkv is mostly done in the background while working on other stuff. > > > > On 2/24/2014 8:30 AM, Brian Weeden wrote: > > > Jim, have you thought about setting up multiple shares instead of > > > multiple pools? For example, you could have one big drive pool with > > > all your data but share out any folder on that pool as a separate > network > > share. > > > > > > > > > > > > --------- > > > Brian > > > > > > > > > > > > On Sun, Feb 23, 2014 at 2:46 PM, Brian Weeden > > <brian.wee...@gmail.com>wrote: > > > > > >> If you're doing an initialization and building parity for 23 TB of > > >> data, I can expect that to take quite a while. The update I'm not so > > >> sure about. It should only need up update parity for whatever files > > >> were changed. So if the update needs just as long, that indicates > maybe > > all your data changed. > > >> But if it's just video files then it shouldn't. > > >> > > >> I do know people have talked about exempting things like nfo files > > >> and thumbnails from the RAID so the parity process will skip them. > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> --------- > > >> Brian > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> On Sun, Feb 23, 2014 at 2:17 PM, James Maki > > <jwm_maill...@comcast.net>wrote: > > >> > > >>> Hi Brian, > > >>> > > >>> I switched to FlexRAID to combine a total of 23 2tb drives spread > > >>> over 5 Sans Digital port multiplier towers plus extra drives on > > >>> several PCs used as HTPCs. I have ripped all my Blu-ray, DVDs and > > >>> recorded TV to the various arrays and over time had just gotten too > > >>> large to easily manage. I wanted to centralize everything on one > > >>> system. The system I started with utilized a AMD FM2 motherboard > > >>> with 8 onboard SATA ports, 2 SAS ports on an add-on card (for a > > >>> total of 8 additional SATA ports, and 3 of the Sans Digital towers > > >>> (5 > > >>> disks each) for a total of 31 drives distributed as 1 OS drive, 4 > > >>> parity drives and 26 data drives (several were empty). When this > > >>> continued to fail on creation, I moved the Sans Digital based drives > > >>> to a 6 port SAS controller card. > > >>> > > >>> When I still had problems, I found that several drives were bad > > >>> (scan disk), including the 1st parity drive. Replacing the drives > > >>> gave me a successful creation but it took 4 days. The Update took > > >>> another 4 days. That's when I started having second thoughts on > > >>> using the Parity backup option. I guess I am just expected too much > > >>> from the software. That's when I thought creating several pools > > >>> would reduce the strain for each update/validate. > > >>> > > >>> I am using a modestly powered AMD dual core 3.2 GHz processor and > > >>> mostly consumer drives (mixed with a few WD reds). I went with > > >>> Windows Home Server for economy reasons ($50 vs. $90-130 for > > Windows > > >>> 7 Home Premium/Professional). I utilized a HighPoint RocketRAID > > >>> 2760A SAS RAID controller card. I am using RAID over File System > > >>> 2.0u12, SnapRAID 1.4 Stable and Storage Pool 1.0 Stable (although > > >>> not using the SnapRAID at this point). > > >>> > > >>> Overall, I am happy with the pooling facility of the software. I > > >>> just wish my large setup would not choke the parity option. Thanks > > >>> for all the input. > > >>> > > >>> Not sure if there is an answer to my problem. More powerful hardware? > > >>> Reading the forums seems to indicate that hardware should NOT be the > > >>> bottleneck. There seems to be the option of Updating/Validating only > > >>> portions of the RAID each night. More research is needed on that > > >>> front. My current plan at this point is to fill the RAID in the > > >>> pooling only mode, make sure all names and organization is correct, > > >>> then commit to a stable, unchanging file system that I will then > > >>> commit to the SnapRAID parity option. That way I will only need to > > Validate/Verify periodically. > > >>> > > >>> Thanks, > > >>> > > >>> Jim > > >>> > > >>>> -----Original Message----- > > >>>> From: hardware-boun...@lists.hardwaregroup.com [mailto:hardware- > > >>>> boun...@lists.hardwaregroup.com] On Behalf Of Brian Weeden > > >>>> Sent: Sunday, February 23, 2014 6:06 AM > > >>>> To: hardware > > >>>> Cc: hwg > > >>>> Subject: Re: [H] What are we up to (Was-Are we alive?) > > >>>> > > >>>> Hi Jim. Sorry to hear you're having such troubles, especially since > > >>>> I > > >>> think I'm > > >>>> the one who introduced FlexRAID to the list. > > >>>> > > >>>> I've been running it on my HTPC for several years now and (knock on > > >>> wood) > > >>>> it's been running fine. Not sure how big your setup is, I'm running > > >>>> 7 > > >>> DRUs > > >>> and > > >>>> 2 PRUs of 2 TB each. I have them mounted as a single pool that is > > >>>> shared > > >>> on > > >>>> my LAN. I run nightly parity updates. > > >>>> > > >>>> Initilaizing my setup did take several hours, but my updates don't > > >>>> take > > >>> very > > >>>> long. Sometimes when I add several ripped HD movies at once it > > >>>> might > > >>> take > > >>> a > > >>>> few hours but that's it. How much data are you calcluating parity > > >>>> for at > > >>> the > > >>>> initialization? Do you have a lot of little files (like thousand of > > >>> pictures) or lots > > >>>> of files that change often? Either of those could greatly increase > > >>>> the > > >>> time it > > >>>> takes to calcluate parity. > > >>>> > > >>>> I'm running it under Win7, and unfortunately I don't have any > > >>>> experience with Server 2011 or any of the Windows Server builds. > > >>>> > > >>>> From what I've gathered you can only have one pool per system. I > > >>>> think that's a limit of how things work. But I've never needed more > > >>>> than one > > >>> pool, > > >>>> so it hasn't bothered me. > > >>>> > > >>>> For hardware, I'm running the following based largely on a HTPC > > >>>> hardware guide I found online. It's based on a server chipset to > > >>>> maximize the bandwidth to the drives. > > >>>> > > >>>> Intel Xeon E3-1225 > > >>>> Asus P8B WS LGA 1155 Intel C206 > > >>>> 8 GB DDR3 SDRAM > > >>>> Corsair TX750 V2 750W > > >>>> 2x Intel RAID Controller Card SATA/SAS PCI-E x8 Antec 1200 V3 Case > > >>>> 3x > > >>> 5in1 > > >>>> hot swap HDD cages > > >>>> > > >>>> Part of the key is the controller cards. I'm not actually using the > > >>> on-board > > >>>> RAID, just using it for the ports and the bandwidth. I've got two > > >>>> SAS > > >>> to > > >>> SATA > > >>>> cables plugged into each card, which gives me a total of 16 SATA > ports. > > >>> The > > >>>> cards are each on an 8x PCIe bus that gives them a lot of bandwidth. > > >>> Boot > > >>>> drive is an older SSD that is attached to one of the SATA ports on > > >>>> the > > >>> mobo. > > >>>> Once trick I figured out early on was to initialize your array with > > >>>> the > > >>> biggest > > >>>> number of DRUs you think you'll eventually have, even if you don't > > >>> actually > > >>>> have that many drives at the start. That way you can add new DRUs > > >>>> and > > >>> not > > >>>> have to reinitialize the array. > > >>>> > > >>>> When I started using FlexRAID it was basically a part-time project > > >>>> being > > >>> run > > >>>> by Brahim. He's now created a fully-fledged business out of it and > > >>>> has > > >>> gone > > >>>> way beyond just FlexRAID. Apparently he now has two products. I > > >>>> think > > >>> the > > >>>> classic FlexRAID system I'm still using has become RAID-F (RAID > > >>>> over > > >>>> filesystem) and he's got a new Transparent RAID product as well: > > >>>> http://www.flexraid.com/faq/ > > >>>> > > >>>> I'm still running 2.0u8 (snapshot 1.4 stable) so I guess at some > > >>>> point > > >>> I'll need > > >>>> to move over to the commercial version. But for now it's working > > >>>> fine > > >>> so I > > >>>> don't want to disturb it. > > >>>> > > >>>> Hope all this helps, and happy to answer any other questions > > >>>> however I > > >>> can. > > >>>> > > >>>> > > >>>> --------- > > >>>> Brian > > >>> > >
