[ale] Home Data Server Project

Wed Feb 24 11:15:36 EST 2010

Are you going with raid 10?

I'm still a little uncomfortable with raid 10 with large drives.

If I was uncomfortable with raid 6, I'd probably try raid 1+5 next but
I haven't seen anyone talking about that yet.

ie. Raid 1+5 (I assume also called Raid 15):

Create multiple 2-disk raid 1 mirrors.  Then use those as components
in a raid 5 array.

That seems pretty failsafe to me.

Greg

On Wed, Feb 24, 2010 at 10:48 AM, Jeff Hubbs <jhubbslist at att.net> wrote:
> I've gotten to where I've abandoned RAID5 and 6 for drives > 750GB.
>
> On 2/24/10 10:35 AM, Brian W. Neu wrote:
>> 1.  I'm going to second Greg on the RAID 6 or 10.  I've been dealing
>> with lots of RAID 5 issues lately and I simply won't let clients do it
>> anymore unless they are perfectly fine risking the downtime and costs of
>> restoring from a backup.  I too love the 3ware cards, but you might be
>> be just as good spending a little extra on your processor and going w/
>> md raid 6.  Also, why limit yourself to one partition?  I'd recommend
>> using LVM to create volumes large enough for the next year or 18
>> months.  Then grow the volume and the filesystems as usage dictates.
>> It's almost always possible to grow a filesystem, but shrinking them is
>> more challenging.  Always start small and leave plenty of free space.
>> Oh, and why not ext4?  I'd skip the NTFS and just mount ext4 with ACL's
>> enabled.  Have you considered LVM snapshots, or even btrfs snapshots if
>> you have a rock-solid backup strategy?
>>
>> 2.  For Home Theater:
>>      An nVidia card with HDMI that supports VDPAU for MythTV.  My card
>> doesn't support it, and CPU utilization is high when playing HD content.
>>
>> http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/190.53/README/appendix-a.html
>>      A tuner that supports CableCard, works with MythTV, and has multiple
>> digital tuners (you might have to wait on this, and it might just never
>> happen)
>>
>> http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/05/cetons-quad-cablecard-tuner-for-windows-media-center-gets-a-pri/
>>
>> http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/07/hdhomerun-developing-a-dual-cablecard-network-tuner-for-249/
>>          http://www.gearlog.com/2009/09/hauppauge_to_sell_cablecard_tu.php
>>      (if not sending sound over HDMI) A sound card with a SPIDF output so
>> you can do a passthrough, and have an A/V receiver.  (There's a MythTV
>> wiki entry for this somewhere)
>>      An XFS filesystem just for MythTV, per the MythTV wiki (I have an
>> LVM volume on top of md raid, which while not ideal, does the job)
>>      A lot of patience, especially if you have Comcast.  If patience
>> isn't readily available, make sure alcohol is.
>>
>> 3.  Don't overlook solid backups and the cost of implementing them.  You
>> might be able to take an older PC (or even a dd-wrt router with USB)
>> with a bios that allows for scheduled wake-ups, attach an external HD,
>> and install a wireless card and ask your neighbor if you can work out a
>> back-up co-op.  If your house burns down (and your neighbor's house
>> survives, hopefully), or lightning fries all your electronics, or
>> someone steals them all,  you'll be happy you did.  That last thing
>> you'd want is to lose all of your possessions AND your business too.
>>
>> 4.  You're already doing it, but keep asking for help.  If I had done
>> more of that on my MythTV venture, I'd have probably saved myself many
>> hours.
>>
>>
>> Good luck, and keep us posted.
>>
>>
>>
>> On 2/24/2010 5:54 AM, Greg Freemyer wrote:
>>
>>> Also, you don't discuss raid setup.
>>>
>>> I like 3ware hardware raid, but its a few hundred $ or so for a
>>> controller.  Mdraid also works but takes more skill to work with in my
>>> opinion.  Regardless I'd avoid raid 5.  Use raid 6 or even 10.
>>>
>>> And how are you going to backup that big boy?  Think hard on that
>>> because it will be a challenge no matter what you do.
>>>
>>> Greg
>>>
>>> On 2/24/10, Marc Ferguson<marcferguson at gmail.com>  wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>> Hi Fellas,
>>>>
>>>> We're finally making some moves into getting a data server setup at home. I
>>>> think I'm a little intimidated by it. I've built computers before and setup
>>>> peer-to-peer networks (with Windows machines). I'm going to do it with
>>>> CentOS, because I'm a Red Hat fanboy.  Any tips for me?
>>>>
>>>> Here's what we plan to do with the data server:
>>>>
>>>>     - Terabytes of information
>>>>        - Wife's a 2d/3d artist
>>>>        - Security camera footage
>>>>        - HTPC content
>>>>     - 2 storage partitions
>>>>        - NTFS for the wife
>>>>        - EXT3 for me and EVERYTHING ELSE
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> We plan to store the server in the attic so it'll be connected wirelessly. I
>>>> plan to get an 802.11n setup. Thanks.
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Marc Ferguson
>>>>
>>>> Registered User #410978
>>>> www.fergytech.com | www.digitalalias.net
>>>>
>>>> "When life gives me lemons... I make Linuxaide, hmm good stuff!"
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
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