Completed My Mediaportal Server Setup (1 Viewer)

[ryan20021982]

Just thought i would share this with everyone.

I had a server for awhile but was worried about backup and loosing movies so this is what I ended up with.

The rack consists of

Rackmount Solutions LCD mount
Norco Keyboard tray
Tripplite Surge Protector
Netgear 16 port Gbit Switch
Main Server
Backup Server
Router
Modem
KVM Switch
16 port Cat6 Patch Panel ( cause I hate the wires coming out the front)

Both servers have 6 1.5TB HDD's for storage in raid 0. The main server acts as a file server for 3 different mediacenters throughout the house for movies and tv shows.

As of right now I have about 800 movies 70% HD and then almost 1500 tv shows total.

The LCD and the keyboard both pull for use and there is a kvm switch to switch between the 2 servers, the backup server is only on to refresh the backup and then gets turned off.

I have thought many times about doing raid 5 for a good backup but I just dont trust raid for backup purposes. This way there is a complete backup of the movies in a seperate pc so there is a pretty low chance of not having a copy of the media if something happens.


Main Server Specs:
Norco RPC-470 case
Biostar Nforce n750 motherboard
AMD 4850e cpu
Nvidia silent 8500gt
Western Digital 36gb 10K RPM HDD (OS Drive)
6 x 1.5TB Seagate HDD's (raid 0)
SUPERMICRO AOC-SAT2-MV8 8-port sata card
DVD Burner
Coolmax 750w Power Supply


Backup Server Specs:
Norco RPC-270 case
JetWay JXBLUE-N78V NVIDIA GeForce 8100
AMD 4850e cpu
Western Digital 40gb HDD (OS Drive)
6 x 1.5TB Seagate HDD's (raid 0)
SUPERMICRO AOC-SAT2-MV8 8-port sata card
DVD Rom
Sunbeam 580w Power Supply

 

[dcwp]

Wow, that's a pretty impressive setup! So do you have clients with tuners in each of your TVs? Or are you using STBs and PVRs for live TV? No live TV at all maybe?

 

[ryan20021982]

No tv tuner cards yet I have satellite tv now if I switch to cable I might set some up but I prefer satellite tv.

 

[Gixxer]

nice setup indeed !!

have to measured the power consumption of each of the servers? i would like to compare to mine which also has a 4850e but with less drives.

i tried Q&C and lowered watts by about 10 or 15 watts but livetv was not working as good anymore.

6 drives in raid 0? i thought raid 0 could only be done on two drives?

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archivo:RAID_0.svg

 

[ryan20021982]

nice setup indeed !!

have to measured the power consumption of each of the servers? i would like to compare to mine which also has a 4850e but with less drives.

i tried Q&C and lowered watts by about 10 or 15 watts but livetv was not working as good anymore.

6 drives in raid 0? i thought raid 0 could only be done on two drives?

Archivo:RAID 0.svg - Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre

For raid 0 the minimum is 2 drives

What did you sue to check the watts a kill-a-watt? Only 1 of the servers is on all the time the other is only on to refresh the backup.

I am looking for software actually that I can use to recreate the backup, like a file sync type program that checks for added or a difference in the servers and adds the missing files to the backup server. It shouldnt be a problem since the on the pc's there is only 1 drive on each theoretically and the file structure on both is the same.

So the main server has say drive e and the backup has drive e , and there exactly the same inside.

Anyone know of a program that does this and works?

 

[Gixxer]

ryan i use GoodSync : File Synchronization, File Backup Software, File Sync Software and works pretty good. i did have problems sync to an ftp server in the internet. but with local stuff works great.

also its quite cheap and nearly everyweek or 2 weeks there is an update (which means they are trying to make it even better)

i use one of this... http://www.searchecoweb.com/medidor3.JPG it cost me 5 euros and works great, i have checked it with a multimeter.

 

[Karamu]

6 drives in RAID 0 is REALLY dangerous, I'm afraid. One drive failure and ALL your data is gone if your backup server dies as well. Have it on at least a RAID 5 if you can, and you're better off not using RAID at all if it's a Windows software RAID, that just makes it all the more unreliable.

 

[wollo]

Karamu, what makes you say windows software raid is unreliable, I've had more success with it than wth my intel ich10 raid?

 

[Karamu]

Despite software RAID being portable between computers, it is really slow compared to hardware RAID and is always not as stable due to running on the main CPU and RAM, not running on its own specialised hardware. Since Windows is unstable by nature, any software RAID on it could be damaged by Windows crashing, especially on a client Windows operating system where crashes, rebooting and unstable programs are much easier to come by than from server Windows operating systems. If you want your data as safe as possible, I'd go out and buy a hardware RAID card and set ALL of it on a RAID 5 setup. You'll get similar speed to that software RAID 0 and your data will be much more secure.

Your ICH10 RAID sounds like it's RAID built onto the motherboard. This is FAKERAID (software RAID dressed up to look like hardware RAID) and it is a wise choice to avoid it at all times. If the motherboard dies with a FAKERAID setup on it, ALL your data goes, no matter what way you put it. And since motherboards are always more expensive than RAID controllers, yeah, not a good idea.

 

[Gixxer]

Your ICH10 RAID sounds like it's RAID built onto the motherboard. This is FAKERAID (software RAID dressed up to look like hardware RAID) and it is a wise choice to avoid it at all times. If the motherboard dies with a FAKERAID setup on it, ALL your data goes, no matter what way you put it. And since motherboards are always more expensive than RAID controllers, yeah, not a good idea.

and what happens if your raid card dies? wouldnt it be the same problem?

im interested in setting raid but there are so many opinions, so trying to learn.