Storage The HP Micro Server Thread

I think you've answered your own question there.

 

So far I use it as a web host / testing ground, a personal minecraft (game) server, and a downloading box. I have further plans such as a nas box so that I can sell my netgear readynas (I certainly don't need 10tb storage, but I'm more interested in running RAID 5 for data security), a remote desktop box to access files, this list is endless (almost).

I'm using the same software at home as I do at work so its helping to aid that, along with more Linux learning via headaches ....I mean configs.

Forgot to add, these usually function as storage or backup devices, I have plenty storage on my main PC, with the contents mirroring those on my nas. I'm paranoid about losing data (once bitten and all that), I'm tempted to keep my nas just for this - external backups.

 

Photo storage - RAW files are huge and I can easily shoot 32GB of photos in a day!

 

Do you use 2 programs together?

I also use DriveBender, set folders which I don't want to loose and let it take care of itself over my 4x2TB pool. Is there any benefit to use SnapRaid on top of it?

 

DriveBender only supports file duplication whilst SnapRAID is Parity based.

To have redundancy for 12TB (4x 3TB) DriveBender would need the same again to store the duplicate files... 24TB

SnapRAID only uses an extra drive for Parity data, so is way less hardware intensive only needing a single extra 3TB drive

My data is pretty static as it's a photo library so I only generate Parity data once a week, or after a big shoot.

 

Then why do you also run DriveBender?

SnapRaid looks great so far, might have to do a data migration from DriveBender to SnapRaid. My data are very similar to yours, videos and photos, mostly taken up by RAW backups.

If the OS drive fails meaning no RAID program data is saved, can the SnapRaid disks restore operation if plugged into another computer in different order, but also have SnapRaid installed? DriveBender can do this as all the pool data are saved in a folder.

But I don't like Drivebender because it runs all 4 disks all the time, never spins down. SnapRaid website suggests this isn't a problem with it.

 

As I said, for Drive Pooling

Wouldn't bother me as I schedule Windows Image backups so could restore from that.

If you didn't have these DriveBender would deal with restoring pooling not SnapRAID...

I'd only need to use SnapRAID if one of the data drives died and I needed to restore the data contained on it to a new drive. The Parity data is stored on the parity drive not the OS drive.

The only thing of SnapRAID on the OS drive beside it's binaries is a small config txt file which could easily be re-written.

Drives in my system are set to spin down after an hour of inactivity so it's not an issue for me.

I could just go RAID5 and get the same features as using DB & SnapRAID but I like pooling as it keeps as the file system and files readable to any OS should something very bad happen.

I've got offsite back as well.. but it'd take a while to re-download or get a few HDDs of my data shipped to me.

 

Parents are thinking of getting one of these and I can't seem to work out whether freenas will work for sonos and win8 & win7 devices, does anyone know?

 

For Windows yes, in case of Sonos you will have to try it out, but if it can read from standard Windows shares then it shouldn't have any problem either.

 

Sonos works fine from a Synology NAS using SMB, so FreeNAS will be fine also

 

QFT. It'll work from any SMB share that it can authenticate with.

PS It's because Sonos is awesome.

 

Is there any reason you don't use SnapRAID's own pooling? Also after setting up pooling, DriveBender only displays 1 drive letter whereas SnapRAID seems to need all drive letters.

So let me get this 100% clear in my head. SnapRAID runs only when you tell it to sync, when syncing, it creates parity on the parity drive. The data is saved as it is in the 3 other drives, if the OS fails, you can still plug the 3 data drives into another computer.

Does your DriveBender actually spin down? For some reason my won't spin down with DriveBender

 

Simple, SnapRAID doesn't do pooling!

My drives are mounted to folders not drive letters, I only have two drive letters: OS and the DB Pool. You configure SnapRAID to use the mount point instead of a drive letter (although it supports either).

SnapRAID runs on a schedule, it creates a parity file of the data on the data drives, it saves this file onto the parity drive. The parity file is unreadable to anything except itself and only used if you need to restore a failed data drive or deleted files.

As with your DB install you could take any of the data drives out and plug them into another PC and see the portion of the Pool that they hold. SnapRAID doesn't change this, all it does is generate parity data onto a separate drive that is not part of the DB Pool.

I use DB and SnapRAID independently of each other, either could stop and the other would still run.
DB = Pooling
SnapRAID = Parity

 

Thanks for answering my pestering questions.

SnapRAID does support drive pooling of a very basic form in the current version it seems.
http://snapraid.sourceforge.net/manual.html

 

Anyone running it from the internal usb port?

Currently got an old 30gb ssd plugged into the usb port, and the 250gb plugged into the final sata port.

Tried installing both Ubuntu server (which just wouldn't then boot) and now fedora (which is currently working) but both had no option to install onto the ssd

Any ideas?

 

It's not dive pooling, it's just a pool view of the array and is 'view only'... if you copied a file into it, nothing would show in the data drives as it doesn't write files back to the drives.

 

ah okay, I get it now, was wondering why you'd get DriveBender.

Sounds like an easy change for me: disable DriveBender duplications, remove 1 drive from the pool, and configure SnapRAID to use the spare drive as parity drive.

Many thanks, Atomic.

 

Hey George,
I'm running VMWare ESXi 5.1 from a 16Gb SanDisk Cruzer in the internal USB. Have been for over a year with no issues.
Does the system see the SSD from an external port?

S.

 

So according to this, it's running a fan rated at:
Air Flow: 8.6 CFM (3.58)
Static Pressure: 8.2 mm-H20 (3.41)
Running at 5V gives the numbers in brackets, assuming linear characteristics.
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1039472296#post1039472296

The Noctua A4x10 mentioned a few pages earlier is rated at
Air Flow: 4.5 CFM
Static Pressure: 1.78 mm-H20
So running at 12v, it should be good enough to cool the PSU, although static pressure is a bit low, but airflow should make up for it.

So I've ordered the Noctua fan. Will need a soldering iron to install it, so have to ask around for one, shocking that an electronic engineer by trade doesn't have a soldering iron

 

Ha ha! Oh sweet dude! Let me know how it works out!