As I add more computer systems into my network, either via HTPC, MediaPC, music-server, or run of the mill computers for the kid's or surfing the web, I'm now starting to understand more and more the need for a robust storage backup scheme. I thought about a simple RAID setup for the music-server, but then I started to think, what about a means for backing up my DVD collection? I was going to install a large drive into the HTPC, but what happens if that drive goes down? I would have to rip all my DVD's again. That would not be fun. Or if the music-server hard drive dies. Currently I would have to re-rip all my albums. All my singles would be lost. It would be most devistating. So in thinking of a system for data backup, I thought about the different RAID types. I've settled on an UnRAID NAS server by Lime Technology. Main reason, I needed something that is robust, but also won't break me in the bank. The UnRAID system fits this to a tee. You can use run of the mill parts, and the OS is free (for the basic RAID of 3 hard drives of various size). What this allows is the use of 2 data drives and one parity drive. If a data drive goes down, I can place a new drive in its place (of equal or greater size) and the data will be re-written to it...hence no data is lost. So my new project will be to build an UnRAID server that will store the following: DVD movies, eventual HD content, recorded TV for either the MediaPC or the HTPC, pictures, games, install software, any other files that will be deemed important for backup, including the music-server, HTPC, MediaPVR backups. This will also mean that instead of having computers networking into other computers, and sharing directories on the network, scattering information across multiple systems, that in order to read, one would have to make sure that particular system is alive, all computers will network into the UnRAID server and can view/play all content right from the server...in one central, redundant location. I think also that I will be able to setup specific rights for individuals so they only have access to certain files on the UnRAID server. This functionality is offered in the Plus and Pro versions. The Plus version also allows the use of up to 6 drives, the Pro up to 16 drives. Don't know about getting up to the Pro version, but the Plus version will be good as my mother board has 4 SATA ports and 2 IDE ports.
Current Hardware Case: I found an individual throwing out a mid-size case, so I snagged it. Actually it is pretty heavy duty in construction. It has 4x5.25" drive bays, 2x3.5" drive bays, and is very roomy inside. Also the 3.5" cage easily slides out, as well as there are two removable 5.25" tray converters for mounting hard drives on on slides. I guess the previous owner was using this as a make-shift server. Anyone interested, I pulled out of the case the following: 4.3Gig, 3.2Gig, 2.1Gig Quantum SCSI drives Unfortunately all are untested. The bigger drives though look very newish (very little dust on them). Motherboard: ECS 945GCT-M/1333 Socket 775 w/video, and LAN  I picked this board up off ebay. It wasn't too expensive, and it was one of the boards on the UnRAID Hardware Compatibility List. From reading the forums the LAN is a little finicky on previous UnRAID versions, but I will have to see how it behaves on the more recent 4.3.3 version. It is only 10/100 base, so it will be replaced with a plugin card when I upgrade my network for GigLAN. The UnRAID server, HTPC, and MediaPVR will be the first computers to get this upgrade, as well as a purchase of a small switch box. This board is a microATX form factor, it has 4 on board SATA ports that can support up to 3Gb/s transfer rates, 1 IDE connetor that can support 2 IDE drives at Ultra-ATA 100/66/33 mode, 1 PCI-Ex16 connector, 1 PCI-Ex1 connector, and 2xPCI slots. So there should be enough slots to add a future GigLAN card and an additional SATA controller for additional drives. Without an extra controller card, I should be able to setup an UnRAID Plus server using a 5+1 setup (5 data, 1 parity drive). Including shipping, it cost $58.30 cdn USB Drive: Lexar Firefly 256M  I just recently won this stick on ebay. It is a recommended USB Flash drive from Lime. Including shipping it cost ~$9.00 cdn Memory: Kingston ValueRAM 2x512MB KVR667D2N5K2/1G  This is some of the memory recommended for the ECS board. It also falls within the UnRAID limit of no more than 1Gig memory is required. I got it from a local computer store selling them for $27.99 cdn a pair. The board BIOS automatically picks up the two sticks as Dual Channel Capable. Case Fan: Nexus D12SL-12 Silent Fan  Since I was using one of these in my HTPC build, and was quite impressed with how quiet it was, yet still able to move adequate amounts of air, I decided to put one into the UnRAID server. I've been pleasantly happy with the performance of the fan in the HTPC, so I would expect much the same with this one. CPU: Intel Celeron 440
CPU Cooler: Artic Cooling Alpine 7 Pro
 I bought an Artic Cooling Alpine 7 Pro. This is a low end heat-sink fan but is ultra quiet. It should be adequate for cooling a 35W CPU even at its lowest speeds. It is cheap as the local computer store sell it for about $14.52. A review of it can be found here: http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=2234 Power Supply: Antec EA-650  This is a 650W supply that has an instant rebate of $10 at the local computer shop. Paying by cash, it is about $74.99 +tax. Pretty good supply according to all the professional and personal reviews. It should be able to supply enough juice to power the system full of drives in the future. It is efficient and quiet and should aid in keeping the utility bill down for a system that could potentially be on 24/7. Hard Drives: 2x Seagate Barracuda ST3750630AS / 1x Seagate Barracuda ST3500418AS  ST3750630AS (note: not a pic of my system) ST3500418ASBattery Backup: APC Backup-UPS ES 350  Got this as a Christmas gift, and should add some basic battery backup protection for the system. It should supply up to about 15 minutes worth of additional power. As well, it has some surge protection to protect the system against lightening strikes and brownouts.
LOG Aug 26, 2008 The motherboard came in yesterday. I installed it into the case last night, along with the memory. No issues so far. I'm going to drill some mount holes for the 120mm fan. I also will require some rubber feet. The next purchase will need to be the CPU. Then I will be able to do an initial power-up and verify a boot from the Lexar Firefly. Aug 28, 2008 Lexar USB stick arrived. UNRAID installed on the stick just fine. Now I just have to complete the rest of the build and get the server going. Sept 3, 2008 Drilled mounting holes for the Nexus 120mm fan, and installed it. Should help bring in fresh cool air. It resides right below the 3.5" drive bays, so air should be sucked in and upwards and blown out the supply. I will most likely install more fans into the system, once I get an idea of how the eventual hard-drives warm up. Sept 15, 2008 Just won an Intel Celeron 440 CPU off ebay. The next purchase will be a hard drive and a CPU cooler. Then I can at least power the system to the BIOS and maybe verify that the system will boot from the USB Flashdrive. Then I just have to pickup the hard drives.Sept 28, 2008 The Celeron 440 just arrived in the mail, so I will be looking forward to installing this onto the motherboard. Just have to pick up a CPU cooler for it still.Sept 29, 2008 Some pictures of the install currently. ECS motherboard, RAM installed Close-up of Kingston RAM in dual channel mode Celeron CPU installed Nexus 120mm fan installed Overall case view The back IO shield Back of the case Case front with faceplate removedI bought the Artic Cooling Pro cooler for the Celeron 440, and installed it. Below are some pics:      I installed a generic power supply to try and power the system. It powered up, I went through some of the BIOS and everything seemed in order. I then attempted to boot off the Firefly, but was getting an error that it couldn't find the boot drive. I re-formated/installed the UnRAID boot on the drive a few times but got the same error message. I then found in a forum thread on the UnRAID site to add a switch command to the syslinux. On the main site it indicates to type this: c:\syslinux.exe f: (changing f: to whatever the USB drive is) c:\syslinux.exe -ma f:Adding "-ma" seemed to make all the difference. Now my server is sitting and greeting me with "Tower Login". I powered down, and changed the IP, Mask and gateway to my network, and changed the network name to "WORKGROUP" from "MSHOME". Powered the system back up and was able to connect to it via web browser on a remote machine. Now I just need to get some hard drives and a final power supply. Oct 18, 2008 Picked up the Antec EA-650 650W supply. Installed it in the UnRAID box, along with old drives (6.4Gg, and 3.2G) with hopes of trying out the system tonight and see how it works. I will be able to check throughput, see how think operate under load, and give me a chance to work on the system, since I've never worked really on a Linux type system in the past...only briefly played with them. Will update later with details of my first hand view of this exciting venture.  The Antec EA-650 prior to installation Supply installed   ATX Connector installed ATX Additional 4-pin Molex connectorOct 20, 2008
Well, I had my first hand experience at building an UnRAID array. Used a temporary 6.4Gig, and 3.2 Gig drive. The larger one setup as the parity. System built itself no problems...though I will not use for pratical use as I can't even fit on DVD on the data drive. Though I may transfer my install software directory over to it just to try it out some more. Good start for myself, and got me comfortable around the web server. Oct 27, 2008 Started to run the wiring to the UnRAID's final resting place. I'm going to install it in the dry cellar. It's not a bad location as it stays relatively cool year round. It is no more damp than the rest of the house. Finished running the CAT5e cabling, with only the end needing termination. Oct 28, 2008 I finished running and terminating the CAT5e cabling. I was able to verify the connection by talking to the UnRAID server via webserver. Now I just have to run the AC to that location. Oct 30, 2008 Ran some speed tests on the LAN. I pinged the UnRAID server for about an hour and did not get one dropped packet. Good! I then ran some files across, and using a Net Scanner, it reported a peak of 33MB/s output to the UNRAID and 14MB input from the UNRAID. I did notice when I was outputting, after a sudden speed burst, the system would pause. I'm taking this as the drives in the UnRAID is the bottle neck, and once a drive buffer is full, it has to write to the server. I'm not sure, but I think it is also writing the parity at the same time. This issue should be eleviated once I get the proper drives in the system. Just as an example, a 100Meg file should have copied over in 20seconds, but with this pausing, it took about 40 seconds to copy. Next step will be to copy over a .VOB file (1 gig file) and time it, then play it back across the network on the HTPC or MediaPVR and verify that it plays correctly. There were reports that DVD playback stuttered with this motherboard/network driver, but that was using previous versions of UnRAID, and the more recent 4.3.3 had better driver support. Nov 1, 2008 Wired up the the AC receptacle into the area where the UnRAID server is and everything powered up fine there. I also performed some more network tests: Continuous Ping Test I sent continuous ping packets to the server to see if I had any dropped frames:  And the results of the test:  I then sent a bunch of small files across the network to the UnRAID server the back from the server. The files were MP3 of AC/DC new album "Black Ice" (which is a pretty good album I must admit). All 15 tracks, final album size was about 127Mb. I used AnalogX NetStat Live to monitor the transfer speed. To UnRAID:  From the UnRAID machine:  The next test was to send/receive a moderate sized file. I used a Ren & Stimpy video which was just under 100Mb in size. To UnRAID:  From the server:  Finally the last test was to transfer 1 large file to and from the UnRAID server. For this I used a 750Meg video file. To server:  From server:  Not to bad for a 10/100 LAN. The one thing, and I think I stated it above, and which seemed to be very evident in the large file transfer TO the UnRAID box, is the persistent pausing. I think it can be boiled down to a couple of issues. One being that the data drive I'm experimenting with is only 3.2Gigs in size on the IDE bus. The parity drive also is only 6.4Gigs. So these two drives are old, and very slow. The other thing is that I think the parity is being written to and verified on the fly. The first issue should be solved once I get newer drives to place into the system. The second issue is just the way UnRAID opperates. This shouldn't be a problem when getting files from the server, such as watching video, as was noticed in the the last "From Server" picture. It seemed to be sustained and consistant. Dec 5, 2008 I haven't been playing around with this system too much as of late. Been busy with my other projects. Found out that the three drives will be a Christmas gift so I'm salavitating over that. I picked up a couple more SATA cables in prep for connecting the drives when I get them. Nothing would drive me up the wall more than to get the drives and not be able to connect them. So look for an update around Dec. 25th. Jan 12, 2009Dec 26, 2008 Ended up getting two Seagate 750G drives and an APC UPS for Christmas. Installed the two drives and the UnRAID system is rebuilding now. After the parity check, I will have to format the data drive. Drive temps are Parity: 23 degree C, Data: 28 degree C. So they are still running pretty cool, though granted, the room that the system is sitting in is pretty cold right now. Dec 28, 2008 So here is the screen capture of my UnRAID main screen. The second drive, though shows it very cool, has gotten up to a whopping 28 degrees C. The parity drive remains relatively cool and steady at 23 to 24 degree C. I still have an old IDE 6.4G drive which doesn't indicate temperature. I have transferred the majority of movies, music, install files, emulators/ROMS, and some pictures over to the server and it is in full swing now.  Over the weekend I had a chance to really start trying out the UnRAID server and network in a possible real world situation. My kids were watching a movie that was playing on the MediaPVR, so I decided to take the opportunity to really run things and setup the HTPC to also play a movie. So I had two movies running from the UnRAID server, across my LAN to two different computers, and everything ran solid. Absolutely no glitches in the video or breakup of audio. I was very happy with the results of this test. Now I'm going to have to try three streams, then four, then... Jan 15, 2009
Well, over the last little while, I've been monitoring the hard drive temperatures. I've seen the data drive as low as 13 degree Celcius when the system spins up. With the weather as cold as it has been, my storage area where the UnRAID server resides is pretty cool. To play it safe, figuring that the hard drives have a lower temperature limit, I decided to leave the drives spinning. The data drive is now sitting around 26 degree C. The parity drive was always sitting around 22 degree C. This makes me feel a little bit better. I am very happy with this system. Feb 8, 2009 I recently got a 3' USB extension cable, as I've wanted to move the USB flash drive to the internals of the box. Last night I went ahead and installed that, as well as clean-up/tie-wrapped some of the other harness. Hopefully that will increase air-flow over the components, and keep everything a little bit more cooler. System booted up after without issues. Feb 16, 2009 Since I was spending some time in setting up and testing two video streams on the BES box, I figured this was a pretty good test on the UnRaid server and general network throughput. I decided to push the envelope even further by not only streaming the two movies to the BES system, I decided to stream a third movie to the MediaPVR. Well everything ran really smooth, and I didn't notice any hiccups. Maybe I should try for four streams ;) . Apr 4, 2009 Finally picked up a drive to finish off the "Basic" array. It is a Seagate ST3500418AS 500Gig drive. Arrays rebuilding nicely as I'm typing this. This should buy plenty of space until I start towards HD content. |
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