Topic: Recommendations for Media Server / NAS

[rastasean]

wow that amahi looks really cool!

Recently I've been seeing all kinds of dell, HP, sun servers on craigs list for incredible prices. It would be cool to pick one of them up and install something like the amahi on it and/or some other server software. the shuttle is nice but it seems like a netbook without a monitor.

[phanophish]

anyone ever use something like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856101095&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3705318&SID=skim1043X499650 for their server?  thinking about getting one and putting amahi on it...

My concern with something like that would be expandability.  With the explosion in digital media I already have terrabytes of audio, photos and video is really starting to take off storage needs are ony going to increase.  I've been eyeing something like this with FreeNAS or Amahi....

http://cgi.ebay.com/3U-Supermicro-X5DPE-G2-Storage-Server-4GB-SATA-16Slot-j-/150536731628?pt=COMP_EN_Servers&hash=item230cb03bec

[rastasean]

^^

That's exactly what I'm thinking of too!

That is obviously meant for file serving and sharing so its dependable to be on for months at a time without rebooting.

[fobstl]

I've been following this thread and recently pulled the trigger on the parts to put together a Windows Home Server box over the holiday. I'm going the WHS route because of the ease of expandability, duplication of selected files across multiple drives, easy computer backup and the fact that the wife can easily go to a web portal to remotely access photos, etc.  Going the Raid route is a notch or 2 above my computer abilities so I wanted something more user friendly that I could set up and take care of myself.  Starting out with a 1tb OS drive plus 2 - 2tb storage drives and plan to add 2tb drives as I find deals on them. I'll report back after I get it up and running.

[illconditioned]

I bought a windows server box, ACER H320 I believe.  It is a small "cube" case with four SATA slots (on occupied), an ATOM processor and *no video*.

I immediately installed Ubuntu Linux on it and set it up as a "backup server".  The application is to back up my office machine.  The server sits in another office and I backup daily, a "cron" job using "rsync".

Aside from the lack of video (what were they thinking!) I love this little box.  It is compact, low power, and very well constructed.

  Richard

[OFOTD]

fobstl,  good to see you going the WHS route.  If you have any questions please PM me i'd be more that willing to help.   I'll PM you a few good websites for addons.

illconditioned, the reason why most of those boxes don't have video is that they are built to be run 'headless'.  All of what you need inside and nothing else.  As I said before they are the kind of boxes you could put in a closet and forget about.


Simp,  I run a similar box to the one you listed.  I have a Zotac ZBOX that I use as my HTPC running XBMC.  As rastasean alluded to in a previous post these boxes are really just nettop's with HDMI support.   Most rely on Nvidia ION graphics chips and either a Celeron or ATOM processor.  While I have no doubt you could run a server off of it you are limited as to external connection devices.  Pretty much USB only.  The Shuttle box you linked to is pretty much as bare bones as you get (lack of ION graphics, VGA only, only one RAM slot)

Take a look at the Zotac boxes.  Pretty sizable performance difference for the same price of the Shuttle you listed.  Plus there is a pretty healthy Zotac community on the net.  Here is an example:  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856173011

[illconditioned]

illconditioned, the reason why most of those boxes don't have video is that they are built to be run 'headless'.  All of what you need inside and nothing else.  As I said before they

Yeah, I run it headless.  But any video, VGA console or whatever, would make install and setup easier.  Even getitng into the BIOS settings.  But, hey, they don't want you changing the OS, right?

  Richard

[OFOTD]

illconditioned, the reason why most of those boxes don't have video is that they are built to be run 'headless'.  All of what you need inside and nothing else.  As I said before they

Yeah, I run it headless.  But any video, VGA console or whatever, would make install and setup easier.  Even getitng into the BIOS settings.  But, hey, they don't want you changing the OS, right?

  Richard

No I think its more of just K.I.S.S. for most folks.  Those that like to tinker will always find a way around.  But again for folks with average computer knowledge these boxes are all pretty simple and straightforward.   Similar in thought to the new AppleTV, GoogleTV type boxes.  Made more for the average user than the more advanced user.   

[rePat]

anyone ever use something like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856101095&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3705318&SID=skim1043X499650 for their server?  thinking about getting one and putting amahi on it...

I use an Atom for my server, and it works well!  Don't expect to encode video very efficiently though, hehe.  I have an older version of this:  http://bit.ly/fS3NWA

There's been a lot of activity over at Amahi lately.  A lot of hardcore WHS users are jumping ship since they announced the discontinuation of the Drive Extender feature in the next release. 

I encourage everyone who is looking for a home server solution, to check out the new website http://amahi.org  It can be run in a VM, if you want to test drive it that way.

Happy Holidays,

Pat

[Simp-Dawg]

well, i bit the bullet last night and ordered one of those acer WHS boxes and a 3 more 2TB drives...8TB total!  wondering if i should throw them all in the server right away, or keep 4TB in there and use the other 4TB in an external enclosure as a backup of the server...maybe even keep it in a different room of the house...

[baustin]

well, i bit the bullet last night and ordered one of those acer WHS boxes and a 3 more 2TB drives...8TB total!  wondering if i should throw them all in the server right away, or keep 4TB in there and use the other 4TB in an external enclosure as a backup of the server...maybe even keep it in a different room of the house...

simp, let me know how this goes. i've been researching options for a while now.

can this acer system be set up in a RAID configuration?

[Simp-Dawg]

just did some research, it does not support raid...though honestly, with my recent experience with a wd external drive raid controller going bad, i'm not all that into it anyway!  i'd be happy just having a separate backup drive, which i may do...

another possible downside is that it doesn't support Time Machine backups so i may need to figure out a workaround...not a huge deal and they say there may be third party software available.

they just dropped the price another $50 on this thing though, i wonder if newegg will give me the better price?  thinking i should probably get a UPS for this sucker too...

[phanophish]

just did some research, it does not support raid...though honestly, with my recent experience with a wd external drive raid controller going bad, i'm not all that into it anyway!  i'd be happy just having a separate backup drive, which i may do...

another possible downside is that it doesn't support Time Machine backups so i may need to figure out a workaround...not a huge deal and they say there may be third party software available.

they just dropped the price another $50 on this thing though, i wonder if newegg will give me the better price?  thinking i should probably get a UPS for this sucker too...

A few things to note.

RAID 0 actually makes a given volume MORE likely to fail as it becomes susceptible to the failure of either of the 2 drives.  Most other versions of RAID (1,5,6,10) add redundancy which reduces the likelihood of failure. 

The Acer Windows home Server boxes do have a form of data redundancy called Drive Extender, although it has received mixed reviews.  It had a few bugs initially that caused data corruption.  Those have been fixed, but Microsoft elected to discontinue the feature in the upcoming new version of WHS.  Supposedly the solution worked very well and presented a much easier recover from a failure than traditional RAID.  The limitation seemed to be performance under heavier loads.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/24/windows-home-server-vail-drops-drive-extender-support-ms-sugg/

[rePat]

Yeah, there's been a lot of static about #vail #fail.  Here is an alternative, available stand alone, if you want to roll your own Linux server, or built in to the Amahi Home Server http://amahi.org

Greyhole http://code.google.com/p/greyhole/

Cheers,

Pat

[Simp-Dawg]

so i got this thing all set up and running over the weekend, after a few updates thing seem to be running smoothly.  the box has a nice form factor and it is really quiet.  haven't done much customization or actual setup for streaming and all that, but will soon.

this version has the drive extender feature working, i may use that so i have redundancy in the box, so instead of 8tb i'll have 4tb, but i'm still waiting on the drives to arrive before i can install them and make that decision.