| Registered: June 17, 2012 |  Posts: 2 |
| | Posted: | | | | I was looking at setting up a NAS and running DLNA and also Profiler (if it is needed) on it.
The NAS would be hosting 10+ 3TB HDD in RAID 5 format. Yes 30TB but given the number of DVDs, music (CD's, cassettes, LP's), high res images it will be used for SQL and Exchange data I expect it will be filling quickly.
This means 1 or maybe 2 RAID controllers depending upon the motherboard.
Might have to have two boxes side by side.
So as it is just a NAS I was wondering if the system would require an expensive video card?
I am running copper 1GB throughout the house and one of the TV's has copper to it already.
I am wondering though if dual NIC's and then in a pair configuration is acceptable and worth while? | | | | Last edited: by IanBennett |
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| Registered: March 18, 2007 | Reputation:  |  Posts: 6,461 |
| | Posted: | | | | I have been experimenting with RAID for over a year now. The value of good drives and good raid cards cannot be overstated. And never forget that RAID is not backup. You still need to plan for at least one other complete copy of your data. Using an external card rather than Motherboard RAID not only gives you better performance, but also more reliability and flexibility. If you lose your CPU, you could lose everything. On the other hand, you can move a complete RAID array to another computer so long as he controller card is compatible. And by performance, I mean rebuild performance - the inevitable bane of RAID users - a hard drive failure, or the need to reconfigure an array. Software RAID can take days - even a week or more. Hardware RAID is much faster. I don't have HW RAID yet, but I am about to switch. Thankfully, the vendor I am using makes compatible cards. Just plug in and go.  FYI, I am using Windows Home Server 2011 with about 30TB of raid, and WHS V1 server + selective copying to Blu-ray data discs as a backup. I did experiment a bit with Windows Storage Server. It is basically the OEM software for use by vendors to provide custom NAS solutions. Has some nice features including built-in iSCSI and automatic duplicate file detection on drives that you select - good for space savings. Underneath, it has the same basic Windows 7 structure as does Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Home Server 2011, so there is a lot of robustness and Enterprise type features. I realize that none of this may be news to you, but it can serve as the basis for more conversation and learning if you also have some experiences to share. | | | Thanks for your support.
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Hey, new product!!! BDPFrog. | | | | Last edited: by mediadogg |
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| Registered: May 19, 2007 | Reputation:  |  Posts: 6,730 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting IanBennett: Quote:
So as it is just a NAS I was wondering if the system would require an expensive video card? If it really is just a NAS (Network Attached Storage) it wouldn't need any graphics at all. What you describe sounds more like a File-Server though so a low-budget graphics card would be fine. In most cases even the Onboard-Graphics may suffice. This is not a question of provided graphics power, but of expected ease of maintenance (It's easier to exchange a defective Graphics card than to exchange the complete mainboard). | | | It all seems so stupid, it makes me want to give up!
But why should I give up, when it all seems so stupid?
Registrant since 05/22/2003 |
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| Registered: May 19, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 5,917 |
| | Posted: | | | | If you build your own NAS, simply get a motherboard that has an onboard video card. A non-windows OS would cut down on bloat.
My UNRAID NAS box currently has 12 data drives, 1 parity drive, and one cache drive - runs entirely from a RAM drive (booted from a USB thumb drive) on a system with 4 GB of RAM. Software RAID, but very fast.
2*3TB, 2*2TB, 7*1.5TB, 1*32GB SSD, 1*500GB cache. Total storage: 17.53TB. 64% used.
The beauty of UNRAID is the mix-n-match of drive types and no total data loss if more drives fail than supported by parity drive. |
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