Help me with a server build!

>>57111360
What about muh software raid

>>57111372

Eeehhhhh, I'd rather avoid pure software RAID.. but if you can make a convincing case.

>>57111360
Advantages of software raid (I recommend ZFS) over hardware raid5:
- not susceptible to 'write hole' issue that hardware raid may experience
- If in 10 years your motherboard breaks, you might struggle to find the same model to recreate the RAID pool.
- ZFS is also a filesystem that does checksuming on every transaction

>>57111571

ZFS isn't useable on Windows, as far as I am aware of at this point. Which means I could not use this machine for a Steam Machine unless I dual-booted.. or ran some horrible virtual machine and tried to game inside of that, but let's not go there.

>>57111571
Probably should add some disadvantages for the sake of fairness:
- ZFS is bad at lots of small writes, so you probably wouldn't want to run an SQL server on it.
- You should use EEC RAM with ZFS, true for other types of raid too though

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>>57111650
If you're planning to have a 'server' on the same windows machine that you game on, then we probably can't help you..

>>57111685

Nah, my main gaming machine is another system. I just want this one to be able to serve up video files (like my current one is doing now) while running a decent RAID.

I don't need an SQL server or webhosting or anything like that. Just something that will support RAID decently while running shit like Steam and PLEX.

>>57111650
Wouldn't recommend Windows as a file server. Storage Spaces is fucking garbage and so is ReFS. Reconsider.

>>57111704
If you're planning to use it as a Steam machine host, streaming from your gaming PC, then you want Ubuntu Linux 16.04 LTS, and use ZFS RAID-Z or btrfs RAID1 from that. Much better idea.

You'll be using samba to share files to your Windows boxes.

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>windows
>server
>>>/v/

>>57111746

No.. not the idea.

All I'm trying to decide is whether I use onboard RAID from the motherboard or a discrete card.

It's going to be a Windows machine because I want it to serve dual-purpose as a Steam machine.

My current gaming rig is -already- doing exactly the same thing I plan on having this machine do, except I don't have the HDD's in a RAID array. So I know Windows can operate exactly as I want it to with the services I need it to have, I just am trying to determine the best way to set up the RAID on the new machine.

>>57111704
I think your entire plan is flawed.

Why would you use a weaker server for steam streaming when you have a second gaming PC? The whole point of homeservers is to de-centralize services that you want running constantly, so you can safely turn off your daily computer, which in the case of a gaming computer probably consumes more power.

You should use your gaming computer as a Steam Streamer, and set up a linux box with a decent RAID and Plex.

Personally, I have 3 servers:
1 dedicated file server serving files using NFS and SMB
1 dedicated VM host that runs 4 VMs with small services. I like the added overhead of splitting up services in small VMs. One of these is a torrent server that places files directly into the NFS folders that the Plex server reads from.
1 dedicated media PC with full read access to the NFS shares that runs Plex.

>>57111360
Onboard RAID is gone forever if you lose the RAID card. Not a good choice if you don't have a support contract

>>57111790
In other words, you're an asshole

>>57111792

What?

The gaming machine will stay as it is in my computer room. This new machine will be located in the living room, connected to the main TV. I plan on it serving video (tv shows, movies) to the rest of the house, as well as being able to double as a Steam Machine playing a game every now and then with the wife. But my primary gaming machine is still a different machine.

My current rig currently serves video and music files to everything, but I'm running out of room on the HDDs in it. Hence the new build.

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>have no idea what you're doing
>people online tell you you're a retard and to rethink things
>pretend no one called you a retard and you were right all along

must be nice to live in a fantasy world

>>57111816

Ok, guy. That makes no sense, but sure?

>>57111809

This is my worry. If the motherboard craps out and I can't get a replacement..

but is software only raid a good replacement or do I need to go discrete raid card?

Of course, with a discrete card, I am out of luck if it craps out and I can't get a replacement as well, no?

>>57111825
>being able to double as a Steam Machine playing a game every now and then with the wife

Use Linux for your TV machine, install Steam on it and play any game you want using Steam Streaming from your gaming rig while having the benefits of Linux's software RAID solutions.

My powerful Windows PC at home is basically a headless game server now. I just play Steam games on my main Linux rig kind of as a thin client.

>>57111838
why do you think you need raid in the first place, if you can't even understand the basic needs of setting up a server? the standard access speed of a 5400-7200 rpm drive will be enough for you to watch videos, the same way it is in your computer, you mouthbreather

>>57111851

This sounds like it has potential. I will look into the Steam Streaming thing.

>>57111851
stop. this retard probably thinks of it as "loonix" and isn't willing to understand that people are trying to help him. let him do it the wrong way

>>57111857

I want them in a fucking RAID array so I don't have to manage 8-10 seperate drives with folders in each of them for Movies and TV Shows and for the redundancy of a RAID, you dickmuncher. :)

>>57111873
you don't need raid for that, mouthbreather. you just create a symbolic link. see? you you don't understand what you're trying to do and you think the very people you're asking for help aren't gonna tell you the right way to do it

have fun losing your data in 3 years

>>57111897

OH, right duh symbolic links.. and then when a drive fails I just stick in another drive and rebuild from parit.. what, there's no parity?

Fuck off.

>>57111360
From my experience.... software raid sucks dick and takes up so much resources from servers. Shit slows to a crawl because of onboard raid.

Stick with card raid.

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>>57111913
>doesn't understand the difference between raid and backups
i'm out. i've taught your retarded ass more than you deserve

>>57111931

Bye, don't let the door hit you.

>>57111914

I'm not terribly worried about write performance with the RAID, as it won't be written to very often. Do you find read performance is degraded, too?

>>57111838

I've just built a RAID array myself and used software because if the controller dies in 10 years I don't want the hell of finding a replacement.

Do you need de-duplication? Yes: Do you have 1GB of RAM per TB of space? Yes: use zfs RAID, block level de-duplication. No: use btrfs, file level de-duplication.

Do you need to boot up from the array and use it as system? Yes: partition 128mb, 2gb, everything else. No: don't partition it.

Do you care about data loss? Yes: use RAID 5 or 6. No: use RAID 1 for speed.

Are you using btrfs? Yes: create your array using mdadm because of bugs in btrfs RAID 5/6. No: use zfs RAID.

Make sure alerting is configured, plus RAID and filesystem scrubbing at least weekly. Make sure SMART tests are run weekly to detect pre-failure.

That's the result of my research, and I've got to run now and won't be online all day. #datahoarder on Freenode are helpful if you need advice.

Good luck anon.

>>57111970
Oh yeah also tuning. Tune it if you use mdraid, it's slow as shit otherwise.

>>57111790
Why in hell do you even want raid for that shit?

You can download your gaming files from steam any time you want so it's not for security.

Just use a 1 or 2 1TB SSD and you're set up.

>>57111957
>Do you find read performance is degraded, too?

yes

>>57111385
You can take disks from your software RAID, put them in a different computer and put the RAID back together.
With onboard RAID, particularly on consumer hardware, it's a gamble.

>>57111970
Oh the 128mb is boot, 2gb is swap, everything else is your array. Make sure you manually set priority on your swap to be equal, or you won't get any speed benefit. RAID 5/6 them with mdadm if you want to avoid crashes if you lose a disk

>>57112001

The RAID is not for that. The RAID is for the 6+ (and growing) TB's of movies and TV shows I have currently spread across 3 different hard drives in my current machine.

I plan on installing at least 8 5 TB HDDs so I have plenty of room to grow in for the next 6 or 7 years, at least.

>>57111970
>filesystem scrubbing at least weekly

What is the importance of scrubbing? I've been running ZFS for a few months now and I've done maybe 3 scrubs.

>>57112035
Detect data corruption and disk failure

>>57112035
RAID gives you redundancy against drive failure. It doesn't detect faulty RAM or disks that write shite, and that sort of mess magnifies over time corrupting everything as it's defragmented. Scrubbing fixes this cancer before it spreads

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>>57112019
>The RAID is not for that. The RAID is for the 6+ (and growing) TB's of movies and TV shows I have currently spread across 3 different hard drives in my current machine.
You don't need RAID for that, use LVM or ZFS can do JBOD too.

>>57112214
And backup rather than redundancy?

>>57112365
Backup is better than redundancy is certain ways. Defense against
1) human errors (deleted my movies off my raid by accident, how do I get it back)
2) Viruses and ransomware on Windows (will corrupt every copy in your raid)
3) Other errors caused by the operating system or corruption

Redundancy is for uptime -> losing customers and reputation because your server went down.

>>57111360
unraid

>>57112401
Yeah but if you have a multi-terrabyte collection of shota/fur porn and a thin pipe to the internet then RAID and a copy-on-write filesystem that supports snapshots is a reasonable trade off

>>57111650
i thought steam machine implied steamos, i. e. linux?

>>57113397
Could also mean machine running steam, rather than a Linux box bought from valve

>>57112185
how would scubbing help against faulty ram?

>>57111360
raid 1 drive fails fucks all the data

>>57113540
It'd catch the problem early apparently, as opposed to spreading the corruption as the filesystem is defragmented.

>>57111360
You probably shouldn't do either. Use software RAID or something like ZFS. If your hardware RAID card shits the bed you may end up with data that is very hard to recover unless you get the exact same type of card again. Fuck knows what you will or won't find available years down the line as a regular consumer. Mobo RAID is generally shit and you probably want to avoid it for similar reasons.

With a software solution you can just plug your HDDs into any other PC with any other SATA controller and reassemble the thing with trivial ease. With md(adm) on Linux reassembling a RAID array is like 1 command, even from a live boot. It's still prone to fucking up if data on a disk becomes corrupted but the drive doesn't outright fail. ZFS is more resilient to that sort of issue but AFAIK won't allow you to extend your "RAID" after you create it, mdadm lets you add more disks and even move to different RAID levels, all live without losing data.

>>57111360
not OP but I've got a question:

What is better?
RAID 5 or RAID 10

I'm thinking of buying a RAID too so any recommendations would be nice

>>57118782
It depends how much money you're willing to spend. At RAID 5 and lower you can only handle 1 disk failure, but at 6 and higher you can start dealing with 2 or more. For at home use RAID 5 is good enough.

>>57118883
also what would you recommend for backing up:
RAID 10 or 4 HDDs with a raspberry pi/banana pi/orange pi doing weekly scanning for changed files and syncing it over to a mirror drive using rsync or something similar?