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90 Comments
- Arbinshire, on 10/12/2007, -1/+26Here's a simpler version of this article:
1. Purchase a bunch of drives
2. Purchase or use an old computer
3. Plug it together
4. Install OS & Setup
5. ?~?~?~
6. Profit? - demosthenes247, on 10/12/2007, -1/+24as much as i love macs, your powermac was probably more than 500 dollars, so yah...
- plingboot, on 10/12/2007, -12/+29America, meet the rest of the world.
Rest of the world, no introduction needed - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13There are places to 'go cheap.' A file server isn't one of them.
- lemon404, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13I would suggest FreeNAS because its free, small and it does Software RAID 0,1,5 !!!
- fifrenzy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10Thanks to Top Gear I know what a quid is. I also found out you call a 'sedan' a 'saloon'.
- MalDON, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7For 625 you can get 1.8 tb at frys after rebates.
- mcc123, on 10/12/2007, -11/+18"we dont use "quid" in the US. LOLOLOLO"
And I don't think we're familiar with the term "LOLOLOLO" here in Britain. How ignorant of us! - nograz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I have a 2 TB array that I am currently using 100 Mbit and it works fine. I can stream a DVD off of it with out any problems while I do a descent work load of writting to the disc.
I have also streamed HD content with out a problem.
I may upgrade to Gbit down the road, but right now, there just is no need for it. - jbestrom, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Looks like this is where the OG article is at.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=183702383&pgno=1 - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Great. On the other hand, I can build you a fairly stable, speedy, and redundant 1TB fileserver for just a little over $1000.
- Killgore, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Agree totaly with samsite. This is real easy, and if you need this guide then you dont need 1TB of storage. On the other hand its good to see how other people approach problems.
- THess944, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5link doesn't work... go to http://nwc.personaltechpipeline.com/56900772 (another story) and click on the top related story (The one this is article was supposed to link to)... looks like they are blocking all requests from digg.
- gollo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Actually if they RAID 5'ed it they would get about 2/3 of a TB (750GB give or take).
- pjprior, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5What about data redundancy ? If it's striped across all 4 disks and one goes pop, the whole fs is screwed. Much better to have half a terabyte of dependable storage than 1 terabyte of undependable storage.
- blkjak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Did I miss the paragraph in the article that said this was a high end, fully redundant and backed up data center worthy NAS device? What do some of you guys expect when spending $500 on new equipment?
"This kind of NAS is more or less plug-and-play, but focuses on one function only: adding storage." Mission accomplished.
This article was simply stating that you can build a one terabyte file server for $500. The author mentions several times that you might opt to use different hardware.
For basic fault tolerance, you can use software mirrors or raid sets. I prefer to have the hardware do this function, but it is a low cost option.
To make everyone happy, the author at least used Linux and Windows. - philz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda2 110G 2.5G 102G 3% /
/dev/sdb1 2.6T 509G 1.9T 21% /bigassraid
Ahh life is good :-)
Just watch out for those pesky EFI partition types (>2TB) - nenolod, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4A 100mbps connection (which is any modern consumer SOHO/Home LAN since about 2001 or so) will likely do just fine, actually -- if you take into consideration that most users will primarily be storing small pieces of data to the server and then retrieving it later on.
Now, if you're a hardcore geek, you need GigE. Except with most GigE cards, you only get around ~500mbit throughput due to horridly written drivers. So yeah, 100mbps is probably just fine for most people. - rhawk301, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4@t35t0r RAID-5 can be done with 3+n disks. Most people implement without the hot spare, but you can certainly make RAID-5 with 4 disks. In fact, to get the 1TB from 250GB disks, you would need to run RAID-5 with 5 disks, or if you want a hot spare you use 6 disks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID#RAID_5 - yoyo42, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3t35t0r, you're thinking of RAID-4. On RAID-5 the parity is evenly spread across all disks and you can have as many as you like (well, at least 3).
RAID-4 has one disk for parity, the rest for data. The loss in capacity works out the same but the practicalities are way better for RAID-5 in terms of flexibility and access speeds.
- Buelldozer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Where's the drive level redundancy? Any single drive failing will lead to the loss of at least the contents of that drive and perhaps more depending on how the partitions are structured.
A very amatuer attempt and not one that I would recommend for anyone whose serious about protecting their data. - krum, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I built a 1TB RAID-5 array for about $750 a few months ago using a 3ware SATA RAID controller and 4 x 250GB Western Digital SATA "R"- class drives. Of course, I don't quite get 1GB of space. Pretty sweet stuff.
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda3 705381220 283123608 385848300 43% / - vbrtrmn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"The drives are generic, hence the low price. Of course, you can opt to pay more for brand-name drives, and in some instances and for some people that might be a reassuring choice."
They're using generic drives, not such a good deal, if you actually care about your data. I'd opt for a 5-year warranty drive such as any Seagate, Fujitsu, or the Maxtor 'MaxLine' series. Buying a drive with a 30-day warranty is just begging for drive failure. Seagates are really the only drives I buy now, unless I'm in a pinch. Their retail price is usually a bit higher than the other brands, though NewEgg has the 250GB SATA drives for $100 shipped and Outpost ALWAYS has a deal on them; I picked up a 400GB Seagate the other day for $89 after rebate.
Don't buy generic hard drives :) - brandonhines, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Genereic drives in a file server? Are you kidding? -_- How is this guy published? I don't care if they "seem" functional, if I'm going to dump data onto a file server that large I expect it to perfrom like a ***** champ. I don't want to be praying.
Personally, I'd get a lower speed P4/AMD Athlon or a lower speed Celeron and another 512MB of RAM. - samsite, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Thanks killgore, Its all down to how your going to use your file server, your comment derekknight, yes you are corect in that, make sure that your get some decent HDD's but as far as the motherboard and chip go, it doesnt realy matter, as long as its powerfull to run the OS you intend to install, and if your installing NAS light, you wouldnt even need a P3. I have a small file server running with a P3 and 256mb of ram with a install of windows 2k. I can honastly say it has not been reboted for 4 months now and has never locked or crashed
- SystemsGuy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Don't buy generic hard drives, and for the love of god, don't put together a terabyte of storage without RAID. This is a very well written recipe to disaster - simply because the people who will read and follow these instructions will be the first to store some irreplaceable family photo album on it.
The ultimate bit of irresponsibility is to suggest that this is appropiate for business use.
"Few small offices and businesses need a full terabyte of storage right away, so you could start with just one or two drives and add more later, as needed." - dramatools, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2True. I've had a similar configuration for some five years, starting with three 45 gb drives as a RAID 5 volume, then replacing them with 160 gb drives 18 months ago. During the 45 gb era, each drive failed, and was replaced (usually with a 60 gb) under warranty. Because the likelihood of two drives failing simultaneously is quite low, you have a fairly reliable array. You can always increase the reliability by adding a additional disk as a hot spare.
You don't need to splurge on a hot processor since your NAS will usually be running a minimal OS (I use mine for other things as well-- intranet web server, a VMware process with Windows, and still get by with a tired old Celeron 1.7 running CentOS). I/O is a bigger concern -- the master/slave arrangement won't cut it. Use only one drive per channel. If space is tight, go for SATA drives and controllers-- four-channel cards are commonplace and the whole rig will be easier to cable.
Whatever you do, use a journaled filesystem (On Linux, ext3, jfs or reiser; For Windows, NTFS) and a UPS. ATA drives and software RAID are more prone to filesystem damage in case of a crash or brownout than a hardware-controlled SCSI array.
I have to discount the people who say "if you need this guide, you don't need a terabyte of storage." This article assumes the reader is comfortable with building a PC from a box of parts. From what I can tell, it assumes the reader knows how to set up arrays and file shares. Just because it isn't in the form of a howto and published at linuxdoc.org, doesn't make it less useful. While it's incomplete, it will give the fairly capable some ideas on how to get inexpensive mass storage. - vbrtrmn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This would be EXTREMELY noisy for an HTPC, especially with the generic drives he's recommending. Good luck though.
- briangig, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Generic drives, cheap 450W PSU, and a standard ATX tower without improved cooling for the drives.
I wouldnt trust that with my enemy's data. - Slippy1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2NSLU2 = less than $100 for the server hardware (about the size of a stuffed wallet) and silent (no fans). Noise depends on the USB storage you attache to it.
With the linux hack, it's a nice little box.
I use 2 x 300GB with a script mirroring an essential data folder. Good enough for me, and unlikely both drives will die. If the linksys NSLU2 dies, the drives can be plugged straight into my computer's USB to get at the data. - kckabob, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3at buy.com today they have a special:
Western Digital My Book Essential 500GB - USB 2.0 Instant Storage
Our Price: $279.95
Essentially you could have 1 terabyte of storage with no hassle for $560. It's not quite as slick or impressive as this article but requires much less effort. Just a thought - NickLe, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Use a linksys NSLU2 with "upgraded" firmware & some USB2 drives
- solidblu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Here is the article on another site. or least it shares the same title and looks like it should be the same pipeline and pipline. so if its not a perfect mirror of article don't kill me
http://www.bizintelligencepipeline.com/GLOBAL/btg/pipeline/shared/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=177103278&pgno=1 - akinder, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I think I saw that same $89 deal on the Seagate's, I'm definitely grabbing on of those. How is it running?
- cleggy1969, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I agree, and for $200 more you can get a 1TB NAS w/Gigabit.
http://www.buffalotech.com/products/product-detail.php?productid=133&categoryid=25 - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Forbidden 403 - there goes another page to digg.
- iSEPIC, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2try outpost.com frys owns them and the prices are within 10%
- Karyyk, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Forbidden (403)
You have requested data that the server has decided not to provide to you. Your request was understood and denied.
Got to love an error message with a rotten attitude.
No f$#@ing digg. - rodbibeau, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2one thing they should have covered in this article was the lack of redundancy. They could spend 81 more dollars for a 5th drive, and then 40 for a bottom of the line ide card. Then use raid 5.....i cringe at the possibly of losing data.
- DannyPage, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3...or the guy was using his own guide to build the html server.
*zing* - BritOverseas, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Dugg, because I am looking into the for a HTPC set up at the moment, any other suggestions/options would also be appreciated.
Probably want at least 2TB maybe 3... - sancho, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1That 5 year warranty won't get your data back if the drive crashes. Rather than opting for brand-name drives, you should opt for redundancy.
- chadseld, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1No need to spend $190 on the case!!! I built a linux-based NAS box last year from a $60 Mobo+CPU combo, $50 case. A slow 800MHz Duron can still fill a 100Mb/s pipe.
- konkushn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You can buy a 1TB Buffalo Terastation for a little over $700 USD. I have one running RAID 5 and it is a great, small and quiet box. Put it on a gigabit network and you are good to go!
- sancho, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Actually, the liklihood of drive failure is a fairly interesting study. One thing you want (if you can manage it) is to have the drives come from different batches or production runs. Drives with similar serial numbers may have similar heat/fault tolerances, and thus will be likely to fail close together given similar conditions.
- kokayi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I did something simular to this last fall with an old PC a friend gave me. I needed extra space for my laptop. It's cheaper to put a big drive in old PC and mount via NFS then network than buying an external drive. The article's accuracy seem to be pretty dead on. Lot's of hand holding for novices.
- rhawk301, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Everyone take a look at the Ximeta drives. They have what is called NDAS, or network direct attached storage. They do use a proprietary driver, and I believe are for windows only. The part I really liked was the mirror and replication options they had. Seems like a great idea. I am hoping they will support a standard NAS someday, with the same options.
http://www.ximeta.com/products/network_drives/netdisk_enclosure/index.php - DubbleA, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2This won't me look at it.
"Forbidden (403)
You have requested data that the server has decided not to provide to you. Your request was understood and denied."
Did anyone mirror it? - Hamsterpotpies, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1whrere do you get the HDDs?
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i could sure go for one of these puppies:
http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?sku_id=0665000FS10066022&catid=23795&logon=&langid=EN -
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