Coolamasta's new home NAS & rack build :-)

[coolamasta]

Out of interest - is the LSI card a sata 3 or 2 model?

I can;t find reference to a 2960, only a 9260. Which one is it please?

http://www.lsi.com/products/storagecomponents/Pages/6GBSATA_SASRAIDCards.aspx

I'm wondering whether I'll get any more performance out of the highpoint card by adding more drives, or whether I'd be better investing in a pro-card. My card is http://www.highpoint-tech.cn/usa/rr2680.htm#top

As for Plex - didn't get chance to install it. I was working on a SQL server build and that seemed to take an eternity to get all the updates down and installed for Windows Server 2008 and SQL server. I've not seen all 12gb of memory on my desktop machine in use until yesterday - it was quite underwhelming :|

Ah my bad, must have made a typo its a LSi 9260 8i Sata III controller, I think most of the speed comes form the I/O on these new WD Red drives more so than the raid card, when I first got the card I tested 3 x 250gb Seagate desktop drives on it and was hitting around 220Mb/s read which I suppose is why im so surprised how much faster these Red drive are working!

Virgin came round and delivered my new router (I think it's called a superhub) as well as the new TIVO box. Very impressed with the TIVO's ability to rewind "LIVE" TV. We missed the start and end of a film last night (A perfect murder) and was able to wind it back to see both. Nice.

I've now installed Plex media server on my media server, and added my movies, music vids and music. It's chugging away doing something, and I have to say, on the movies at least, it seems to be a loser match than XBMC's engine(s). I'll install the client on the HTPC a bit later on and see what it looks like.

Any tips? There's not a whole lot of plugins obvious on the main site. What do you use?

Ah nice work, Tivo is awesome and yeah I got the Virgin Superhub too and can confirm it sucks so I have put it into "Modem only mode" and use a decent Draytek router/firewall instead

How you getting on with Plex anyway, I know sometime the movie matches can be bit of a pain but out over 300+ I only had about 10 not work or display the wrong cover in a different language or something. There is an option to change where it pulls down its cover/info data from, Plex have huge forums which are helpful as well for reporting bugs and getting tips.

I literally use the Plex client with PlexAeon skin on my HTPC's which I have set up to how I want it and im very happy with the results, it does take a bit of playing around with and tweaking though but once done is great

 

[coolamasta]

Nice case and Nice server, looks huge but seems perfect for home enetertainment, considering it has a 12TB total disk space, I would pay for something similar to that for atleast two thousand pounds. 16GB of RAM? nice, honestly, that has to be the best media server I have seen. Nice job and weldone, how much did it cost?

Thanks bud, the case isn't that huge, about the same size as an Antec 300 on its side, total usable space is about 8.2 TB as the drives are in a Raid-5 array so the capacity of 1 drive is lost for parity (resilience) but I also have a standalone 2TB drive in the 5th drive bay for backups so there is a total of 10TB of usable space at the moment

I will work out at some point how much it cost, wouldn't be as high as 2k though, I estimate around the £1400 mark as I bought the Raid controller second hand instead of £450 of whatever they go for new!

how loud is that icybox drive caddy? I'm looking for some 5 into 3 drive bay adapters but noise is a real concern.

Doesn't seem very loud to be honest, it has a noticeable higher pitch tone with the lid off but when enclosed its nothing to complain about, the 80mm exhaust fans make more noise which are annoying and something I need to look at soon...

Coola - sorry for the hi-jack. Any progress with the build to report?

Not a lot else with the NAS server itself yet mate but got my MDF cut to size at B&Q yesterday ready to make my new enclosure, pics to follow shortly

 

[coolamasta]

Started building the new twin 8u rack this weekend to replace the old metal 12u rack, one side will house the 2 x 4u NAS and VMware servers and the the other side will be for the networking equipment etc, here are some progress pics.

 

[Tattysnuc]

Ah my bad, must have made a typo its a LSi 9260 8i Sata III controller, I think most of the speed comes form the I/O on these new WD Red drives more so than the raid card, when I first got the card I tested 3 x 250gb Seagate desktop drives on it and was hitting around 220Mb/s read which I suppose is why im so surprised how much faster these Red drive are working!




Ah nice work, Tivo is awesome and yeah I got the Virgin Superhub too and can confirm it sucks so I have put it into "Modem only mode" and use a decent Draytek router/firewall instead

How you getting on with Plex anyway, I know sometime the movie matches can be bit of a pain but out over 300+ I only had about 10 not work or display the wrong cover in a different language or something. There is an option to change where it pulls down its cover/info data from, Plex have huge forums which are helpful as well for reporting bugs and getting tips.

I literally use the Plex client with PlexAeon skin on my HTPC's which I have set up to how I want it and im very happy with the results, it does take a bit of playing around with and tweaking though but once done is great

I've got a D-Link router which has been brilliant - I used it for eons (I think it's the DIr-655) before my penultimate Virgin router was put in place. Top tip with using another router. I'll see if the superhub continues to give grief - I liked the D-Link because you could assign fixed IP addresses to MAc addresses, and then ip filter based on that defined range - I can't think of a securer way of doing stuff than that. Wireless-schmireless. Cat 5e all the way!

Regarding Plex, its..... adequate. Nice clean feel, which for me felt more welcoming than XBMC. Both are good products, especially when you consider they are non commercial products. Plex server also seems to work fine with my streamium stereo, so that's a bonus. I do miss WMC, specifically the media browser plug in, that had the right feel for me, and to jump around long lists of films (708!) and music videos (2011!!!!) it was ideal - you just start to type the name and it finds as you type. Simple, but effective. It also grouped films in folders as a single film, so if a film is in 2 parts, then it would recognise them as one film, and play both parts. Is that possible in Plex? Maybe I should register with their forums rather than taking over your build log. My bad. Sorry!

 

[coolamasta]

I've got a D-Link router which has been brilliant - I used it for eons (I think it's the DIr-655) before my penultimate Virgin router was put in place. Top tip with using another router. I'll see if the superhub continues to give grief - I liked the D-Link because you could assign fixed IP addresses to MAc addresses, and then ip filter based on that defined range - I can't think of a securer way of doing stuff than that. Wireless-schmireless. Cat 5e all the way!

Regarding Plex, its..... adequate. Nice clean feel, which for me felt more welcoming than XBMC. Both are good products, especially when you consider they are non commercial products. Plex server also seems to work fine with my streamium stereo, so that's a bonus. I do miss WMC, specifically the media browser plug in, that had the right feel for me, and to jump around long lists of films (708!) and music videos (2011!!!!) it was ideal - you just start to type the name and it finds as you type. Simple, but effective. It also grouped films in folders as a single film, so if a film is in 2 parts, then it would recognise them as one film, and play both parts. Is that possible in Plex? Maybe I should register with their forums rather than taking over your build log. My bad. Sorry!

A lot say the VM router is OK but I also hear a lot of moaning about them, main reason I put it into modem only mode and use a separate router was for a better Firewall with DoS and SSL VPN so I can remote into my home network with my laptop from anywhere, I've even used it to steam plex content although I have to take a hit on quality with HD films as I do not have enough upload bandwidth (3Mb/s) but Plex will Transcode it on the fly to a lower quality which is still watch-able on a laptop screen

Like you say Plex and XBMC are both great systems, I never used WMC much as I just didn't like the feel of it but saying that I didn't mess about with the plug-ins much. What does it for me with Plex is mainly the fact you have a server back end as I connect a good 5+ devices to it and it will show what I have watched and what I haven't also I can stop watching something on 1 device and continue it on another.

Yeah its worth having a look around on the Plex forums and asking a few questions about things like the films in 2 halfs etc, im sure there are loads of great plug-ins for it that I don't know about!

 

[coolamasta]

Not had much chance this week to work on the cabinet but I have mocked up the 8u rails, had to use the router to shave 5mm of each side of the central 18mm MDF section to get both rails in tighter to allow enough space either side for the rack mount equipment.

There are some holes in the back to allow cables to be passed between the 2 compartments when the back is on and also im playing with a vent to put in the top back to allow the exhaust fans from the servers to push out the warm air, might invert it so it looks a bit neater, also might paint the vent but before I do anything I need to jigsaw out the hole haha

Couple more pics for anyone interested!

 

[MasterPlan1]

This is actually a really good idea, as I'd really love to make a custom sized rack for the storage cupboard in my apartment - shame I can't cut wood for puddin' nor have the tools to try. Sub'd either way as it'd be interesting to see how you get on

 

[GodAtum]

Sweet! A few questions. Why did you choose the LSI card rather then a Dell PERC 6? How did you get the discount for the drives!? Where did you get yr glass rack as I'm looking for one?

 

[pyropetepete]

Really intrested too see where this is going as looking to make a rack my self as only want something small and neat, cable layout, surge, nas to go in there and my server

 

[coolamasta]

This is actually a really good idea, as I'd really love to make a custom sized rack for the storage cupboard in my apartment - shame I can't cut wood for puddin' nor have the tools to try. Sub'd either way as it'd be interesting to see how you get on

Cheers mate, if you make the plans exactly to right sizes then just get B&Q to cut everything to size you'll be sorted, just need some screws and glue then I had to make a couple of cuts myself but I knew that, I just got B&Q to do all the big cuts as they are much neater than what I can do with a hand or jigsaw!!

Sweet! A few questions. Why did you choose the LSI card rather then a Dell PERC 6? How did you get the discount for the drives!? Where did you get yr glass rack as I'm looking for one?

Cheers, The LSI card is 6Gb/s Sata so it supports 3TB drives where as the Dell Perc 6 is older 3Gb/s Sata and will only support up to 2TB drives I believe, the LSI has had some great speed reviews, oh and I got it cheap

The black 12u cabinet I have isn't glass, its all metal with a front locking metal door which isnt fitted so not pictured, it was from eBay about £80 I think I paid for it, will be for sale soon as my new one is built if you are interested and local-ish and I can't post it lol

Really intrested too see where this is going as looking to make a rack my self as only want something small and neat, cable layout, surge, nas to go in there and my server

Cheers bud, going to try and get the thing fully built this weekend and painted up in place, will see how work and things go

 

[Tattysnuc]

Can;t wait to see your next batch of updates.

PS. The more I use Plex, the more I like it. Thanks for the top tip!

 

[Tattysnuc]

I've just been catching up with my foldering reading over on B**-tech and seen your dual cpu build..... no wonder this is progressing so slowly

 

[coolamasta]

Can;t wait to see your next batch of updates.

PS. The more I use Plex, the more I like it. Thanks for the top tip!

Good stuff mate, also your welcome

I've just been catching up with my foldering reading over on B**-tech and seen your dual cpu build..... no wonder this is progressing so slowly

Yeah got 3 projects on the go in total, plus 101 other things going in life, all fun and games though!

 

[coolamasta]

Couple more pics before I paint it, also not sure which way im going to put the grill yet (2 middle pics show either way)

 

[GodAtum]

Cheers, The LSI card is 6Gb/s Sata so it supports 3TB drives where as the Dell Perc 6 is older 3Gb/s Sata and will only support up to 2TB drives I believe, the LSI has had some great speed reviews, oh and I got it cheap

The black 12u cabinet I have isn't glass, its all metal with a front locking metal door which isnt fitted so not pictured, it was from eBay about £80 I think I paid for it, will be for sale soon as my new one is built if you are interested and local-ish and I can't post it lol

Wow how much did you pay for your RAID card? Are you around London/south-east?

 

[coolamasta]

Wow how much did you pay for your RAID card? Are you around London/south-east?

Got it for under £100 I'm Bristol based mate so err yeah not very close lol

 

[coolamasta]

First coat of Jet Black Matt paint although it looks more like a charcoal colour! Hopefully will get a bit darker with a second coat later tonight!

 

[Appleby]

looks smart!

 

[Tattysnuc]

It's.......







BIG

 

[coolamasta]

I am pretty pleased with how its turned out although I must admit the huge black cabinet does look a bit out of place in a light coloured room! I will be painting the side of the big base unit the same colour black and I will change the crappy tiles on top to something better suited then I will be re-painting the whole back wall again as well as its a bit of a mess now, so yeah please ignore the colour mish-mash for now!

Everything is running sweet and funnily enough it seems to run quieter than it used to in the metal 12u rack, think I am going to soundproof the servers a bit more internally and I need to add the front dust filter into the NAS box (when I find it!) and clean the dust filter on my VMware host!

Heres the pics I took last night although they are not final as I just wanted to see how everything fitted, also there are internal pictures of the NAS and my VMware ESXi 5.1 box.

There will be a few small changes and improvements being made and I still need to screw in the servers properly but ran out of cage nuts plus I need to install a twin port KVM
I removed the base from the Virgin SuperCrap, oops I mean 'SuperHub' so I could fit it in and I think it looks OK although the plugs come out the top so cant use the top 1U space

Anyway feel free to make any comments good or bad as im always open to a bit of constructive criticism

** Oh top pic was after it had a second coat hence the lines, its not streaky now dry! **