Help choosing a Low Power high capacity NAS for media storage

Helium_Junkie

Helium_Junkie

Helium_Junkie

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After a hard drive failure in my PC I'm looking for a way to offload my media to free up HDD space in my PC so I can add redundancy. I have about 6TB of media at the moment, and would like space to expand over time.

What I'm looking for:
  • Decent redundant capacity (4*3TB+ drives in raid5?).
  • Low power drain, less impact on my electric bill the better!
  • Doesn't have to be a media server, just acting as storage is fine. Can use my PC as transcoder if needed. Ability to use PLEX server wouldn't hurt though.
  • Low price. Not looking for economy options, just not looking to go wild either.

From what I've read here the HP Proliant Gen8 looks like a good bet for my requirements, and a bunch of WD green drives perhaps. This should be cheaper than most of the 4 bay NAS options around, can you implement a 4 drive RAID5 on this server?

Before I go any further am I on remotely the right track or is there something else that would be more suitable? I see a gen8 for £185, would that + HDDs be all I need or are there other purchases to include?

Many thanks for any help!
 
Microserver is not a bad choice, but for RAID5 you'd need an additional RAID card. I use the HP P420 with 1GB memory and BBWC.

However, you should be aware that when big drives fail they will take a lot longer to rebuild. So if you need to source a new drive and then wait for the array to rebuild, you could be pushing your luck for another drive to fail and then you will lose all of your data.
Many people will recommend RAID10, but you will lose half the available space rather than a quarter. However, you won't need an additional card as the Gen8 inherently supports RAID10. Rebuilds are quicker, and you can lose 2 disks before you lose everything - as long as you're aware of the inherent risks and understand them, it's your choice.

Also I wouldn't go with 'green' drives, they are designed to spin down quicker when not in use - which is not what a RAID array wants to see. You're better off going with drives designed to be used in RAID arrays like the WD Reds.
Of course all that could be marketing bluster, and I'm not about to test it, but I use WD Reds myself.

And finally, I use VMWare ESXi on my Microserver. I have my Plex media server on an Ubuntu VM and it works brilliantly.
I run the NL40, but the Gen8 looks like it's completely supported in ESXi, it's an option I would seriously consider as it gives a great deal of flexibility.
 
If you're happy to just have a NAS, then I can recommened Synology DSM 5.1 via xpenology on a machine, I currently use a Supermicro ATOM D510 with 12 hot swap bays using synology for iSCSI and general CIFS sharing its great...

So in direct response, Synology Hybrid Raid (unless you're after the raid 5 striping for speed increase?) will give you parity and easy expansion using mixed disc sizes all on a custom machine such as the Gen8 or even a low powered ITX motherboard in a dedicated 8 hotswap case.
 
Thanks for the suggestions and advice, the red>green tip is very helpful!

I wasn't looking for performance gain from RAID5, the goal was least lost storage space. I'm changing my mind on RAID however, the amount of media I have makes it quite expensive, and losing a few movies isn't the end of the world.

I'm currently considering the HP Gen8 with 2 WD Red 4TBs non raided, giving me a little expansion from my 6TB of media without too much cost. Is there anything else I might need to make this all work?

Thanks!
 
Little_Crow said:
And finally, I use VMWare ESXi on my Microserver. I have my Plex media server on an Ubuntu VM and it works brilliantly.
I run the NL40, but the Gen8 looks like it's completely supported in ESXi, it's an option I would seriously consider as it gives a great deal of flexibility.
Click to expand...

Hi Little_Crow, could you please explain a little more how this works as using the Gen8 as a plex server could be a nice addition :)
 
There isn't really much to explain: it's just your own private Youtube for your media. Installation is fairly simple, especially if you're not totally new to the command line:

1) Download the .deb file with wget
2) sudo dpkg -i <the deb file you just downloaded>
3) Go to http://127.0.0.1:32400/web
4) Click add library and browse to the location of your media

Done. Then just visit that web address (changing the IP obviously) from another machine to watch, or download one of the Media Centre apps for whatever device you want to watch on.

https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200288586
 
I could wax lyrical about VMWare ESXi, and I certainly recommend looking into it - it's free, you just need a USB stick to install to and boot from.
There are a few free hypervisors around, but I'm most familiar with ESXi so generally recommend that.


When I built my Plex server I originally worked out all the kinks using Ubuntu desktop - having a GUI to hand is a nice comfort blanket when you're very used to Windows. Once I'd worked out how to do everything, I then built another VM with Ubuntu server and replicated all my setup but via command line (As the N40L doesn't have the zippiest processor I was keen to avoid using resource to run a rarely used GUI).

Once up and running, it was just a case of creating the folders for Movies, TV, etc and creating them as libraries in Plex.
Copy the videos/music/photos in with the correct naming format, refresh Plex, and it did all the rest.
 
That's exactly what you want, get the latest 5.5U2 ISO.
When you do the install I would not have any disks connected, and just have the USB plugged into the internal USB socket - that way it's definitely being installed where you want it.

I believe the microserver gen8 has 'Intelligent Provisioning', so you just have to press whatever F key at boot that option is under (F10, I believe) and run through the wizard. HP have made it very simple.

Register on the VMWare webpage, and get the license key for the free version of ESXi, and while there you will also need to download the vSphere client.

Be aware that ESXi is headless, so you can't connect up and see the screen of a VM you're hosting - just the config screen of ESXi. Mostly you'll use this config screen for the initial setup, and after that everything will be done through the vSphere client.
 
I run a previous gen Microserver with WD RED's and it's been pretty rock solid.

Your ESXi key will be emailed to you as well I think, and presented when you download.

You obtain the vsphere client by browsing to your ESXi host.
 
What you're looking for is under free products, and is listed as 'vSphere Hypervisor'.

I've checked my login to the vmware portal and I have 3 downloads listed, as well as the 25 digit license key.
1st is the iso for the esxi install - you need this for the intelligent provisioning install
2nd is the iso for vmware tools - you don't really need this, there are lots of ways to pull this down on the server.
3rd is the exe for the vsphere client - you'll need this for the config.
 
Thanks :) Think I've got it. Server's in the post, let's hope I don't screw this up too badly!

At what point should I install BIOS updates, the downloads on HP suggest that you need to have the OS in place beforehand.
 
I have a Microserver with 4 x 2TB drives in RAID5. It's an excellent file server. The Gen 8 is a little faster, but you might find you need to install a Xeon if you're going to be transcoding the media while streaming.
 
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