IO for Home Server, how much?

[bigredshark]

I did consider it but considering when to move data, the still reasonable IO requirements of just moving the files in a reasonable time once recording is complete and the limited amount of data you'll get on an SSD - if you record 4 HD streams simultaneous then a 128GB SSD is only about 2 1/2 hours worth of storage. Given that you can buy two 2TB drives for the price of a single decent 128GB SSD is didn't seem to make sense...

 

[PhillyDee]

What I am more interested in is the fact that you could actually find something decent worth recording on 1 tuner, never mind 8!

 

[n3vrmind]

I did consider it but considering when to move data, the still reasonable IO requirements of just moving the files in a reasonable time once recording is complete and the limited amount of data you'll get on an SSD - if you record 4 HD streams simultaneous then a 128GB SSD is only about 2 1/2 hours worth of storage. Given that you can buy two 2TB drives for the price of a single decent 128GB SSD is didn't seem to make sense...

I was thinking 2 SSDs for the recording, since battering large drives with high IO just increases the chances they fail and some people here are suggesting numbers of drives raided that will put the costs above the cost of a couple of SSDs

Seems a bit backwards aiming for high performance on bulk storage, this guys needs are still for home usage

 

[mikeh501]

What I am more interested in is the fact that you could actually find something decent worth recording on 1 tuner, never mind 8!

remember that the tuners are shared between maybe 4-5 rooms/tv's. Just watching tv in each room is 4 tuners alone never mind recording.

 

[mikeh501]

I was thinking 2 SSDs for the recording, since battering large drives with high IO just increases the chances they fail and some people here are suggesting numbers of drives raided that will put the costs above the cost of a couple of SSDs

Seems a bit backwards aiming for high performance on bulk storage, this guys needs are still for home usage

I'm not entirely sure splitting the array is going to work just on the pathing issue of having to point the apps at various places. I'm assuming I'll have only a single option of where to point MC for recorded content, and if it's two arrays then this may be a problem. Needs a little more research

 

[RimBlock]

Kinda surprised most seem to be advocating the 'all your eggs in one basket' approach.

Personally I would use a machine for capture and another for archiving / playback. The capture machine could have a suitabily fast disk subsystem to handle the 8 streams and the archive server can have the volume on a slower disk subsystem either backed up, on a fault torrerant raid array or pref both.

You loose your capture server then you still have all your archived material available. The archive server could just be a NAS box or two.

It really depends on what impact downtime has on you and loss of all the recorded content.

RB

 

[mikeh501]

Kinda surprised most seem to be advocating the 'all your eggs in one basket' approach.

Personally I would use a machine for capture and another for archiving / playback. The capture machine could have a suitabily fast disk subsystem to handle the 8 streams and the archive server can have the volume on a slower disk subsystem either backed up, on a fault torrerant raid array or pref both.

You loose your capture server then you still have all your archived material available. The archive server could just be a NAS box or two.

It really depends on what impact downtime has on you and loss of all the recorded content.

RB

As per the multi server post above; one of the things i'm not sure about is whether media centre can have multiple paths setup for record and playback. I kinda doubt it.

Also your option means I will have two servers permanently on, which I'd like to avoid unless one of them can be very quiet/small. I guess the playback server could be a NAS, but the cost of having two systems for little benefit doesnt stack up imho.

Also, in terms of data loss i'll be backing up those items which I wouldnt want to lose (pictures/music) but anything else like recorded TV I couldnt care less if goes.

 

[SimonR]

Having a very small low power MCE machine shouldnt be hard, my Atom 330 MCE can do that without a problem. As stated in earlier posts, your problem will be tuners. You are ideally going to need 4 x pciex1 slots for your 4 tuner cards which means a full size board - unless you offload your tuners and use SiliconDust HDHomerun network tuners (which run fine with MCE) - but that is even more boxes, but they are DVB-T HD ready.

Then you have a choice, you can use a NAS like a QNAP or a WHS like a HP EX495, which integrates almost seamlessly with MCE. Yes it is more boxes, but you wont be taxing the MCE box heavily. You have a reasonably robust set up, that wont draw huge ammount of power, runs reasonably cool and can be hidden away in a cupboard or a comms cabinet.

Plus you can use Xbox 360 or something like WD-HD TV Live to stream media, you can even stream tv to an Xbox using the HDHR tuners (via the MCE)

Just some ideas for flexibility

Mushii

 

[ecksmen]

As per the multi server post above; one of the things i'm not sure about is whether media centre can have multiple paths setup for record and playback. I kinda doubt it.

Also your option means I will have two servers permanently on, which I'd like to avoid unless one of them can be very quiet/small. I guess the playback server could be a NAS, but the cost of having two systems for little benefit doesnt stack up imho.

Also, in terms of data loss i'll be backing up those items which I wouldnt want to lose (pictures/music) but anything else like recorded TV I couldnt care less if goes.

Most media centers allow for several "watch" folders. Sure you may only have one option to save new items to, but most you can point to several folders to watch for new content.

All you'd need is some sort of script that runs once or twice a day that moves content to archive if it hasn't been accessed for x days. That would be easy...