Project Home Media Server.

Carbon Copied · 14 Jan 2016 at 21:41

To be fair I'm just trying to make as much use of bits and pieces I already have - sure I could rush out and get an AIO unit, but cooling that RAID card as an add-in could be more hassle than just custom looping it from the start. I wouldn't say it's so much the tightly packed component side (after all it's a dtx board in a 3u case!) - it's that the air being drawn may not be sufficient for passively cooling the onboard CPU with it's stock heatsink (compared to like mentioned a server room), the PCB itself will fair just fine; maybe it's overkill but whatever, it's something alittle different that may help that noise and temperature balance in a home server rack and where it's stored.

Bit of a pain getting the block on the card though... had to shim it nice and evenly around the transistors but the result I'm pretty pleased with to say that it isn't designed for it; doesn't look half bad with the CPU block either.

Not going for anything too out there like hard line piping - keeping it nice and simple with compression fittings so they can be reused in any future server shifts. The green PCB isn't too bad - remember function over form

Carbon Copied · 14 May 2016 at 12:35

Carbon Copied said:
....Not going for anything too out there like hard line piping - keeping it nice and simple with compression fittings so they can be reused in any future server shifts....

Ok so I lied, however there is a point; the tighter turns needed to get the tubing just were proving too cumbersome for regular tubing whilst sizing up. Acrylic seemed worth investigating to get the things more space efficient; let the overkill commence.

Racks are cooled in serial (more on the cooling later) - stopping off at the gaming rack first before mopping up any heat from the media rack. Rack's loop is powered by x2 D5 Laing pumps I had knocking around - the dual D5 Koolance reservoir allows for serial operation and more importantly: redundancy.

Koolance QD3's on each system allow a "plug and play" so there's minimal off time between working on one or the other.

First bend after a few practices on a length - getting the hang of it.

Easiest one in... fair number to go...

@simpleMr · 14 May 2016 at 17:48

I have to say first of a great job with pictures and the run through of what you did and what you have got. The storage bay though for £77 was a steal and the whole system should be super cool. i would have put in a 10Gb NIC myself bgrade for the price and then another for a pfsense router with the same and a quad gig nic for extra ports but otherwise a very very cool post. I am looking into WD new HDD at the moment they have so many variations.

TechMinerUK · 20 May 2016 at 20:56

Hard tubing is going to make this system look brilliant although I am starting to wonder about the functionality aspect as if something needs changing out it is going to be a royal pain. Still though it will be interesting to see how it all looks and works in the end as it's just got more interesting

Great work

Carbon Copied · 21 May 2016 at 18:22

To be fair it won't require any more maintenance / dismantle steps than a normal system once drained should hardware need replacing - each box can be drained and filled independently; the QDC's on the rear allow for rapid draining whilst the hoses can be replumbed to the system left running. On initial filling it'll also allow both boxes to be filled independently then added into the loop via the QDC points (rather than relying on the whole thing routed up).

The reservoir sits externally to both systems which allows all the above.

Carbon Copied · 11 Aug 2016 at 22:17

So Project Home Media Server was on hold whilst I've been doing up my new house but it's now got some needed infrastructure to abuse the setup....

Have done 15 runs from upstairs: 3 to bedrooms, 8 to the gaming room, 1 to the centered Ubiquiti access point in the hallway, 3 spare ends for any later upgrades like security cameras.

6 runs downstairs to the living room.

Think the house is covered - now back to sorting the hardware..

TechMinerUK · 12 Aug 2016 at 08:07

This stuff is what I've always dreamed of doing, sadly some people don't share my passion for gutting the house to run CAT6 everywhere

Still, your setup is going to rival some small businesses, especially with the new server

Keep the updates coming

somewhatdamaged · 12 Aug 2016 at 08:40

Why not use unRAID?

It's absolutely fantastic, and you can run Plex as a docker, plus SABnzb / Sonarr etc

I have a 38TB array inside a 16 bay chassis similar to yours, running off dual LSI 9211-8i raid controllers flashed to IT mode bought off ebay for around £50 each

Can add any size disk you want, super easily.

Carbon Copied · 12 Aug 2016 at 19:33

Personal choice really; looked at freenas and similar alternatives and wanted something that was dedicated to running the array, settled for the single clean pulled high end adaptec that will support all 16 drives regardless of what raid I throw at it now or in the future - having back up battery support should the inevitable happen is a nicety.

Mainly though I like playing with things that are overkill; if software raid works for another person then fantastic, but I wanted to do something different I hadn't fully dabbled in before.

@Techminer - cabled up in 5e which I felt was far more forgiving given cat 6's rigidity (difference between for the distances covered wasn't required and some angles whilst going along joists). Could you not get at some of your floor boards to do some runs to stud walls in your house (causing slightly less chaos)? Get a good cable mouse kit and you'll be getting long runs under without too much disturbance.
Albeit that relies on the stud walled rooms being the ones you actually want to go to and joist layout being kind!

I've found so far that the line "sometimes these things just happen" seems to have kept me out of trouble when things start coming off walls "accidentally"

somewhatdamaged · 14 Aug 2016 at 00:41

Ah ok cool man

I switched from FreeNAS to unRAID as i found FreeNAS very dated and adding new storage was a real pain in the neck, with having to create additional vdevs instead of being able to just add additional drives as and when (and also losing all your data if a single vdev fails). The interface was also terrible, although i am a big fan of ZFS and the integrity it provides for your files, but it wasn't enough to keep me and unRAID has pretty much ticked all the boxes for what i need.

My spare server has an LSI Megaraid 9260-16i card in it, and despite it being pretty top of the range and costing me over £800 when i bought it, it corrupted my 24TB RAID6 array twice losing everything (Win Server 2012 R2), luckily all my data was backed up. This was with the server on a UPS and the raid controller having a BBU as well

A high end card is no less likely to fail, and i would personally rather split my drives over multiple controllers after the experiences i had. Live and learn thought i guess!

Also check your Adaptec card supports IT mode if you do go with FreeNAS, as the last thing FreeNAS (or unRAID) want, is to have a hardware raid card interfering with the OS and how it reads / manages your drives. The drives have to basically be passed straight through

Good luck with everything!