Server build query or just use hard drives

[Mr Big]

I have been reading and looking at all the parts to build a home server. The question that is always being repeated is. A server is not a backup as you will need a duplicate server to backup your original server then you need hard disks with the same data off site in case of fire or flooding that is going to work out really expensive, OUCH.

My question

If you need a backup of the server why not just buy an external USB-3 duplicator or docking bay and just back up in a mirror the hard drive to another hard drive then you have an exact copy of the hard drive and keep it off site in case of flood or failure. What is the sense of building a server if all you are waiting on is a drive to go down and you have to rebuild it then you have gone to the expense of building the server or maybe you purchased one of the internet like Synology or Qnap.

I intend for this server to hold my media library and other files I dont need off site access or anythgin g of that nature nor do I need to stream any files over the internet I just need local access with a backup solution. If I were to build a server I will be going high end on the parts as no pre built server would ever come close to my configuration without having to spend over 2.5K.

I am just trying to figure out the cost of such a project, the parts for my build listed below hard drives will be a mixture of the following Seagate, WD, Hitachi server grade 18TB a disk for now I will buy 4 to start then buy more when the server grows. 1 parity disk + 2 X 2TB M.2 NVME cache drives WD 850X.

ASUS ROG Strix Z690-G Gaming WiFi Intel LGA 1700 £300

Intel Core i5 12600KF £277

Ram Crucial 64Gb £148

Fractal Design Node 804 PC Case £106

10GB NETWORK CARD £100

SERVER RAID CARD £20

Software Unraid £103

Seagate or WD Hitachi server grade 18TB discs I will add more as and when needed

The above build comes to £1050 I already have the SSD’s and hard drives as the parts are used or shop seconds returns so saved a few pennies here and there the discs are also used.

Just need some advice should I save the money and just do a hard drive to hard drive backup straight from my pc what would the benefits of a server as it seems you need a backup or duplicate of the ortiginal server to stay safe seems an awful expense when a hard drive to hard drive abckup will suffice so why bother going to the expense of a server build. I don’t need access to my files over the interweb I just need access to the drives from my pc and somewhere to store them. I really don’t know what to do to tell you the truth as at some point I am going to have to have a back up of my server for every 16TB of data written to the server.

I am also aware a backup to an identical hard drive will work out expensive as that is roughly £550 for two exact same discs so backing up to individual hard drives is expensive also no matter what I do it is getting pretty wallet crushing expensive.

Thoughts anyone.

 

[LuckyBenski]

- Why do you need such high performance components for a storage server? Power consumption will suck, relatively speaking.

- What are you actual storage needs? i.e. how big is your media collection and how fast is it growing. Do you really have 54TB of stuff already?

IMO you want a NAS which can store files over your local network with low power efficiency and whatever capacity you choose to buy. Then an external HDD or a second NAS/other machine can be spun up to back up your media daily or weekly or monthly, IF it's important enough to back up. If it's a load of ripped DVDs you still own (or just download anyway...) Then backup less crucial.

 

[lsg1r]

Unraid doesn't need that high end of hardware, you can likely repurpose some old hardware for it.... having said that I'm going back and forwards over using my 4790k or buying a newer more efficient option for an unraid build.

As for the question of backing up to external... there's technically no real reason why you can't (pretty sure unraid supports it) although the cost of those external multi bay cases can work out pretty pricey. It's also more efficient to do a network to network offsite storage in most cases (if you have the locations), you could potentially damage a usb hard drive in transit etc.

Hard drive to hard drive backup will essentially double up the cost if not more, you could look at online storage from someone like carbonite (backblaze don't support network drives) who do a 'low cost' off site backup and iirc it supports unraid.


As for the option to use a nas.... strangely enough it can actually work out cheaper now to build your own server, the prices of 5+ drive nas aren't really that cheap anymore.

 

[Mr Big]

Suppose I was going with a build it like this to last me a long time I was looking at lesser components as this build is really expensive I have other work files that I need to keep for a long time and would be absolutely devastating if I ever lost them the idea of a NAS seems to be you need another backup of the nas it would be ok if the nas in question was all you needed unfortunately you need a backup of the nas to be 100% certain so my thoughts were to just back up to external hard drive mirrored, as you have stated hard drive to hard drive backup that works out more expensive so maybe a NAS is the way to go.

Ok I will go back to the drawing board and find a lesser Mini ATX motherbaord processor ram build try to bring the ceiling price down to a more reasonable level.

Thank you for replying.

 

[decto]

A server is for convenience, a low power, always on data store to make your life simple.
Duplicating a drive is fine but what when you have 60TB of storage, how do you mange that.
Are all the drives installed at once?

Agree with the above, unraid needs really basic hardware, as long as you have a modern intel CPU for transcoding you're fine, 12100 class would be ok, pick a simple motherboard.
You won't be sweating the VRM's. The main expense is adding SATA ports, if it has a x4 electrical slot you can add 6 more ports cheaply + likely 4 onboard and that's 160TB + 1 for parity.
You can use an NVME drive for cache / plex etc. but push media downloads straight the the spinning disks or you'll wear the cache drive out.

My tertiary server as a HP NL40 with a dual core Turion cpu but it's fine for storage only so any modern intel chip will be fine.
Unraid also doesn't really use ram. 8GB or 16GB is plenty unless you want to run a lot of virtual machines, game servers etc.

Do you really need to treat all data the same?

Precious family photos, docs, videos etc. I have multiple backups including at parents house etc.

Media, mostly ripped or downloaded copies of stuff I own, I don't make a lot of effort to back up, I did fill some old drives with copies and left them on a shelf as it was easy but I don't see any reason to backup the entire server and that makes it a lot more managable.

 

[lsg1r]

Suppose I was going with a build it like this to last me a long time I was looking at lesser components as this build is really expensive I have other work files that I need to keep for a long time and would be absolutely devastating if I ever lost them

Honestly this is the first mistake you're making, a nas/server is not primarily about keeping files safe it's about convenience (ie data all in one place)... does it give a little more security over say a single drive, yes but it can get REALLY expensive if you go down the preventing data loss route.

The idea of a NAS seems to be you need another backup of the nas it would be ok if the nas in question was all you needed unfortunately you need a backup of the nas to be 100% certain so my thoughts were to just back up to external hard drive mirrored, as you have stated hard drive to hard drive backup that works out more expensive so maybe a NAS is the way to go.

Honestly if you're concerned mostly about protecting data then you need to look into 3-2-1 backup strategy and then work from there. If money isn't the biggest concern I'd maybe look at an online backup of your nas/server for around £10 a month (carbonite has a 1 year deal due to 31st march being world backup day, so maybe worth a look). Note I haven't tried any online storage option so can't comment directly on them.

 

[Quartz]

If you need a backup of the server why not just buy an external USB-3 duplicator or docking bay and just back up in a mirror the hard drive to another hard drive then you have an exact copy of the hard drive and keep it off site in case of flood or failure.

I do this with my Windows Server Essentials box which backs up to a USB drive. My TrueNAS box contains a second backup of my PC and videos I can afford to lose; I have gigabit internet so backing it up over the internet to somewhere like Backblaze (£60 per year) looks interesting.

I also have critical stuff on my PC backed up to an external HDD.

 

[Donnie Fisher]

I think you're over provisioning on the hardware ... but you need to be a bit clearer on your needs.

How much do you need to store and how quickly do you really need to access it? 10G isn't worth it unless the rest of the network has it.

If its just a repository that you are predominantly pulling media files from, then unless you're needing to transcode it, you're only needing a machine which can a) find the data on the hdd b) throw it down the network. it does not need high spec system ... which is only going to chew power when idling.

Case in point: I use my nas for my photos, and cctv in unraid. My storage pool is only 2TB ( i cull the photos only what i want to keep long term ) and the cctv doesn't do anything other than save the footage to a dedicated 2TB disc. Until this morning, I ran that on a dual cpu Dell Poweredge R520 with 8 bays. Admittedly an old system, but it would idle at about 70-80W (pretty good for the old age Xeons) and when being used about 80-90W (according to the display on the front). That adds up cost wise over time in todays prices. Its all been downscaled to fit in a Streacom DA2 box running on a 2400G processor I had lying about. I've collected the bits over time to build it reasonably cheaply, and it'll be using a whole lot less power ... i'm thinking the 30W range as it idles at around 10% usage. Its able to fully saturate the network when sending files, and barely breaks sweat doing so.

But ... I still need to figure out an off site backup. I cant get over the notion that relying on someone else is fraught with danger. I keep coming back to the idea of optical and keeping off site.