Need Sanity Check for NAS Build

[Warp3]

I've been running an unRAID server at home (based on Rajahal's 15-drive budget box specs) for a while now, mostly as a media server, and have been quite happy with it thus far.

 

Anyway, we are now looking to replace an old SNAP NAS at work.  It still works, but won't talk to our Active Directory domain (we just recently elevated to Server 2008 functionality level, which is apparently what broke the AD functionality of the NAS) and is quite old anyway (800GB of capacity from ATA drives).

 

I created the spec sheet below based mostly on Rajahal's 20-drive rackmount build.  This server will be purely used as a backup destination for other machines (mostly Windows servers) on the network, thus I based it on the lower powered "budget" build rather than the "beast" version.

 

- unRAID Pro 2-key bundle = $149 (http://www.lime-technology.com/products/registration-keys)

- 4U 20-bay = $329.99 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811219033)

- 2TB Hitachi Green = $129.99 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145475)

- 2TB Hitachi Green = $129.99 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145475)

- 2TB Hitachi Green = $129.99 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145475)

- 2TB Hitachi Green = $129.99 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145475)

- 2TB Hitachi Green = $129.99 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145475)

- Corsair TX650 V2 650W ATX12V/EPS12V = $89.99 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020)

- ECS A885GM-A2 (v1.1) AM3 AMD ATX = $64.99 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135272)

- NORCO SAS Reverse Breakout cable = $14.99 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816133033)

- AMD Sempron 145 2.8GHz AM3 45W Single-Core = $39.99 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103888)

- Crucial 2GB 240-pin DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) = $12.99 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148221)

- Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 8-Port SAS Card = $109.99 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816101358)

- NORCO SAS to SAS cable = $19.99 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816133034)

- NORCO SAS to SAS cable = $19.99 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816133034)

- Lexar JumpDrive Firefly 4GB = $6.99 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820191278)

- Lexar JumpDrive Firefly 4GB = $6.99 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820191278)

Total = $1515.84

 

By my calculation that should allow up to 22TB of data (using 2TB drives and assuming no cache drive) with no other purchases except HDDs or up to 38TB with an additional SAS card and two additional SAS-to-SAS cables.  The reason for opting for the 20-drive case is that cases which are smaller in capacity aren't notably cheaper and 20-drives is already severe overkill for the expected capacity needs of this project, so there is no need to spend the extra for the 24-drive case.

 

Is there anything in my spec list that looks out of place or mismatched (particularly the cabling, since I don't have much personal experience with SAS cabling)?

[Johnm]

Your cables are correct.

You might consider 7200 rpm drives for use in a business environment. The performance boost might outweigh the green drive power savings.

 

If you do go to 7200's, you might want to go to a slightly larger power supply to support the full 20 drives.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Rajahal]

Everything looks great to me, but maybe I'm a bit biased

 

You can buy the SAS-SAS cables cheaper at monoprice.com, but I know that for corporate purchases it is often easier to just buy everything from one place.  Hooray for Newegg!

 

I agree with Johnm that 7200 RPM will give overall better performance, but whether you choose them really depends on the intended use of the server.  If you plan to archive data on the server, then the green drives are fine.  If you plan to store often-accessed data, then the 7200 RPM drives might be a better choice.  If you want optimal performance for a small sub-section of your data, consider an SSD as a cache or data drive.

 

If you do go for the 7200 RPM drives, use the Corsair 850W PSU instead.

[Warp3]

Thanks to both of you for the input.

 

I did consider 7200rpm drives, but green drives should work fine for the intended usage of this machine (if it were behaving as anything but a backup server, that would be a different story).  If not, we can always add some 7200rpm drives later or setup a high-speed cache drive.  Even with 7200rpm drives, I doubt we'll hit the 650W PSU's limit anytime soon, but we can always swap that later should the need arise.

 

I did note that your spec sheet pointed to monoprice (and it pointed elsewhere for the SAS card as well), but as you noted, it is much easier to be able to order it this way and the cost difference is fairly minor compared to the cost of the entire build.

[WeeboTech]

Since you are in a business that can have no downtime. I would suggest using the Kingston SD mobile lite cardreader as the flash.

At the very least if it goes belly up you can swap the SD card and be up within 15 minutes if you backup your flash drive.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139086

[Warp3]

I had considered that possibility (since I've read about using SD card readers as boot devices on this forum previously), but we should be ok with the 2 key + 2 flash drive setup since the 2nd flash drive will be designated for the sole purpose of having a ready spare boot device.  I'll definitely keep that option in mind, though (both for my home server and for this new corporate one).