Hi Guys.

 

I've been asked to setup a storage server for a local photography company. This will be for storage of data after the work has been done ie. all open jobs for editiing etc will be worked on and stored on local workstations.

 

Performance is not really an issue.

 

They also backup all jobs onto DVD's so this is also covered.

 

Is unRAID the best way to go? I have set the system up at home with default setup with 3 drives and seems very good. Although I have not done much with it.

 

Any advice would be much appreciated. This willl be a build from scratch so I'm open for suggestions on hardware as well 

 

 

Everyone will have an opinion on this and so do I.

 

For me the biggest relevant feature for you is RAID without a RAID card on unequal drives.

 

This decreases the per GB cost of storage but more importantly all individual drives are still usable as single drives for accessing data.

 

Anyone thats every spent time with RAID cards in the REAL world know that the theory and practice dont match up. Yes they are great but there are scenarios where you can lose ALL you data with zero chance of recovery with a RAID card. The same scenarios dont apply to unRAID.

 

That for me is the killer feature of unRAID.

There is never "zero chance of recovery". There are specialized companies that can retrieve sensitive data even from ex-RAID disks (as long as they have all of them). But we are moving off topic.

 

To me unRAID is a killer app for SOHO/SMB that happen to have older machines and spare disks lying around.

 

"It just works".

 

As for bigger companies, then no. unRAID (still) lacks many features that are vital for a bigger networks. NFS, SNMP, alarms (without getting to user customizations), ability to restore/backup configuration, hot spares, "safer" and more "stupid-proof" web front-end (wouldn't be an issue 5 years ago, but today is the trend for anything) etc.

 

 

There is never "zero chance of recovery". There are specialized companies that can retrieve sensitive data even from ex-RAID disks (as long as they have all of them). But we are moving off topic.

 

Ok let me rephrase for clarity.

 

If you are prepared to pay 5 figure sums to recover your data then there are always chances of some data recovery.

if you are prepared to pay 5 figure sums for data recovery then you are an enterprise user that wont be using unRAID.

 

As no one asking this question is going to want to be put in this financial position it is a VERY realisitic statement to say that unless you are daddy warbucks there are situations where there is ZERO chance of recovery for a user.

 

Pointless clarification IMHO

I think it would work well for your purpose.

 

You might want to look at some of the preconfigured servers from Lime Technologies, which might be more appropriate for company use.

 

The ability to incrementally increase your capacity over time, by adding new drives or replacing lower capacity disks with higher capacity disks, allows the array to grow with your needs.  The reliability of a parity protected array is excellent (IMO).  The new "cache drive" feature provides excellent write performance.  (The read performance has always been excellent.)

Thanks a lot for your comments. I think UnRaid would be the way to go.

 

I think the system will initially be around 4-5TB but will be good to tell them the limit will be a lot higher at not much more cost than hard drive's (taking into account Sata cards once MB full).

I also was not overly keen on going down the traditional RAID channel as I have heard of some horror stories and unRAID seems to reduce the risk to no more than a died HD in a system and even that should be able to be rebuilt with the parity drive?

 

This company only has 2 full time staff and one part time so its really a low spec system but high data size.

 

I will be going off lime-tech's systems (like the look of 1500 case) and forums but will not be buying off them due to being over in New Zealand.

 

 

I think unraid is perfect for your application.

Lots of incremental storage with less overhead of maintenance and less chance of loosing all the data should more then one drive fail.

From what I read, it seems you are looking for an archival solution, of which  unRaid fits really well.

 

I would suggest keeping a warm spare online or nearby so that should a drive fail, a few clocks of the web interface can have it rebuilt on another drive.

 

I think your customer will really like unRAID's price and reliability.  However, I would not sell it to them without a support contract with you.  I say this because while I, as a computer geek, have had no major issues figuring out how things work (or posting here when they don't), things that might seem intuitive to you during, say, a drive expansion, are not going to be real pleasant for a user that doesn't really know how it works.

 

SirWired

Thanks guys. Good idea about warm spare and contracts for service. As I know the customers semi personally I will have to think that one over as to how to approch plus I would be making money off any HD upgrades they make as well.

 

In the process of getting final hardware config sorted.

 

 

Another question.

 

The company is thinking that they would slowly fill up the 7 slots available (7x1Terabyte drives) and once fill then remove the oldest ones and take and store the drive offline in safe or whatever. Would be at least 3 years old.

 

I'm now wandering if Unraid would be the best option or just throw XP Pro or somthing on the system and then can slowly add drives but also allow removal easily. This will not give any data recovery so if a drive fails thats it but will allow drives to be put in the system and taken out without any work. It also has the added bonus of being thrown in another machine if say a company wanted there files back (already have them on DVD so very rare).

 

Any thoughts?

 

 

What if you have two stations.

 

One for local storage, and another small one with archival storage for offsite removal? I.E. USB drives or something.

 

Also there are certain removables that have single drive standalone units.

 

Furthermore, the unraid drive swap procedure can als be written up and you could train someone.

I'm sure there are ways to add unprotected drives to the array for easy removal.

The only key is procedure.

The benefit of unRAID is it helps recover from failed disks and bad sectors that may develop.  Keeping a Windows server is susceptible to losing the pictures taken last week, last month or last year.  It does not discriminate by age.

 

Taking a drive out of a machine and putting it in a vault does not mean it will last indefinitely.  Like any electronics that is not used for a long time, it will age and fail.

 

If you implement unRAID, and your prediction of being full in 3 years is correct, your 7T array will be full.  You could either add or replace disks.  2T, 4T, maybe 8T drives will likely be available at the time.  The array will likely be able to grow and keep the contents online virtually indefinitely.

 

If you do what to archive data off, it is not hard to plug in a USB or eSATA drive and copy whatever you want off the array, and the delete the files on the array, freeing space for newer picture files.

 

Thanks guys good points. Also some obvious ones! I should post after I have had morning coffee

 

Back to unRAID it is then. All sorted so build will happen next week.

 

Cheers for all the comments.

Seriously, if they are wanting to remove old data for archival purposes, surely the only real answer is the proven solution of tape backup.  I am talking SDLT or LTO here, not SOHO/SMB DAT and AIT crap...

 

As mentioned by a previous poster, I certainly would not trust electronic components like a HD to sit in a safe somewhere and expect data to be recoverable after a few years.

 

Unraid might be fine for protected local storage if transfer speeds are not an issue (it actually sounds like a good fit given their very small size), but if these guys are serious about archiving their data then stick to something that's archival longevity is proven.

 

There may be more cost associated in setting it up, but remember this is their Intellectual Property and presumably their livelihood.  Losing this data once it is out of any kind of protected array is probably not an option - that means tape and off-site archival storage (or maybe emerging online backup services - bandwidth permitting...)

 

Unraid is in my opinion, absolutely BRILLIANT for home/SOHO use: different sized disks, parity protection, directory aggregation, no messy "traditional" RAID crap.  It is being actively worked on with a growing feature-set.  However, if for some reason, I have a catastrophic failure and lose 3TB of Music and Movies, it is hardly the end of my world.  The same could not be said if I was running a business and was required to store any kind of business data, mission critical or otherwise.

 

The VALUE of the solution should not be measured by the COST of the solution, but rather by the COST to the business of any potential Data loss.  It might cost 20k+ for a robust mid-teir enterprise level solution, but if losing the data means closing the business, it's a small price to pay...

 

Sorry...ranting...Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity are hot topics in Australia at the moment, you'd never suspect I work in the IT industry...selling storage products... 

 

 

He did say that they backup all jobs to DVD.

 

I (personally) have had terrible luck with backup tape.  Technologies seem to come and go, and if your tape drive breaks and you need to restore, you are sunk.  Also, always seems that "the backup" works just great, but when you need to do "the restore", you have problems.  And then there's the capacity issues - no idea how many tapes it would take to backup 7T!  I'm sure there are good commercial solutions that you'd use if you were a data center, but for home use, I have given up.

 

I agree that each person/entity needs to make a rational decision about the risk of losing data vs the impact/cost of losing data.  Although unRAID brings reliability to a very high level, it does not eliminate risks including human error ("oops, didn't mean to push that button!"), nasty PSU failure, viruses, surges (surge protectors help), fires, excessive heat (HVAC failures during heat of summer, for example), natural disasters, theft, simultaneous hard disk failures, etc.

Thanks guys. I'd rather you rant then not letting me know your opinion on things the more the better.

 

They do have DVD copies as soon as they off load from camera and take offsite every night. Also give a copy to their customers and state that they are not responsible to holding their data BUT as a professional look they want to have that data available should any customer in the future ask for another copy of anything.

 

Anyway at this stage unRAID will suit them perfectly I have ordered a system so should have that up and running by the end of the week. They also have some external USB drives so we will look at maybe setting that up to backup the lastest or most important data (ie weddings where some commercial photos can be retaken if all turned to crap).

 

Anyway thanks for all the input I will be doing more research on tape, multiple unRAIDs etc to come up with some alternative solutions for customers.