Hi all! I badly need an advice :

 

At the moment i have a htpc with xbmc connected to my 50" lcd and my main pc with windows 7 64bit.

 

For now i just have connected my samba shares from my main pc to my htpc and played all my files over my gigabit connection.

I'm badly out of space and without any kind of security for my files. Initially i started reading about qnap and synology but i really do not want restrictions on raid or number of disks to use and finally i came here.

 

I just need these features :

 

1 - a single big pool

2 - a single parity drive or something like this for security (1 fault is ok for me)

3 - 4x or 5x 2tb drives always in sleep mode except when i'm playing my movies or viewing pictures from my xbmc

 

Just this,not a big deal i think.

Are all the disk spinning up when playing 1 movie that is inside one of them ?

 

Another really important question : is there a possibility to put the entire server to sleep after like 30 minutes of inactivity to cut electricity bill?

I really need access to the fileserver once a day to watch a film and i need to place it on my living room (sigh i live in a really small apartment and i fear wife rage eheheh) so it needs to be in sleep mode most of the time 22 hours a day

 

Was thinking of this case as a start (http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1230-page1.html) with a microATX board + a really low voltage cpu like an Intel G620T or sempron 145

 

 

Is unraid enough for my needs ?

Q: "Are all the disk spinning up when playing 1 movie that is inside one of them ?"

A: the only disks that spin are the ones that hold the data being streamed.  The correlary to that is that the only drives spinning when you are writing to the server are the data drives actually being written to (usually only one) and the parity drive.  If you are running a cache drive, then that is the only one until the mover runs, and copies from the cache to the array.  At that point three drives are spinning: cache, data, parity.

 

Q:" is there a possibility to put the entire server to sleep after like 30 minutes of inactivity to cut electricity bill?"

A: it sure can with good hardware choices ... if you want WOL you have to choose wisely, unless you're willing to hit the power button yourself.  A search on WOL will find what you need.

 

Sleep vs really quiet ... frankly, if you have to deal with S.A.F. (spouse approval factor) and it is going to be in your viewing room, I would worry more about making it as quiet as possible and worry less about sleep.  If it is dead silent she won't even know if it is running or not.  LEDs too bright? disconnect / tape over them.  With "green" drives, very efficient PSU (perhaps even fanless), quiet case fans (and not overkill number of them) , low power CPU with oversized HSF, and a PWM controlled fan that can almost stop spinning during idle or perhaps even fanless,  you can make it very silent. It will also then be fairly low power since no drives are spinning and you have choosen a low power CPU and efficienct PSU.

 

I see you frequent silentpcreview.com so that is a good start.  That case is an excellent choice.

 

In short UnRAID is not just enough it is perfect. 

S3 / Sleep is doable if you choose the right hardware and your prepared to get your hands dirty.  (Its not built in)

unRAID was designed as a media server to be used as you describe. In order to sleep you have to make sure that your hardware supports this function. Search for sleep and WOL in the User Customizations forum. Sleep is a user customization but many users sleep their servers and this is well documented in that forum. Spinning down drives to save power is natively supported.

 

See here for more case options: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=17799.0

Here is more general hardware info: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?board=3.0

Great news !

 

I really prefer a complete sleep rather than a 7/24 quiet solution..as i told you i will only use it to stream my movies and that can happens once or twice a day maximum..leaving it powered on is really a waste of energy and $$$

 

It seems that the motherboard supports wake on lan :

 

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=H61M/U3S3&cat=Specifications

 

so everything shouldn't be a problem right ?

 

Can everything run "headless" (without a monitor connected) right ?

 

Now i need to find how can xbmc send that magic packet to wake up the server...

I hear ya.  But if you look at just what energy it is wasting, which can be really low with a sempron and good m/b and psu choice, you will find it pretty inexpensive.  Your hardrives will all be spun down regardless.  http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=18726.msg167486#msg167486 

 

Then again, waste not want not.  If you can handle just pushing the power button to wake it then you won't even have to worry about WOL

Yes it can run without a monitor once setup.  Of course nothing stops you from sending video to the TV either in case you want to log into the console without bothering to SSH in   Beyond that, all managment is performed via the webgui

 

It seems that the motherboard supports wake on lan :

 

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=H61M/U3S3&cat=Specifications

 

so everything shouldn't be a problem right ?

 

Can everything run "headless" (without a monitor connected) right ?

 

Now i need to find how can xbmc send that magic packet to wake up the server...

Not a problem using putty/ssh once configured or the webgui.

 

I've just seen that a plugin for xbmc exists to support WOL to wake up media servers :

 

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Add-on:Wake_On_Lan

 

 

I'm reading that sempron 145 even with lower TDP than a pentium G620 while idling is wasting the same amount of watts so for just a €20 difference in price here the intel solution is a lot better performance wise

 

yeah amd / intel, whichever [shrug].  When all is said and done, throw a kill-a-watt on it and see what you're using at idle with drives spun down.  might surprised you

It sounds like unraid is what you need.

 

Keep in mind that with a Intel i3 sandy bridge or one of the new ivy bridge I3's coming out this month and 4x WD green drives.

 

you might find that you idle at or under 30ish watts... that's pretty low.

 

As far as the S3, i never use it on servers. I cant help there.

It seems that the motherboard supports wake on lan :

 

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=H61M/U3S3&cat=Specifications

 

so everything shouldn't be a problem right ?

Maybe.  Do the disks support it?  Does the network chipset?  All hardware must be able to be powered down and then power up and then initialize itself.  Typically, that is not always the case for video (no video after wakeup) or networking (powers up in non-standard config, often needs to be reset to wake-on-lan again) or disks themselves (some do not initialize properly again)

 

Lastly, my motherboard "says" it supports WOL, but when put to sleep there are no lights on the LAN connector.  (trust me, it cannot wake up if the network chipset is powered down)

Can everything run "headless" (without a monitor connected) right ?

Maybe.  Most can, some cannot.  Check with the manufacturer.

So a complete sleep can be a problem... What do you think instead to use an atom 525 ? Should idle to like 22 watt and can be a great solution for my needs..it's passive too so no noise

 

I need only a simple file server so performance are not a problem

 

So a complete sleep can be a problem... What do you think instead to use an atom 525 ? Should idle to like 22 watt and can be a great solution for my needs..it's passive too so no noise

 

I need only a simple file server so performance are not a problem

 

An atom setup will work with unRAID, though may increase the time your server is active during parity checks and may also limit write speed to the array as parity is calculated, meaning drives may stay spinning longer so the overall long term power usage is much the same.

 

Power/performance/$ I still consider the second gen core i3s to be the best bang for your buck overall; the ivy bridge i3s are likely to be even better. They're a great balance of performance & power saving features though generally cost a little more initially at time of purchase.

 

I'm not sure how unRAID drives typically behave when resuming from S3 but the other thing to consider is that your power usage peaks during boot, so turning your server on & off every day might not be saving you as much as you think. GL justifying this to the Mrs though

I hate to say it. An atom does not make the array slower. The limit will still be the drives.

 

The parity calculations will use only about 10% of a D525.

 

My atom server outperforms my q9550 because of the drive speed.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ok, so atom 525 with a microatx motherboard and the fractal mIni case.

 

AnOther little question : is it possible to access files like documents from the outside with an ios/android device like with a synology NAS with dsfile and dsphoto apps? This is the only real thing except streaming that can be sometimes useful

Just ordered my first unraid server !!!

 

1 x Fractal Design Define Mini Case Mini Tower

1x Asrock H67M Socket 1155 Intel H67 DDR3 SATA3 USB3 HDMI MicroATX

1x CPU Intel Pentium Dual-Core G620 2.60GHz Socket 1155 65W Sandy Bridge

1x 4gb ram

3x Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB 3.5" 5900rpm 64MB SATA3

1x WD green power 2TB 3.5" 5900rpm 64MB SATA3

 

 

Hope all will go well eehheehe

AnOther little question : is it possible to access files like documents from the outside with an ios/android device like with a synology NAS with dsfile and dsphoto apps? This is the only real thing except streaming that can be sometimes useful

The stock UI is not secure from outside your LAN, nor is there a fully functional file management system from within unRAID.

 

Do you already have a Syno?  If so, I just mount the unRAID share to the Syno shared folder, and then you can access it with DSfile etc. Makes it really easy when the wife wants to watch the show you just downloaded.

No i haven't a syno but have a friend that showed me dsfile and dsphoto.

 

But i have an always-on windows7 pc so i'm thinking : mount unraid shares and use something to replicate dsfile and dsphoto functionality...can you suggest something ?

You could install the OpenSSH plugin and connect to your server via sftp with this app: http://avatron.com/apps/air-sharing. It allows you to connect to many different types of remote file servers and can view many different types of documents.

 

Now if you are talking about getting your movies and TV shows on iOS you can install the Air Video Server plugin and use that in conjunction with the iOS app to transcode your videos on the fly and watch them on your device.

I'm already planning to install airvideo to stream video to my wife ipad and my android tablet (with this free great app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bw.xplayer.ui) .

 

The only thing that i miss is a way to access my documents/photo from outside. I have an iphone 4 and my wife an iphone 3gs. From what i can read there are 2 ways to do this : ssh or vpn. What is the easiest to install and configure ?

Another problem is that my home-connection is dynamic so i need a dynamic dns service too (and no compatible router sadly)

I would have suggested a HP N40L if you were in the UK as i had similar needs and this is perfect, so perfect i brough 2 :-) but i see you already got your kit, and if you are not in the UK these servers are not on special offer, but at £140 after rebate they are a steal, and perfect for unraid. I have 10gig of storage and a parity drive, takes almost no power with disks spun down (to save more - remove your fridge !). just in case someone else has a similar question and looks here

SSH isn't that difficult. I can't speak for VPN though, never tried to set it up. Here is the OenSSH plugin: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=20848.0

 

There is also a dynamic DNS plugin you can use. It works with most of the popular services. http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=14851.0

I'm gonna try those plugin asap...still waiting my motherboard and cpu...i have only the case here hehehe

Guys i finally received my last parts and build my first unraid box !

 

As a rapid reminder for you all this is the configuration :

 

1 x Fractal Design Define Mini Case Mini Tower

1x Asrock H67M Socket 1155 Intel H67 DDR3 SATA3 USB3 HDMI MicroATX

1x CPU Intel Pentium Dual-Core G620 2.60GHz Socket 1155 65W Sandy Bridge

2x 2gb ram

3x Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB 3.5" 5900rpm 64MB SATA3

1x WD green power 2TB 3.5" 5900rpm 64MB SATA3

 

I installed the latest 5.0 rc5 and everything was smooth as silk (even the RTL8111E Realtek lan card is working great out of the box). I have now installed 2x 2tb disks to begin trasfer some of my stuff (the other 2 are partially full) and the first batch of 300 gb of big movies was trasfered at 60 MB/s even without a cache drive ! Awesome !

Now i'm copying some tv series and the transfer is 30 MB/s ... is this big difference normal without a cache drive ? I'm using only user shares with high water and have to say that i'm copying a lot of stuff to my pc too via usb at the same time..maybe this is slowing down a bit ehehehe

I have installed the latest simple features and it's working too.

I watched one 1080p movie from my xbmc htpc and it was perfect.

 

What else can i say...I'm really satisfied atm,planning to finish my copying tomorrow and will order a pro key