Rackmount unRAID

[ilovejedd]

I'm currently in the research and planning stages of a rackmount unRAID build and am considering the following parts:

 

NORCO RPC-4020 4U Rackmount Server Case, $290

Kingston 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) KVR800D2N6K2/4G, $60

CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W, $110

 

Option 1 (server class w/PCI-X)

ASUS M2N-LR AM2 NVIDIA nForce Professional 3600 ATX Server Motherboard, $195

AMD Opteron 1216 Santa Ana 2.4GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache, $65 (with motherboard combo)

SUPERMICRO AOC-SAT2-MV8 64-bit PCI-X133MHz SATA Controller Card x2, $190

 

Option 2 (desktop class, no PCI-X)

MSI P43 Neo3-F LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard, $85

Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor, $85

ATi Rage 8MB PCI Video Card, $10

SUPERMICRO AOC-SAT2-MV8 64-bit PCI-X133MHz SATA Controller Card, $95

Adaptec 2240900-R PCI Express 4-lane 2.5 Gb/s SATA RAID 1430SA Kit, $100 (optional - for cache drive)

 

The above are still tentative. Expected ETA is 1st half of '09. Hopefully, there'd be a bit of a price drop, too.

 

Question, can you use a RAID 10 array as cache drive? I recall WeeboTech tested an AMS external enclosure with port multiplier in RAID 1, so I figured if that worked, why not this? Yes, that's four hard drives down the drain, but those hard drives, I already have (will have around 7 WD5000AAKS pulled from My Book Essential external USB drives once files have been transferred to unRAID server).

 

Thanks!

[WeeboTech]

> Question, can you use a RAID 10 array as cache drive?

Only if it is done in hardware and presents a single SATA port to the OS.

http://www.siliconimage.com/products/productfamily.aspx?id=3#26

I.E. With the SIL4726 processor.

 

Note: These drives would never spin down if done this way.

 

Are you doing RAID10 for speed or throughput. From my experience a RAID1 environment should suffice.

 

 

in leu of the boards selected I might suggest looking into the p5q-e

It has 8 onboard ports, two of which are steelvine and capable of raid1 or raid0 at the hardware level (no raid10 )

 

Plus it has 2 wide PCIe ports so you could use 4X pcie cards to max out the number of drives rather then a PCI card maxing out the number of drives.

 

PS> Nice case.. would be cool to see a 20 drive unRAID array    Maybe you could be a beta tester.

 

[ilovejedd]

> Question, can you use a RAID 10 array as cache drive?

Only if it is done in hardware and presents a single SATA port to the OS.

 

<snip>

 

Note: These drives would never spin down if done this way.

 

Are you doing RAID10 for speed or throughput. From my experience a RAID1 environment should suffice.

 

I think the Adaptec controller might work. If you can boot from an array of off it, I would assume RAID 0/1/10 array would just show up as a single drive. Not having four drives spin down isn't really a huge expense so I'm fine with them being always on. It might actually be a good thing since not being constantly spun up and down would reduce wear on the cache drive, specially if it's always being written to. Doing it for both speed and redundancy. Let's see how fast it'll handle a large file copy operation while recording 6 simultaneous HD streams.

 

in leu of the boards selected I might suggest looking into the p5q-e

It has 8 onboard ports, two of which are steelvine and capable of raid1 or raid0 at the hardware level (no raid10 )

 

Plus it has 2 wide PCIe ports so you could use 4X pcie cards to max out the number of drives rather then a PCI card maxing out the number of drives.

 

That looks like a very promising board but after it's been filled with SATA controllers, it might be even more expensive than the server class build.

 

Option 3 (desktop class w/PCIe)

ASUS P5Q-E LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard, $160

Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor, $85

ATi Rage 8MB PCI Video Card, $10

Adaptec 2240900-R PCI Express 4-lane 2.5 Gb/s SATA RAID 1430SA Kit x3, $300 (2 for storage, 1 for cache)

 

PS> Nice case.. would be cool to see a 20 drive unRAID array    Maybe you could be a beta tester.

 

Sure, why not? That's if you haven't done it yet by the time I'm ready to build my server.

 

[NAS]

I have had that case for several months now and commented on it in a few posts.

 

Good value for money but has serious heat issues

[WeeboTech]

Adaptec 2240900-R PCI Express 4-lane 2.5 Gb/s SATA RAID 1430SA Kit x3, $300 (2 for storage, 1 for cache)

 

There are 8 ports on the motherboard, + 2 controllers = 16 ports.

 

So initially you would not need the 3rd controller (at least to start with).

 

I don't thnk anyone has gotten a raid card to show up as a drive in unRAID yet.

The only way I did it was with hardware raid via a silicon image hardware raid/port multiplier controller.

 

So what you are trying to do is unproven at this point.

 

Unless you are ready to recompile the kernel put drivers in and possibly set up symlinks in the device directory.

Another choice is to work with Tom to see if he can add modifications that would support more drives and the raid controller in raid mode.

 

Once I get my Dev system up and running, I'll be testing a 3ware card in raid mode to see if it's feasible.

[ilovejedd]

I don't thnk anyone has gotten a raid card to show up as a drive in unRAID yet.

The only way I did it was with hardware raid via a silicon image hardware raid/port multiplier controller.

 

<snip>

 

Once I get my Dev system up and running, I'll be testing a 3ware card in raid mode to see if it's feasible.

 

I did some reading up on the Adaptec card and it seems like it uses fake RAID (HostRAID). *sigh* I thought it was hardware RAID. Oh well, I guess that plan's shot. Buying a $300+ hardware RAID card from Areca or 3ware just to get faster writes really isn't cost effective.

[WeeboTech]

Buying a $300+ hardware RAID card from Areca or 3ware just to get faster writes really isn't cost effective.

Plus right now it has not been proven they will work with unRAID.

It's a possibility though.

[kenshin]

I have had that case for several months now and commented on it in a few posts.

 

Good value for money but has serious heat issues

 

I'm running the Norco 4020 with 8 drives, and with a few modifications    I have no heat issues at all (Seagate 1tb AS drives run at 28-32 celsius, WD1001FALS run at 32-35 celsius).

 

Just tape off all the checkerboard perforations on the back of the case, and install some more powerful rear exhaust fans than the stock 35cfm'ers and you'll be fine.

[ilovejedd]

I have had that case for several months now and commented on it in a few posts.

 

Good value for money but has serious heat issues

 

I'm running the Norco 4020 with 8 drives, and with a few modifications    I have no heat issues at all (Seagate 1tb AS drives run at 28-32 celsius, WD1001FALS run at 32-35 celsius).

 

Just tape off all the checkerboard perforations on the back of the case, and install some more powerful rear exhaust fans than the stock 35cfm'ers and you'll be fine.

 

Thanks for the tip. Those are some pretty nice temps. What was the ambient temp?

[smino]

Any plans on having two or three staple raid card drivers built into Unraid Pro?

I think we are seeing many people who would love to transfer files at full GigE bandwidth to unraid cache drive (running raid 1 or 10).

My system has been very stable (have not rebooted it in a long time 2 months), and I am constantly adding content to it.

But I would like to upgrade it to a faster system (raid card wise) as I am using two promise sata II 4 port controllers plus on board controllers for 7+TB of space.

I do plan on buying the norco case is the Canadian dollar would just come up!

 

If you tell me you would support adaptec 4/8 port pcie cards by default, I would go out and buy one right now.

I do not have time to play with kernal everytime unraid goes up a version.

 

If you need a beta tester, let me know. I cannot wait to see unraid with 20+ drives and some support for 1 or 2 array card.

[WeeboTech]

If you tell me you would support adaptec 4/8 port pcie cards by default, I would go out and buy one right now.

I do not have time to play with kernal everytime unraid goes up a version.

 

If you need a beta tester, let me know. I cannot wait to see unraid with 20+ drives and some support for 1 or 2 array card.

 

The adaptec 1430sa 4 port PCI-E card is supported.