JMO Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Hi, I currently am running a single server on an N40L box that is handling all of my household's d/l activities, user backups, streaming needs, etc... and I am finding that the poor little N40L is getting a bit stressed out at times. I have frequently observed CPU usage spiking to 100%. My partner and i have recently bought a house, and I was thinking this might be an excellent time to improve on our file storage and network config.. I do not currently use unraid, but am very interested in introducing it into our network. I find unraid a very appealing solution as far as handling all our media files is concerned. I already have two N40L boxes, and I though that by splitting the workload between them it might result in a more stable setup. Something like: I am just wondering what others opinions on this configuration are. I am also concerned as to support for the various software additions (AirVideo, Plex, iTunes; although iTunes is not a must have). Further, I am very open to any suggestions concerning hardware and software that i should maybe read up on. Finally, thanks! (please move this if I am posting in the incorrect area of the forum) Link to comment
sureguy Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 If you're concerned about energy use, or the amount of space used by the computers you might want to consider ESXi or something like it. I reduced the number of servers I was running from 3 to 1 by going this route. It also gives me the ability to add servers whenever I want (I have 7 VMs hosted on ESXi, 4 that run 24/7). Aside from that I don't see anything wrong with your plan. Link to comment
ijuarez Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Setup looks good, just as sureguy said may better to build an exsi host that you can expand easily without having to consume more power. Link to comment
JMO Posted January 13, 2014 Author Share Posted January 13, 2014 Thanks for the replies guys. I appreciate the tips on power consumption and space. I currently have two N40L's, one in use performing ALL of the functions in the diagram above, and another sitting idle. They are only little boxes, with low power draw, so overall I don't think there is any huge benefit in purchasing even more hardware. Also, my partner and I just bought our first home and have a baby on the way...priorities. It's just comforting to know that my basic premise is sound, as the poor little N40L really struggles at times (atm), especially during post-processing. Hopefully separating the workloads will alleviate that. Link to comment
00b5 Posted January 14, 2014 Share Posted January 14, 2014 Are you going to backup the unraid server (ie, all your media) onto the other server? Just thinking that if so, you'll probably need a LOT of hdd space in that WHS. Link to comment
JMO Posted January 15, 2014 Author Share Posted January 15, 2014 Are you going to backup the unraid server (ie, all your media) onto the other server? Just thinking that if so, you'll probably need a LOT of hdd space in that WHS. Noooo, I won't be doing that. WHS will be for personal file shares and household client backups only (photos, work stuff, etc...). Unraid box will be exclusively for storing and serving media files. Only level of redundancy will be what Unraid already incorporates. I do recall reading a few threads quite some time ago that discussed the likelihood of Unraid offering dual parity protection. It would be nice to see. I'm not overly enthused at the prospect of testing my Unraid recovery in the instance of a drive(s) failure. On the flip side, I don't want to buy ludicrous amounts of storage to just backup some movies and television. Worst case scenario, I'll read more books Link to comment
ijuarez Posted January 15, 2014 Share Posted January 15, 2014 Have you looked at SnapRaid? would run nicely on your WHS Link to comment
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