Planning my first media server, need some help with harddrives


jsteinm1

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Hey everyone, I'm looking at making my first unRAID server. Right now, I have Emby (MediaBrowser), CouchPotato, and Sonarr running on my desktop computer that I am looking to offload to a dedicated server. I'm replacing my AMD A6-3500 HTPC in the coming months that will become my new server until I buy something else. Right now though, I'm looking at harddrives. I have a 1.5TB single drive that is starting to fill up and I was thinking to replace it with my first planned server drive to use until I actually build the server. I have a couple questions about drives:

 

1. Is 4TB a good size drive at this point in time to go with? Or would it be better to start off with 6TB, while expensive now I know they'll come down in price? I don't know how big of a server I really need at this time (I'd imagine 12-15TB would be plenty for the next 3-5years), but I want to be able to expand my array as needed.

 

2. Do you guys have a preference of Seagate NAS or WD Reds? I see lots of people here run Reds, however, Seagates are $120 at Newegg right now for 4TB and I'm thinking of jumping on that.

 

3. Can I start unRAID with a filled drive if I get one now to start using, or does it have to be empty initally? I'm not sure when I'll have my HTPC freed up to become an unRAID server.

 

4. For a server with applications running, do you guys recommend a SSD cache disk? If so, how big? I have a 60GB in my HTPC, but not sure if that is big enough.

 

 

Crap I didn't see there was a storage specific forum on here. Mods please move :)

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Hey everyone, I'm looking at making my first unRAID server. Right now, I have Emby (MediaBrowser), CouchPotato, and Sonarr running on my desktop computer that I am looking to offload to a dedicated server. I'm replacing my AMD A6-3500 HTPC in the coming months that will become my new server until I buy something else. Right now though, I'm looking at harddrives. I have a 1.5TB single drive that is starting to fill up and I was thinking to replace it with my first planned server drive to use until I actually build the server. I have a couple questions about drives:

 

1. Is 4TB a good size drive at this point in time to go with? Or would it be better to start off with 6TB, while expensive now I know they'll come down in price? I don't know how big of a server I really need at this time (I'd imagine 12-15TB would be plenty for the next 3-5years), but I want to be able to expand my array as needed.

In addition to the cost / TB of the drives, it might make sense to consider the cost of SATA ports and case slots. Once you run out of those you will have to replace drives with larger ones. I say that having done so many times over the years since I have a small case. However, no regrets since I have just re-used the smaller drives for making backups.

 

2. Do you guys have a preference of Seagate NAS or WD Reds? I see lots of people here run Reds, however, Seagates are $120 at Newegg right now for 4TB and I'm thinking of jumping on that.

I only use Reds, but as long as you test them and pay attention to SMART notifications it probably doesn't matter a lot if you want to save a few bucks.

 

3. Can I start unRAID with a filled drive if I get one now to start using, or does it have to be empty initally? I'm not sure when I'll have my HTPC freed up to become an unRAID server.

You must let unRAID format the drives it will use as cache or in the array.

 

4. For a server with applications running, do you guys recommend a SSD cache disk? If so, how big? I have a 60GB in my HTPC, but not sure if that is big enough.

Might be a little tight depending on what you do with it. If you only use it for apps and don't cache user share writes it will probably be OK to start with. I have 120GB but only use it for apps and it is only 40% full.

 

Crap I didn't see there was a storage specific forum on here. Mods please move :)

I am inclined to leave it here since it might quickly get OT for the more specific forum.
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Hey everyone, I'm looking at making my first unRAID server. Right now, I have Emby (MediaBrowser), CouchPotato, and Sonarr running on my desktop computer that I am looking to offload to a dedicated server. I'm replacing my AMD A6-3500 HTPC in the coming months that will become my new server until I buy something else. Right now though, I'm looking at harddrives. I have a 1.5TB single drive that is starting to fill up and I was thinking to replace it with my first planned server drive to use until I actually build the server. I have a couple questions about drives:

 

1. Is 4TB a good size drive at this point in time to go with? Or would it be better to start off with 6TB, while expensive now I know they'll come down in price? I don't know how big of a server I really need at this time (I'd imagine 12-15TB would be plenty for the next 3-5years), but I want to be able to expand my array as needed.

In addition to the cost / TB of the drives, it might make sense to consider the cost of SATA ports and case slots. Once you run out of those you will have to replace drives with larger ones. I say that having done so many times over the years since I have a small case. However, no regrets since I have just re-used the smaller drives for making backups.

 

My re-purposed motherboard has 6 SATA now, so I'm left with 4 for storage after I use 1 for cache and 1 for parity. I think 16GB of max storage would get me well into the future, plus when I do upgrade the mobo/case I plan to make it a minimum of 8 SATA ports/slots.

 

I don't have a "budget" for this set, other than I want to keep the cost low and I was wanting to stagger the costs over time by slowly adding drives, reusing hardware and such. My sorta-plan is this...if unRAID is capable.

 

1. Start with a 1x4TB server with my old hardware, no parity, as I test the waters.

2. Add a 4TB parity drive and SSD drive down the road when I have some funds available (or would doing this be a nightmare to reconfigure?)

3. Add drives as needed to build the array.

4. Upgrade the CPU/mobo/case when necessary

 

Also, as drive sizes come down in the future, say I have 4TB drives with 1 4TB parity drive, can I switch the parity drive to a 6TB drive and start adding 6TB drives as I build the array, using a mixed bag of sizes like that?

 

 

4. For a server with applications running, do you guys recommend a SSD cache disk? If so, how big? I have a 60GB in my HTPC, but not sure if that is big enough.

Might be a little tight depending on what you do with it. If you only use it for apps and don't cache user share writes it will probably be OK to start with. I have 120GB but only use it for apps and it is only 40% full.

 

From that, I take it that having an SSD will improve the performance of my server/applications? 256GB 850 Pros are sub $100 now I think, so that seems reasonable if I'll get some performance in return for adding one.

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1. Is 4TB a good size drive at this point in time to go with? Or would it be better to start off with 6TB...

I would recommend 4TB as a minimum based on cost per TB, but there are some nice benefits of going with a small number of larger disks so go with the largest you can justify.  Among the benefits - larger disks tend to be faster, reduced total system cost due to fewer ports as trurl mentions, lower power consumption and cooling requirements.  You can also fit into smaller cases and ITX form factor motherboards with this strategy, which I like.

 

4. For a server with applications running, do you guys recommend a SSD cache disk? If so, how big? I have a 60GB in my HTPC, but not sure if that is big enough.

I don't use my cache drive for write caching, it's only for applications.  It has Plex, SickBeard, SickRage, and SABnzdb and seldom goes above 35GB used.  If I were buying a new SSD I'd get a 120GB+, but I think you'd be fine starting off by reusing the 60GB you have.

 

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I'm not sure I see the point of starting with a 1 drive server, though.  I think it makes sense to start with a minimum of 3 disks (you can experiment with 1 or 2 but you aren't really getting the benefits of unRAID).  unRAID does support adding or upgrading the size of disks at a later time pretty easily, and it supports running with a mix of disk sizes provided that Parity is the equal to or greater than the largest data disk.

 

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I'm not sure I see the point of starting with a 1 drive server, though.  I think it makes sense to start with a minimum of 3 disks (you can experiment with 1 or 2 but you aren't really getting the benefits of unRAID).  unRAID does support adding or upgrading the size of disks at a later time pretty easily, and it supports running with a mix of disk sizes provided that Parity is the equal to or greater than the largest data disk.

 

Can you elaborate on that, or if there are some major reasons not to other than just not having parity to start? The point for me to start with a one drive server is to get my media server off my desktop computer and on to my low power HTPC hardware that will be laying around. I could maybe start with a 2 drive server so I have the parity, but I want to try and avoid dropping a ton of coin on drives all at once, especially if I jump up to 6TB drives. As well as having 6TB of storage will last me a while before I fill that and need to expand.

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Can you elaborate on that, or if there are some major reasons not to other than just not having parity to start? The point for me to start with a one drive server is to get my media server off my desktop computer and on to my low power HTPC hardware that will be laying around. I could maybe start with a 2 drive server so I have the parity, but I want to try and avoid dropping a ton of coin on drives all at once, especially if I jump up to 6TB drives. As well as having 6TB of storage will last me a while before I fill that and need to expand.

 

A single drive unRAID server gives you no data redundancy and no benefits from drive pooling.  Assuming you already have the hardware and a windows license, you can just stand up your HTPC with a drive in it and achieve the same results.  If you don't have a windows license then it's a different story - you might as well go with unRAID because you intend to expand there over time.

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Note that even with parity, unRAID itself is not a backup unless it is used to store an extra copy of data you have elsewhere. The only thing that counts as a backup is another copy of something. You get to decide what you consider important enough to backup, but you should decide and make a plan if you haven't already.

 

My unRAID stores some media files that I don't choose to backup anywhere, some media files that I do backup, backups of important files from other computers, and images of other computers. I also make offsite backups of the really irreplaceable stuff, using those re-purposed smaller drives I mentioned.

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