What to look for in a server

[frankcastle]

Okay hooked up the house with cat6 cables (yes I know faster than my gigabit routers and internet service..... but figured why pay for cables and eventually upgrade them since the costs is not too far off from each other, plus running cables through the walls was time consuming enough I don't want to do it twice) and loving having access to my harddrive. But now I'm thinking..... hey wait I have over 1000 dvds plus 200 blu rays wouldn't it be great if they were all transferred to the harddrive.

To achieve this I would need several 3 TB hds.

What's the best way to do it?

Heck why stop there I have tons of CDs and vinyl as well.

 

[frankcastle]

Oh my- there is no BEST way, but all involve a server of some sort.

If you have apple shit, like an ipad, it really does offer the lowest cost solution.
Grab a mac mini "server" - (or a hackintosh) and an external thunderbolt RAID NAS, you can put all your content on the NAS, and control the whole thing from an ipad or ipod touch.
Sadly it relys on itunes but it does work.


Altertively companies like ELAN and BRYSTON offer storage and interfaces for all of this stuff, if you are into high end audio.

I do like high end audio. At this point I think storage is the key as right now I have a wd tv upstairs and an asus o play in the basement. So interface is not that important to me.

In terms of computing...... aside from apple tv and a touch I am more of a PC guy.

Looking at Canada computers I notice that servers start at 300 or so and the skies the limit.

 

[onthebottom]

I have about 500 movies on a Mac that I stream to all the screens in the house... via Apple TV.... pretty simple setup - ripped with Handbrake into MP4 files - takes about 15-20min per movie.

OTB

 

[frankcastle]

I'm thinking the servier is more for ease rather than pursuing fideility. I'm thinking more for the nights that I just want to kick back and watch or listen to something without having to rifle through my collections.

 

[frankcastle]

I have about 500 movies on a Mac that I stream to all the screens in the house... via Apple TV.... pretty simple setup - ripped with Handbrake into MP4 files - takes about 15-20min per movie.

OTB

The issue for me right now is storage. I have compressed stuff but I'd rather leave it uncompressed. Thus need some sort of setup that can accomodate several 3 TB hds with room to grow. My laptop only has 2 usb ports and I'd rather not have them dedicated for the purspose of ports for the externals...... as I sometimes plug my phone or usb key into it.

 

[frankcastle]

Just looking for thoughts on what makes a good media server (PC based) that can hold a lot of hard drives.

 

[frankcastle]

Please excuses that these questions are so rudimentary. Aside from looking at servers on canada computers website I have done no research and it is a subject that I know pretty much nothing about. This all came about as I finally connected everything in the house together and started to think this is pretty handy what next.....

 

[TheDr]

You need to be looking at a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device that will allow you to store and stream your media. I use QNAP NAS devices, not necessarily the cheapest out there but I cannot question the feature set.

You can watch your media using a DLNA compliant device such as a PS3 or something like the WD TV Live Hub.

 

[Garrett]

Please excuses that these questions are so rudimentary. Aside from looking at servers on canada computers website I have done no research and it is a subject that I know pretty much nothing about. This all came about as I finally connected everything in the house together and started to think this is pretty handy what next.....

I would get a 4 bay NAS, that offers torrent/DLNA/media server capability. Bckup the drives (either RAID them or run something like rsync if you do not trust RAID). This will cut your capacity effectively in half but given all drives fail, it is cheap insurance. You can do the same by building a server and customizing, but I find a purpose built NAS is simplest. Once you fill it up, buy another (who knows what 8 bay will be by then).

 

[checks]

Forget about those NAS appliances. Jokingly people refer to it as Not A Server. Anyway, the easiest and most cost effective way to set up a server is to use an old pc and install Linux. An old mid tower case can hold 8 or 10 hdd's, which can either be setup in RAID or as JBOD. (just a bunch of disks). Once things are setup, it doesn't even need a monitor. Just put it in a closet or somewhere hidden, and connect it to the network. It will be able to serve files, run a webserver, ftp, etc, whatever you need it to do.

A QNAP box is nice, but you still need to buy the drives. If you have a old pc, you just need to buy drives. And you can simply add drives as you need them. There is a bit of a learning curve with Linux, but some of the new distributions make it very easy for beginners. The latest version of Ubuntu Server is very easy for a beginner to setup.

The other problem with a NAS appliance is that you might be limited by the processor. Some of the less expensive NAS boxes have ARM processors, which are unable to transcode video and audio files, which means if you have high quality rips in flac or mkv or whatever, your client has to decode those files natively. If you do go that route, make sure you get a NAS with a x86 class cpu.

Hopefully that wasn't too confusing...

 

[frankcastle]

I know it sounds ungrateful to complain (Louis CK does a bit about how people take the magic of flight for granted and complain that hte cellphone is too slow when the signal goes into space and back (okay technically cellphone tower)) I was hoping for a simple plug and play method.

So is it fair to say that regardless of whether you go with a NAS or server as described by checks that it needs to have an operating system installed (if it doesn't come with one)?

Is it hard to tell the server "hey allow my media players access to the hard drives via ethernet"

On my laptop it is easy..... find the external hd, right click share, modify the settings to allow full access

Linux to me is a operating system for guys who are really into their computers but I honestly have no idea what it even looks like..... is it like dos from back in the day or is it click and windows like or something else?

 

[WoodPeckr]

Linux to me is a operating system for guys who are really into their computers but I honestly have no idea what it even looks like..... is it like dos from back in the day or is it click and windows like or something else?

Ubuntu is both.
You can click away just like Windows or use DOS (terminal) which is the fastest way to do things....you just need to know the code to use.

Been using the latest version, 64 bit Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) and it's nice and all FREE....:wink:

Here's a link that will let you take a tour of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin).

Just click on Take the tour › to see what it is like, then click on 'Take the guided tour'.

Get Ubuntu
Ubuntu is completely free to download, use and share

Ubuntu Server >

 

[checks]

A NAS appliance will most likely have a linux operating system installed, but you will administer it all via a web interface. You can telnet or ssh into it, but you don't need to do that for any kind of maintenance or setup. If you don't mind spending a bit of money, a NAS appliance is the easiest method for administrative duties. However, you will be very limited in the future if you want your server to do something else. A home NAS appliance can most likely do everything you want from it. Be warned that you are at the mercy of the manufacturer as far as updates and bug fixes go, though.

And in response to the question about what Linux looks like, it can look like anything you want. Console/text based, GUI based, headless, it doesn't really matter. Most server installs are initially setup in a console mode, but you can access it via a windows machine on the network. You can open a remote console in a window, and run commands, edit files, install software, all while browsing help file on the internet. The maintenance of my Linux server is done via my Windows laptop, through a terminal window. My server doesn't even have a keyboard attached to it. It sits in the basement, right beside my modem and router.

 

[Garrett]

I know it sounds ungrateful to complain (Louis CK does a bit about how people take the magic of flight for granted and complain that hte cellphone is too slow when the signal goes into space and back (okay technically cellphone tower)) I was hoping for a simple plug and play method.

A NAS is about as plug and play as you will get. You essentially:
1. plug in the hard drives
2. put it on your network
3. configure the level of data redundancy you want, in the event of a drive failure
4. set up security (accounts, shares, etc)
5. enjoy

This takes approximately two hours to do for someone not familiar with what they are doing. No need to know internals.

If you just want a 2 bay, this is about as cheap as it gets. They go on sale often:
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=27_1035_357&item_id=040592

 

[frankcastle]

http://www.havetheknowhow.com/default.htm

found a website by a guy talking about how to make a linux based media server.

so here are a few questions

1) is his website more thorough than what I would need? my eyes started to glaze over looking at all the articles in the "configure the server" tab.
2) how many hard drives can a NAS accomodate vs a home made media server?
3) do NASs come with USB ports as well?

Ideally I would love a system that can grow with my collection and that will likely require many hard drives that I would connect either SATA or if run out of space USB 3.0 ports?

How good does the motherboard, cpu, ram have to be to stream a ripped blu ray that is uncompressed? Not saying that I would necessarily want to do that but that would probably be the upper limit of what I would want to do with the server. Given the size of blu rays I think I'd stick with discs. But dvds are small enough that I would consider putting the 1000+ that I have onto hard drives uncompressed.

 

[frankcastle]

http://www.nashq.com/faqs.htm

wow there are serveres that go into double digit number of hdds! wonder what they cost!

wow clearly skies the limit for what you want to spend on a server!

 

[canucklehead]

U can buy a few different options .... for about 2800 u can get a mac mini server and a Promise thunderbolt RAID this will give you redundancy storage (12 TB i believe) as well as spindles for disk I/O .. disk io is often the choking point.... the other thing is u get redundancy and the RAID rebuilds from a dead drive.

 

[TheDr]

http://www.nashq.com/faqs.htm

wow there are serveres that go into double digit number of hdds! wonder what they cost!

wow clearly skies the limit for what you want to spend on a server!

Got a budget of a couple of million? One project i have just implemented for a client involves 3 storage devices with about 50TB of storage each in 3 datacentres. About 20TB of data is replicated in real time between all 3 for disaster recovery purposes (2 at opposite sides of the city, the third at the other side of the country).... The devices are nowhere near full, each can hold about 1PB (1024 TB) of useable storage over 2048 disks... and they are by no means the biggest available.

 

[jackflerj]

http://www.havetheknowhow.com/default.htm

found a website by a guy talking about how to make a linux based media server.

so here are a few questions

1) is his website more thorough than what I would need? my eyes started to glaze over looking at all the articles in the "configure the server" tab.
2) how many hard drives can a NAS accomodate vs a home made media server?
3) do NASs come with USB ports as well?

Ideally I would love a system that can grow with my collection and that will likely require many hard drives that I would connect either SATA or if run out of space USB 3.0 ports?

How good does the motherboard, cpu, ram have to be to stream a ripped blu ray that is uncompressed? Not saying that I would necessarily want to do that but that would probably be the upper limit of what I would want to do with the server. Given the size of blu rays I think I'd stick with discs. But dvds are small enough that I would consider putting the 1000+ that I have onto hard drives uncompressed.

If you're a bit tech savvy look into http://www.freenas.org/.

The keys to having a solid file server are:

A lot of memory - Shoot for 16GB+ but 8GB will do.
1GB network card - standard on most boards.
Fast hard drives, preferably in a raid setup (for redundancy) - I would suggest ssd drives but if you're looking to save a bit go with 2.5" sata 3 drives. The bigger the better (750GB, 2.5", 7200rpm)
Motherboard with 6 or more sata ports - This will allow you to add more hard drives in the future without the need for an extra sata card.

The rest of the components don't need to be high end. File servers barely use the CPU. If I were setting this up I would focus on the following:

• Low power consumption - I assume the server will be on 24/7 so look into cpus with lower power consumption. The 2.5 drives will use 2-3 watts max vs 3.5's which use 10-15 (or more). AVOID GREEN DRIVES. They constantly spin down and have to spin up each time you access them which results in an overall longer access times.
• Low noise - Invest in a bigger case. Preferably a full tower but a mid tower should do. Look for as many drive bays as possible. Since I'm using the 2.5's I may need to purchase adapters to fit them into the 3.5. Adapters are extremely cheap on ebay.
• Bigger fans = less noise. More air is moved on lower rotations. Lower rotations = Less noise. Go with 120mm or higher. For further reading: http://www.silentpcreview.com/
• No video card, no dvd drive, disable onboard audio - Most boards come with onboard video cards but you can disable this once you're all setup and connect via the network.No need for sound, no need for a dvd drive (why waste a sata port). I assume this server will be tucked away somewhere colder (like the basement) not a closet. Closets will trap the hot air and will result in your machine running hotter then it has to.
• 16GB ram - Look for motherboards that can support up to 16 or 32GB. Try for 8GB sticks even if its only two. No point in buying 4x4, then having to replace the entire set later on if you need more then 16GB.
• OS - FreeNas 8.x. I don't trust windows for anything I run here at home, especially a server. Unix is the king of server OS's but if you feel more comfortable using linux you can find an all in one linux file server distro (http://distrowatch.com/search.php?o...ne&desktop=All&architecture=All&status=Active) or just build a samba server from scratch.

Hope I didn't forget anything. Good luck. PM me if you have any other questions.