NASLite Network Attached Storage

www.serverelements.com
Task-specific simplicity with low hardware requirements.
It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 10:15 am

All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 2 posts ] 
Author Message
PostPosted: Wed May 21, 2008 1:59 pm 
Offline

Joined: Wed May 21, 2008 11:19 am
Posts: 1
Hello all...

This is my first post here and I would like to ask your advice...
The company I work for ( production company ) needs 8 TB of storage space in RAID 5 configuration for back-up of video footage.
Commercial solutions are either too expensive or with limited scalability.
So I offered to build 2 NAS storage systems for them using NAS-LITE.
I know of course that NAS-LITE system requirements are not high but since Im not paying and the systems will be used for professional work I decided to build them from scratch using brand new components.

So the system requirements for each NAS machine are the following:
1) 4TB volume
2) RAID 5
3) Instant recovery from HDD failure
4) Gbit LAN
5) The ability to connect and share external USB or Firewire HDD's in the future

After thinking and searching a lot I concluded in the following parts:

Case
Chieftec Aegis CH-05 Black
It features 7 internal 3.5" HDD slots and 3 5.25" device lots (more than enough)
Link

Motherboard
GIGABYTE S775 GA-945GCM-S2L (945GC) Vga/GLan
It offers on board VGA and Gbit LAN support plus 4 SATA and one IDE chanel for future upgrades. The manual claims also that the board can boot for usb sticks (so I can use it with NAS-LITE USB version)
Link

CPU
Dual Core 2220 (S775/2.4Ghz)
I think this CPU can provide all the necessary computing power for now and for future upgrades
Link

RAM
2x Trancent 1GB DDR2 DIMM PC2 6400-800
Nothing special but plenty of RAM to cover the need of the machine (just in case it get hungry ;-))

RAID Controller
Intel RAID 6 port SATA SRCS16
That was the hardest part, to find a controller in Greece that is supported by NAS-LITE.
In the NAS-LITE hardware reference manual the controller is not mentioned as Intel manufactured but under the family of "LSI Logic MegaRAID Controller Driver"/ "MegaRAID RAID Controller SRCS16".
This is the same controller? It will work or not with NAS-LITE?
This controller is IDEAL for me because it has 6 SATA ports and offers the option for a "HOT SPARE" ( a drive that is waiting to be commissioned automatically when another RAID drive fails).
Also supports sound alarm on hardware failures and is fully hardware dependable.
So I plan to use 5x 1TB SATA HDD's for the RAID and 1x 1TB HDD as a ''HOT SPARE''
Link

HDD's
1 TB SATA II SAMSUNG HD103UJ SPINPOINT 32MB Cache
6x 1TB HDD at 7200 rpm, nothing to comment other than at spin-up requires 2.4A current (so at 6 HDD's require 14.4A)
Link


Power Supply
Chieftec GPS-550AB-A
A 550Watt power supply. You think that it has enough power to give to the HDD's spin-up or it will be wise to upgrade to the next model of 650Watt?
Link


Those are the components of the machine i intend to build... The total cost is around 1100 Euro ( 1750 USD).
Not expencive for a machine with that many HDD's, reliability and great scalability.
But my main concerns right now is if the RAID controller is compatible with NAS-LITE and if my power supply is enough to drive the whole system.
Also a MAJOR question I have is the following... The computer that is going to use those two NAS systems is operating under Windows XP ( because of hardware and software compatibilities issues of the AVID editing software). Windows XP are able to ''see" and use a partition of 4TB without problem or there is a limit to that?

Waiting to hear any comments from you guys.

Thanks in advance
Chriss


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Wed May 21, 2008 3:05 pm 
Offline

Joined: Fri Apr 21, 2006 9:49 am
Posts: 48
Location: Philadelphia, PA, USA
My only comment would be in reference to the RAID card - many around these parts (myself included) seem to have better luck with teh 3ware cards over the LSI-based cards.

I run 2 3ware 7506-8's in my NASLite system - 5 drives on each card (one hot spare). The 75xx series is all PATA i believe, but the 85xx series is supported in the NASLite kernel and is SATA.

http://tinyurl.com/3ptce5
http://www.3ware.com/wheretobuy/europe.asp


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 2 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 16 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group