I'm looking to upgrade my home server at the moment. I've come into a little bit of cash I wasn't expecting so I'm looking to do useful things with it, rather than wonder where it all went in a few months time. One of the things I'm really looking into is upgrading the place I dump all my stuff.
I'm currently running a little HP DX2300. I have 2 x 2TB HDD pooled in a ZFS that Rsync's all my vital stuff to a 2TB UFS. I'd looked into RAID etc etc but figured in my old fashioned way that a back up is a back up is a back up. If its not a proper back up.. its not a proper back up. The last time I upgraded my storage I simply ran Rsync to my backup disk and then Rsync'd back again to my new ZFS pool. I'm quite happy with how that works as it sits pretty comfortably with my level of knowledge surrounding redundancy etc. This article here explains my thinking pretty well. Some of the comments relate to others doing the same thing.
I'm using Nas4Free and I like it, mainly because it isn't resource hungry, it works on pretty much any old computer, which is a big thing to me, I hate binning old tech and it frustrates me when people go on about how wonderful Linux is for re-provisioning old IT.. when it doesn't! I have an old T41, Linux won't even install on it (I know you can force the kernel blah but why?), whereas Windows 7 will. So who is the champion of the working man there eh!
My reasoning for upgrading is.. as the article outlines, when you want to expand your ZFS, you have to pretty much destroy it and start again. So, if I'm going to go through the faff of that (it is worth it in fairness, it has worked really well), I might as well upgrade the whole system. Keep the one I've got for testing or give it to my parents and play around with some proper remote administration (they live in Portugal).
The Hardware: I've read a bit about people turning old servers in to Gaming PC's. I'm not a gamer but I know these machines (for the proper fanatics anyway) are pretty meaty bits of kit.. I also know that for business and the hardcore home users, servers are even better. I'm neither, I just like to dick around and get things to work for me. So.. what about turning a Gaming PC into a server.. surely that would be a server good enough for me. The theory is good, they're setup for power (power enough to run a load of disks and a decent processor), they're designed for upgrades etc, they have multiple bay spaces, they have a ton of cooling gear installed.. why not?
I've found this in PC World of all places (sometimes they're pricing isn't actually that bad..), I've also found these babies, you can get them for a little bit less elsewhere but for a couple of quid, I'm not sure I can be arsed with the hassle. So that would be.. 2 x 4TB backing up to.. I always preferred the idea of the backup being 1 disk.. as then you're reducing your risk of failure in the backup.. 2 backing up to 1 rather than 2 backing up to 2. Which means.. if I want to back up everything (which I haven't before) I would need something like this.
I'm currently running a little HP DX2300. I have 2 x 2TB HDD pooled in a ZFS that Rsync's all my vital stuff to a 2TB UFS. I'd looked into RAID etc etc but figured in my old fashioned way that a back up is a back up is a back up. If its not a proper back up.. its not a proper back up. The last time I upgraded my storage I simply ran Rsync to my backup disk and then Rsync'd back again to my new ZFS pool. I'm quite happy with how that works as it sits pretty comfortably with my level of knowledge surrounding redundancy etc. This article here explains my thinking pretty well. Some of the comments relate to others doing the same thing.
I'm using Nas4Free and I like it, mainly because it isn't resource hungry, it works on pretty much any old computer, which is a big thing to me, I hate binning old tech and it frustrates me when people go on about how wonderful Linux is for re-provisioning old IT.. when it doesn't! I have an old T41, Linux won't even install on it (I know you can force the kernel blah but why?), whereas Windows 7 will. So who is the champion of the working man there eh!
My reasoning for upgrading is.. as the article outlines, when you want to expand your ZFS, you have to pretty much destroy it and start again. So, if I'm going to go through the faff of that (it is worth it in fairness, it has worked really well), I might as well upgrade the whole system. Keep the one I've got for testing or give it to my parents and play around with some proper remote administration (they live in Portugal).
The Hardware: I've read a bit about people turning old servers in to Gaming PC's. I'm not a gamer but I know these machines (for the proper fanatics anyway) are pretty meaty bits of kit.. I also know that for business and the hardcore home users, servers are even better. I'm neither, I just like to dick around and get things to work for me. So.. what about turning a Gaming PC into a server.. surely that would be a server good enough for me. The theory is good, they're setup for power (power enough to run a load of disks and a decent processor), they're designed for upgrades etc, they have multiple bay spaces, they have a ton of cooling gear installed.. why not?
I've found this in PC World of all places (sometimes they're pricing isn't actually that bad..), I've also found these babies, you can get them for a little bit less elsewhere but for a couple of quid, I'm not sure I can be arsed with the hassle. So that would be.. 2 x 4TB backing up to.. I always preferred the idea of the backup being 1 disk.. as then you're reducing your risk of failure in the backup.. 2 backing up to 1 rather than 2 backing up to 2. Which means.. if I want to back up everything (which I haven't before) I would need something like this.
A pretty meaty bit of kit. So.. the PC itself would be £349..99, the 2 WD Red 4TB HDD's £139.99 x2 = £279.98 and the 8TB backup £178.90, which according to my maths works out at about £1 million.
So, the hardware is one consideration, the other is the OS. I like Nas4Free because its served we well so far. Its not the most user friendly setup, you need a little bit of knowledge or at least the patience to sit and read or watch a few YouTube how to's. This guy helped me setup mine. It did feel a little bit like.. to get it to work, open it right up. Which although true 90% of the time (I still get random permission errors) it does feel a little weird knowing that anyone with access to my network can see my unmentionables.
I've looked at FreeNas - is or isn't a distant relative of Nas4Free, I've lost track of the argument.. but only briefly through my PC, it wouldn't run on my server (not powerful enough) so I couldn't get a good feel for it. I managed to get Amahi to run on, very easy to setup however, its definitely got the whiff of a business model about it.. they want to do a lot of the stuff for you.. for a fee. Its very user friendly but if you want to work things out for yourself and be your own king of the home network/server.. this probably won't be for you.. The one I am definitely interested in trying out however is OpenMediaVault. This looks really smart. Obviously, one I start messing around I will post any findings I make (unless its a complete disaster and then I won't want to talk about it).
That said.. since my Asus router.. a lot of the work I wanted my server to do before has been taken over by it. Am I just fiddling for fiddling's sake.. probably.
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