whakojacko
n00b
- Joined
- May 4, 2007
- Messages
- 37
exactly why a hardware raid card would be a decent combo with an atom 
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Small (ITX) File Server Advice
- Thread starter ilikecake
- Start date
You probably already know this, and Danny was probably just clarifying your choice of RAID card, but you do not need hardware RAID. If you are considering this form factor case, then you don't need the speed a true hardware RAID card will give you. I get ~175MB/sec from my Linux software RAID. That is more than enough to saturate a gigabit connection. The software RAID may take more CPU than a hardware RAID, but since serving files is pretty much all this box does, using a bit of CPU is not a problem.
However, the most important reason to not go with hardware RAID, is that those cards are typically pretty big. This case is definitely NOT big. I had a bit of trouble even getting my card to install properly. I cant imagine trying to install a bigger card, even if it is theoretically possible.
However, the most important reason to not go with hardware RAID, is that those cards are typically pretty big. This case is definitely NOT big. I had a bit of trouble even getting my card to install properly. I cant imagine trying to install a bigger card, even if it is theoretically possible.
</thread necromancer>
Long time no update. I have finally gotten around to finishing up my server (at least the hardware). If you recall I had to take whole thing apart because of these:
I/O Shield and wire harnesses for HDD Fault LEDs.
So I got to work.
Case apart with motherboard removed and I/O shield installed.
Motherboard reinstalled. I forgot that I had to use weird Allen screws to attach the motherboard (because the standard screw heads are too big). It took a little while to find the right tools.
Non-motherboard side of the case. I put labels on the SATA plugs so I would know what position they correspond to. It is very difficult to take this guy apart, so I don't want to have to do it again.
The two halves of the case put back together. Whew, I hope that is the last time I have to do that.
Finally, the entire case put together again! It sure doesn't look that complicated from the outside.
After I got it together, I reinstalled Ubuntu server. I only installed the things I needed this time, and I back-upped all the config files. Man, it is SO much easier to set up the programs when I already have the config files.
I now have the server online and I am slowly setting up all the services. I already have Samba set up, and I think I finally got a bittorrent client that works okay and isn't too bloated. I ended up using Deluge. It has a simple web interface, and it wast too hard to make upstart scripts to auto start the web interface and daemon back end.I have copied over all of the data off my old NAS, and I am currently trying to sort and remove duplicates (man, there are a lot of them
) with the help of fdupes.I have not set up Duplicity yet, but it is the next thing on my list.
A few notes about my experiences.
- Someone asked earlier about noise from this case. After getting the thing together, I can say that the case is not that quiet. It isn't obnoxiously loud, but it is definitely audible. The noise is sort of a whoshing noise cause (I assume) by the fans cooling the hard drives.
- Speaking of fans cooling, they seem to be doing an okay job. Using smartctl to read the smart data from the disks, the temperature on the disks is ~35C after 4 days online.
- I dropped eBox as it was not doing what I needed and seemed unnecessarily complicated. Instead I decided to learn PHP and make a simple web interface that does what I want.
- Man, transfers on and off of this thing are fast. Unzipping a ~600mb zip file from the network onto my computer, and I couldn't tell that it was not coming off a local disk. I have not benchmarked it (I don't know how), but I am pretty happy with the performance.