I wasn't sure if this qualifies as "software", "server" or "general". For my home NAS box, I'm currently running a product called unRaid by Lime Technology. I was originally torn between unRaid and OpenNAS because I didn't have the ability to run Ubuntu Server and Linux Raid in my original config. unRaid one out simply because I found it easier to that configuration. I'm a bit more comfortable now though and open to other/better options if out there.

I'm about to start assembly on a 4U server with 20 HD bay's. My choices are to continue running unRaid or look for alternatives. My data is mostly large video files that are accessed by stand-alone HTPC's around the house. Any editing or ripping is done on my workstation and then uploaded to my NAS. As much as I'd like to have fast read's and write's, I think read's are most important in my case, but nowhere near as important as database read's etc....

I am not overly technical, so ease of use, configuration, management, growth and redundancy are my wishes. My initial vision is to start off with 10 x 2TB drives in a Raid 60 config using an Areca SATA controller card. This card gives me 16 useable SATA ports and the MOBO has another 4. 2 of which I will most likely use to mirror the OS or any other system related functions.

I'm hoping that by the time I need additional disk space, 3TB or 4TB drives will be readily available and reasonably priced. Will I run into problems adding larger drives to increase capacity with all NAS solutions? Overtime, will I be able to start replacing the 2TB drives with larger drives if I start running out of empty bays? I know that with unRAID, the parity drive needs to be larger or the same size as the largest disk in the pool. That's most likely standard, but I'm not clear. I'd also like to have all my disk appear as a single drive with purposeful shared folders and the ability to assign read/write permissions by folder, possibly even file? For some reason with either CIF or NFS shares, anyone in my house can upload/download/edit any file if they can browse to the share? I have set up an admin and user account with different profiles, and enabled them?

I'm also not clear if I can dynamically add disk to grow an existing array or even how to do it? Would the array have to be completely rebuilt from scratch? If not, is there risk of data loss? As I understand Raid 60, I should be able to suffer 2 drive failures before losing any data. I think I read somewhere that I am limited to a maximum of 16 disks in any single array. Does that include the 2 spare or parity drives?

My biggest concern besides speed (Gb NIC and Gb Switch), with unRaid, and it may be a lack of understanding on my part, is that a single drive loss will not erase all data, but I will lose the data sitting on that particular drive. When I browse my box today, a single movie file sits on 1 single drive. I'm not sure this a good thing? It appears as though any of my shares have the ability to expand beyond a single drive, but only once necessary?

Again, my understanding and how I've configured everything maybe the real limitations?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

ehcah

Hi,

take a look at freenas and openfiler, both products support various RAID levels, automatic rebuild, RAID expansion and so in. I use freenas for 2 years and i am very pleased about the configuration gui and the performance. Best check the products homepage and read the documentation. There is no final answer to the question "what should i use", this depeneds in every case heavily from your expectations and needs.

I do not know about any restrictions on the number of disks used in a RAID.

For fast reads and writes take fast SATA disks (7200 rpm or more), also think about using real server disks and no enduser hardware, they are more reliable and faster. Porttrunking is a must have to provide fast access to multiple clients. Your NAS should have a real fast CPU (DualCore or better) with a min. of 2GB of RAM depending on the number of services provided by the NAS. Be aware that a self made NAS is not the same as a professional storage, which are highly tuned to provide strong performance.

Do some testing before getting started to use you filer in production.

Please be aware that you should keep backup of you NAS before doing any changes to RAID configurations. Also keep in mind that RAID does not replace a good backup solution. Any time there is the possibility that a problem will drop your data into nirvana. So think about a tape backup solution.

Thank you for the reply. I'm going to load FreeNas in a VM to see if I can get any more comfortable with it then my first attempt. I'll have to check my ISO to see if they've updated since.

I completely agree with you and wasn't expecting an answer for the perfect solution. I think my biggest hope was to see if Linux Raid and/or Samba sharing was a recommended alternative. I like these all-in-one type managed solutions.

I have spent a lot of time googling, trying different solutions and in the linux/ubuntu IRC channels. Much like unRaid which I am using right now, I don't think there is a "best" solution. I just want to be sure of my options before starting over.

e