2012-07-14, 20:27
I've been working on this project for about 7 or 8 months. In truth, I don't think I'd do this again - but I didn't realise how mad this project was until I had already made the primary financial investment - so onward I went!
For comparison, this is my current hardware set-up for XBMC:
OS: Windows 7 Ult 64 - XBMC Eden 11.0 - XBMC Skin: Aeon Nox - Git
MBoard+Sound+GFX: Zotac GF9300-K-E ITX MBoard
CPU: Intel E5700 Pentium Dual-Core - 3.00GHz, 2MB, Socket 775
RAM: Corsair 1600 2x 2GB DDR3
Main HD: OCZ Vertex 2 60GB SATA II - Optical: LG 10x BDRW
Housing: Mini ITX w/300w PSU
Cooling: Evercool SB-F1 PCI Fan 47 CFM & Sharkoon Case Fan
Which seems to run XBMC pretty well. The problem is that I have over 10 2TB drives that are filled and that number would be increasing. While accidental data loss wasn't much of a concern for me, I was a bit worried of hard drive failure, which would result in a lot of DVDs to re-rip, re-organise...yuck!
The solution I was able to find that I was happy with was using a RAID of sorts with 2 or 3 parity disks, allowing for 2 or 3 simultaneous drive failures while allowing for recovery. Originally I was going to use FlexRAID, however the license terms have recently changed and I am not at all impressed with the new license terms (it isn't the fact he now charges for the software, but rather the way the license is attached to the hardware used and so forth...it just wasn't impressive.) Then I came across SnapRAID, which is GPL3. I will use this in conjunction with an OS that operates off a USB stick.
I wanted a case that could handle 30+ drives, with the idea of having 3 parity drives and 27 drives of data or 2 RAIDs of 16 with 2 parity drives each, giving 28 data drives. This was the general idea. I resisted the sensible idea of having just three smaller servers of 12-14 drives.
I was going to make it out of aluminium, but that was quite shockingly dear...so I picked steel. The result is a rather heavy box. A neighbour galvanised the steel for me and after I was finished learning to weld on this creature he also helped me coat the outside with a black protective paint.
Then I measured and cut spaces for the I/O ports, the dual power supply backs, and a space for 7 fans.
And here is the top and sides of the case. It just slides up and off. I fasten it with screws from the back.
And here it is from the other side:
Now I had one issue in that I was not keen on making the platform that holds the different PCI cards in place nor the bit that the motherboard is mounted to. Fortunately, I had an old ATX case lying about and I was able to cannibalise it using a hammer and a stiletto-like tool.
Next was the racks for the hard drives. This was the tricky and expensive bit. These were difficult to cut because I wanted a little slit for the screws to fasten the drives. So, while I could assemble and cut the basic structure, the tiny "slits" had to be water-cut. This was expensive and cost more than the steel used in the racks. There was a factory in Cavan that offered to do it for me. 2.5 racks to water-cut was about 200 Euro!
Now, the way they fasten inside the case is nice. I have it so I can screw them in from the bottom and a wee handle atop so I can easily pull them up (after disconnecting the cables) if I had to replace the drives. It is not as nice as being able to hot-swap, nor is it convenient, but I'll definitely label my cables. It's probably the biggest grief I have with this design, but hopefully I don't have drives failing that often where this becomes a real pain!
Now, having a delicate server like this made me quite worried. ESB in the village was shut off again, for 3 hours, and we have been having power outages constantly for the last month. So, I was able to find in Ballybrack a 1500VA UPS for 100 Euro, but he gave it to me for 80 Euro so it pays to smile (plus, I think he had loads of them and they just weren't selling, hard times etc.) It has software that can do an auto-shut down and it can support 3 devices, but I really only need 2 for the dual power supply.
Here is what I intend to fill it with:
2 700w Alpine power supplies. There are 6 120mm fans with LEDs in them, coloured white, green, and amber (closest to gold I could find,
) and then 1 140mm fan that is red. The motherboard is an ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO which seemed class because it has 3 PCIe cards, 3 PCI cards and 5 SATA ports. There's also an eSATA port.
(the dvd drive is for something else as is the surge protector is for the television, but was in the same box... I wouldn't be using that with the UPS!)
On eBay I was able to find, in Hong Kong, some rather cheap PCI cards that had 4 SATA ports each.
I ordered 2 Supermicro AOC-Saslp-MV8 8-Port SAS SATA Card from Provantage. They were quite dear, but each of them handles 8 SATA ports when you use the right cable.
2x4GB of DDR3 Kingston Ram.
From FrozenPC I ordered a Lian Li Dual Power Supply Adapter Cable, so that way I can control both power supplies from one motherboard without any dangerous mods.
Then from Monoprice I ordered 4 of these 30AWG Internal Mini SAS 36pin Breakout cables, which essentially turn one of them SAS yokes into 4 SATA ports. Also 15 SATA power splitters and 17 SATA cables.
I have a bit more work to do on the case, in that I mis-measured around the I/O space and I have to cut an extra 1/2 inch to make it fit proper. Once that is done, I should be able to assemble everything together and try to get the OS to boot from a USB stick (so as to not take away from a precious SATA port for the mere OS )
For comparison, this is my current hardware set-up for XBMC:
OS: Windows 7 Ult 64 - XBMC Eden 11.0 - XBMC Skin: Aeon Nox - Git
MBoard+Sound+GFX: Zotac GF9300-K-E ITX MBoard
CPU: Intel E5700 Pentium Dual-Core - 3.00GHz, 2MB, Socket 775
RAM: Corsair 1600 2x 2GB DDR3
Main HD: OCZ Vertex 2 60GB SATA II - Optical: LG 10x BDRW
Housing: Mini ITX w/300w PSU
Cooling: Evercool SB-F1 PCI Fan 47 CFM & Sharkoon Case Fan
Which seems to run XBMC pretty well. The problem is that I have over 10 2TB drives that are filled and that number would be increasing. While accidental data loss wasn't much of a concern for me, I was a bit worried of hard drive failure, which would result in a lot of DVDs to re-rip, re-organise...yuck!
The solution I was able to find that I was happy with was using a RAID of sorts with 2 or 3 parity disks, allowing for 2 or 3 simultaneous drive failures while allowing for recovery. Originally I was going to use FlexRAID, however the license terms have recently changed and I am not at all impressed with the new license terms (it isn't the fact he now charges for the software, but rather the way the license is attached to the hardware used and so forth...it just wasn't impressive.) Then I came across SnapRAID, which is GPL3. I will use this in conjunction with an OS that operates off a USB stick.
I wanted a case that could handle 30+ drives, with the idea of having 3 parity drives and 27 drives of data or 2 RAIDs of 16 with 2 parity drives each, giving 28 data drives. This was the general idea. I resisted the sensible idea of having just three smaller servers of 12-14 drives.
I was going to make it out of aluminium, but that was quite shockingly dear...so I picked steel. The result is a rather heavy box. A neighbour galvanised the steel for me and after I was finished learning to weld on this creature he also helped me coat the outside with a black protective paint.
Then I measured and cut spaces for the I/O ports, the dual power supply backs, and a space for 7 fans.
And here is the top and sides of the case. It just slides up and off. I fasten it with screws from the back.
And here it is from the other side:
Now I had one issue in that I was not keen on making the platform that holds the different PCI cards in place nor the bit that the motherboard is mounted to. Fortunately, I had an old ATX case lying about and I was able to cannibalise it using a hammer and a stiletto-like tool.
Next was the racks for the hard drives. This was the tricky and expensive bit. These were difficult to cut because I wanted a little slit for the screws to fasten the drives. So, while I could assemble and cut the basic structure, the tiny "slits" had to be water-cut. This was expensive and cost more than the steel used in the racks. There was a factory in Cavan that offered to do it for me. 2.5 racks to water-cut was about 200 Euro!
Now, the way they fasten inside the case is nice. I have it so I can screw them in from the bottom and a wee handle atop so I can easily pull them up (after disconnecting the cables) if I had to replace the drives. It is not as nice as being able to hot-swap, nor is it convenient, but I'll definitely label my cables. It's probably the biggest grief I have with this design, but hopefully I don't have drives failing that often where this becomes a real pain!
Now, having a delicate server like this made me quite worried. ESB in the village was shut off again, for 3 hours, and we have been having power outages constantly for the last month. So, I was able to find in Ballybrack a 1500VA UPS for 100 Euro, but he gave it to me for 80 Euro so it pays to smile (plus, I think he had loads of them and they just weren't selling, hard times etc.) It has software that can do an auto-shut down and it can support 3 devices, but I really only need 2 for the dual power supply.
Here is what I intend to fill it with:
2 700w Alpine power supplies. There are 6 120mm fans with LEDs in them, coloured white, green, and amber (closest to gold I could find,
) and then 1 140mm fan that is red. The motherboard is an ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO which seemed class because it has 3 PCIe cards, 3 PCI cards and 5 SATA ports. There's also an eSATA port.(the dvd drive is for something else as is the surge protector is for the television, but was in the same box... I wouldn't be using that with the UPS!)
On eBay I was able to find, in Hong Kong, some rather cheap PCI cards that had 4 SATA ports each.
I ordered 2 Supermicro AOC-Saslp-MV8 8-Port SAS SATA Card from Provantage. They were quite dear, but each of them handles 8 SATA ports when you use the right cable.
2x4GB of DDR3 Kingston Ram.
From FrozenPC I ordered a Lian Li Dual Power Supply Adapter Cable, so that way I can control both power supplies from one motherboard without any dangerous mods.
Then from Monoprice I ordered 4 of these 30AWG Internal Mini SAS 36pin Breakout cables, which essentially turn one of them SAS yokes into 4 SATA ports. Also 15 SATA power splitters and 17 SATA cables.
I have a bit more work to do on the case, in that I mis-measured around the I/O space and I have to cut an extra 1/2 inch to make it fit proper. Once that is done, I should be able to assemble everything together and try to get the OS to boot from a USB stick (so as to not take away from a precious SATA port for the mere OS
) 
I'm excited to almost have it completed. It's going to sound like a jet engine with those fans, but it won't matter with where I'm storing it!
It is a mad heavy box - I have trouble lifting it and I think I'm going to put a handle on it of some kind, something to at least assist in taking off the case cover!
