File Server Builder's Guide

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• masterbm - Thursday, September 8, 2011 - link

  If was to build to today I would think about uses i3 or low-end i5 sandy-bridge. The cpu was pick because at the time I thought it was the best bang for the bang for what I need it for. The machine has not let my down yet. My back file server ie older media center box houses the old drives from increase the need for more space. The 750 has stayed because it has the size needed to handle is responsibility/. All drive have certain things that hold and when it get filled it is upgraded.

• MartenKL - Monday, September 12, 2011 - link

  I would like my WHS2011 do realtime transcode of 1080p streams with 5.1 channel sound to my xboxes and ps3. Would the 2500T suffice?

• noxplague - Sunday, October 2, 2011 - link

  First, I think most of these comments became focused on SMB/Midmarket type concerns. This guide was clearly aimed on the pro-sumer looking to solve his data proliferation issues. Not everyone needs enterprise style RAID.
  
  With the help of this guide I build the following WHS 2011:
  Fractal Design Array R2 Black Aluminum Mini-ITX Desktop Computer Case 300W SFX PSU
  Foxconn H67S LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s Mini ITX
  Intel Pentium G620 Sandy Bridge 2.6GHz
  2 X HITACHI Deskstar 7K3000 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" (RAID1)
  Kingston HyperX 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3
  
  Here are some of the scenarios I have enabled with this build:
  Adobe Lightroom 3 on a Mac and on 2 PCs - this is really handy because I can store all photos on the server and have the library on each computer link to the 1 version of the truth. The only limitation is I cannot edit photos on the road that are back on the server.
  iTunes - I have an Apple TV and iPad, carefully configuring iTunes on the server and on my clients I am able to download to have files on the server and still sync/stream everything to my different devices.
  Zune & WP7 - ditto the above. I need to solve the album art issues across all of these devices however.
  Mac - They have no problem accessing the files and RDC works just as well as on Windows.
  
  Current problem: The only scenario that isn't working well is playing any WMV from the server. The "streaming" is painfully slow. This does not make sense to me because Quicktime videos on the server play on the Macs without a problem over wifi. Movie streaming to the Apple TV is seamless as well.
  
  My server is connected to my Apple Airport extreme (4th generation) via Gigabit ethernet.
  
  I found the guide helpful in finding good parts, in particular the case. I wish more time had been spent on scenarios and use cases with the server. Also the HDD section was useless. What would be much more practical would be advise on a decent setup. I decided to use the Intel RAID 1 with identical drives, but I have lots of questions about how to best maintain these and also the best way to consider adding new drives when needed. I'm trying to figure out an automated way to monitor the SMART status and have my server e-mail me if any drive has an issue. An brief overview of different backup methodologies would've been useful as well. Another useful discussion would be on UPS systems and how to configure your server to power down in the case of power loss.
  
  Thanks for the guide and hope to see more on this topic in the future!

• pacomcfriendly - Saturday, October 15, 2011 - link

  This has been the best OS experience I've found for my own home fileserver. Its built on opensolaris, super easy to work with, free, and zfs / zpool is fantastic.

• wiz329 - Saturday, December 10, 2011 - link

  This is a very beginner question, but what is the best way to access such a file server over the internet?
  
  I am looking to either use NAS or build such a home file server to store media. Over LAN, it seems pretty straightforward, just connect to your router. How would you go about accessing/streaming over WAN?

• marcus77 - Saturday, October 6, 2012 - link

  euroNAS would be also worth looking. They are offering storage software that is more for business use but they also offer technical assistance which is nessesary if something goes wrong. Also they have some advanced features such as storage cluster. http://www.euronas.com

• Amar7 - Monday, December 3, 2012 - link

  Mr. Throckmorton,
  
  Great File Server Build Guide... Any update to hardware suggestions? Some of the parts are no longer available. Would love some ideas on a budget home file server.
  
  Much thanks.

• buxe2quec - Friday, December 7, 2012 - link

  I would put in the list of possible operating systems also NexentaStor, it'a a very polished OpenSolaris/Illumos based NAS distribution free for personal use.

• war59312 - Monday, December 10, 2012 - link

  Would love a 2012 update for this guide?

• StoatWarbler - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link

  I'd love to see a 2013 update, especially for tower cases which can take a bunch of hotswap drive racks (My current ZFS array has 20 2Tb drives + 2 SSDs + OS drives. Yes, I'm barking mad and I enjoy it.)
  
  Why hotswap? Because opening a case to retrieve a failed drive is troublesome (case has to have access cleared to it, risk of pulling wrong drive on a running system, etc.)
  
  On the subject of controllers: A good HBA (and SAS expander) are far better than using hardware raid controllers. Modern PCs have more than enough horsepower to push checksum calculations and it means that drives are portable between controllers.
  
  I know about the cube cases out there such as Lian Li's D8000 - but afaik this doesn't allow for hotswap drives.