Re:Mmmm RAID 5 for video on demand... (Score 0, Redundant)

Check out this article on the ultimate home server. A company called JMR has a RAID5 enclosure with 6 Fujitsu 2.5" hard drives. Is this the configuration you're talking about? Anyway, thought you may be interested.... Digital Connect Magazine June 7, 2004 http://www.digitalconnectmag.com/howto/showArticle .jhtml;jsessionid=GUXGEUC3GUAUOQSNDBNSKHY?articleI D=20301222 Serve Your Customers The Best Our four-star lab engineers cook up full-course server. Season to taste. By Frank J. Ohlhorst Integrators are quickly finding that tying together a home IP infrastructure is starting to resemble what they've been doing for years in the business world. After all, the whole concept is to enable various devices to communicate and seamlessly share data. That situation demands a client/server-style solution. Home integrators have become intimately familiar with the "client" portion of the equation through the installation of IP-based devices, ranging from media center PCs to photo printers to media broadcasting devices. But there are weaknesses with the client-only solution because of the difficulty in sharing, controlling and protecting content. The short answer is to set up a home server, a single system that consolidates, manages and shares all of the data. An integrator can attempt to do that with a peer-to-peer network but will soon discover its limitations, such as security, backup, reliability and compatibility issues. Before rolling out a typical server, integrators will have to understand the needs of the smart home. While a home server shares certain elements with a business server, the two are vastly different. The key comes in the form of reliability and simplicity, along with size, power usage and noise. The next element to tackle is the software. Integrators can address the software issue by simply defining what should be expected from the server. Ultimately, a home server should act as a central repository for a household's data, but that functionality creates several prerequisites. Outside of the reliability, security and management issues, the server may need to support additional applications, such as a Web server, scheduling and e-mail functions, remote access and backup. With that in mind, Digital Connect Lab engineers chose Microsoft Small Business Server 2003. Although the OS is geared toward business needs, integrators will find the feature set is a good match for the home server environment. In other words, the best practices offered by Small Business Server 2003 for a business make the product ideal for a home server. Choosing the hardware that makes up a reliable and attractive home server starts with a suitable case and power supply, since the server should be as at home in the stereo equipment cabinet as hidden away in a closet. Engineers chose Antec's Overture Quiet Media Case, an attractive black case with quiet fans, a slim form factor and plenty of expansion room. One of the key considerations in choosing that case was the availability of two exposed 5.25-inch drive bays, which allows for the installation of two externally accessible drives. The $129 Overture case also sports two externally accessible 3.5-inch drive bays. Other important elements include front-mounted USB, audio and FireWire ports, toolless speed screw assembly, three internal 3.5-inch drive bays and a 380-watt power supply. The next element is a motherboard/processor combo. With the unit functioning as a server, bleeding-edge performance is not a necessity. Integrators can lower costs with a combo that offers midrange performance. Engineers selected an Intel D865GLC motherboard, which supports either a Pentium 4 or Celeron processor. The $134.99 D865GLC offers integrated Intel Extreme Graphics 2 video, dual Serial ATA (SATA) controllers, 10/100/1000 Ethernet and USB 2.0, all in a micro ATX form factor. To lower costs, engineers chose a 2.8GHz Intel Celeron with an MSRP of $135. For memory, engineers selected two Kingston KVR400X64C3A 512-Mbyte PC3200 memory modules ($128 each MSRP) for a total of 1 Gbyte of RAM. Integrators will find additional RAM offers the biggest bang for the buck when building a server. A server's primary role usually translates to storage, the key being reliable, fast storage for several users. The home environment extends that paradigm by stressing reliability. In many cases, the typical home user is a technology neophyte, meaning that time-tested business processes such as data backup will be ignored or forgotten. That creates a twofold problem for integrators: providing large, resilient and economical storage capacity. A RAID solution solves those problems. Typically, RAID arrays are large external units or, at the very least, require a large tower case to hold the multiple drives. That spells trouble for the integrator at-tempting to minimize space. Engineers selected a JMR SATAStor RAID array (MSRP $748.95 with 2 60-Gbyte drives). It incorporates as many as six small form factor SATA hard drives into a single-height 5.25-inch drive bay. Using six Fujitsu 2.5-inch 60-Gbyte SATA drives and configuring the unit for RAID 5 created a storage solution with 300 Gbytes of drive space, while providing fault tolerance against drive failure. The SATAStor RAID array was connected to an Escalade 8506-8 Serial ATA Hardware RAID controller (MSRP $628.85) from 3Ware, which can be configured for RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 10 and JBOD. Engineers chose a RAID 5 configuration, which offers a good balance between available space and adequate fault tolerance. Integrators looking to reduce costs can implement a pair of mirrored SATA drives as primary storage and configure those drives using software mirroring. But that option reduces performance and capacity. While a typical CD-ROM drive would suffice for a basic server, engineers wanted to provide the ability to back up critical files to optical media. With that in mind, a Sony DRU-530A ATAPI DVD-RW (MSRP $199) drive was selected. The unit can burn most available media. Integrators will find that using the outlined hardware elements will create a reliable server that can be a good fit for most any smart home. What's more, integrators can mix and match hardware components to reduce initial costs or add functionality. After all, the server is destined to become the centerpiece of a digital home, providing ample integration opportunities.