options to increase space on home fileserver

[t78]

hi all,
my home file server (for streaming music + videos) is running out of space.
built back in 2009, the current spec is as follows:

GS7610 Ultra mATX Mainboard w/ Athlon 3200+ CPU
1 Gb RAM (2x 512Mb DIMMs)
2x 1Tb HDDs in RAID 1 config
Gigabit ethernet card
Ubuntu 14.04

so my main goal is to increase disk space whilst keeping redundancy in case of disk failure.
secondary goal is to minimise downtime as the kids enjoy watching their programmes!

however, as I've been researching my various options, it may not be so straight forward (it never is, right?)

-- option 1 --
the obvious option: simply buy a pair of bigger disks and reinstall Linux. I can get a 3Tb drive for £66 on Amazon at the moment, so cost would be £132.

I then thought about whether to get a SATA controller card (£20) and SSD (32Gb for £20 on eBay, I don't mind 2nd hand) to hold the OS and keep the RAID simple. this would allow me to install the OS and set up the RAID array afterwards, potentially easier than installing the OS on the array?

-- option 2 --
think this is the cheapest option: buy a SATA controller card and another 1Tb drive to create a RAID 5 array giving 2Tb available. cost would be about £55, with the option of adding the SSD (£20) for the OS since I have to buy the controller card anyway. The case has a 300W PSU so I think I'm covered for extra power requirements. Slight issue - what to do with my current data whilst rebuilding the array, but I'm sure I can find somewhere to dump it temporarily!

-- option 3 --
easiest but most expensive option: buy a dedicated NAS device off eBay. a Synology DS215J w/ 2x 3Tb drives went for £220 the other day. aside from the cost, the downside of this solution means that I cannot run other s/w on the server, so I would have to run Logitech Media Server on a Raspberry Pi instead of locally to the disks. also I don't really want to dump the hardware I have already if it can be reused. Setup and data xfer would be easy though.


to add a further confusion, I could grab a 2nd hand mATX mainboard/ CPU bundle of eBay (£40) with a better CPU and more RAM than I currently have, as well as 4x SATA thus removing the need for the controller card.
this would obviously be a more intrusive upgrade, but if I'm going to be reinstalling the OS anyway it might be worthwhile?


I think I'm erring towards option 2 but with a new mainboard instead of the controller and SSD (approx £95 total), but looking forward to hearing anyone's thoughts...

 

[TrufflesG]

Get a new machine would be my advice. They're cheap enough. Basically you're gonna need more processing power to handle greater capacity.
If your current server's been running since 2009 you're about due for some failures anyway.

A nightly backup to an external drive is all you need. All automated. Easy peasy.
I use SyncBack

A 1TB external drive is more than enough for backing up your data and parking it until you're ready.

Honestly, for what you say you're doing it seems you're overthinking this a bit.

 

[James Mason]

If they're in Raid1, you should be able to just get a couple bigger hard drives, replace them, and then copy the data from one of your current drives over to your new ones.

With the drives being 9 years old, you'd definitely running a high risk of one or both failing. And the question of, does your current backup device even have a way to tell you if one of the drives has failed?


It's... also possible with a system that old, it can't support larger HDDs, i'm not sure as I can't find a manual for that mobo.

Though, a new system with raid 5 in mind isn't unreal either, especially if you want to run some server apps:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Celeron G3930 2.9GHz Dual-Core Processor (£32.12 @ BT Shop)
Motherboard: ASRock - B250M-HDV Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£52.88 @ YoYoTech)
Memory: Crucial - 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£39.91 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Hitachi - Ultrastar 7K3000 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£48.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Hitachi - Ultrastar 7K3000 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£48.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Hitachi - Ultrastar 7K3000 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£48.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Thermaltake - Core V21 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£53.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM (2015) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£51.49 @ Novatech)
Other: StarTech.com 3 Port PCI Express 2.0 SATA III 6 Gbps RAID Controller Card w/ mSATA Slot and HyperDuo SSD Tiering - PCIe SATA 3 / mSATA Card (£29.62 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £406.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-02-02 22:14 GMT+0000

Then, you can have both the old and new on the network and just transfer the files over from the old one and then once done you can take the old system offline.

This will likely have another 9 year lifespan, where as upgrading yours may only get you a few more years, as some other piece of hardware outside the hdds could fail.

 

[USAFRet]

Option 3 does not mean dumping your current hardware.
It just means adding another box with more storage to your network.

But why not just add more drives to your existing system?
Or just replace the ancient 1TB drives with larger ones.

 

[t78]

A nightly backup to an external drive is all you need. All automated. Easy peasy.
I use SyncBack

A 1TB external drive is more than enough for backing up your data and parking it until you're ready.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

I'm not sure I follow with your backup suggestion; surely the backup disk would need to be equal or greater size to the total internal capacity? So I'd still need to buy new disk to increase beyond my current 1Tb, as well as a backup disk? Why not just set them up as a RAID 1 array?

 

[USAFRet]

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

I'm not sure I follow with your backup suggestion; surely the backup disk would need to be equal or greater size to the total internal capacity? So I'd still need to buy new disk to increase beyond my current 1Tb, as well as a backup disk? Why not just set them up as a RAID 1 array?

A proper backup routine only need to consume the actual used space. Not the potential space of all the drives.

For instance, a 2TB drive with only 600GB consumed....the backup need only be 600GB. Not 2TB as it would with a RAID1.

Also with a RAID 1...anything bad happens, it happens to both physical drives at the same time.
User error, corruption, virus, ransomware.
RAID 1 is not a backup.

 

[t78]

With the drives being 9 years old, you'd definitely running a high risk of one or both failing. And the question of, does your current backup device even have a way to tell you if one of the drives has failed?

Webmin reports that the RAID is in a healthy state, I check periodically when running OS updates.

It's... also possible with a system that old, it can't support larger HDDs, i'm not sure as I can't find a manual for that mobo.

Though, a new system with raid 5 in mind isn't unreal either, especially if you want to run some server apps:
---stuff---
Total: £406.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-02-02 22:14 GMT+0000

Then, you can have both the old and new on the network and just transfer the files over from the old one and then once done you can take the old system offline.

This will likely have another 9 year lifespan, where as upgrading yours may only get you a few more years, as some other piece of hardware outside the hdds could fail.

good point about drive capacity supported by the mobo. I can't find specifics in the manual.

tbh, £400 is more than I have in the budget for this - even if I kept the current case and PSU.
I am thinking that the RAID 5 solution might be the one to go with though, but using 3x3Gb drives instead of 1Tb (thus adding 5Tb versus just 1). it just seems better value for money than RAID 1 and I'm thinking 5+ years ahead when the kids need phones backing up, etc. Think this would cost about £260 incl. the eBay mobo and SSD.

the extra bonus with this solution would be that I can basically complete the new build without having to remove the old components until it is all working I'd have to fashion up some DIY drive mounts but I'm sure it can be done!