Plex Server Help...Nas? Das? San? File Server? HTPC? Thunderbolt and LAN device?

[andrewcropper]

Hi,
I'm sure this must have been answered somewhere but i can’t find what I am looking for and I need some clarification please, if anyone can help…
This is my idea, please tell me if I am wrong and what, in your opinion is the best way to set it up.
I am wanting to create a home plex server using my mac mini. The mac mini will act as the PMS hidden underneath my tv unit connected to the router via LAN and tv via hdmi. It will handle the transcoding if needed.
The external added storage device/enclosure connected via powerlines and LAN in another room somewhere in the house.
I have a lot of blu rays which I want to rip to digital storage in full quality which will require a lot of space.
The mac mini is the latest model with an intel dual core processor, 8gb ram and 1tb HDD. I would like the device/enclosure to have both thunderbolt and a GIGAbit LAN port.
My thoughts are; the data will be stored on the enclosure(if such a thing exists) and shared via LAN but when I want to transfer the ripped blu rays I would like to transfer the data quickly. I also may need to take it away with me at times and use the thunderbolt ports.
I currently have a 4TB hard drive with 3TB of data installed.
I would like a 4(possibly more depending on the price) bay enclosure, I want to add my 4tb drive first, once it is full I want to add another and so on. I want to use the drives independently; like a PC tower with 4 internal hard drives mounted…. C:, d:, e:, f: and so on.
I have seen the following device types but without physically trying them out(which I can’t afford to do) I don’t know what is right for me: To be clear I am not fussed about protection, back up RAID etc.
G-Drive 4tb - one port thunderbolt, one port USB 3.0 DAS £289 apple store – Upsides, cheap - the downsides – no LAN, no ability to daisy chain due to only one thunderbolt port, if I wanted to daisy chain I would have to buy the more expensive G-Drive Pro 4 TB £600 – twice the price – it would also have to live near the TV unit and look out of place, big and bulky. I know there are different brands like Lacie which do the above yet they still lack most of the above.
DROBO 5 – 4 bays – uses RAID… A thing I don’t understand fully – RAID 0 - reduces overall storage – again, I’m not fussed about the protection. Also supports JBOD – am I right in thinking that JBOD joins all 4 drives to create 1 large one or can they be separated to use/access only one drive at a time like I am after. Can raid be disabled? uninstalled? Another linux based OS installed? Another Downside – no LAN port either.
QNAP Pro/Synology/ReadyNAS? – certain models can be solely used as a plex server - again the RAID issue and adding drives 1 by one. I just don’t get it having never used it.
A server? HP proliant? No idea about that to be fair.
Areca ARC-5026? Seems to have all I am looking for but does it support LAN networking and sharing? It has a LAN port but is that only to access the web based OS?
What is FreeNAS and what is it’s capabilities?
HTPC? – do I sack the mac mini off even though I love the mac OS and build a small enclosure with enough bays to add one by one?? I would prefer not to

My preference would be a nas like device with a thunderbolt port with the ability to access single drives
On another note……
I have also considered a VPS but do not know which to go for? What site provides fast service? Do I store my data on a different site or the same one as the VPS host. Which is cheapest? I have seen some for £70 a month with 6tb of data. Soyoustart.com? that’s a little bit over my budget…..

I’ve typed enough rubbish now I’m confusing myself. Hopefully one of you can help and understands my situation

 

[VincentP]

JBOD means "just a bunch of disks". This allows you to use the drives individually or as a spanned volume. The disks can be any size. If you just use the disks individually then losing one disk means you lose data on just that disk.
All varieties of RAID require disks of the same size. Some stripe the data across multiple disks for performance and some add parity so that you can lose a disk without losing data. RAID 0 is the worst because losing one disk means losing data on all disks. RAID 5 is typical for a 4 drive enclosure and this gives you three disks worth of space and parity bits in each stripe so that a failed disk can be rebuilt.
I think JBOD with individual disks is the best fit for your needs.

Often the USB or thunderbolt ports on a NAS are for attaching external drives, not your laptop or PC. You can connect your laptop with a LAN cable.

For brands, have a look at Hotway and Buffalo for affordable enclosures. Look for something that supports JBOD and you should be ok.

Edit:
I think the Hotway enclosures are USB only, not NAS enclosures. They have 4 or 8 bay non-RAID enclosures that should be quite affordable.
Buffalo TeraStation 1400 is a 4 bay NAS. They have models too but these will be more expensive.
I've had problems with Thecus NAS enclosures, the Seagate and DLINK NAS enclosures I've seen were very slow.

As a side note:
NAS means Network Attached Storage, so a storage device on the network.
SAN means Storage Area Network. These are a network of storage devices attached by a storage interface like Fiber Channel or SCSI. Now that you have iSCSI and FCoE, the storage interface can actually be on the network too. These are over the top for a home storage solution.
DAS is direct attached storage. Typically this is a RAID enclosure attached by SCSI to a server. I guess you could call storage attached by USB or thunderbolt a DAS solution, but as I noted earlier I think these ports are designed for attached external drives rather than a connection to a PC or laptop.

 

[andrewcropper]

JBOD means "just a bunch of disks". This allows you to use the drives individually or as a spanned volume. The disks can be any size. If you just use the disks individually then losing one disk means you lose data on just that disk.
All varieties of RAID require disks of the same size. Some stripe the data across multiple disks for performance and some add parity so that you can lose a disk without losing data. RAID 0 is the worst because losing one disk means losing data on all disks. RAID 5 is typical for a 4 drive enclosure and this gives you three disks worth of space and parity bits in each stripe so that a failed disk can be rebuilt.
I think JBOD with individual disks is the best fit for your needs.

Often the USB or thunderbolt ports on a NAS are for attaching external drives, not your laptop or PC. You can connect your laptop with a LAN cable.

For brands, have a look at Hotway and Buffalo for affordable enclosures. Look for something that supports JBOD and you should be ok.

Edit:
I think the Hotway enclosures are USB only, not NAS enclosures. They have 4 or 8 bay non-RAID enclosures that should be quite affordable.
Buffalo TeraStation 1400 is a 4 bay NAS. They have models too but these will be more expensive.
I've had problems with Thecus NAS enclosures, the Seagate and DLINK NAS enclosures I've seen were very slow.

As a side note:
NAS means Network Attached Storage, so a storage device on the network.
SAN means Storage Area Network. These are a network of storage devices attached by a storage interface like Fiber Channel or SCSI. Now that you have iSCSI and FCoE, the storage interface can actually be on the network too. These are over the top for a home storage solution.
DAS is direct attached storage. Typically this is a RAID enclosure attached by SCSI to a server. I guess you could call storage attached by USB or thunderbolt a DAS solution, but as I noted earlier I think these ports are designed for attached external drives rather than a connection to a PC or laptop.

Vincent,

Thank you for clarifying JBOD, the important thing for me there is using a 4 bay drive as 4 individual drives.

i hope the Areca can be used a NAS device also. the thunderbolt port on that does allow for direct connection to the mac mini, this bit is clear on their website. The NAS issue is not.

do you know if it is possible to change the software on the branded nas drives or is that permanent? what software would you recommend? freenas?

Thanks

 

[VincentP]

Vincent,

Thank you for clarifying JBOD, the important thing for me there is using a 4 bay drive as 4 individual drives.

i hope the Areca can be used a NAS device also. the thunderbolt port on that does allow for direct connection to the mac mini, this bit is clear on their website. The NAS issue is not.

do you know if it is possible to change the software on the branded nas drives or is that permanent? what software would you recommend? freenas?

Thanks

I think FreeNAS is something you would install on a PC to use as a file server. I'm not sure it would work if you tried to install on a pre-built NAS because of the type of micro processor used and driver support.
I think you would just use the operating system included with the NAS.

Edit: Just confirming, this is from the FreeNAS user guide "FreeNAS® is available for 32-bit (x386) and 64-bit (x64) architectures."
Many of the NAS devices have an ARM processor and this doesn't fit the criteria above.
Even in the ones that do have an atom processor, I would still be concerned about driver support.

I had a look on the Areca website.
It seems strange that they would include a LAN port just for management, but I can't see any evidence that it can operate as a NAS. Maybe you can try the support contacts on the website.

 

[andrewcropper]

Vincent,

Thank you for clarifying JBOD, the important thing for me there is using a 4 bay drive as 4 individual drives.

i hope the Areca can be used a NAS device also. the thunderbolt port on that does allow for direct connection to the mac mini, this bit is clear on their website. The NAS issue is not.

do you know if it is possible to change the software on the branded nas drives or is that permanent? what software would you recommend? freenas?

Thanks

I think FreeNAS is something you would install on a PC to use as a file server. I'm not sure it would work if you tried to install on a pre-built NAS because of the type of micro processor used and driver support.
I think you would just use the operating system included with the NAS.

Edit: Just confirming, this is from the FreeNAS user guide "FreeNAS® is available for 32-bit (x386) and 64-bit (x64) architectures."
Many of the NAS devices have an ARM processor and this doesn't fit the criteria above.
Even in the ones that do have an atom processor, I would still be concerned about driver support.

I had a look on the Areca website.
It seems strange that they would include a LAN port just for management, but I can't see any evidence that it can operate as a NAS. Maybe you can try the support contacts on the website.

I have emailed them but i've had nothing back as yet, i read all the manuals also and there was nothing in there.

It does seem odd that it's there and not useable.

Would a server be more appropriate for my use? The HP proliant microserver with more ram and a decent processor? I know little about these as thhey are more in depth that just plugging drives into a smallish 4 bay drive....

Thanks

 

[VincentP]

A small server is an option. You could use FreeNAS on this.
It will likely be more expensive and use a little more power, but it may also have better performance.
It is also going to require a bit more on your part to set it up, which may be a good or bad thing depending on your preferences.

 

[andrewcropper]

A small server is an option. You could use FreeNAS on this.
It will likely be more expensive and use a little more power, but it may also have better performance.
It is also going to require a bit more on your part to set it up, which may be a good or bad thing depending on your preferences.

Vincent,

I'll look into it. Thanks for your advice