Advise on a New Build for a Video Server

[mw2014]

I am building a FreeNAS box that is going to be used as a Video Server and I'm looking for input and/or suggestions.

Since this will primarily have DVD's where I have the actual DVD Disc as the backup and it is cost prohibitive to build something to back it up to right now.
I am thinking of using a 12 drive RAIDZ3 because I can lose any three drives without losing any data. This would be protection for a 25% failure, the 2 VDEV RAIDZ2 would allow only any two drives to fail which only allows a 17% failure.

My plan is for 12 - Western Digital 6TB Red PRO Drives - in a RAIDZ3 - 49.1 TB

Possible Alternatives
Western Digital 6TB Red PRO - 11 drives - 1 RAIDZ3 VDEV - 43.7 TB
Western Digital 6TB Red PRO - 12 drives - 2 RAIDZ2 VDEVs - 43.6 TB

I read that I shouldn't use an even number of drives with RAIDZ3, but I couldn't find anything that said why, and I would like to have the additional 5.4TB on the 12 Drive RAIDZ3 if it isn't going to cause any trouble.

My New Hardware
I am thinking of purchasing the following for my new build.

Motherboard Supermicro X10SRA-F

Processor Intel Xeon E5-2620 v3

CPU Cooler Supermicro SNK-P0048AP4

Memory Crucial 64GB ECC Kit (16x4) CT7129149 - Is 64GB enough for 50TB of usable storage?

Crucial 64GB Kit (4 x 16GB) DDR4-2400 RDIMM
Form Factor RDIMM
Total Capacity 64GB Kit (4 x 16GB)
Specs DDR4 PC4-19200 • CL=17 • Dual Ranked • x4 based • Registered • ECC • DDR4-2400 • 1.2V • 2048Meg x 72 • Speed 2400 MT/S Voltage 1.2V DIMM Type Registered

There will usually be only one client connected at a time. There will be occasions where two clients will be using it and a very rare instance of three maybe four
clients. Other than writing the DVD to the NAS, the only writes should be a small place marker file created by the playing device or application.

Before I buy something that won't work, I would like to ask if my choices make sense and will work with FreeNAS.

I would also like to know if there is any reason not to use 12 drives in a RAIDZ3.

I appreciate any suggestions.

Everyone here was a great help when I built my first FreeNAS box and I hope with your input, this build be as smooth and reliable as my first.

Thank you in advance.

 

[Dice]

My plan is for 12 - Western Digital 6TB Red PRO Drives - in a RAIDZ3 - 49.1 TB

This is wrong. Bidule0hms calculator suggest this gives 38TiB.
https://jsfiddle.net/Biduleohm/paq5u7z5/1/embedded/result/

I read that I shouldn't use an even number of drives with RAIDZ3

This seems to be old advice, that should not be relevant today.
http://blog.delphix.com/matt/2014/06/06/zfs-raidz-stripe-width/

I would also like to know if there is any reason not to use 12 drives in a RAIDZ3.

Other than you'll loose some speed and usable space compared to RaidZ2.
In my opinion, granted the drives are using sharing components like case, psu, motherboard and potentiall even controller - there should be extremely little benefit in moving from raidz2 to raidz3 in terms of real world safety. The likely hood that the type of failure occuring is of the sorts that a 3rd (properly burned in and tested drive) fails, before you're able to resilver is rather slim. Ie, it is far more likely that other components failure come into play. Check my sig "Memorable quotes"...

Cheers /

 

[nightshade00013]

I have to agree with everything minus the raidZ3 not being beneficial.

Once we start getting into drives that are larger the URE possibility goes up. If you plan to add a second vDev of 12 6TB drives or larger at some point in the future raidZ3 would likely be a boon. In the meantime you do lose some storage and a little bit of speed but what you gain is peace of mind now and in the future less headaches with expansion and a whole lot more peace of mind since adding a second vDev increases the risk of data loss. This would also be true with the idea of replacing all the disks in a vDev at a future time since you will be increasing the size of the pool and the rebuild time likely with disks that could be almost double the size. So the answer to the question is one that the owner/administrator will have to answer after asking the question of, "What are my plans in five years or less?" How much data will you have, do you want to add a vDev or a second pool or replace the drives to grow the pool.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/why-raid-6-stops-working-in-2019/

As far as the speed lost it will likely not affect your use case unless you are using 10Gb networking with multiple users. I have a 7 drive raidZ3 with 4TB 7200RPM drives and it is more than fast enough to fill a 1Gb ethernet connection a few times over. If you want to see some guesstimations of what speeds you are looking at you can take a look over here https://calomel.org/zfs_raid_speed_capacity.html But simply put with your stated intent you will not have any issues and something like Plex should be as fast as if it was on an SSD.

I personally have a plan in place to grow my pool in three to five years with disks that are around 150 each. My guess is that will be drives in the range of 9 to 12 TB each which will in all likelihood be relevant use case for raidZ3 on their own in a single vDev and I will be adding a second vDev to my existing pool.

 

[Dice]

There are some solid points by @nightshade00013 which all revolves around the concept of having a long term strategy for the machine. Indeed, if the prospect of the machine is to more than double its capacity within the next three to four years, it is definitely considering. However, that also implies awareness and a strategy for power supply and case, controller cards for example. What's up?

In OP, there is nothing much stated regarding future plans of this system. It is well worth @mw2014 to make such an assessment.

Furthermore, when re:reading OP, I get the feeling this "video server" is not so much a ripping machine or other heavy duties. If so, this hardware is pretty darn overkill compared to what most other plexusers with even fewer stated clients are building Xeon 1230 -based systems off, running on 32gb ram.
Once again - future plans?

Cheers .

 

[Sakuru]

WD Red PROs are generally not worth it for NAS devices. The regular Reds will be plenty fast, cost quite a bit less, and use less power.

 

[mw2014]

There are some solid points by @nightshade00013 which all revolves around the concept of having a long term strategy for the machine. Indeed, if the prospect of the machine is to more than double its capacity within the next three to four years, it is definitely considering. However, that also implies awareness and a strategy for power supply and case, controller cards for example. What's up?

In OP, there is nothing much stated regarding future plans of this system. It is well worth @mw2014 to make such an assessment.

Furthermore, when re:reading OP, I get the feeling this "video server" is not so much a ripping machine or other heavy duties. If so, this hardware is pretty darn overkill compared to what most other plexusers with even fewer stated clients are building Xeon 1230 -based systems off, running on 32gb ram.
Once again - future plans?

Cheers Dice.

Hi Dice,

The RAID calculator I use is
http://www.servethehome.com/raid-calculator/

I'm curious on the large differences in calculated sizes.

Thanks for the information. I wasn't sure how much information to include, here is, I guess, my story.

I built a NAS box about a year ago when I had no intention of using it for Video and built it too small, great for data but not for video.
A friend of mine has a Windows Server used to Video and he got me hooked. It works very well and like everything about it except the "Windows" part, I prefer to keep my NAS.

I put a few DVDs on my DataNAS to see if a video server was something I wanted to build... and it is.

I played with Plex and found it too difficult for my comfort. If I am not able to keep the NAS running, I want it as easy as possible to someone with a little technical knowledge to keep it running.

USE
I will be using the new NAS as a file storage container. I will rip my DVDs (BluRay in the future) to the NAS then create one sets of short cuts and one set of play lists. The short cuts for PCs using Media Player Classic and the Play Lists for my WDTV Live box (older version). The WDTV Live box works very well with my video & IR distribution system. I find this to work very well. It's nothing but text and find it easier to locate what I want, and additions, deletions and maintenance only requires basic PC skills so someone other than me can work on it if necessary.

HARDWARE and FUTURE
I didn't mention my Drives will be connected to two IBM M1015 cards. My Case is a Fractal Design Arc XL and my Power Supply is a Supernova 1200 P2 Power Supply.

I'm not designing it with plans to upgrade it later. I'm hoping I won't need to consider upgrading for at least 10 years and, if needed, new technology (and hopefully funds) will warrant a new build.

My 25 years as a Data Center Tech taught me overkill is much better than not enough.

My solution is to build a box that "should" need no additional storage, although with the new calculations I'm not sure.

My case Fractal Design Arc XL can house 12 drives using a 4 in 3 cage in place of 3 of the external CD locations. I decided on 12 6TB drives (the largest WD offers right now). This is the maximum possible, so this is what I planed.

I'm hoping it will be at least 5 years before I start to get close to capacity. With the RAID calculation you provided 38TB allowing for 25% free space and 2TB for my DataNAS backups, I will have 29TB remaining. After copying all my existing DVDs and estimated future additions I will have 17% remaining if I rip everything at 75% which is current my plan. If I rip everything at 100% I will be 500GB short. This is using the estimate that all DVDs will be 8.5GB. If necessary, I could use another solution for my DataNAS backups to increase the 29TB to 31TB. This is a luxury idea because my Data is backed up to 2 other computers (another use for old Windows PCs) every night and and off site USB device every week.

Since it is currently cost prohibitive to build a device to backup this New NAS, I am looking for the most reliable device with the lease possibility data loss.


Wow, sorry for being long winded.
I value any information I receive.

Thanks
mw2014

 

[mattbbpl]

"I played with Plex and found it too difficult for my comfort. If I am not able to keep the NAS running, I want it as easy as possible to someone with a little technical knowledge to keep it running."

If a video server is something you're interested in, then Plex\Emby (I use Emby which is very similar) is something you'll probably want to try out eventually. The features that you pick up here and elsewhere will eventually make a flat video file NAS seem like you're working in the stone age.

The being said, the hardware you've proposed is beyond what's required for such a setup. You have the freedom to continue with your current plan and then, once you're more comfortable and the options have made you drool, load up a jail with Plex\Emby and try something new (it's really not hard).

The one recommendation I would make for this path is that you create your media structure/names with Plex or Emby in mind so they can correctly parse the files.

 

[depasseg]

I agree with the media naming. And once you point plex at a proper folder, there isn't really anything else to do except use it.

The one recommendation I would make for this path is that you create your media structure/names with Plex or Emby in mind so they can correctly parse the files.

https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/categories/200028098-Media-Preparation

And I agree about the WD Red Pro's being not worth it. There's no need and they just burn more power and create more heat.

 

[ChriZ]

FWIW, I am pretty certain that your case can hold up to 18 drives.
So with 2 8disk raidz2 vdevs or 2 9disk raiz3 vdevs you can get over 50TB.

 

[mw2014]

FWIW, I am pretty certain that your case can hold up to 18 drives.
So with 2 8disk raidz2 vdevs or 2 9disk raiz3 vdevs you can get over 50TB.

Hi ChriZ,

Thank you for your input.

My original plan was for 20 drives but I changed it to accommodate a larger 1200 watt PSU and I was concerned that using 2, 8 drive stacks wouldn't allow enough cooling to the inside stack. I have the additional cages and once I get the motherboard installed, I will be looking again at mounting options.

 

[Dice]

I'm not designing it with plans to upgrade it later. I'm hoping I won't need to consider upgrading for at least 10 years and, if needed, new technology (and hopefully funds) will warrant a new build.

10 years is stupidly long time granted the warranty periods for drives these days (typically 2-3 years). I guess you know that, yet that hope seem to <need a poke>.

I didn't mention my Drives will be connected to two IBM M1015 cards. My Case is a Fractal Design Arc XL and my Power Supply is a Supernova 1200 P2 Power Supply.

Here you're already well setup for a 'upgrade on this platform' with dual M1015 and a huge PSU.

Ie, the way to go about choosing strip width and raid level comes down to these future plans for the box.
For a really long time perspective - with a "full vdev worth of drives upgrade" in 5 years, it might be interesting to look at raidz3, and a suitable number of drives in that vdev.
Your future expansion plan and its efficiency will largely be determined by the choices you make now.
For the longer time horizon, maximizing life span with about 1-2 substantial upgrades of drives within the expected life cycle - I'd look for raidz3 and somewhere 7 -11 drives for each vdev. Remember, next upgrade of adding a vdev should preferrably be of equal raidzX and drive number.


Cheers /