Data Hoarder

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We are digital librarians. Among us are represented the various reasons to keep data -- legal requirements, competitive requirements, uncertainty of permanence of cloud services, distaste for transmitting your data externally (e.g. government or corporate espionage), cultural and familial archivists, internet collapse preppers, and people who do it themselves so they're sure it's done right. Everyone has their reasons for curating the data they have decided to keep (either forever or For A Damn Long Time (tm) ). Along the way we have sought out like-minded individuals to exchange strategies, war stories, and cautionary tales of failures.

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Building a data server - advice please (alien.top)

submitted 2 years ago by FROG_Blaast@alien.top to c/datahoarder@selfhosted.forum

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Hello!
I've found and bought 20x 3TB SAS drives, and am now trying to use them. I want to use TrueNAS (and only ZFS, no hardware RAID, I think)
I have an HBA board 8i, cables and an old motherboard already working with 4 8TB drives (not enough RAM but I will switch to my old windows 7 server board soon(tm))
I can't make too much sound as it will be in the living room (only room with basic climate control), and considering electricity prices, needs to not consume too much. Also I can't fit a full server length so it's a mix of vertical and horizontal
I have two options, I think :
-> Buying a backplane SAS836EL1 (60€) or alike (16 ports SAS1) and a PSU, and making a basic vertical drive holder (and probably using the original PSU) (kind of like a storinator)
-> Buying a whole server and cutting everything I don't need (280€ at least) but I will have caddies and everything, can also become a JBOD

Is first option workable in your opinion ?
What would you advise/do in a similar situation ?

Thanks !
(Sorry if some of my english is broken)

(Also I've though about making a custom case, cf pics, but unsure if I can fit the caddies I can use and the backplane)

https://imgur.com/gallery/hjcp0wz

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[–] Clockworkdancerobot@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

I'd look at an old 3U or 4U Supermicro rackmount case. Most have backplanes designed for a lot of drives. You only need the right cables. I see a 4U with 36 bays on ebay easy. Companies are always getting rid of old server hardware.

[–] HTWingNut@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Sell the drives and buy higher capacity ones. It makes no sense to have 20 3TB drives, SAS no less, especially when you're concerned about electricity and noise.

Three or four 18-20TB drives will serve the same purpose in a RAID 5 / Z1, use 10% the power, create a lot less noise, heat, and complexity, and reduce the overall footprint. It's less expensive and easier to house 4 disks vs 20.

[–] FROG_Blaast@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

I don't know, I've paid 170€ for all the disks, best I can do is 250€ for 4x 8TB or 800€ for 4x 18TB T_T
It's hard to beat, even though consumption should be around 150W all drives on...

I hope there is something like a power control over them, because yeah you're right, if they are 150w 24/7 it's 300+€ per year

I could turn off the server regularly though, but I guess it wouldn't be good for the hardware