How can i turn my mini-pc into a storage server?

[ziphnor]

Hi,

I currently use an AOpen MP45-DR mini-pc as an HTPC. I will soon be replacing it with an HDI Prime 3.0 network player. My current media server is an old PC based on an Athlon 64 3000+ with 1.5GB ram, a discrete video card and 6TB worth of storage (2x1TB + 2x2TB).

The old media server is used for other stuff besides serving media (like NZB downloads), and is not fast enough to stream video at the same time (and used about 70W back when it only had two discs).

Seeing as the mini-pc is about to get a lot of spare time, is much faster( 3.0Ghz X9100 dual-core mobile CPU), and is much greener, i was wondering whether i could use it as a media server. The problem is of course that it has one eSata port which doesnt support port replication.

I was thinking that i would buy an external eSata enclosure of some sort and connect it to the single eSata port.

In this regard i have some questions:

1. Any good suggestions for an enclosure? It should use as little power as possible, and power down with the server. It should fit 4 drives at a minimum, and preferably 6.

2. Currently my discs are being managed by Windows Home Server. I wonder how i will move the disks into an enclosure without losing all the data. Is it possible to add drives to an enclosure and keep the data on it? I assume this is not very likely with RAID, but i was more thinking along the lines of using JBOD.

3. How hard will it be to add more discs later, still showing them as a single drive?

Thanks for reading.

[__Miguel_]

Seeing as the mini-pc is about to get a lot of spare time, is much faster( 3.0Ghz X9100 dual-core mobile CPU), and is much greener, i was wondering whether i could use it as a media server.

WHS *might* be a problem. W2K3 sometimes doesn't really like being installed on mobile hardware, which your mini PC uses. I'd do a test run first, just to be sure.

The problem is of course that it has one eSata port which doesnt support port replication.

Now THAT is a problem. Without port multiplier support, you're stuck with a single eSATA HDD. AFAIK, there are no controllers that can make a non-PM aware SATA port handle more than one drive in pass-through mode (meaning no RAID or JBOD arrays).

I was thinking that i would buy an external eSata enclosure of some sort and connect it to the single eSata port.

You can, but you'll have to get your hands on an eSATA controller that can be fit on an expansion slot on the mini PC (not sure if it has one... if it were a laptop, you would probably have an ExpressCard slot available, but that's not a laptop...). If you go this route, try SiI-based controllers, they seem to be the least head-aching causing of the bunch, and besides, I think SiI is the only one actually BUILDING add-on port-multiplier chips, so you can expect compatibility from this combo (SiI controller+SiI PM).

OR you can get your hands on a USB-to-SATA multi-drive array. It's a port-multiplier with a USB connector. I believe you can get multi-drive pass-through with that one. Check Addonics, or one of its numerous OEMs, you might just get lucky. Throughput would suck A LOT, though, since you would be limited to 35MBps.

1. Any good suggestions for an enclosure? It should use as little power as possible, and power down with the server. It should fit 4 drives at a minimum, and preferably 6.

If you use one or more of Addonics's USB multipliers, you get 5 extra drives per multiplier, so I believe that should fit the bill.

As for power, those multipliers only really need a bit extra power, so it's 5 HDDs (go low power, of course) plus sub-10W extra for the multipler (it's powered by a Floppy power plug, so...), plus whatever inefficiency your PSU adds to the mix.

2. Currently my discs are being managed by Windows Home Server. I wonder how i will move the disks into an enclosure without losing all the data. Is it possible to add drives to an enclosure and keep the data on it? I assume this is not very likely with RAID, but i was more thinking along the lines of using JBOD.

If the drives were on the same server, I believe that could be possible. WHS doesn't really care WHERE the drives are, it marks them individually.

Changing servers, though, is more of a problem. Every new drive you add to a WHS pool will be formatted, so you'll need at least one extra disk to pull that migration off. At least from where I'm standing, of course...

3. How hard will it be to add more discs later, still showing them as a single drive?

In WHS, no problem. It never is, for WHS. As soon as it detects an extra disk, it will ask you if you want to add it to the pool. Just say yes, and it'll get formatted. Period. I believe there is a limit to its number of drives (23, I believe), but not so with the size. If you have enough ports, you're good to go.

I hope this helps.

Cheers.

Miguel

[xan_user]

http://www.addonics.com/products/host_c ... ial_pm.asp

[__Miguel_]

http://www.addonics.com/products/host_c ... ial_pm.asp

Very nice read! Thanks!

I knew the Addonics website, but I had never stumbled on that guide. VERY nice.

Cheers.

Miguel

[xan_user]

add this for $45 and you can drop the mobo and just run as many sata drives as you want on your nas,
http://www.addonics.com/products/nas/nasu2.asp