LSDave Posted June 9, 2012 Share Posted June 9, 2012 I've been talking with James a bit this week. I have to say, the guy knows his stuff.I highly suggest anyone looking to add media storage to go with James solution. He is the ONLY one to optimize a product specifically for large media files. All other NAS's don't do this. This is huge.Just make sure you have a good backup plan regardless of what NAS you go with. RAID5 is not a backup solution. I would really like to see someone come up with a good media backup / offline backup strategy.FreeNAS can do all this with some proper configuration. Its not that hard.My hardware is an old P4 3GHz on its original Asus 775 mobo, and i have dual intel pro1000GT NICs in it going to a switch now that supports LACP. I can serve 4 1080p streams from it without issues to XBMC media players. It took me a while to get things the way i wanted but it performs well. I also run Time machine backups to it, Logitech Squeezebox server, its running as a syslog server, and one of my buddies is going to help me install Nagios on it with RRD to do some advanced network monitoring. But the Nagios isn't a priority.Once i had my network optimized with the FreeNAS, i would get 90MB/s writes, for about the first 20 seconds then it drops down to 60MB/s sustained for large files(over 5 gigs) I've yet to do tests like that with multiple PC clients. I also could see performance improvements with a better processor/mobo(one with PCIE) and a better quality raid card.I'm not trying to bash DD's servers. As obviously they are doing much more then JUST serving video files. But for people like myself, who are on a budget and like to mess with DIY projects, you can make a NAS with some inexpensive hardware and free software, that can be optimized for large file transfers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pstuart Posted June 9, 2012 Share Posted June 9, 2012 Right, James is NOT servicing the DIY market.If you add up all the time you had setting up FreeNas, configuring it, getting it optimized, you have to add it into the costs.$1800 for decent hardware$2k+ for Raid qualified hard drives20-40+ hours to set up and get running @ $30 / hour (what's your time worth?) $600-1200+You are at a minimum at James pricing, without support, default control4 support, etc.End of the day, there are tons of DIY options, and I do a lot of them, but what I've seen, if you don't want to go the DIY route, James has the ideal solution for media serving.Price is one thing, service is another, and James knows his stuff. So do your DIY, I do. But when you want to leave it up to someone who knows what they are doing, trust James. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diamonddesign Posted June 9, 2012 Share Posted June 9, 2012 Thanks Patrick and thanks xc420 for the price notice. I was doing those at about 3 am and doing 12 different ones. Its fixed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSDave Posted June 9, 2012 Share Posted June 9, 2012 Right, James is NOT servicing the DIY market.If you add up all the time you had setting up FreeNas, configuring it, getting it optimized, you have to add it into the costs.$1800 for decent hardware$2k+ for Raid qualified hard drives20-40+ hours to set up and get running @ $30 / hour (what's your time worth?) $600-1200+You are at a minimum at James pricing, without support, default control4 support, etc.End of the day, there are tons of DIY options, and I do a lot of them, but what I've seen, if you don't want to go the DIY route, James has the ideal solution for media serving.Price is one thing, service is another, and James knows his stuff. So do your DIY, I do. But when you want to leave it up to someone who knows what they are doing, trust James.The only money i spent on hardware to get the project going was about $600 for drives and NIC's. All the other hardware was old stuff i was going to give to computers for schools. The processor\mobo are at least 6-7 years old. I only have 6TB of storage, but its plenty for me at the moment.I was merely trying to let people know(who may be like myself when it comes to DIY) that you could get a comparable solution for media distribution for a fraction of the cost. I do realize that i bought all this hardware for good money at some point, but its present value is almost nothing other than the HDD's.If i had the cash, i would definitely purchase a diamond design with the color touch screen option. They certainly are beasts of machines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILoveC4 Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 The DD Server looks bad ass (so does the NAS). I'm curious...what would one do with the touchscreen on there? Is that so you don't need to log in from a PC to tweak things? I notice you run the C4 GUI...I can't imagine what you'd use it for in the rack. Am I missing something? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ERDrPC Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 If the DD server has a blu-ray drive for backing up directly on the server (I have AnyHD for personal use backup) and RAID 6 with two drive fault tolerance versus RAID 5 single drive then I would be sold. Any chance these modifications could be made? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pstuart Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 I think the touchscreen is a killer feature... In a rack, it essentially saves you from needing a keyboard and mouse. Can pull up and interact with the system when in front of the rack.Also, since the touchscreen is capable of doing 1080p (which is rare that small) you can output off the back to a projector and before you turn the projector on, get everything set up on the touchscreen.In a WHS 2011 environment, you typically don't need direct access to the desktop, since it was designed to be administered remotely, but trust me, having a built in touchscreen to your desktop will be nice, plus you can use it as a flash based navigator for C4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diamonddesign Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 ERDrPC,The most recent shipment was a 7 disk model in RAID6 so he still had 5 usuable disks (same space). He requested it and I did it. If its a common request I'll make it an option the checkout page. I would do it with the 6 disk model too as well of course. The 3ware/LSI hardware raid card gives you tons of raid options and they have a proprietary raid 6 thats supposed to be faster than a lot of other raid 6 options. However, the server will email you when a disk goes bad so the need for raid 6 (although worthy) isn't as critical as a non-monitored machine because it will email you issues right away and you can start the swap process.All units have a blu ray drive in them and automatically back up using mymovies server edition (we are a mymovies integrator/installer so no ads or points requirements). Just plug in your current anyhd license into it (it doesn't come with a license on that but you have one). Dont forget the discount code from the other thread for the month of June ($500). FYI the blu ray disc tray can be seen in the video on youtube. Its a 14x LG I believe with writing/burning capability as well. For the touch screen, it is great for teching as you have a c4 user interface in the rack (so great for installers). Also, you can bring up your coverart for cds, etc. or whatever else you may need it for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wappinghigh Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 I'm really not sure why you guys in the US worry so much about the cost of something like James has put together. Heck, over here it costs 2.2K just for a touchscreen. You guys are very lucky. Wap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wappinghigh Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 I'll add, in all my dealings with James at DD, (Ive had a couple) all I can say is, here is a guy who *will* go that extra mile (even 10k+ miles) to help Control4 user enthusiasts out. Even those with a DIY slant. Those sort of dealers are extremely rare. I'm lucky I have one here in Aust. too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ERDrPC Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 James Thanks for the reply. I'm just trying to decide if I'm going to build one of those Norco 20 drive beasts or go with yours. What is the noise level from your server? If I build I'd use Noctua fans. I have 2 open SFP+ 10gig ports on my switch. I'd look to add an Intel 2 port SFP+ P120X. Yes it's overkill but I have the two empty spots and I can link aggregate with them as well = insane bandwidth. I plan on installing the same card in my workstation and either upgrade my switch for more SFP ports or get another with two more ports and use the proprietary switch linking HDMI cable (Netgear). I'm going to run Cat6A from my office to my equipment room. I already have a server 2008 R2 and WHS 2011 license but no build yet. How would your server setup accommodate the intel SFP+ NIC? ERDrPC,The most recent shipment was a 7 disk model in RAID6 so he still had 5 usuable disks (same space). He requested it and I did it. If its a common request I'll make it an option the checkout page. I would do it with the 6 disk model too as well of course. The 3ware/LSI hardware raid card gives you tons of raid options and they have a proprietary raid 6 thats supposed to be faster than a lot of other raid 6 options. However, the server will email you when a disk goes bad so the need for raid 6 (although worthy) isn't as critical as a non-monitored machine because it will email you issues right away and you can start the swap process.All units have a blu ray drive in them and automatically back up using mymovies server edition (we are a mymovies integrator/installer so no ads or points requirements). Just plug in your current anyhd license into it (it doesn't come with a license on that but you have one). Dont forget the discount code from the other thread for the month of June ($500). FYI the blu ray disc tray can be seen in the video on youtube. Its a 14x LG I believe with writing/burning capability as well. For the touch screen, it is great for teching as you have a c4 user interface in the rack (so great for installers). Also, you can bring up your coverart for cds, etc. or whatever else you may need it for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wappinghigh Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 I don't have a NAS. As ridiculous as that sounds (I know)..But I'd like one.I've always thought QNAP. Mainly because I know they play nice with OSX and they definitely serve up Twonky (which I need for my LinnDS) and they now support SataIII drives (6GB/sec)On the other hand Synology's GUI looks awesome, and their "App" principle is where things seem to be heading these day's.. I also like the fact you can add in another Synology and connect it all up if you run out of space. That's cool..I have no idea what matters in terms of file back up and delivery speeds. I'd need to ask the experts here.The fact that ^W_A say's he has Synology kinda swings me that way...On the other hand, why aren't they up to speed with the latest drive technology like SataIII ? Or Are they? And does this really matter?I've always found NAS choice darn confusing..Maybe that's where James can find his niche Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diamonddesign Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 WAP, Ours are SATAIII (just FYI). A blu ray needs about 10MB/sec to have solid throughput but 5MB should do the trick. As you can see from the photos on the other thread, the readynas and ours have way over that (100ish on ours). A good way to tell without doing the math, you can see where it is reading the 33GB Hurt Locker in 6 minutes. So it will do a 2 hour movie in 6 minutes and if you are watching it you are willing for it to take 2 hours. Therefore, much slower will work. However, if you want to stream a movie in 1 room and music in another, etc. etc. it starts taking a toll. QNAP, Synology, Buffalo, ddNAS (although not our servers) are all software based solutions. Accordingly, you want good processor/ram combo and good software. Ours is very solid as it is a fork (see fork here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_fork ) from FreeNAS which has millions of users like LSDave and tons of contributors. So we forked from what may be the best foundation.I'm hoping to sell more NASes than anything as all C4 projects can benefit from one. WAP if you want to see a server or ddNAS (dd12) in person there is one of each in NSW.ERDrPC, feel free to email me direct with questions or call. The server comes with a link aggregation program to bind the two NICs should you wish to do it. That gives 2gb connection (not 20gb). However, being that the dunes for years have run off of a 100mb connection, 2000mb is 20x that. Your switch has to support it but if it has SFP+10gig ports then it probably does. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
me23 Posted June 12, 2012 Author Share Posted June 12, 2012 James are the hard drives in the NAS upgradable? Like the new Hitachi 4tb ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wappinghigh Posted June 13, 2012 Share Posted June 13, 2012 That's a very good question. 12x4Tb drives even in Raid6 would give you "ample" storage :cool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diamonddesign Posted June 13, 2012 Share Posted June 13, 2012 Unfortunately not on the nas (I dont think) but they are on the server (although its a fairly big overhaul job). On the NAS it is possible perhaps once you get the 6th one in. For instance if you went from 2tb to 3tb, the first 5 will all default to the lowest common denominator (2tb each) but once you get the 6th in I'm really not sure as I've never tried it. Therefore, to be safe I'll say no. Also, the NAS is fixed at 6 or 12 disks and thats it. The server can have some added (like 6 to 8) although its a lot of work inside the case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minisoda_c4 Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Love my freenas. It's very simple to run and feature rich. I'm also running all my Time Machine backups to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bsalvador Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 FreeNas with the recommended hardware (with ECC support). Also FreeNAS is used on the Diamond Design NAS boxes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blub Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Personal build with Openmediavault using ZFS. Server grade HW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecodeman Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Would love to build a back blaze pod just for fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wappinghigh Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 DDNAS and a QNAP. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bk Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 DDNAS and a QNAP. Sent from my iPhone using TapatalkIs DD product or/and support still around? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tebery Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Is DD product or/and support still around?I believe so. I have the DD 18tb SmartServer with touchscreen that I am about to put up for sale. Also have 2 Popcorn Hour C-300 media players. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badjesus Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 I am using FreeNAS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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