Looking to rebuild my server as it’s about 8-9 years old and out of space. Current server is a standard Intel based desktop with an older AMD GPU, and a 9TB (4x 3TB) raid5 array that has served me well. The server will be another Intel based box with Windows so unraid, etc. are not an option as I don’t want to mess with VMs, etc.
Usage is pretty light with just a few streams, and primary devices are Amazon fire sticks. Occasional PC stream or mobile device stream but those are fairly rare.
For the new box, I am looking at a few options for storage. The board I am looking at has 8x SATA ports and should support raid like the current board does. (Alternatively, I could go with a 6x port board and add a 2nd card down the road if needed for a 2nd array)
Build a standard RAID5 or RAID6 array using new drives (I can calculate the net size easily using raid calculators). The downside is I wouldn’t be able to replace/add drives easily in the future. Most likely to use 4x 8/10/12TB drives
Build system with drives NOT in a raid array and use storage spaces or drive pool to create a virtual array. This gives me the flexibility, but the big challenge here is I can’t seem to find any calculator online for either to calculate the space. Any suggestions on how to handle this?
Which option would you go with?
Either way, I’ll likely move the current 4x3TB drives over to the new system as well and put them in their own array. They’re getting some age on them, so they can handle hosting stuff that is already backed up offsite just to keep space free’d up on the new array.
Your option 2 is better, easier, cheaper, and more flexible. A raid, in general, also stores files in an encrypted format while DrivePool stores files unencrypted so if the hardware fails you can still copy the files off the hard drive(s). Also you can simply move the drives to a new computer and install DrivePool and the new computer will see the files and the pool exactly as the old computer did.
DrivePool does need a bit more hardware (in the form of drives) but storage is cheap and you can even use USB drives in the pool. I use 12 USB drives all in a pool and it gives Plex no problem. Just be sure to not allow the drives or USB hubs to sleep.
Thanks. I agree that Drivepool or storage spaces gives me the most flexibility. I’m not so worried about being able to read it externally, as I will encrypt my drives anyway.
And while we’re at it, I know alot of people like Drivepool better than SS, but it’s been years since I played with it. Is there truly that much of an advantage with it vs. doing it natively in Windows? I’m generally a fan of the less software, the better.
Do you know of a way to calculate the storage space that will be usable for either of those?
The biggest advantage of DrivePool is the ease and reliability and support.
While I have not even looked at SS in a while I do know that the support, should you need help, is abysmal; much like Plex’s but without the friendliness and technology knowledge and depth and speed of response we see from Plex.
I use Microsoft’s operating system because I kind of have to and I do not really like Linux much. But I do not use Microsoft’s programs if there is any real alternative. I do not use their browser or email client or any other Microsoft support program. Windows is horrid enough without piling on the crappiness of Microsoft’s other products.
Edit: I do know that if I add two 4TB drives to my pool my pool size jumps by 8TB. I do not really gain that much because I use duplication (It is redundancy NOT backup) for my movies and TV shows That way if any one drive fails I loose nothing.
As I said earlier drives are cheap so it makes little sense to skimp on drives as it is time consuming to get the data from backup and even more so to re-rip DVDs.
Thanks. If I could figure out a way to calculate the storage array size with DrivePool I’d probably feel alot better about it.
Great call on W11 too, thank you! I think the main things that have everyone freaked out are the TPM 2.0 requirements and UEFI/Secure Boot. I have both of those covered in the current system and plan to do the same in the new one… It’ll be your typical i5, 16/32gb ram, SSD for OS, storage array mentioned above, integrated graphics card… nothing special but should be fine as far as I know.
As I said, or at least implied, earlier DrivePool will use 100% of the available space of any drive in the pool. (Note: do not put the boot drive in the pool.) that is only reduced if you store data on the drive but outside the pool. Each drive in the pool will contain a hidden pool director named something like:
“PoolPart.cf58f555-70d5-47fd-8540-188b8e7a116e”
and anything in that directory will be in the pool. If all you have on that drive is in the pool directory then it will be in the pool. That makes it easy and quick to move existing files on a drive into the pool. You simply move them into the pool directory.
Further note: Drive pool creates a new drive letter for the pool and all the space available on the drive is available in the pool.
Once you create the pool and manually move any existing files into the pool you never need to worry about the pool at all. Simply copy/move any new files into the drive DrivePool created. DrivePool takes care of allocation of files within the pool. Also DrivePool never splits a single file onto multiple drives… You just treat the new DrivePool drive exactly like any other drive.
Drives in the pool can also have files outside the pool directory and they are just like any other files on any other drive.
DrivePool, at least the way I have it set up, runs on the root/main drive of the server (or the computer that holds the drives if the pool is to accessed over the network) and after setting up can mostly be ignored.
Once your DrivePool is set up to add a new drive to the pool it is simply a matter of plugging the new drive into the computer and opening the DrivePool interface and adding the new drive to the pool. Once you do that the space on the new drive is fully available in the pool.
If you have “balancing” turned on, and that should be on, Drivepool will move stuff around as needed all in the background… That is also true if you, as I do, use duplication for redundancy.
A little over a year ago I had a drive in the pool fail, it was almost 10 years old and had been, due to my clumsiness, dropped while powered up. The drive and everything on it was gone. It was a 2TB drive and I replaced in with a new 6TB drive. I lost nothing in the pool as drive pool simply switched as needed to the duplicated files. (DrivePool also assures that no redundant file is duplicate on the same drive)) After a few days I looked and found that the needed new backups had been created and once again my data was fully duplicated.
I have run into no real problems with DrivePool and, when I did need some help I asked on StableBit’s forum and one of the developers answered in good detail within a day.
Onn warning: Do NOT store Plex’s database in the pool. It causes problems. My C: drive is 3TB and my server only serves so I simply store Plex’s data on that C: drive.
Buying DrivePool is, by far, the best software purchase I have ever made.!!!
Also do not limit the growth of your pool in any way. I originally had only 4 drives and now I have 12. Remember, “Data grows to fill available space.” Nature, and the computer Gods, abhors a vacuum.
You might check in to unraid. It allows for multiple drives, it is protected if you should loose a drive, it also supports docker and VM. I run my Plex Server on a Unraid in a docker container along with a few other containers to support plex stuff.
While UnRaid does work and work well it is much more difficult to set up and use. DrivePool does not require anything except the drives and the computer and DrivePool drives can be read without the pooling software and requires nothing but a Windows computer with an available USB port (to connect a USB hub) or several USB ports if you do not want to use a hub.
I firmly believe in the K.I.S.S principal and, it seems to me, that DrivePool is closer to fulfilling the K.I.S.S. principal than UnRaid. But everyone has to make their own choices and what seems “easy” and “simple” to me could be different for others.
Thanks for the feedback. I guess at worst, I could order the new parts and build it and play with SS/DP before moving any data over. If I don’t like the results, I could always RAID5/6 it and then put it into production use.
