f13.net

F13 tech support has impressed me in the past, so I'm hazarding a question here.

I'm musing about putting together a server for home. My requirements are:

• Reasonably big disk with RAID for storing music, photos, etc.
• Small form factor that I can store in my wiring closet
• Can run Linux so I can host my own web server, etc.
• Give me a way of backing up critical files on my and my wife's PC's
• Headless operation - I just want to stick this thing in the closet, and when necessary, admin it via a ssh connection

I can imagine people might tell me just to buy a SAN, but I really do want a Linux server that I can play around with.

So I've looked at whether I could build something with mini-ITX or a small form-factor micro-ATA, but I'm totally out of my depth trying to look at what pieces I can reasonably put together. Basically I'd be happy (for now) with around 2 GB RAM, a pair of 320 GB (512 GB?) drives with RAID, a modest CPU, put in a box and connected to my network. Google has failed me in terms of finding example builds with current hardware.

Does anyone have any experience or strong opinions on what's a reasonable approach to a very small form-factor server?

Thanks in advance!

Why RAID? In an SFF you'll be limited in the amount of hard drives you can fit internally, typically 2. RAID 0 is a bad idea for reliability reasons, RAID 1 means you'll have half the amount of disk space, and you can't do RAID 5 with 2 drives.

Edit: The easiest "turnkey" solution if you don't mind learning a new OS is to get a Mac Mini with an external Firewire hard drive (for the extra storage).

Disk space is cheap.  I don't see what the problem with running a raid 5 setup is.  Then again, if you plan on doing backups anyway it might be useless, especially if you're looking for a small case.  Getting an external hard drive and scheduling regular rsync's as backup is probably good enough for the home.

Here's my advice for building your server: don't skimp on your power supply.  It's probably the one thing you should pay the most attention to.  I've had good luck with Antec myself, but I think the biggest name is PC Power & Cooling.

Go back and read my post.

Yeah, it dawned on me what SFF stood for right after I hit the post button.  It's late.  Didn't feel like editing it.

Thanks guys.

Yes, I was thinking of RAID 1 for basic redundancy. I don't really think I need that much HD space - based on what I'm currently using for data, it'll take me a long time to fill up a 512 GB HD (or 320 GB for that matter.) So I don't mind blowing away one of two drives for fault tolerance.

Interesting suggestion re the mac mini. On first blush, it looks like an expensive solution compared to getting a mini-itx custom built and slapping Ubuntu on it. But like I said, I have no idea what is a good mini-itx build. If anyone can even point me at a web page it'd help - I haven't had much luck finding anything up to date.

With Mini-ITX it's possible you won't be able to fit even two hard drives in the case and some only take 2.5" notebook drives and notebook memory which bring them closer to the cost of a Mac Mini. Unless space is really at a premium in your closet I think you are better off going with a larger Shuttle-style breadbox SFF design or a case that can fit a MicroATX MB and use standard desktop parts so you can swap parts around, though you may give up some of the electricity bill savings you would've gotten if you went with a VIA CPU.

http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=43
http://www.mini-box.com/site/index.html

Nub question/comment:

Wouldn't it be easier and cheaper to rent some server from someone like GoDaddy or any offsite server host?

That's helpful advice, thanks Trippy.

Snake - absolutely, that'd be cheaper and more reliable, no doubt. But when I'm mounting my remote files, I'd rather be accessing them at LAN speeds. Also (and probably this is the real reason), I haven't done any hands on futzing with *nix in a while, and so I really am interested in playing with my own setup.

The biggest problem with normal hard drives in a mini-ITX case will likely be heat. Those sorts of boxes don't really allow for advanced cooling, and it sounds like you plan on wedging it into a confined space. If you can't fit a micro-ATX box in there, you probably cannot vent to cool modern 3.5" hard drives either. It sounds to me as if performance isn't exactly a priority here. Have you considered buying a used laptop and a pair of larger 2.5" drives for it, installing Linux on it and sticking that in your cupboard? You may not get "hardware" RAID on a used laptop for a low price, but you can certainly find many that have a 'media bay' removable optical drive allowing a second hard drive, and even 200 GB laptoip drives are pretty cheap these days. Bear in mind that running Linux software RAID won't likely have much of a CPU overhead compared to the nearly worthless RAID on most motherboards in any case.

I would just cheat and buy this (http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?cs=19&dgvcode=ss&c=us&l=en&vw=list&oc=ddcwdal&dgc=CJ&cid=7420&lid=0). Remove the monitor and it's $329 w/ Ubuntu pre-installed. And then add two of these 500GB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152052) drives in a mirror. Connect to it via VNC.

Puts you at $548.98 before shipping/tax.