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[OT] idea for RAID
I am considering purchasing a 5+ drive SATA RAID for use with my Final Cut HD system.
There alot of systems out there, all of which are seem to be a bit pricey considering the drives themselves are very cheap.So I figure, why not build it myself?
My idea is to take a bare rackmount chassis (see link below)with powersupply and cooling fans, bolt in 5 or more Serial ATA drives and connect them to a Serial ATA controller card (see link)and RAID them in OSX Disk Utility.
I am new to building this type of thing, but would this work? be reliable?
Is this s stupid idea?chassis:
https://store.yahoo.com/directron/ra264a00.htmlcontroller card:
https://www.sonnettech.com/product/tempo-x_esata8.html -
46 Replies
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That can be made to work, however, the weak link is all the internal SATA cables you’ll need. Check out this great inexpensive 4-bay setup https://www.firmtek.com/seritek/seritek-2eEN4/
they have done all the the design work for you, and the hot swap drives plug directly into the backplane with no internal cables whatsoever.Search for my post from January entiled ROLL YOUR OWN LOW-COST 1.2 TERRABYTE SATA, and you will also find out about the best drives availbale for the dough.
DRW
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[Varangian] “I am new to building this type of thing, but would this work? be reliable?”
You’re new to this and you’re asking if it would be reliable? I’ve been cutting on NLE’s for over 10 years now and have never built a RAID.
With non-linear editing your storage is your income. Lost your project, you’re out a client and you’re losing money. I only purchase pre-configured RAID’s and with the extra money I spend on them I get the both the piece of mind knowing that it was built correctly and that I have a company to support it.
In over 8 years of running Medea products, I’ve never missed a deadline due to a drive related failure.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.comDirector, “The Rough Cut”
https://www.theroughcutmovie.comNow Posting “Good Eats” in HD for the Food Network
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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On the other side of that discussion, in a more years in this than Walter, I’ve never bought a fully configured raid setup.
Building a raid that works is not rocket science by a long shot, especially with SATA drives and hot swappable drive trays. If you can use a screwdriver to mount the drives, and you can slide them in where they belong (they only go in one way), you’re done, at least in in terms of the hardware. The software aspect, using Apple Drive Utility, is incredibly simple and lierally takes 2-minutes.
DRW
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It’s probably a [Varangian] “There alot of systems out there, all of which are seem to be a bit pricey considering the drives themselves are very cheap.”
One thing you need to consider is what type of drives are used in these set ups. Some people will argue that a drive is a drive and why pay $250 for a 250gig drive when you can buy one for 1/2 that price. Apart from mass production the other reason some companies can afford to sell at such low prices is the components used to build a drive. Cheap parts and cheap labor certainly dont add up to reliability in most cases. So if you build a Raid with cheap drives and cheap labor (i.e. yourself being inexperienced) will that add up to reliability? Who do you call when something goes wrong with your Raid and you have a deadline looming? Also would it be better or more reliable to have a hardware controlled Raid as opposed to a software controlled raid?
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[David Roth Weiss] “On the other side of that discussion, in a more years in this than Walter, I’ve never bought a fully configured raid setup.”
There are two sides to every story. If you’re comfortable running your own gear and supporting it yourself, then go with it.
I don’t compromise at all when it comes to my media storage. I’ll save money elsewhere, but not with the arrays.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.comDirector, “The Rough Cut”
https://www.theroughcutmovie.comNow Posting “Good Eats” in HD for the Food Network
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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“however, the weak link is all the internal SATA cables you’ll need”
yes, that is a concern. And since I would like to setup a rack mount unit, the cables would have to be long.
How long can you run SATA cables? Anyone know if there are issues with longer SATA cables?
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[Varangian] “”however, the weak link is all the internal SATA cables you’ll need”
yes, that is a concern. And since I would like to setup a rack mount unit, the cables would have to be long.”
Hi,
That is INTERNAL cables. There are at least two flavors of SATA cables. Cables designed for internal use and cables designed for external use. If you diy you will probably have to use internal cables which will be less reliable. I would look for an inexpensive SATA enclosure that accepts external cables.
Best Wishes,
Mitch
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[walter biscardi] “I don’t compromise at all when it comes to my media storage. I’ll save money elsewhere, but not with the arrays.”
Walter,
You make the assumption that saving money by building one’s own raid implies compromise, and that simply isn’t a valid argument. In fact, since many of the companies that sell pre-configured raids use cheap consumer-level hard drives, it could be argued that home-grown raids, built with enterprise-level hard drives, may be more reliable and a better value.
As you may recall, I had a conversation about this very subject with Mike, from LaCie. Mike stated that, while the industry had earlier used enterprise-level drives with five-year warranties, for the most part, it was now the practice by most, including LaCie, to use consumer-level drives with just a one year warranty. This may seem unimportant to you, as you don’t like to look under the hood, but in fact the difference between consumer and enterprise level hard drives is vast. Data stored on enterprise level drives can be insured by corporations with a budget for such things, while data stored on consumer level drives cannot be insured.
It is obvious from your posts Walter that you are not comfortable building your own raids, and so, I would suggest that your arguments against home-built raid configurations may be more of a reflection of that than anything.
DRW
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I got bit by the DIY SATA Raids very early in the game (a couple of years ago, before sonnet/firmtek had SATA cards with more than 2 ports). I almost lost a client and sabotaged the job (luckily I was very persistent about backups and had everything backed up for this very reason, I lost about 4 hours reconfiguring and restoring the project all while the client was staring at me wondering this had to happen…). I then decided to dig deep into my funds and bought a fully configured fibre RAID and have not looked back. The RAID 3 protection alone is worth the money. I had a 24 hour render a couple of months ago and while I stayed as long as I could to ‘babysit’ the render, I eventually went home to sleep. Low and behold a drive failed when I was home resting. I came back in the morning and the render was still going. I called the manufacturer and they shipped a new drive right away. Meanwhile the render finished and I kept editing. The next day a new drive came and I was able to rebuild the array in the background, all while I continued to edit and finish my project. Once the RAID was rebuilt, I was fully restored and had my RAID 3 protection back. Right then, I knew that the extra money that I had put down was totally worth it. If tight deadlines and long projects are your bag, then I would suggest as does Walter and others, pre-configured RAIDs are the way to go. Support and help is then just a phone call and an overnight package away.
Jeremy
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[David Roth Weiss] “It is obvious from your posts Walter that you are not comfortable building your own raids, and so, I would suggest that your arguments against home-built raid configurations may be more of a reflection of that than anything.”
Actually that’s not a problem at all, as you’ve noted they’re quite easy to build if you want to. I’ve built many FCP systems which include installation of addtional drives and hardware inside. That’s all quite easy.
I just don’t want to build media arrays when I have companies like Medea, LaCie, G-RAID and others building quality products that work and they work well. I also like having support and R&D departments standing behind these products.
It two different trains of thought. You want to save your money by building a JBOD, I want to save money elsewhere.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.comDirector, “The Rough Cut”
https://www.theroughcutmovie.comNow Posting “Good Eats” in HD for the Food Network
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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