Otaku Project: Building of my first multimedia home server

It seems I haven’t been posting much lately, part of the reason has to do with the fact that my room is kind of in a disarray right now because I have been in the process of building my first multimedia file server. Why do I need a file server? Good question, with the ever increasing storage requirement for a modern day Otaku, may it be MP3 files, DVD images, etc, and the need to keep my data safe from potential hard drive crashes, I need to have a dedicated storage solution capable of storing and retrieving multiple terabytes of data with some level of redundancy in mind.

My first home server, which I named him Mazinger Z

Over the years, I have gone through difference phases of backing up my valuable data. I have tried burning CD-R when they were first introduced, I have gone the DVD writable routes for a short time (that didn’t last very long because I soon find it very difficult to organize my data) , at the end of the day, removable media is just not my kind of storage system; and on top of all that, consumer grade writable optical disc is just don’t seem reliable enough for me to consider it as a viable backup solution (and I am too lazy to search through stacks of DVD to find what I want ).

Before I start out to decide on a storage solution I have laid out several criteria that this new solution must satisfy:

1. Must be easily scalable in size (I don’t have unlimited capital, and even if I do, I would rather spend them on daughters!)
2. Can start small and grow as my storage requirement grow
3. Capable of storage several terabytes worth of multimedia data
4. Must have the ability to recover from a single hard drive failure (disaster recovery)
5. Must have redundancy build into the system
6. Preferably have the ability to perform system level backup on other PCs on the same network

Based on the requirement I have laid out, I have decided to investigate some of the most popular solutions such as RAID, RAID 5 in particular, for those of you who are not familiar with the term RAID, it stands for Redundant Array of Independent(or Inexpensive) Disks and a software base solution called Drive Extender, a technology promoted by Microsoft through their Windows Home Server (I found out about WHS after reading blogging friend AsianEd‘s article on his home server).

Over the past couple of weeks that I have been trying to study the RAID 5 technology, the more I read about it, the more I grew uncomfortable with it. Apparently, there really isn’t a “standard” RAID hardware implementation, one RAID card from one vendor may not play well with another vendor. The fact that all disks in the same array size has to be the same, which will severely limit my ability to upgrade my array stack with newer and higher capacity hard drives (yes, there is some way to increase the size but it’s NOT very consumer friendly). And the risk of having a read error on SATA base hard drive during a RAID reconstruction, etc etc… In the end, I concluded that RAID 5 is not the redundant storage system I am looking for, it’s good for a data set that doesn’t grow large very fast, but it can’t accommodate the type of exponential growth that an Otaku need.

After RAID 5 was out of the picture, I was left with Windows Home Server, I was initially reluctant about going with that route since the few firmware engineers that I usually have lunch with like to give me a hard time about being a Microsoft fanboy. Am I a Microsoft fanboy? I don’t think so, sure I own a few Windows machines but Linux doesn’t run eroge game so, no point for me to even think about using Linux seriously! The last time I had a Linux installation on my machine was like Slackware2.0 >.>;; and that was during my college days.

But before I decided to go the Windows Home Server route, I actually ran some pretty extensive tests, including a disaster recovery test! The trial is still on-going but I am satisfied enough to stick with it.

Just what is a Windows Home Server anyway? I think the idea has been floating around for a few years now, there are also some commercial implementations of it, like the HP EX495 1.5TB Mediasmart Home Server ( Black)

Windows Home Server a software based solution that behaves like a JBOD implementation of RAID 1 but without the additional constraint of the RAID architecture. It is like a stripped down version of Windows Server 2003 but it comes with a new technology call the Drive Extender. A technology that allow end user to add any medium of storage devices to the storage pool, may it be IDE, SATA, SCSI, USB, Firewire, (you name it), and to add them together in a single storage pool.

Some of you might have remembered that I picked up a couple of Western Digital Caviar Green 1.5TB during the Black Friday shopping spree, which I picked up 3 of them for $89.99 each with free shipping, which worked out to be just under $0.06/gigabyte.

There are many great features in Windows Home Server, such as folder duplication, which allow end user to pick and choose which files they want redundant copy on a separate physical disk, which help guard against data lost in case of the drive failure, and reduce overhead requirement (no, I don’t want every piece of my data to be duplicated! Am I nuts or something!)

The folder duplication is performed on the NTFS level, so in case of a catastrophic failure, data can still be retrieved through any computer capable of accessing NTFS.

Windows Home Server is also capable of performing backup on any PC on your home network.

You can choose what folders get backed up and it also keep track of changes in the system so you are not stuck with large backup files.

Just how does Drive Extender keep track of your files? The secret is in the System Drive. When I open My Computer on my server, this is what I see.

The System Drive is comprised of two sections, the core OS, which account for about 20 GB of your first hard drive in the system, the rest of the drive contain what they call the tombstone files, which act as file pointer to the actual locations of all your files. The second partition is your DATA partition, which is lumped together by Drive Extender. The Drive letters here is no longer relevant, because everything is organized under shared folders.

Here I can toggle folder duplication on/off depending on my preferences, which is a good thing. While I like having a duplicate copy of everything, it’s just way too much overhead!

Another neat feature that comes with Windows Home Server is Remote Access, which allow you to have access your server from any secured web browser anywhere with a free DNS of your choice!

I was going to make my DNS MazingerZ in memory of the awesome re-imaging of the of the original Mazinger Z saga, but unfortunately the domain name mazingerz was already taken so I had to settle for just mazinger… which is still good!

Earlier, I had mentioned that I have performed a disaster recovery test, well, I have actually attempt to create a system crash by pulling the System Drive out to stimulate a failure. Luckily, Windows Home Server with PowerPack 1 also come with a Server Recovery procedure in case the end user wanted to upgrade their System Drive or if the System Drive had crashed. During the Server Recovery mode, it scan through all the hard drives and rebuild all the tombstone files! Needless to say, I am very happy with it’s ability to recover itself!

In the end, do I recommend Microsoft Windows Home Server OEM with URP1? If you are an Otaku like me who like to store all the media files in hard drives, it is definitely a technology worth considering!

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