EvilZone
General Tech => Hardware => : Kulverstukas May 11, 2014, 10:54:52 AM
-
I decided to have a simple miniature file server at home and I am looking at RaspPI, which is most likely what I'll get from Lemona.
Simple ARM 700mhz cpu and 512mb of ram seems sufficient for my basic needs for SSH, FTP, SAMBA, maybe HTTP as well... and (according to videos and reviews) it draws ridiculously small amount of energy (around 3w?) and it has a huge community and all that jazz...
However the question to you is what are the alternatives, having the price and the electricity consumption in mind, for a miniature home server?
Thing here is that I couldn't find any for similar price to be used as such a thing.
-
How much data are you looking to have stored. With something small like that, most of your power is going to go to the hard drive(s)
-
Eventhough I higly encourage having a home server , just coz its awesome to have one ,I would say in your scenario a NAS would be better suited when its only for backup/storage.
They only good thing about these home NAS systems is the power efficiency.
Building something that comes into close range can be a difficuly thing.
For example tools used to spin down drives and stuff are a great way to start, however certain HDD's handle spinning down and up very poorly thus dying prematurely.
Since disks comsume by far the most energy this is the main consideration.
That is if you give a shit about power, certain countries this is not something to be worried about too much, you can always tap power somewhere to run a server :)
-
I suppose it would be used for storage to reach my files/photos from anywhere, to store data when I'm away and don't have anywhere to put my shit, or am running out of space on my laptop, and yes, the hdd will consume more than the raspberry itself. I was just thinking to connect a 2.5" external through USB and be done with it... shouldn't be too bad?
A NAS would cost as much and would be limited to just file storage while with raspberry I can make it spin anything I want!
-
I suppose it would be used for storage to reach my files/photos from anywhere, to store data when I'm away and don't have anywhere to put my shit, or am running out of space on my laptop, and yes, the hdd will consume more than the raspberry itself. I was just thinking to connect a 2.5" external through USB and be done with it... shouldn't be too bad?
A NAS would cost as much and would be limited to just file storage while with raspberry I can make it spin anything I want!
No should indeed not be too bad. And I agree that a NAS is kinda limited, I would not buy one for that reason.
USB drives should support some powersaving features, hell if you want you could setup something like WOL and create/borrow some tool to wake it up remotely.
Then again for those couple watts....
-
Then again for those couple watts....
Wear and tear is more of a concern than the power usage, considering that power usage through usb is as low as the PI itself.
I see no point in keeping the drive spinning 24/7 if you'll use it for few hours a week or something. WOL might work for older drives, but I imagine newer hdd's/cases support stand-by or at least idle modes by themselves.
Another thing is that I don't have a spare external 2.5" hdd to be used with PI, but I do have plenty of 3.5" internal hard drives and I have an enclosure for it... so I'll probably use those for some time.
Should get that power measuring apparatus to see how much energy a 3.5" external hdd eats :P
-
Wear and tear is more of a concern than the power usage, considering that power usage through usb is as low as the PI itself.
I see no point in keeping the drive spinning 24/7 if you'll use it for few hours a week or something. WOL might work for older drives, but I imagine newer hdd's/cases support stand-by or at least idle modes by themselves.
Another thing is that I don't have a spare external 2.5" hdd to be used with PI, but I do have plenty of 3.5" internal hard drives and I have an enclosure for it... so I'll probably use those for some time.
Should get that power measuring apparatus to see how much energy a 3.5" external hdd eats :P
I mean you could use WOL on the PI , that you actually turn on the device from the network when you need it.
There are also apps that can do that stuff, quite nice to be able to use your phone for turning it on etc.
-
A friend discourages me on doing such a thing saying shit ain't worth the hassle and that I should just buy a virtual server instead or just use GDrive like everyone else.
But it's much more fun to have your own server at no cost at all basically... plus you can connect and share a printer at home from PI, accessing files from home is much easier - unplug the hdd and copy shit, not to mention the joy of learning... :P
Virtual servers have pretty much the same shit as PI could be used for as a server, but as a hacker, I see PI to be more fun than to pay for a server... if this shit would cost me a lot to set up and even more to keep it running, I would have second thoughts, but now when it doesn't really cost that much to set up and doesn't cost at all to keep it running? why the fuck not??
-
A friend discourages me on doing such a thing saying shit ain't worth the hassle and that I should just buy a virtual server instead or just use GDrive like everyone else.
But it's much more fun to have your own server at no cost at all basically... plus you can connect and share a printer at home from PI, accessing files from home is much easier - unplug the hdd and copy shit, not to mention the joy of learning... :P
Virtual servers have pretty much the same shit as PI could be used for as a server, but as a hacker, I see PI to be more fun than to pay for a server... if this shit would cost me a lot to set up and even more to keep it running, I would have second thoughts, but now when it doesn't really cost that much to set up and doesn't cost at all to keep it running? why the fuck not??
Well, it's good to have your files backed-up off-site in case your house burns down. And a raspberry pi doesn't have sata support etc.
-
Major bump, but wanted to show my tiny server as it is now.
Box was ordered from here (http://www.dx.com/p/acrylic-case-for-raspberry-pi-v31-transparent-330440#.VIS9M2eyL1U), along with a fan (http://www.dx.com/p/raspberry-pi-abs-13200rpm-active-cooling-fan-for-v31-acrylic-case-black-330970#.VIS9MGeyL1U), heatsinks (http://www.dx.com/p/raspberry-pi-abs-13200rpm-active-cooling-fan-for-v31-acrylic-case-black-330970#.VIS9MGeyL1U) were added before. The holes of that acrylic box wasn't aligned perfectly, had to use some force to get it together and had to file out the hole where you plug the power... over all, the temperature seems to be below 30c all the time now, doesn't make too much noise, but had to oil the fan well, it was dry :P currently the RPI is overclocked to 1ghz using Turbo Mode (http://www.raspberrypi.org/introducing-turbo-mode-up-to-50-more-performance-for-free/), it doesn't void your warranty, yay!
Currently using it host Seafile private cloud and as a seedbox using Transmission.
(http://i.imgur.com/qNRRubu.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/2tDphfL.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/XflZZyv.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/FvG1eil.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/9hGD2Is.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/5DXfNcU.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/jBT4v9A.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/ijFT6oJ.jpg)
-
Major bump, but wanted to show my tiny server as it is now.
Box was ordered from here (http://www.dx.com/p/acrylic-case-for-raspberry-pi-v31-transparent-330440#.VIS9M2eyL1U), along with a fan (http://www.dx.com/p/raspberry-pi-abs-13200rpm-active-cooling-fan-for-v31-acrylic-case-black-330970#.VIS9MGeyL1U), heatsinks (http://www.dx.com/p/raspberry-pi-abs-13200rpm-active-cooling-fan-for-v31-acrylic-case-black-330970#.VIS9MGeyL1U) were added before. The holes of that acrylic box wasn't aligned perfectly, had to use some force to get it together and had to file out the hole where you plug the power... over all, the temperature seems to be below 30c all the time now, doesn't make too much noise, but had to oil the fan well, it was dry :P currently the RPI is overclocked to 1ghz using Turbo Mode (http://www.raspberrypi.org/introducing-turbo-mode-up-to-50-more-performance-for-free/), it doesn't void your warranty, yay!
Currently using it host Seafile private cloud and as a seedbox using Transmission.
Cool stuff bro :D
I can recommend owncloud and caching dns server for the hosts on your LAN, you would be suprised about the speed increase :)
-
Cool stuff bro :D
I can recommend owncloud and caching dns server for the hosts on your LAN, you would be suprised about the speed increase :)
Dunno about caching DNS, but I had ownCloud before and it sucked massive dick. It was slow as fuck, runs on apache which itself is a resource hog for RPI, uploading a lot of files would hang it, doesn't have a reliable android app to synch stuff, desktop program lacks too many basic things to be useful.
ownCloud might be good on a proper server, but Seafile is much much much better and faster on RPI. Plus it's less hassle to get it up and running.
-
Dunno about caching DNS, but I had ownCloud before and it sucked massive dick. It was slow as fuck, runs on apache which itself is a resource hog for RPI, uploading a lot of files would hang it, doesn't have a reliable android app to synch stuff, desktop program lacks too many basic things to be useful.
ownCloud might be good on a proper server, but Seafile is much much much better and faster on RPI. Plus it's less hassle to get it up and running.
Iam running it on a production server and it works like a charm but I can imagine it being too much of a hogg on such a device :)
Will check out seafile, never heard of it.
-
Bump again, little update about how this goes.
So I've been running it for quite a while, just recently a new model RPI2 came out, which is theoretically 6x faster - I decided to buy it in the summer :D
Meanwhile, during a maintenance check I saw that some dust accumulated on the rpi, since it now has a fan. After opening it up for cleaning I saw that there was a great deal of dust on it, also some hair lol - it's located in a dusty attic corner, go figure. So after cleaning it up I remembered about a post I read a while back, that you can make fan dust filters out of pantyhose. I didn't know which ones, so I used whatever I was given :P
I cut it up and put it on the fan. After few days you can already see the result - it has blocked a visible layer of dust while letting air through. However I probably used the pantyhose with too small holes, since the fan now draws a bit less air and as as result, the rpi heats up to around 30-32C on normal operation, compared to the below 30C without a dust filter, but whatever, I can sacrifice those few degrees (without a fan it would be above 50C, so...) to keep the RPI dust-free.
With a filter on - all you have to do is brush the dust off and that's it!
Here are pics of how it looks - yeah not so pretty, but whatever, it works!
(http://i.imgur.com/SBPEGHq.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/SBPEGHq.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/TYvovUr.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/TYvovUr.jpg)
Also I installed MiniDLNA on the rpi as well, so that TV and Blueray player can stream media properly - shame that some things don't support Samba instead, but many say that DLNA is faster than Samba. Didn't use it extensively as I just installed it, but seems to work really well and is light on the resources, so why not eh :P
Will check out seafile, never heard of it.
Did you already? :P
-
Bump. So after some weeks of usage, it was doing pretty good, however it was limiting the airflow a lot, it wasn't stretched well enough and it looked ugly on the rpi lol. So I was given another pair of this material, but it's less dense so I stretched it over a big PSU fan, made a cardboard frame and glued it together. Result it pretty awesome, it's stretched good, lets air through completely but catches the dust - rpi temperature is now as it was without the filter!
(http://i.imgur.com/iIqu4vt.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/iIqu4vt.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/fXufPIe.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/fXufPIe.jpg)
-
pretty nice your raspberry, nice work. And if you buy the v2 it will be running away.
Thanks for the seafile input, I'll check it out, but the website looks bad.
Do you power off your raspberry? or how do you manage, wake on lan doesn't work.
-
Nice thread. Great updates. How is the network performance on the RPI2?
I remember reading that the NIC and UBS share the same bus so networking is limited by that.
For this reason I purchased a ODROIDC1 which was about the same price and seemed to have better specs.
I also have a BeagleBone Black, however its very limited by the 512 memory and single usb.
Was thinking of turning one of those devices into portable handshake capture device.
BTW - think I will see if I can find an old pair of hose, excellent idea.
-
Do you power off your raspberry? or how do you manage, wake on lan doesn't work.
What do you mean? RPI it's powered on all the time, I only shut it down at the end of each month to make a clone backup of the SD card - no rsync would not aid me if the card got corrupt due to power loss power surges (that happens sometimes). The RPI drains so little power that I can afford keeping it up all day, if it wasn't up all day, then it's not usable to me.
The external drive however is not powered on all the time, I am using spindown (posted about it) to make the drive sleep after 30 minutes of inactivity, so it doesn't spin when nothing is using it. When I need to use it, the RPI wakes it up in a few seconds.
Nice thread. Great updates. How is the network performance on the RPI2?
I remember reading that the NIC and UBS share the same bus so networking is limited by that.
Same with RPI1, USB and ethernet share the same bus, so transfer speed is limited to 6mb through the cable and 2mb using wifi. But that's fine for me - enough for timed recording with a set-top box, DLNA streaming performance is good through cable, can't stream HD content through wifi tho but I don't do that anyway :P
I haven't considered other alternatives, because they're not available in my country (could order but dem shipping costs), and RPI has a lot of support being a home server, so there.
-
Bump. If anyone is interested, I wrote a thorough blog post about my mini-server: http://9v.lt/blog/what-i-use-my-raspberry-for/
-
Glad to see the Raspberry Pi is working out good. I was originally thinking about buying one for a streaming box but I figured I needed more power for other tasks but a NAS was just too powerful/expensive for what I needed. I might still buy a Pi for another project but we will see. I decided to turn to the 25 watt AMD 5350, it only supports single channel memory which is a downside but at 150 for roughly all components so not bad. Of course it is AMD technology rather then the ARM, so more compatibility at this time.. It's rated a 2600 on the benchmark scale which isn't great but not terrible. I am going to update to a 5TB hopefully soon for more storage.
Here's what it looks like...
(http://i.imgur.com/vOfPD1qm.jpg) (http://imgur.com/vOfPD1q)
(http://i.imgur.com/SM5xUd0m.jpg) (http://imgur.com/SM5xUd0)
I will say that is has absolutely terrible cable and can be loud at times, next time I am going for the full jet airplane sounding Intel Xeon E5-2680 v2. It is a good bang for your buck however and has proven reliable..
-
Nice box, but do you really need such a powerful NAS? what will you use it for?
In my case, the size and power consumption is what pushed me towards an RPI, also the cost :P
-
Nice box, but do you really need such a powerful NAS? what will you use it for?
In my case, the size and power consumption is what pushed me towards an RPI, also the cost :P
You never know what tomorrow brings! I might do something crazy with it. Lol. I plan on getting the Raspberry Pi and making a cheap smart TV but we will see how that goes when the time comes. Not sure how I'm going to figure out the inputs but we will see. I might just make it a dedicated streamer and not worry about the inputs.
-
how's your transfer rate? did you made any optimization to get more speed?
-
how's your transfer rate? did you made any optimization to get more speed?
I'm afraid you can't do much about the ethernet transfer speed - it's limited to 6 mbps, because it seems to use the same bus for ethernet and USB. Wifi transfer is stuck at 2 mbps maximum.
As for rpi speed, there's only so much you can do about it... did everything that was mentioned here: https://extremeshok.com/1081/raspberry-pi-raspbian-tuning-optimising-optimizing-for-reduced-memory-usage/
But I didn't notice any noticeable speed difference... the whole thing runs smoothly with around 100mb of RAM to spare.
-
Bump. Result of the dust filter after a month: http://imgur.com/G15pxE1,rkvBdB8,CV1sq35#0
I think it works pretty good.
-
My buddy put Arch on a PogoPlug (http://www.amazon.com/Pogoplug-Series-4-Backup-Device/dp/B006I5MKZY) and uses it as a seedbox/home media server and seems happy with it. He did something like this, IIRC: http://blog.qnology.com/2013/03/tutorial-pogoplug-e02-with-arch-linux.html