Jump to content
  • 0

Thoughts & Suggestions for Pool Migration


bzowk

Question

Hey Guys - 

I've used StableBit DrivePool & Scanner for a couple of years now and it's worked great.  The thing is, the pool is in my primary workstation which I also use for work, gaming, VR (Oculus Rift), plus running a lot of hosted apps like Plex Media Server, Sonarr, Radarr, etc...  Currently, the workstation can use up to 50% of its resources at idle which is obviously crazy.  The workstation is already at the best CPU it can have for the socket and realize that to get a new one I'd have to buy all new CPU, Motherboard, & RAM.  I therefore decided to build a PC from spare parts and migrate the pool plus hosted apps to it which should offload a lot of resource usage 

Below are a few questions I have followed by the specs for my current workstation, & the PC I plan to migrate to. Any thoughts, suggestions, or comments would be appreciated!

My Questions

My main reason for posting is to get suggestions and see if there are any alternate ways to go about this so if you have any thoughts, please let me know.  Below are the questions I currently have...

  1. I considered running all my hosted apps via containers on a dedicated system and offload resources that way, but many of them frequently use files in the pool like Plex therefore would have to access them over the LAN.  Although I have a gigabit network (who doesn't), I thought it would be best to have the hosted apps local to the pool which is why I decided to go the route mentioned above.  I considered installing Docker onto the new PC hosting the pool as I currently use Atomic on a spare dedicated PC and love it, but seems that would just overcomplicate things if everything's local anyways.  Would you do it differently?
  2. Would the PC I put together as specced below be suitable to host the pool alone?  I know the hosted apps will add a lot of usage, but first wanted to see if it would be good for the pool of course :)  If no, where is it lacking?  Will more RAM make any difference?
  3. Would an OS other than Server 2016 be preferred?  Last i checked DrivePool is Windows only, but wanted to ask.
  4. I know this is the StableBit forum and love the software, but is my pool perhaps getting to a size (physical) where an alternate solution would be preferred such as using UNRAID or similar since it supports containers & disk pools?  i don't know much about it, but was curious if anyone else did.

Specs for Current Workstation

  • Case: NZXT H630 Ultra Tower
  • CPU i7-3770k (OC'd to 4.0Ghz)
  • RAM: 32gb (4 x 8gb DDR3)
  • MB: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H
  • Logical Disks: 
    • C:\ - 256gb SSD (OS & Apps)
    • D:\ - 43.5tb Disk Pool (File, Media, & Game storage) - Made up of an old 120gb SSD for caching with plugin + 10 HDDs ranging from 4gb-8gb each
    • E:\ - 1tb Hybrid (App & Game Installations)
    • G:\ - 256gb SSD (VR Game & App Installations)
  • PCI Cards
    • RocketRAID 2720 SAS Controller (Use SAS -> SATA fanout cables to add x8 SATA ports to PC)
    • Fresco Logic USB 3.0 USB Controller
    • NVIDIA GTX 970 4gb
  • Cooling (Needed with so many disks!)
    • Cooler Master: Hyper 212 EVO (CPU)
    • Grid+ V3 Fan Controller
    • x4 200mm Case Fans

Specs for Space PC I Plan to Migrate To (Current state)

  • Case: Rosewill - Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case (Probably have to swap cases too as my newer NZXT above is much larger)
  • CPU: AMD A8-5600k
  • RAM: 4gb (2 x 2gb DDR3)
  • Motherboard: FM2A88X-ITX+ (only has a single PCI slot, but only need one for RocketRAID card - that plus the 6 ports down would be plenty)
  • Disk: 500gb plain jane HDD (Plan to upgrade to cheap SSD prior to migration)

That's about it.  Any opinions would be appreciated.  Thanks!

 

   

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 answer to this question

Recommended Posts

  • 0
  1. That's more or less what I'm doing.  DrivePool runs on my main server, with a bunch of related apps/utilities directly on the server. It's ... much simpler that way, IMO. 
  2. StableBit DrivePool will run on surprisingly low end hardware. And it should run on the stuff that you've specced out without any issues.
    But more RAM is always a good idea.

  3. Any Windows OS.  Windows 10 can be used instead, if you wanted, and that will work fine. 

  4. That depends on you. I have ~150TBs between 30 disks, IIRC, and it still works fine. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Answer this question...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...