{"id":2762,"date":"2024-02-15T14:02:44","date_gmt":"2024-02-15T19:02:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.lufamily.ca\/kang\/?p=2762"},"modified":"2024-03-02T16:09:53","modified_gmt":"2024-03-02T21:09:53","slug":"media-server-storage-hardware-reconfiguration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lufamily.ca\/kang\/2024\/02\/15\/media-server-storage-hardware-reconfiguration\/","title":{"rendered":"Media Server Storage Hardware Reconfiguration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Our media server has reached 89% utilization and needs storage expansion. The storage makeup on the server uses Logical Volume Manager (LVM<\/code>) and software RAID called mdadm<\/code>. I can expand the storage by swapping out the hard drives with the least capacity with new hard drives with a larger capacity like I have previously done<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought I try something different this time around. I would like to switch from LVM<\/code> to ZFS<\/code>, an LVM<\/code> alternative that is very popular with modern mass storage systems, especially with TrueNAS<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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All filled with 8 drives<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Before I can attempt the conversion, I will first need to backup all of the content from the media server. The second issue is that I needed more physical expansion space on the server to house more hard drives. The existing housings are all filled except for a single slot, which is going to be insufficient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A related issue is that I no longer have any free SATA<\/code> slots available for the new hard drives, so I purchased GLOTRENDS SA3116J PCIe SATA Adapter Card with 16 SATA Ports<\/a>. Once this is installed, I have more than enough SATA ports for additional storage.<\/p>\n\n\n

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PCIe SATA Card Installed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

One downside of the SATA card is that it is limited to PCIe 3.0 x1 speed. This means data transfer is limited to a theoretical maximum of 1GB\/s. Given that the physical hard drives top out at 200MB\/s, I don’t think we need to be too concerned about this bottleneck. We will see in terms of practical usage in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am so lucky to have extra SATA power cables and extension cables laying around and my 850W existing power supply has ample power for the additional hard drives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do we store the additional hard drives with a full cabinet? I went to Amazon again and purchased a hard drive cage, Jaquiain 3.5 Inch HDD Hard Drive Cage 8X3.5 Inch HDD Cage<\/a>. I did not have to buy any new hard drives yet, because I had plenty of old hard drives laying around. After I put together the cage with 8 really old and used hard drives, it looks something like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this new additional storage, I am now able to backup the media content from my media server. However, before I do that there is one last thing that I need to do, and that is to experiment with an optimal ZFS<\/code> pool configuration that will work with my content and usage. I will perform this experimentation with the additional storage before reconfiguring the old storage with ZFS<\/code>. Please stay tuned for my findings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After booting the system with 16 hard drives, I measured the power usage and it was hovering around 180W. This is not too bad, less than 2 traditional incandescent light bulbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Addendum:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

During my setup, I had to spend hours deciphering an issue. My system did not recognize my old hard drives. After many trials, I finally narrowed down that the GLOTRENDS card is not compatible with an old 2TB Western Digital Enterprise Drive. This is the first time that I came across SATA incompatibilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is another possibility that these drives were damaged by the usage of an incorrect modular power cable. I found that these drives also do not work with my USB3.0 HDD external dock as well. This gives additional credence that the physical drive has been damaged.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The troubled drive with the SATA card<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

All my other drives worked fine with the card.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another discovery is that not all modular power cables will work with my ASUS ROG STRIX 850W power supply. Initially, I thought I would use an 8-pin PCIe to 6-pin adapter along with a 6-pin to SATA power cable designed for Corsair power supplies.<\/p>\n\n\n

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PCIe Power Adapter from Amazon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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OwlTree PCI-e 6 Pin Male to 4 SATA 1 to 4 SATA Female Power Supply Splitter Supply Cable for Corsair Modular RM650X RM750X RM850X RM1000X<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Using the above cables will cause the power supply not to start. I had to hunt for the original cables that came with the STRIX power supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learned a lot from rejigging this media server. My reward is to see my server boot up with 16 hard drives and 2 NVMe SSD drives recognized. I have never built a system with so many drives and storage before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our media server has reached 89% utilization and needs storage expansion. The storage makeup on the server uses Logical Volume Manager (LVM) and software RAID called mdadm. I can expand the storage by swapping out the hard drives with the least capacity with new hard drives with a larger capacity like I have previously done. … Continue reading “Media Server Storage Hardware Reconfiguration”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[108,111],"tags":[93,5,28,159],"class_list":["post-2762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-electronics-hobby","category-tech","tag-lvm","tag-nas","tag-technology","tag-zfs"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7V6i8-Iy","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lufamily.ca\/kang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lufamily.ca\/kang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lufamily.ca\/kang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lufamily.ca\/kang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lufamily.ca\/kang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2762"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lufamily.ca\/kang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2778,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lufamily.ca\/kang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2762\/revisions\/2778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lufamily.ca\/kang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lufamily.ca\/kang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lufamily.ca\/kang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}