Show us your Servers - 2015 Edition

[nabz0r Veteran]

Welcome to the server photos thread. In this thread you may post pics of your server.

Please be mindful of our members on dial-up and try to keep the dimensions of the pics and the size of the files to a respectable size for 1024 x 768 viewers. Please refrain from quoting images in your replies.

I will also ask that you link to images on your own space, as much as possible.

The usual forum rules also apply.

The last thread can be found here.

[patseguin Global Moderator]

 

My Synology NAS used as my media server for Kodi clients. 10 3TB HD's serving over 500 movies and over 100 TV series.

[Krome]

dang... I want a NAS server too   I want to have 100PB

[patseguin Global Moderator]

Yeah having a NAS is great for storing media for streaming to htpc's. It's also very handy to have all that extra space for backups and file sharing. I like the easy to use web based OS as opposed to dealing with Windows Server. I will say that I wish there was a good backup solution for such large storage as 30TB. I'd probably shoot myself if I had you're-rip 600 blu Rays.

P.S. What is 100PB?

Edit: Ah, petabytes. ;-)

[patseguin Global Moderator]

Where are all the pics? I want to see more servers!

[wiretap]

File Server:

Intel i5 2500k Processor

Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Motherboard

8GB Corsair Dominator DDR3-1600

90GB Corsair ForceGT SSD [OS Drive]

20TB usable storage (FlexRAID with 2-drive redundancy, all WD Green 1TB/2TB)

Ceton InfiniTV 4

Rocketfish Case (modded to hold 20 hard drives)

Highpoint DC-7280 Datacenter HBA

Sans Digital TowerRAID 8-bay eSATA Enclosure

Zalman 850w Heatpipe Cooled PSU

WHS 2011

Apps installed: MyMovies Server, Media Center Master, MediaBrowser Server, Ubiquiti UniFi Video Server, FlexRAID RAID-F, Ceton InfiniTV network bridge, Trigone System Monitor, etc. Everything is also setup with remote notifications in case a process stops or a hard drive dies.. I get a text and an email notifying me.

 

 

 

 

 

The rack:

3x HTPC's

ProAudioVideo 22u / 1000mm Deep Rack

Belkin PF60 Power Center

Zyxel 24port Gigabit Switch

Asus RT-N16 running DD-WRT (Linux Kernel 3.10.2)

Motorola SB6121

Everything is on a CyberPower 1500VA UPS (about 25mins in a power outage, with PC shutdown scripts via USB)

 

 

 

 

 

HTPC's:

3 of each...

MSI P67A-G43 Motherboard

Intel i3 2100 Processor

PNY 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory

Corsair Force 3 60GB SSD

Galaxy GTS 450 Graphics Card

NMediaPC Pro-LCD 5.25'' Screen

Corsair CX430 Power Supply

Rosewill R4000 4U Rackmount Case

Monoprice HDMI to Ethernet Converters to the TV's

Monoprice USB to Ethernet to the IR Receivers mounted under the TV's (power up/down of the PC and control WMC)

Recordings all get archived to the WHS via the home server storage plug-in, so the 60GB SSD's are sufficient)

All HTPC's run Win7 x64 with MediaBrowser. They have been tested with almost every media file I have, and the codecs are all setup properly and it runs flawless, including 1080p 3D SBS Blu-ray encodes with FLAC audio. I will be transitioning to Media Browser Theater soon. I've been testing it on my test box computer and it is pretty impressive and I think I have the setup tweaked properly to run everything so I can just copy over the config.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the test server environment.. I'm currently testing SnapRAID under Windows 7 and Windows 8.

 

AMD FX6300 6 Core

GIGABYTE GA-78LMT-USB3 mATX

Crucial 8GB DDR3-1600

Rosewill 600w PSU

MicroFly mATX Case

160GB Maxtor Diamonmax Plus 9 ATA133 HDD (OS Drive)

Sans Digital TowerRAID TR8M+B w/ 6 Seagate 750GB HDDs (Data Volume)

 

[SNOtwistR]

Xeon 3.0ghz, 16gig ecc ram, 2tb in a raid1 with redundancy on a mirrored server of the same specs   SNO

[patseguin Global Moderator]

 

File Server:

Intel i5 2500k Processor

Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Motherboard

8GB Corsair Dominator DDR3-1600

90GB Corsair ForceGT SSD [OS Drive]

20TB usable storage (FlexRAID with 2-drive redundancy, all WD Green 1TB/2TB)

Ceton InfiniTV 4

Rocketfish Case (modded to hold 20 hard drives)

Highpoint DC-7280 Datacenter HBA

Sans Digital TowerRAID 8-bay eSATA Enclosure

Zalman 850w Heatpipe Cooled PSU

WHS 2011

Apps installed: MyMovies Server, Media Center Master, MediaBrowser Server, Ubiquiti UniFi Video Server, FlexRAID RAID-F, Ceton InfiniTV network bridge, Trigone System Monitor, etc. Everything is also setup with remote notifications in case a process stops or a hard drive dies.. I get a text and an email notifying me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rack:

3x HTPC's

ProAudioVideo 22u / 1000mm Deep Rack

Belkin PF60 Power Center

Zyxel 24port Gigabit Switch

Asus RT-N16 running DD-WRT (Linux Kernel 3.10.2)

Motorola SB6121

Everything is on a CyberPower 1500VA UPS (about 25mins in a power outage, with PC shutdown scripts via USB)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HTPC's:

3 of each...

MSI P67A-G43 Motherboard

Intel i3 2100 Processor

PNY 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory

Corsair Force 3 60GB SSD

Galaxy GTS 450 Graphics Card

NMediaPC Pro-LCD 5.25'' Screen

Corsair CX430 Power Supply

Rosewill R4000 4U Rackmount Case

Monoprice HDMI to Ethernet Converters to the TV's

Monoprice USB to Ethernet to the IR Receivers mounted under the TV's (power up/down of the PC and control WMC)

Recordings all get archived to the WHS via the home server storage plug-in, so the 60GB SSD's are sufficient)

All HTPC's run Win7 x64 with MediaBrowser. They have been tested with almost every media file I have, and the codecs are all setup properly and it runs flawless, including 1080p 3D SBS Blu-ray encodes with FLAC audio. I will be transitioning to Media Browser Theater soon. I've been testing it on my test box computer and it is pretty impressive and I think I have the setup tweaked properly to run everything so I can just copy over the config.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the test server environment.. I'm currently testing SnapRAID under Windows 7 and Windows 8.

 

AMD FX6300 6 Core

GIGABYTE GA-78LMT-USB3 mATX

Crucial 8GB DDR3-1600

Rosewill 600w PSU

MicroFly mATX Case

160GB Maxtor Diamonmax Plus 9 ATA133 HDD (OS Drive)

Sans Digital TowerRAID TR8M+B w/ 6 Seagate 750GB HDDs (Data Volume)

 

 

 

 

Good grief, that's sexy!

 

Only thing is that I read that the green drives are high unreliable for RAID environment. Seeing as how you went all out on everything else, why didn't you opt for Red NAS drive?

 

Also, how do you like MediaBrowser? I understand that the server end only runs on windows? I run Kodi on all my clients.

Edited January 19, 2015 by Haggis
removed pics in quote

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

That's nice, Wiretap!

 

Edit: what is that case you keep your HTPC's on?

 

Patseguin, you ever snip?

[wiretap]

I am running software RAID right now (FlexRAID) soon to move to SnapRAID.. so there are no issues. The issues people had with WD Green drives are on hardware RAID. So far it has been very reliable for me for years.

 

As far as Mediabrowser Server, it can run on all sorts of various platforms.. Windows, Linux, Mac, FreeBSD, FreeNAS, and OpenMediaVault. I have mine running on WHS 2011, and I have Android/Kindle/Win8 apps running on my mobile devices as well as MediaBrowser client apps running on the HTPCs. It works seamless and perfect so far. I'd definitely recommend the platform to anybody. I love it. Also, MediaBrowser server supports Kodi now, so you're all set for it to manage your backend metadata and TV tuner plugins.

 

Mindovermaster - I assume you're talking about the rackmount chassis? The HTPC cases are Rosewill R4000 4U rackmount cases and they are housed in the ProAudio 22u/1000mm depth rack.

Case - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147154

Rack - http://www.proaudiostash.com/product/19-inch-rack-cabinets/free-standing-rack-cabinets/pre-assembled-rack-cabinets/19-server-rack-enclosure-600mm/23-62-wide-glass-door/11198.shtml

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

Yeah, the rack. Looks cool

[patseguin Global Moderator]

That's nice, Wiretap!

 

Edit: what is that case you keep your HTPC's on?

 

Patseguin, you ever snip?

What do you mean snip?

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

Instead of showing those 8 pictures again, you quote:

 

 

 

File Server:

Intel i5 2500k Processor

Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Motherboard

8GB Corsair Dominator DDR3-1600

90GB Corsair ForceGT SSD [OS Drive]

20TB usable storage (FlexRAID with 2-drive redundancy, all WD Green 1TB/2TB)

Ceton InfiniTV 4

Rocketfish Case (modded to hold 20 hard drives)

Highpoint DC-7280 Datacenter HBA

Sans Digital TowerRAID 8-bay eSATA Enclosure

Zalman 850w Heatpipe Cooled PSU

WHS 2011

Apps installed: MyMovies Server, Media Center Master, MediaBrowser Server, Ubiquiti UniFi Video Server, FlexRAID RAID-F, Ceton InfiniTV network bridge, Trigone System Monitor, etc. Everything is also setup with remote notifications in case a process stops or a hard drive dies.. I get a text and an email notifying me.

 

<snip>

 

The rack:

3x HTPC's

ProAudioVideo 22u / 1000mm Deep Rack

Belkin PF60 Power Center

Zyxel 24port Gigabit Switch

Asus RT-N16 running DD-WRT (Linux Kernel 3.10.2)

Motorola SB6121

Everything is on a CyberPower 1500VA UPS (about 25mins in a power outage, with PC shutdown scripts via USB)

 

<snip>

 

HTPC's:

3 of each...

MSI P67A-G43 Motherboard

Intel i3 2100 Processor

PNY 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory

Corsair Force 3 60GB SSD

Galaxy GTS 450 Graphics Card

NMediaPC Pro-LCD 5.25'' Screen

Corsair CX430 Power Supply

Rosewill R4000 4U Rackmount Case

Monoprice HDMI to Ethernet Converters to the TV's

Monoprice USB to Ethernet to the IR Receivers mounted under the TV's (power up/down of the PC and control WMC)

Recordings all get archived to the WHS via the home server storage plug-in, so the 60GB SSD's are sufficient)

All HTPC's run Win7 x64 with MediaBrowser. They have been tested with almost every media file I have, and the codecs are all setup properly and it runs flawless, including 1080p 3D SBS Blu-ray encodes with FLAC audio. I will be transitioning to Media Browser Theater soon. I've been testing it on my test box computer and it is pretty impressive and I think I have the setup tweaked properly to run everything so I can just copy over the config.

 

 

<snip>

 

 

And the test server environment.. I'm currently testing SnapRAID under Windows 7 and Windows 8.

 

AMD FX6300 6 Core

GIGABYTE GA-78LMT-USB3 mATX

Crucial 8GB DDR3-1600

Rosewill 600w PSU

MicroFly mATX Case

160GB Maxtor Diamonmax Plus 9 ATA133 HDD (OS Drive)

Sans Digital TowerRAID TR8M+B w/ 6 Seagate 750GB HDDs (Data Volume)

 

<snip>

 

So if you quote someone, you are not reloading all those pics. Believe me, it really helps the dial-up people, if any.

[patseguin Global Moderator]

Ah OK point taken. That actually annoys me too so I can't believe I do it.

[heyitsheather]

Love the pictures, great setup!

 

My "servers" are what I can make due with using old hardware

 

My file server is an old HP Pavilion specked out as follows: 

 

CPU: Pentium Dual Core E2160

RAM:3GB DDR2

Mobo: Intel 945G based motherboard

Storage: 3 1TB SATA drives in RAID 5

Video: NVidia GeForce 8500 GT

OS: Windows Storage Server 2008 Basic SP2 x86

Data on the RAID 5 array is backed up to an external 2TB USB drive.

 

Its old but it gets the job done as all it does is serve files and media

 

My media server is a slightly newer Dell Inspiron N5040 with a bad display

 

CPU: i3 M390

RAM: 4GB DDR3

Storage: 5400 RPM 500GB

Video: i3 HD onboard

OS: Windows 8.1 Pro x64

This machine runs Plex Media Server along with IIS for my personal playing and development.

Data for Plex is pulled from the file server.

 

Rounding it all out is a DLink DNS-321 NAS with 2 1TB drives in RAID 1 to backup the Dell "server" along with my family's data on their personal laptops.

 

Not real servers but it meets my requirements

[patseguin Global Moderator]

Yeah old hardware is perfect for making servers. I had originally put together an AMD FX based server with 4TB and was going to use unRAID. I also tried FreeNAS but both took forever to set up and configure and then to run the parity check. Additionally, I knew that the space would be too small and the hardware was too high end to waste in a server. So, I made it into a gaming PC for my brother and opted for the Synology. I like the Synology because of the terrific web based OS and the ease in creating a volume. It still took days to do the parity check but I just found the setup and maintenance via the OS very easy. That plus the various apps made it a no brainer for me. Another big selling point was the expansion boxes that add 5 drives at a time. I started out with just the Diskstation and as the space filled up, I bought the expansion box and added 5 drives. I'm only 68% full so I don't have to upgrade for some time. The nice thing is that I can keep adding expansion boxes and adding more space. I couldn't figure out a good way to add a lot of space with my own build without trying to find a huge case where I could have 10+ drives. I use my Synology to host all my media for Kodi using SQL for database management plus iTunes server.

 

I only hope that the volume never crashes because it was SO much work to rip all my movies and TV shows. The drive fault tolerance is great and I had 2 drives fail at different times and just had to replace it, run the parity check, and then I was good. Those bad drives were Seagate Barracuda drives. I had someone point out that I'd have much more stability with drives made for NAS's so I opted to gradually switch them all over to WD Red.

[Haggis Veteran]

mine is just a baby compared to most of yours lol

 

HO Microserver N54L Gen 7

 

Running ESXi 5.5 just now

 

1 vm with Arch Linux for playing about with

1 vm with debian on it which has file storage and plex

 

in the next few week another VM will be added with pfsense

 

 

It will have its normal gigabit port and i am adding a dual gigabit port to it

 

8Gb Ram

and has a little under 2Tb of space just now

 

[tonyjr]

Well here is a screenshot of some of the specs. It is in my loft, some people are asleep and the loft ladder is squeaky - I will go up there tomorrow and get a few photos of it to add to this post. As you can see it is a bit cold tonight in my loft (7C).

 

The server has 64GB extra memory added to make it 72GB now, 8x 1TB midline HP SAS drives, one (240GB?) OCX Vertex 3SATA SDD and an AMD FirePro W7000 graphics card on it for the virtual desktop VMs to share.

 

We use LG CBV42-B Tera2 PCoIP zero clients to connect to the desktop VMs - saves quite a bit of space. It also works well for gaming.

 

 

Pics of the loft of doom to follow.

[tonyjr]

I finally managed to get a few photos of the mess in my loft. I forgot to take the key for the bezel up there, so I will have to get a photo of the server with the front and side panel removed when I next have to dig out some random item.

 

Most of the equipment:

 

Router/Firewall/AP/AP Controller, Cable Modem, excess cable loop and spilt oil stain (not water from a leak!):

 

Patch panel, spaghetti cable, dumb gigabit switch, smart gigabit Ethernet switch, UPS and part of server:

 

IP PBX, Voicemail, power strip connected to UPS, and the world's shittiest phone:

 

As above with Server:

 

Flashy lights:

 

Three UK Femtocell, bright fluorescent light:

[+John Teacake MVC]

Where did you get your Three Femtocell from?

[tonyjr]

Where did you get your Three Femtocell from?

I called up Three customer services when I was at the pub, explained that I had to go into my garden when at home to make a phone call and asked if they could send me one of their Three Home Signal boxes. The woman explained that I'd have to answer a few questions as it is the standard procedure, then she took some details, played an automatic terms and conditions recording, then the call ended. I still had most of my pint left it was that quick. It arrived the next day.

 

You don't have to register phones to them anymore - any Three mobile will use the signal from the Femtocell when in range. I cant remember if the limit is 20 or 50 devices. It also provides 2G, 3G and 3.5G signals.

[Aergan]

I finally managed to get a few photos of the mess in my loft. I forgot to take the key for the bezel up there, so I will have to get a photo of the server with the front and side panel removed when I next have to dig out some random item.

 

 

As a former fellow attic equipment dweller, I would put something over the top of your equipment in case of a leaks / humidity / condensation build up in the roof & arachnids/insects. You'd be surprised at what dies and falls down onto it!

If possible, get it off the caber flooring onto something above floor level too to help against dust/particle build up.

 

Here's my old secondary domain controller / access point as an example (using an old drawer cabinet):

 

 

[tonyjr]

As a former fellow attic equipment dweller, I would put something over the top of your equipment in case of a leaks / humidity / condensation build up in the roof & arachnids/insects. You'd be surprised at what dies and falls down onto it!

If possible, get it off the caber flooring onto something above floor level too to help against dust/particle build up.

 

Here's my old secondary domain controller / access point as an example (using an old drawer cabinet):

 

SNIPPED IMAGES

 

That looks like a neat and tidy setup. I like the reusing of an old set of drawers to cover and raise the equipment.

 

I will be using your recommendations and raising/covering the equipment in my loft. It will have to wait a little bit though for now as I have to find a job that I can 'lose' the cost of the materials into. This is going to require some beefy supports! I am also going to have to add a thermostatically controlled extractor fan, as temperatures reach 35C max in the summer up there with no air circulation. I have not had that server there in the summer yet, so I have to get it fitted before then.

 

Have you got a smoke alarm in your loft? I fitted one with a 10 year-life battery in mine the other day just incase something decides to die up there, without killing us at the same time.

[+John Teacake MVC]

I called up Three customer services when I was at the pub, explained that I had to go into my garden when at home to make a phone call and asked if they could send me one of their Three Home Signal boxes. The woman explained that I'd have to answer a few questions as it is the standard procedure, then she took some details, played an automatic terms and conditions recording, then the call ended. I still had most of my pint left it was that quick. It arrived the next day.

 

You don't have to register phones to them anymore - any Three mobile will use the signal from the Femtocell when in range. I cant remember if the limit is 20 or 50 devices. It also provides 2G, 3G and 3.5G signals.

 

I am sure I tried that before and the "Customer Service Agent" had no idea what I was talking about. Granted that was about 2 years ago now.

[patseguin Global Moderator]

Impressive tony. Don't you have any overheating problems using the loft? If I used my attic area, The NAS would overheat really quickly.