OK - I think I am ready to start and build a NAS server to serve mainly media around the house. I currently have a 2.8Ghz P4 with 512Mb RAM. I have been running Debian on this and use this as my general server for things such as MySQL, SSH server to the outside, Apache Web Server, Tomcat server etc, MP3 server.
I like to take this and install probably 4-5 300/320GB HDD in this server - SATA drives so I need a PCI SATA adapter card. I will have a sepearte PATA drive for the OS (preferably Debian or another flavour of linux).
The questions:
The question is what level of RAID? - It seems from trawling the www that Raid 5 is the most popular for redundancy and performance. So this is probably the level of Raid I will use.
Which card?
XFX Revo 5-port: This card sounds appealing as its a full hardware based raid card - the OS sees it as a singular drive and there is no requirement for drivers. This is good from a linux point of view. However, there doesn't seem to be any linux support in terms of supporting apps for notification of Raid health.
Promise TX4: Seems to have linux driver support.
3Ware: Not sure which one.
Highpoint RocketRaid 1640: Not sure about this - not read much about it and linux support.
My main issue with the XFX card is that if the card fails - I guess I will lose my entire Raid array unless I can source an exact card. Hence one reason to get a fake raid card and let the OS do the raid. Will a 2.8Ghz P4 handle os raid ok?
I currently have an Antec Sonata case - but will probably get an Akasa Eclipse 62 box to house this server as there is reasonable room in there for future drive additions and has good facilities for quiet cooling (120mm fan facilities). Coolermaster Stacker was the other option but I think its too big (only live in a small flat) and the mesh front won't be good for silence (no where to hide this server so its out of noise range). I can even use the Coolermaster 4-in-3 drive housing and put some black mesh to hide it for addtional drive space with suitable cooling. Probably keep the current PSU though (380 watt) - guess this be enough presently to power 5-6 drives and the p4 - no fancy gaphics requirements (on board graphics).
I have looked at OpenFiler and NASLite which are lightweight linux distributions specifically for NAS applicances. I like to use a full blown linux distro because of other tasks this server will do such as print serving, database serving, caller id server, Squid HTTP Proxy server etc.
Any one provide any helpful advice with regards to a SATA card for linux raid? Or any helpful pointers or help with tackling this project?