Home computers and backup

[safeorigin]

hmmm... 4 desktops and 3 laptops...

[oj88]

Sir OJ, is that a WD Green drive? How's the performance?

Are you using a gigabit router?

Have you considered WD Sharespace?

Yup. It's the EARS model. Performance is not an issue as this is more of a backup storage server (among others) rather than a gaming rig.

I have two 8-port gigabit switches connecting most desktops and some laptops. Standard 802.11g for the rest.

Sorry, no experience using WD Sharespace.

Right now, I ran into a setback in that, "Vail" proved to be still a bit buggy and with some features still not in their final state. This is not surprising as it is still in beta. However, I really need a working backup server now.

So here I am installing WHS v1. :D I'll just move to WHSv2 when it is finally released.


EDIT: My bad, I thought that the WD Sharespace is an online storage service. Didn't realize it was a product. :P Edited my reply above.

[oj88]

Dashboard of WHS v1:


Joined 4 computers so far. Had problems backing up one of the desktop. Still figuring out why.

[ParticleX]

90tb for your backup purposes, anyone?
http://hackaday.com/2010/10/21/90-tb...storage-needs/

[oj88]

That ain't too far into the future. I'd probably hit 6TB in probably a year or less.

[Horsepower]

Thanks. Planning to setup a NAS myself. I'm looking to build 2-4Tb but I only plan to buy an enclosure.

[oj88]

Added a new 2TB hard disk. It was easy as pie... all done in about 5 mins, including installation and boot-up.

Before. Around 200+ GB remaining free space


Adding the new HDD into the storage pool took just a few mouse clicks

[oj88]

-cont'd-





After the upgrade... more free space

[oj88]

On a side note, I bought an OMNI Mini Digital Power Meter earlier to get the actual consumption of my servers and connected network devices.

Picture borrowed from the Internet


It turns out that collectively, they're consuming around 150 Watts at idle. These consists of:

Server 1: P4 2GHz running ClearOS (Gateway router): 55W
Server 2: Sempron 140 LE 2.7GHz running WHSv1: 50W

The following collectively consumes around 20W:
8-port Gigabit switch
Nokia ADSL Modem
Wireless AP

The two UPS (APC Smart 700 and APC Back-UPS RS 500) has parasitic consumption of about 15W and 10W, respectively.

The CRT Monitor when turned on consumes a whopping 60W!

Note that accuracy is +/- 10W for the servers as it is dynamically changing depending on things like processor utilization and hard disk access.

It is interesting to note that the old server (Intel P4) with just one (1) 40GB hard disk consumes 5W more than the new one (Sempron) that has two (2) 2TB "Green" drives. When they say that newer equipment is more power-efficient is really not BS after all.

[Horsepower]

I was about to order a Kill-A-Watt from the US when I read the specs that it's only 110V. hehe.

If you don't mind, how much did you get that omni and where?