Hardware Requirements for up to 50 users

[cmcgrogan]

my library/media center teacher has been bugging me about creating a her a media server to stream all of the dvd that are ripped to a hard drive. using freenas at home, i have had a great experience streaming video and music to my windows and apple computers. my current freenas box is a dual core amd @ 3.1ghz and 2 gigs of ram and 4 500gb drives. the most traffic my nas sees is myself streaming a video or two while doing file transfers from my mythtv box. at school there is about 40 teachers that would stream multiple or the same video. (that would never happen, but i would like to be able to see atleast 10 clients stream different or the same clip flawlessly or pretty close) my question is, is a core 2 quad or a phenom going to the job? i would probably put about 6 or 8 gigabytes of ram in it along with atleast 2 gigabit nics. there is only about 300 gigs of movies so i would do a raid 10 with 2 500gb drives.

basically i want to know what kind of specs i am going to need to have said operation completed.

chris

 

[Brand]

At school there is about 40 teachers that would stream multiple or the same video. (that would never happen, but i would like to be able to see atleast 10 clients stream different or the same clip flawlessly or pretty close) my question is, is a core 2 quad or a phenom going to the job? i would probably put about 6 or 8 gigabytes of ram in it along with atleast 2 gigabit nics.

You should be looking into a setup that includes support for when things go wrong and for when you are no longer there. The TrueNAS systems by iXsystems would be a good starting point.

Does the licensing for each piece of media allow you to copy it to a server and be shared among many teachers/students? Just because you are doing it at home does not make it legal, depending on the country you live in.

What type and quality is the video that you want to be serving? 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p?

Will the network infrastructure support what you are wanting to implement?

Are you authorized to make such drastic changes to the network?

I work in Information Technology and will tell you that a project like this would be better implemented by the schools Information Technology Department.

there is only about 300 gigs of movies so i would do a raid 10 with 2 500gb drives.

Just so you know a RAID 10 requires four hard drives. ZFS does not support RAID 10 arrays, only mirroring, RAIDZ, RAIDZ-2, and RAIDZ-3.

 

[peterh]

two points
memory. At the very least 8GB ( if you run zfs ) in a 64-bit machine more is better
cpu is not your limiting factor

Many disks, you mention 2 ( in mirror config) ok, that might do But spreading out load
on more spindles is good. Read zfs "best practices" for a starting point.


1 Gig ethernet might be a good startingpoint, assuming that most of the time one user is
down/uploading. If this becomes a problem use 2, or even better 10G

 

[louisk]

You can achieve RAID10 by adding multiple mirrors to the pool, as ZFS stripes across the pool.

I think that video quality will be a determining factor in the bandwidth required for this. Simple file streaming won't require any amazing amount of CPU or memory, although I would say 4-8G for 64bit ZFS is just good practice.

I think you will want to have at least 2 or 4 interfaces in a link aggregation, so your switch will have to support either lacp or etherchannel. You will also likely want 100Mbit links out to all the endpoints that are doing the streaming.

I would also try to get at least 4 spindles involved to spread out the IO per drive. I would suggest the pool of mirrors (RAID10 equiv) as it will offer the most speed and redundancy for the fewest number of drives (4x 500G drives shouldn't be very expensive, even with inflated prices still in effect).

 

[cmcgrogan]

You should be looking into a setup that includes support for when things go wrong and for when you are no longer there. The TrueNAS systems by iXsystems would be a good starting point.

That wont be necessary. The network administrator knows enough freenas that he can suffice.

Does the licensing for each piece of media allow you to copy it to a server and be shared among many teachers/students? Just because you are doing it at home does not make it legal, depending on the country you live in.

all the dvds have license where you can make a single copy for backup purposes.

What type and quality is the video that you want to be serving? 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p?

We are only looking to do 480p if that. 480i is the primary quality that will be used.

Will the network infrastructure support what you are wanting to implement?

Yes, I have complete access to multiple gigabit port on a cisco switch. i plan on putting in a dual gigabit nic or even two.

Are you authorized to make such drastic changes to the network?

I am allowed. (see last response)

I work in Information Technology and will tell you that a project like this would be better implemented by the schools Information Technology Department.

I go to a vocational school, which i attend the networking portion. i basically am the IT support for the entire campus (500 students and staff). i can implement almost anything, as long as it has a practical use.

Just so you know a RAID 10 requires four hard drives. ZFS does not support RAID 10 arrays, only mirroring, RAIDZ, RAIDZ-2, and RAIDZ-3.

okay i thought raid 10 was 2 drives. im just going to put in four drives.

 

[lrusak]

I use this dual gigabit network card in a PCI slot and it works great for ~$20

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/130418320636?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649#ht_4280wt_986

 

[louisk]

That wont be necessary. The network administrator knows enough freenas that he can suffice.

...

We are only looking to do 480p if that. 480i is the primary quality that will be used.

Yes, I have complete access to multiple gigabit port on a cisco switch. i plan on putting in a dual gigabit nic or even two.

...

okay i thought raid 10 was 2 drives. im just going to put in four drives.

480 should not be a problem.

Make sure you read the section of the FreeBSD handbook relating link aggregation and cisco IOS configuration. It details exactly what and how you need to configure the switch. The FreeNAS side can be done ahead of time, just use the gooey in the normal way.

If you can put in 4 now, I would. These little projects have a habit of becoming more popular and requirements tend to grow after the fact.

RAID10 is a stripe of mirrors. Brand should've said that the minimum configuration is 4 spindles.