Windows Storage Spaces

[marauder 17]

I'm in the process of having to rebuild my system. It's currently a linux system but I'm thinking of running emby off of my windows desktop for simplicity. I came across windows storage spaces and was wondering if anyone is using them for their file storage and what the performance/reliability was like. 

I'd be using 8 x 3TB drives for my setup. 

[JeremyFr79 228]

I would not recommend storage spaces, it's still full of issues, performance is abismal, etc.  Go on Ebay find yourself a cheap decent hardware RAID card (Dell PERCs etc) and setup a true hardware RAID.

[Hitsville 37]

If you don't wanna go raid. Stablebit Drivepool.

 

Like Storage Spaces(unlike raid) all data is readable on any system.

Just personal preference but if you do go raid you need a minimum of two Raid cards. Stuff breaks.

 

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Edited September 12, 2018 by Hitsville

[marauder 17]

Thanks, for the input. Trying to get back up and running with minimal effort, and costs. Was hoping that would be a quick solution. I do have a raid card, that I could use that would handle all 8 drives, but that would leave me unable to expand. Hence why I liked this solution. My other idea is to go with UnRaid, and just forgo a windows desktop and use my laptop as my windows machine. I don't think my current desktop could handle unraid, emby, deluge and a windows vm. it's a i7-3770k with 24gb ram.

[Hitsville 37]

Oh one other thing.

The performance thing in SS only relates to parity.

 

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[marauder 17]

If you don't wanna go raid. Stablebit Drivepool.

 

Like Storage Spaces(unlike raid) all data is readable on any system.

Just personal preference but if you do go raid you need a minimum of two Raid cards. Stuff breaks.

 

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Stablebit looks interesting but it doesn't seem to do parity only file copying, which would eat up a lot of my drive space. 

[Hitsville 37]

True but you can use FlexRaid or better yet SnapRaid on top...and still read any single drive pulled from the system.

 

Please though...for the sake of your data. If you go full on raid, purchase the identical raid card that you already own and put it somewhere safe.

 

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[Guest asrequested]

Why RAID is used at all anymore, baffles me. It's intractable. There are so many drive pooling options and platforms.

[mastrmind11 722]

especially hardware raid.

[marauder 17]

Why RAID is used at all anymore, baffles me. It's intractable. There are so many drive pooling options and platforms.

 

Thats what I'm looking to move away from. To do drive pooling, as it offers a lot of really nice features. I'm trying to decide if i just repurse my desktop that I never use to be my new system and run it off windows. or to use unraid.

[Hitsville 37]

Just one more thought on Storage Spaces with parity.

How much data do you currently have?

It's the write speeds that are slow while it builds parity.The read speeds are fine.

For me with 80TB+ it's not an option. But for anyone with far less (and patience) it's probably a simple doable option.

Anyway just my thoughts.

 

 

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Edited September 12, 2018 by Hitsville

[marauder 17]

Just one more thought on Storage Spaces with parity.

How much data do you currently have?

It's the write speeds that are slow while it builds parity.The read speeds are fine.

For me with 80TB+ it's not an option. But for anyone with far less (and patience) it's probably a simple doable option.

Anyway just my thoughts.

 

 

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I'm currently around 21TB. My drives are a bit old at this point and are not NAS grade drives. 

[Hitsville 37]

Right well storage spaces with parity I think needs 3 or more empty drives. So probably not doable and to be honest with that amount of data it's gonna take a long time.

 

 

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[marauder 17]

Right well storage spaces with parity I think needs 3 or more empty drives. So probably not doable and to be honest with that amount of data it's gonna take a long time.

 

 

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Yea i'm leaning back to doing Unraid as my setup. 

[Guest asrequested]

Thats what I'm looking to move away from. To do drive pooling, as it offers a lot of really nice features. I'm trying to decide if i just repurse my desktop that I never use to be my new system and run it off windows. or to use unraid.

Why not just use the trial period to run some tests?

[marauder 17]

Thats what I'm going to do tonight. I'm going to take down my desktop and install unraid on it and try it out. 

[ebr 16178]

Yea i'm leaning back to doing Unraid as my setup. 

 

I highly suggest FlexRaid over Unraid.  Unraid is a proprietary format.  With FlexRaid, the data is readable by any other system.

[Hitsville 37]

Yeah either way I would personally be more likely to exhaust all the possibilities on your existing OS.

Be that FlexRaid, SnapRaid, Drivepool or a combination of two of them.

 

If none of those work out for you then maybe then wipe and try Unraid

.

 

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[CBers 7450]

If you don't wanna go raid. Stablebit Drivepool.

 

Like Storage Spaces(unlike raid) all data is readable on any system.

 

Or DriveBender

 

I currently have ~28Tb in my pool.

[Hitsville 37]

Or DriveBender

 

I currently have ~28Tb in my pool.

I loved the UI of drivebender. I tried them both in the days after WHS v1 was abandoned. I went Drivepool just because I got a free licence for beta testing.

Since then the one thing that worried me with Drivebender was it's abandonment followed months later my a change of mind. [emoji848]

 

 

 

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[marauder 17]

Yeah either way I would personally be more likely to exhaust all the possibilities on your existing OS.

Be that FlexRaid, SnapRaid, Drivepool or a combination of two of them.

 

If none of those work out for you then maybe then wipe and try Unraid

.

 

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My current system I no longer have access to the OS, just the data. So I’m pretty much starting from scratch OS wise. I was thinking about using my windows desktop instead of a dedicated server but not sure.

[CBers 7450]

I loved the UI of drivebender. I tried them both in the days after WHS v1 was abandoned. I went Drivepool just because I got a free licence for beta testing.

Since then the one thing that worried me with Drivebender was it's abandonment followed months later my a change of mind. [emoji848]

 

I also had a WHSv1 and switched to DriveBender when DriveExtender was removed in v2.

 

DriveBender hasn't been abandoned, in fact they've just released DBv3 beta.

 

They also have a new product coming out later this year called DriveXtender, which allows for pools locally and/or in the Cloud.

 

So all in all, they're still very much alive.

 

.

Edited September 14, 2018 by CBers

[marauder 17]

I highly suggest FlexRaid over Unraid.  Unraid is a proprietary format.  With FlexRaid, the data is readable by any other system.

 

With flexraid would you recommend Traid or Fraid. I'm getting a bit confused on the features between the two. From what it seems like Traid is similar to Stablebit/drivepool. it does instant parity, and does it on a file level, not on a drive level. It requires a min of 2 disks to spin up for writing data. While Fraid, does it on a drive level, and doesn't do it instantly only when scheduled. As it's a movie/tv array the files don't change all that much once on the array. I'll have a seperate drive for seeding, and then just transfer them over periodically.   What I couldn't figure out is does both options allow for adding/removing drives as needed? Do I lose more available space with one over the other due to parity/backup? 

Do you know if you can transfer a pool from one OS to the other. Like if I built it on Windows then decided I wanted to run it on a linux machine, move all the drives over and configs over and it'll work? I posted this already in their forums but no answer yet.

Edited September 13, 2018 by marauder

[Hitsville 37]

I also had a WHSv1 and switched to DriveBender when DrivePool was removed in v2.

 

DriveBender hasn't been abandoned, in fact they've just released DBv3 beta.

 

They also have a new product coming out later this year called DriveXtender, which allows for pools locally and/or in the Cloud.

 

So all in all, they're still very much alive.

 

Yeah sorry I wasn't suggesting that Drive Bender is currently abandoned. Only that the official announcement was made late 2015 that development was probably ending as the sole developer at the time was calling it a day.

https://blog.division-m.com/2015/11/19/all-good-things-must-come-to-an-end/

 

In late 2016 after a surge of donations the decision was reversed. 

https://blog.division-m.com/2016/08/22/its-hard-to-keep-a-good-app-down/

Edited September 13, 2018 by Hitsville

[CBers 7450]

Yeah sorry I wasn't suggesting that Drive Bender is currently abandoned. Only that the official announcement was made late 2015 that development was probably ending as the sole developer at the time was calling it a day.

https://blog.division-m.com/2015/11/19/all-good-things-must-come-to-an-end/

 

In late 2016 after a surge of donations the decision was reversed. 

https://blog.division-m.com/2016/08/22/its-hard-to-keep-a-good-app-down/

 

I know all of that, as I am an Administrator on the forums