Simon’s blog

Before embarking on this project I asked myself what I needed a fileserver for. That is, what would I put on there and, therefore, how much storage space would I require.

I came up with the following list of items I wanted to store on this machine:

1. video: camcorder, recorded TV programmes, films etc
2. photos: a large photo library containing many gigabytes of RAW photos
3. audio: iTunes library
4. backup space for existing computer until all data migrated to fileserver

By far the biggest consumer of disk space is video, so let’s ensure we create a large storage space for now and beyond. Also, using the fileserver as a backup device for my existing computer will use quite a lot of space initially, until the data is migrated to the fileserver.

As this fileserver will cost some money to build, let’s try to ensure it pays for its rent by providing some extra useful services like:

1. continue working transparently in the event of a disk failure
2. regularly check all stored data for silent errors (bit rot etc)
3. automatically self-heal any problems found in any stored data from available redundant data
4. report any data checksum errors or drive failures to me by email so I can fix problems quickly
5. allow data to be stored and retrieved quickly across a gigabit switch within the home network
6. allow streaming of audio/video to any connected devices around the house
7. be fairly energy efficient
8. be fairly quiet
9. be fairly cheap to build
10. allow capacity expansion
11. allow flexible and simple configuration — for a techie, at least
12. automatically backup new/changed data periodically to local or remote backup server
13. be accessible from Mac, Windows, Linux and Solaris computers connected to the network

There, that should be enough to be getting on with

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