Technology Blog - obscurus.org

Part 3: Building Direct Attached Storage

Part 3 of building the DAS storage. I repaired the workstation and got the direct attached storage (DAS) connected. 8*4TB SAS drives configured for now as a BTRFS Raid 1 mirror. Gives me 15TB of usable space. I will do a full parts list soon and also revisit this when I have tested it a bit.

Part 2: Building Direct Attached Storage

Part two of the creation of the 32TB external direct attached storage (DAS) box. I want to keep the costs down, its a bit homemade. Here I just cover the the assembly, as the motherboard in the computer I was intended to connect it to failed on the same day!

Building a homemade direct attached storage (DAS/NAS)

Part 1: Building Direct Attached Storage

I have fourteen 4TB SAS drives, 8 of which I am going to use in a homemade 32TB external direct attached storage (DAS) box. I will be using an old case that I have going spare. To connect it up a bunch of cables I found on eBay. This is part one, the cables.

Building a direct attached storage unit to upgrade the capacity of my workstation.

Running a Java OpenJDK Docker in Unraid

To allow me to use my UNRAID server to upload data into databases I built a OpenJDK Java Docker. The Docker runs a script which executes a Java program. I am not sure if this how you are supposed to use Docker, but it works nicely for me.

UNRAID GPU Passthrough – needed a tweak

To get my NVidia GT710 to passthrough to a Windows VM in UNRAID I had to tweak my boot options. I needed to add “video=efifb:off” to the UNRAID OS boot config. Now the GPU passes through no problems.

UNRAID – What do I use it for!? Neo4J Network visualisation.

Quick video on what I use my UNRAID server for. I introduce using the UNRAID to serve the Neo4J database that runs some network visualisation for the website Algorithmic Indexing. Neo4J network visualisations form an important part of my academic research.

UNRAID Almost Finished! Just need loads of HDDs.

I have more or less stopped fiddling with my UNRAID system. Upgraded to 128GB of RAM and another nvme m.2 drive in the cache. I need the GPU and then loads of the HDDs and I will have a great UNRAID system for my needs.

UNRAID System Build with the ZX-DU99D4 V1.11 motherboard, 64GB of ram, and two Xeon E5-2650LV3 CPUs

UNRAID build log! Building my new UNRAID server with Chinese X99 dual CPU motherboard from eBay, its the ZX-DU99D4 V1.11. Two Xeon E5-2650LV3 and 64GB of Ram (both used of eBay). This will be a great base system for playing with VMs and dockers etc in UNRAID, as well as running backups.

I settled on using two CoolerMaster 92mm Hyper H412R Compact Intel/AMD CPU Coolers. Which fit fine if you off set the fans a little.

Homemade DAS – Part1

I am building a direct attached storage (DAS) case that I will attach to my workstation using an external SAS card. External RAID DAS cases for SAS drives are not cheap so homemade it is! So far I have been assembling the parts, I have the drives, case, and lots of wires. I will do a more in depth video of the whole process later. You could use this as part of a NAS if you wanted.

Using Unraid for rsync (backintime) backup and External Drive Replacement

I decided to replace a bunch of external hard drives with an UNRAID server. Setup to work with rsync and backintime backup software for Linux. Managed to sort out an error with rsync and the samba shares not liking files that start with “._”. This is a great use of my UNRAID system.