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Sharing drive in Windows vs NAS

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Marcin Pabich:
I have been a user of NAS type servers for many years, but now everything is full and I am looking for a new solution to store mainly libraries I need every day. I am tired of dedicated NAS solutions and mechanical HDDs.

I wanted to build my own custom NAS with SSD only but while doing research I came to the conclusion that the best components for building servers with the possibility of connecting multiple PCI, M2 and SATA disks are the most expensive components such as AMD Threadripper Pro, HPTX or XL-ATX motherboards, Super Tower cases or Ultra Tower, and these parts we use to build our workstations and it is not profitable to double the expenses to build a separate server.

Hence my question, maybe it is better to buy several SSD drives for the current workstation, move libraries there and share them in Windows 10 Pro with another computer in the studio. What do you think about it?

Thanks for your feedback and help.

Ink Visual:
I think the main downside of the solution you described, so using single machine for both - production and file server purposes, is that it is more prone to failures than a one-task orientated server.

-3ds max crashes on daily basis,
-renderings freeze,
-there's often a need to install new software etc,
In every scenario above when your machine needs a restart, the files you're sharing with others are not available anymore. That often causes scene/rendering errors for other users.

Also the 100% processor and RAM usage during rendering may reduce the file transfers and read/save speeds for other network users.

So in my opinion, the sole purpose of a file server should be to store, share and backup files.
If you happen to build it powerful enough to sporadically use as a render node too, there's probably nothing wrong with that, and this is what we sometimes do in our studio.

Perhaps tell us more about why NAS solutions and HDDs are not working for you anymore?

Our file server is a Windows machine built specifically for this purpose. It's has an i9 9900K processor overclocked to 4.9Mhz, built on AsRock Z390 motherboard, with 64gb ram.
Probably a bit of an overkill, but as I mentioned wewanted to have a possibility to use it as a render node from time to time.
We only keep the library of assets on a fast M2 drive.
All the projects are stored on 7200 HDDs and we're rather happy with scene opening/saving and data transfer speeds.







 

Vuk:
@ Ink Visual - all that you said seems spot on to me. We use a NAS(Qnap) in our office and for now, it works fine.

We also use both HDD's in raid 5 and Nvme SSD's in raid 0 for our project and asset shares and so far haven't spotted any difference in speed between the HDD raid and the SSD raid in terms of scene loading, dr server machine loading, render pass saving, etc... The only speed difference is in the sequential "department" but pretty much all the work that we do is based on random read and write tasks. We all have 10gbe nic's and a 10gbe switch.

@ Ink Visual - Would you mind telling me how many of you access the windows machine that you made as a server? Is it also running win server or normal win? What is your setup in terms of hdd's, ssd's and raid?

dia.interactive:

--- Quote from: Vuk on 2021-10-14, 19:36:39 ---We also use both HDD's in raid 5 and Nvme SSD's in raid 0
--- End quote ---

Hi Vuk, could you please describe your NAS setup more in detail. I have QNAP TS-473 with HDDs and M.2 SSD 256gb for Cache Acceleration and I am not so happy with random read/write speed in my system because of HDD limitation...

Vuk:
My Nas setup is as follows:

1. 6x10TB Ironwolf Drives in RAID 5 (for models, assets, backup of old projects, photoshop assets, etc...) - Drive bays of the NAS

2. 2x1TBSamsung Enterprise sata SSD's 2.5" no RAID (just for textures) - Drive bays of the NAS

3. 4x2TB Samsung M2 970 Evo Plus nvme SSD's in RAID 0 (for all current projects and project-related files) - They are all stacked up on a QM2 Quad nvme SSD card in the PCI-E Gen 3x8 slot of the NAS

4. 1x512gb Samsung M2 860 Evo sata SSD's in RAID 1 for the NAS operating system (M2 slots on the motherboard of the NAS)

I don't use caching haven't tried it to be honest but I know a few people who tried it and had problems with it. Especially when you use read-write cache and when the SSD's get filled up. They tend to become super slagish and start affecting the network badly.

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