Need solution for serving 3500 DVD rips from a server

[shizniticus]

Greetings all. I'm a noob to this field, but my boss has me on this project. I'm hoping for a shortcut to a good solution for the following situation. For arguments sake:

1. Cost isn't a consideration.

2. User owns all of the actual DVD's to be ripped.

3. User owns approximately 3,500 DVD movies.

4. User wants to RIP all DVD's to network storage boxes.

5. User wants to be able to play them back from network storage via networked PC's, in various rooms, connected to Plasma monitors.

6. User is not technically savvy, though I am, so building the system is not the problem, but using the system should be simple like Tivo (which he also has several of).

7. He currently has CAT5 wiring in his house, but its being replaced with CAT6 and RG6 now.

I assumed I could build him a server, rip all his DVD's to it, and replay them via an application, but from what Im reading, this isnt nearly as cut and dry as I thought.

I thought the Escient Fireball DVDM100 (http://www.escient.com/products/dvdm100.html) was the answer, then I learned it was limited to 1200 stored DVD's.


Any suggestions to get me rolling/researching?

All help is greatly appreciated.

[Shinigami-Sama]

if we assume the average rip(iso) is 6gigs, that works out to ~21,000gb
so thats out of the question, these would have to transcoded into something else, to keep the complexity down I'd say xvid at about 1.2-1.6gigs a rip, depending on length that works out to...
~4'900mb, which is do able
or
x264 at about 700mb-1gb is ~2,800gb, even more realistic

and easy to do this would be to set up a webserver with a simple script to create m3u playlists, one for each movie, you can hook it up to a simple mysqlite database after that to sort them by what ever
user click the playlist, and the movie should start shortly after

or
attach it to a streaming server and do the same thing, just a link to the stream rather than the file

[ilovejedd]

I assumed I could build him a server, rip all his DVD's to it, and replay them via an application, but from what Im reading, this isnt nearly as cut and dry as I thought.

Why not? I'm planning on doing something similar albeit on a much lower scale.

You need to convert the DVDs to something more manageable. For simplicity's sake, use AVI compressed with XviD or DivX for video and mp3 for audio. MP4 container with h.264 video and aac audio would give you smaller file sizes but may require a bit of voodoo. Encoding time with x264 is also a lot longer than with Xvid/Divx. MP4 also requires beefier hardware for playback. Personally, I prefer the MP4 route but I don't have even half of your boss' collection.

For the media/file server, Blue_MiSfit recommended the following parts for my build.

Case:
LIAN LI PC-A70B ATX Full Tower
-External 5.25" Drive Bays: 5
-External 3.5" Drive Bays: None
-Internal 3.5" Drive Bays: 10
-Expansion Slots: 7

Power Supply:
Corsair CMPSU-550VX 550W
=>Corsair CMPSU-620HX 620W (higher wattage + modular cables might be better)

Motherboard:
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3R
-SATA: 8
-IDE: 1xATA100 (up to two devices)
-PCI Express x16: 1
-PCI Express x1: 3
-PCI: 3
-10/100/1000 Mbps
-8x USB 2.0

Of course, I was under a budget but if money's not an issue, check out Newegg for other cases and motherboards. The Power Search option is particularly useful for displaying only parts with the features you want.

Grab as many 1TB drives as you need/can fit inside the case. If you don't need all available 5.25" drive bays, you can get adapters to fit 3.5" drives. The Lian Li EX-23NB lets you convert 2x5.25" bays to 3x3.5" bays. Get extra SATA controllers as needed.

Server Software/OS:
For my file server, I will be using plain vanilla Windows XP Professional SP2. I can't afford a Windows Server license so I'm doing a simple Windows File and Printer Sharing on workgroups. To get around the 10 connection limit on XP Pro:
Run >> "gpedit.msc" >> Computer Configuration >> Windows Settings >> Security Settings >> Local Policies >> Security >> Interactive log-on: Number of previous log-ons to cache:
values: 0-50 (10 default, 0 do not cache, 50 max)

Setting it to 50 is probably good enough, unless your boss has more than 50 computers that need to access the "server" at the same time.

I've decided against RAID-0 as it will be much easier to replace the contents of just one drive instead of two in the event of a hard drive failure. Drives will be formatted NTFS and mounted to empty NTFS folders instead of being given individual drive letters. Below is the set-up plan.


Root
|-Media <- shared folder
| |-Anime (0-M) <- ntfs mount 1 - Western Digital 750GB
| |-Anime (N-Z) <- ntfs mount 2 - Western Digital 750GB
| |-Movies <- ntfs mount 3 - Western Digital 750GB
| |-TV <- ntfs mount 4 - Western Digital 750GB
| |-Music <- ntfs mount 5 - Seagate 300GB


You can assign a drive for each genre or maybe you can do it alphabetical by title. It's up to you how you plan to organize the DVD rips.

I'm sure you can do something similar with Linux but more stable and secure. However, as I'm just trying to learn my way around Kubuntu, I decided not to use it for my set up.

Clients:
First things first, what PCs will be used for the clients? Are there any OS considerations? Will you be building/buying PCs for this application? Will the PCs be used as normal or will they be used solely for media playback on the plasma?

Either way the following steps shouldn't change:
-map/mount the shared folder to each client
-install necessary codecs, splitters, etc for playback

Client Software/OS:
* Windows Vista Home Premium
-use built-in Windows Media Center
-add the mapped drive/folder share to the watched folders list
-for AVI, you're done
-for MP4, search for hack to display MP4 in Windows Media Center
-compatible remote recommended

* iTunes
-install iTunes
-add the mapped drive/folder share to iTunes

* GB-PVR
-install .NET 2.0 Framework
-install GB-PVR
-add the mapped drive/folder share to the Video Directories
-compatible remote recommended

* Linux (MythTV like front-end or something)
-no idea, check readme or wikis

Those are just a few possible options for the client. You can probably find a lot of other software you can try.

If you've got some spare PCs you can play with, maybe you could do a mock of the above set-up and test which client would be more suited to your boss' needs prior to deployment. If you don't have a Vista Home Premium PC, I'm pretty sure you can download a trial version from Microsoft's website.

Ok, I've droned on for too long... Hope you didn't sleep through it. Again, that's just my take on it. There are probably a million different ways you can implement this. Whichever way you go, I wish you luck!

[smok3]

frontend wise: for 3000 files you will need a decent search button + movie thumbnails maybe, so i would go with some web server...., but not sure how that would cooperate with remote and tv displays at the end.

[Shinigami-Sama]

frontend wise: for 3000 files you will need a decent search button + movie thumbnails maybe, so i would go with some web server...., but not sure how that would cooperate with remote and tv displays at the end.

last I checked if you got the right remote/drivers you could use the arrow keys to control the mouse and [enter] to left click

[burfadel]

The transcode time for 3500 dvd's would be um, a fairly long time...

[smok3]

well if there is 50 machines, this will be very loud render farm then :)

[mdoubledragon]

If price is not a consideration, check out Windows Home Server. If you want more scalability or budget cuts, you can always use Linux with Samba.

You always have to choose between encoding time/quality/size. But given the fact that 3500 DVDs need to be encoded, I would go for Xvid as slower encoding of x264 for such a project can set you back for weeks. If you are new to encoding, go for Nero Recode ASP. Not only that it is easy to use but its ASP codec is very fast. Coupled with the right playback software, it offers chapter selection too.

[ilovejedd]

The transcode time for 3500 dvd's would be um, a fairly long time...

Yep, that's why it might be better for him to go the Divx/Xvid route. Oh well, I'm sure his boss can afford a Skulltrail or two for use as encoding machine. ;)

Just Google for HTPC front-end or media center/server. Hopefully, you'll find something that meets your needs.

[Blue_MiSfit]

It's gonna take a _really_ long time to encode those movies.

Wow, I don't even want to think about it.

~MiSfit

[smok3]

just some thinkering...
- i would try with simple AVC in mp4 (yes, the encoding can be faster than xvid/divx),
- then for distribution some sort of web&streaming server (lightpd running on linux has mod_h264_streaming)
- interface - some sort of custom made autoindex.php maybe (with thumbs & search)
- player, some flash player maybe? - unknown hardware scaling options (to me) - (alternative is to push the same content via quicktime progressive download and/or via rss feeds (itunes or something) and/or via core web player thingy).

[morph166955]

I have done something similar to this (just not as large of a scale) for years. My server holds ~400 or so DVD's and ~130 HD Movies (yes all of its legal don't go there). What I have found works pretty well is to have the server be running Linux as the OS and Samba as your transport medium. Just get a couple of large SATA HDD's (see the space calculation above for how many) and have them all mounted inside the same folder. Then just share that folder via Samba and map it as a drive on the client. Make sure you have write permissions to the drives so that the thumbs.db file can be written to eliminate the need to generate thumbnails more then once for each movie. That thing will chug along for years and just never ask questions. You may want to consider getting another PC to do the ripping also. If you do that you can eliminate some CPU need on the server and just put it all in the ripper since your really not going to use more then 10% of the box just serving up movies. Get some ballsy ripper that can do the DVD's in record time and some easy ripping software so you can just pop the DVD in and hit "RIP" and it just be done.

The real key for speed in the whole thing is the infrastructure that my system runs on. Currently the two devices are connected via a Cisco 3560G switch. Each of the devices has two intel gigabit network cards connected to the switch and is running in port-channel mode (aka acting like one single 2gb link). The NIC's are also all set to use Jumbo Frames that have an MTU of 9000. I found that when I replaced my cheaper (but still gig) hardware with this my access time for any one file was noticeably faster then it was originally (were talking multiple seconds at times of high throughput down to sub second times no matter what was going on).

For your client PC, this is probably the one and only time I would ever suggest using a Microsoft product for anything but going with MCE2005 is probably your best bet. As far as usability with video's is concerned it is FAR superior to Vista MCE. I have run both Vista MCE and MCE2005 and as it stands right now I'm on MCE2005. He can use his remote to seemlessly browse his collection and then just click play on the one he wants. Simple easy quick no questions asked. Use FFDShow and CoreAVC for your codecs and he shouldn't have any issues.

While I wouldn't ever use the word "best" on here...I haven't had any issues with that solution and I've been running it for a few years now. Adjust as needed for what you do but I think its a pretty good place to start. Also the whole "money is no object" thing sometimes makes people think they need some insanely huge setup to do something that really doesn't need it. You really don't need a whole lot to do this if you do it smartly from the start. Your biggest expense is going to be the hard drives in the server since you need so much space (excluding any A/V hardware to do the playing since that stuff can cost LOTS).

[CZroe]

MCE 2005 with a Sony XL1, XL2, XL3 Digital Living System DVD changer works excellently, but you can only chain four of those bad-boys together (800 discs). This setup catalogs and shows synopsis info + boxart automatically as well as upscaled gloriously with the right videocard. Perhaps these are still useful for all the movies that can't be ripped simply?

[ilovejedd]

Sorry if I hi-jack the thread a bit, although what I'll be asking is still somewhat pertinent to the discussion.

I have done something similar to this (just not as large of a scale) for years. My server holds ~400 or so DVD's and ~130 HD Movies (yes all of its legal don't go there). What I have found works pretty well is to have the server be running Linux as the OS and Samba as your transport medium. Just get a couple of large SATA HDD's (see the space calculation above for how many) and have them all mounted inside the same folder. Then just share that folder via Samba and map it as a drive on the client. Make sure you have write permissions to the drives so that the thumbs.db file can be written to eliminate the need to generate thumbnails more then once for each movie. That thing will chug along for years and just never ask questions. You may want to consider getting another PC to do the ripping also. If you do that you can eliminate some CPU need on the server and just put it all in the ripper since your really not going to use more then 10% of the box just serving up movies. Get some ballsy ripper that can do the DVD's in record time and some easy ripping software so you can just pop the DVD in and hit "RIP" and it just be done.

The real key for speed in the whole thing is the infrastructure that my system runs on. Currently the two devices are connected via a Cisco 3560G switch. Each of the devices has two intel gigabit network cards connected to the switch and is running in port-channel mode (aka acting like one single 2gb link). The NIC's are also all set to use Jumbo Frames that have an MTU of 9000. I found that when I replaced my cheaper (but still gig) hardware with this my access time for any one file was noticeably faster then it was originally (were talking multiple seconds at times of high throughput down to sub second times no matter what was going on).

For your client PC, this is probably the one and only time I would ever suggest using a Microsoft product for anything but going with MCE2005 is probably your best bet. As far as usability with video's is concerned it is FAR superior to Vista MCE. I have run both Vista MCE and MCE2005 and as it stands right now I'm on MCE2005. He can use his remote to seemlessly browse his collection and then just click play on the one he wants. Simple easy quick no questions asked. Use FFDShow and CoreAVC for your codecs and he shouldn't have any issues.

While I wouldn't ever use the word "best" on here...I haven't had any issues with that solution and I've been running it for a few years now. Adjust as needed for what you do but I think its a pretty good place to start. Also the whole "money is no object" thing sometimes makes people think they need some insanely huge setup to do something that really doesn't need it. You really don't need a whole lot to do this if you do it smartly from the start. Your biggest expense is going to be the hard drives in the server since you need so much space (excluding any A/V hardware to do the playing since that stuff can cost LOTS).

Your setup is what I'm planning for mine except with an XP Pro file server instead of Linux. I'm new to Linux (playing around with Kubuntu), and for the life of me, I still haven't been able to figure out how to disable the file server from asking the clients to log-on to access Samba shares even when I've set the share to 777 (iirc).

So Windows MCE2005 is a much better option than Vista Media Center? I haven't had the chance to try it. I only have Vista because it was pre-installed on the laptop I bought. Is MCE 2005 support for MP4 and MKV seamless? As in you don't have to tweak the registry entries or anything? Also, how are videos organized in MCE 2005? Is there a search function available within its Media Center interface? I couldn't find a search function for Vista MC, thus, I have to arrange the folders manually. Right now, I've resigned myself to using Linux. LinuxMCE (http://www.linuxmce.org) and My Media System (http://mymediasystem.org) seem to be the "best" front-ends I've seen. I just have to test them. *sigh* I wonder if there's a trial version of MCE2005? I want to test all free HTPC front-ends I can find to see which interfaces more like an appliance than a PC. I consider MCE2005 to be free since I'll have to pony up money for a Windows license anyway, unless I go the Linux route. I just don't want to waste my money before I even decide that I want to use it.

Assuming all the video and network gear are already in place, the server itself shouldn't be uber expensive. My initial build with the Lian Li case, P35 mobo w/Gb LAN, Q6600, 2x2GB RAM, 4xWD 750GB HDD (3TB total) ran just around $1600 before shipping and tax. Replacing the Western Digital Caviar SE16 750GB with 6 Western Digital Caviar GP 1TB (6TB total) will increase the cost to $2400. If he wants Seagate, then it's around $2600. For me, that's a pretty decent price for a server considering high end laptops can cost more than that.

[Reimar]

and for the life of me, I still haven't been able to figure out how to disable the file server from asking the clients to log-on to access Samba shares even when I've set the share to 777 (iirc).

In case you care: try setting
"security = share"
in your samba config (global level) and possibly "guest ok = yes" for the share.
And do not blame Linux too much for this, I had this problem massively when combining XP and Win98 computers, without any Linux involved ;-)

[shizniticus]

Hey just stopping back to say thanks for all the well thought out suggestions. This is definitely a good start, and sure to save me a ton of time.

I do have some questions regarding why MCE2005 is considered superior to Vista, but I'll open a new thread for that.

Thanks again, very much appreciated!
:thanks:

[prOnorama]

1. Cost isn't a consideration.

I assume quality is. Ripping to Xvid/x264 saves space but will cost a lot of time and won't improve quality (quality will decrease)

21 Tb isn't that costly: consumer price for a 1 Tb drive = $ 270

270 x 21 = $ 5670, but maybe you can get it cheaper if you buy more at once

You need a case (or maybe 2), Mobo's , RAID controllers etc.

Have a look here for examples on home media servers:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=940972#HMS

[Shinigami-Sama]

my 21tb calc was only an estimate, it could be as much as 9TB short in worst case scenario


ripping to xvid at my target rate should be transparent, as long as some nice settings are used, which could be saved as pre-sets to be thrown to the encoder

[prOnorama]

my 21tb calc was only an estimate, it could be as much as 9TB short in worst case scenario


ripping to xvid at my target rate should be transparent, as long as some nice settings are used, which could be saved as pre-sets to be thrown to the encoder

Sure the quality drop won't be too much but there's still the job of encoding 3500 DVD's after ripping them

And you lose menu's and special features (OK some you can rip as well)

Anyway like the OP said as his first point: cost isn't a consideration

If I had money I'd not convert anything and would be happy to keep the menu's etc :)

[Shinigami-Sama]

he'd need two boxes then
one just a storage array and then the server
something about stuffing 30 drives into a plain box doesn't sound right to me...

[Inventive Software]

Greetings all. I'm a noob to this field, but my boss has me on this project. I'm hoping for a shortcut to a good solution for the following situation. For arguments sake:

1. Cost isn't a consideration.

2. User owns all of the actual DVD's to be ripped.

3. User owns approximately 3,500 DVD movies.

4. User wants to RIP all DVD's to network storage boxes.

5. User wants to be able to play them back from network storage via networked PC's, in various rooms, connected to Plasma monitors.

6. User is not technically savvy, though I am, so building the system is not the problem, but using the system should be simple like Tivo (which he also has several of).

7. He currently has CAT5 wiring in his house, but its being replaced with CAT6 and RG6 now.

I assumed I could build him a server, rip all his DVD's to it, and replay them via an application, but from what Im reading, this isnt nearly as cut and dry as I thought.

I thought the Escient Fireball DVDM100 (http://www.escient.com/products/dvdm100.html) was the answer, then I learned it was limited to 1200 stored DVD's.


Any suggestions to get me rolling/researching?

All help is greatly appreciated.

Note the quote in bold. This implies more than one NAS device on top of the server, so they'd most likely be spread over several of these NAS devices, so something that rips the DVD to the HDD and probably retains the menus would work OK.

My only concern is network bottlenecks. Is CAT6 gonna be enough for several NAS devices?

[ilovejedd]

It would depend on how many clients he has. I think 1GB LAN should suffice even when streaming HD (compressed, of course) simultaneously to all clients. That is, unless his house is as big as a hotel and has as many rooms...

Also, the "NAS" devices aren't exactly NAS devices. They're more like external SATA enclosures. For expandability, he can opt to build this (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=12248999#post12248999). He can build the server and a couple of enclosures and just add additional hard drives/enclosures as needed.

[Shinigami-Sama]

Note the quote in bold. This implies more than one NAS device on top of the server, so they'd most likely be spread over several of these NAS devices, so something that rips the DVD to the HDD and probably retains the menus would work OK.

My only concern is network bottlenecks. Is CAT6 gonna be enough for several NAS devices?
as long as you enable jumbo frames Cat5e is good enough
for that you'd need at least tier 2 switches though

[mewash]

i'm a bit late to the party, but here are my sysadmin/media hobbyist two cents on this...

(1) the ca5e/cat6, jumbo frames, nic teaming, expensive layer 3 switches stuff is a bit silly/misleading for this application, i think. that stuff is crucial only for the most hardcore i/o intensive link-saturating applications. streaming video is not a gigabit ethernet-saturating application. even if you are streaming 5 movies at some crazy hd resolution (45 megabits, say) you're still only using 25% of theoretical gigabit. cat5e is capable of doing up to something like 60% and cat6 will do 80-90%. cat5e is sufficient in almost all cases, though cat6 makes sense for longer runs. jumbo frames will improve your sustained throughput rates but can cause a huge headache if you are not network-savvy; and, for this application, they are by no means a requirement, unless your front-end application needs to buffer the ENTIRE FILE before playing it back. managed switches are nice, and if money is no object why not go with a nicer switch, but again, i doubt you will see much of a difference between a layer 3 cisco gbe switch and a dell semi-managed gbe (which is about 5% of the price and much easier to manage) for this application.

(2) i am doing something similar at home. i'm running a solaris/zfs server for the backend (zfs is crucial to me for its error detection and recovery capabilities as well as its incredible power and ease of use). "hacked" appletv is streaming stuff to my television via samba. no real problems. the hacked appletv is not as rock-solid as i'd like it to be but it's incredibly easy and pleasant to use. and it'll play a ripped VIDEO_TS directory without any messing around. no need to encode shit. encoding 3500 dvd's, even with joke settings, will be incredibly painful and i do not recommend it. it's an absurd job for anything less than a sweatshop full of people. pick a frontend that will stream the VIDEO_TS directory.

(3) my recommendations (money and skill no object): get two 5u 25-drive or whatever san cases and build them out with a ton of ram (16gb should be sufficient), the biggest drives you can get, and sun pci-e sas/sata controllers (i really recommend you go with pci-e vs. pci-x controllers, -that- will make a difference). throw solaris on them and configure a few sets of raidz2 arrays with zfs into one storage pool. rip the dvd's, share it out with samba and use hacked appletv's (or windows media server, or myth, or whatever, though i only have experience with the atv) to stream the stuff. for the network backbone throw in a cisco/extreme/foundry gigabit switch unless you don't have any experience messing with those things, in which case go with a dell or netgear gigabit semi-managed switch. there is an established tradition of crusty network guys scoffing at that stuff but i'm pretty sure that has more to do with (a) tradition and (b) a desire to keep their jobs with the help of the arcane knowledge configuring some of that stuff requires.

make sure you have a backup of all this stuff. you don't want an administration mistake or disaster wipe out the hundreds of hours of work this is going to entail. that's what the second 25-drive box is for. throw solaris on that and just replicate the entire filesystem (dead easy with zfs). if you are going to be adding stuff regularly you may want to set up live replication with avs (that is actually kind of a pain in the ass).

caveat on the appletv is it doesn't have the horsepower to do any kind of hd. (upscaled) dvd's look and play great, but if you're doing hd, go with something with more juice.

[Shinigami-Sama]

hot dam another solaris user!
with ZFS you can make a very small script to run in cron and take a snap shot every couple days
so thats not a big deal either

[gaspah]

yes i already have a 2.6TiB (2.8TB) raid5 server with thousands of my own dvds in .avi/xvid and my newer ones in .mkv/x264, i stream this throughout my house, i can even stream on my laptop when im the pool area through my wireless modem router... but this has taken me MANY years (i mean i have a life outside my computer) to setup... as encoding now to x264 only goes at about 30-40fps and u must do two passes (thats with the latest hardware). I mean if money is no object you could buy a bunch of quad core xeons and encode them all in parrallel.. but yes 3500 dvds... QUITE A PROJECT...

running areca arc-1220 + 8xwd4000ys... leet sh.t. (well for somebody that only works 3-5 days a week in a dead end job :P)

[Sagekilla]

You could go with one computer with a few 1 TB drives then. Rip to x264 @ crf 18 (transparent quality) using AQ and total bitrate should be ~2 mbps. For 3500 movies, at an average of 2 hours per movie, that will take up 6.3 TB of storage. Easily manageable with 7 drives. I'm sure you can find a case with that much storage, since mine has 5 drives (which are all filled up, unfortunately)

[DarkT]

Well, if all the 3500dvds are there, DOWNLOADING the movies should be legal... If not - then forget what I'm saying.

Basically, the most tiem consuming thing is the whole manual proccess of Insert DVD ---> RIP ---> Encode, and if you want to do some special scripting, well, you know...

With Downloading, you could setup bitorrent/edonkey, download the 3500 movies SLOWER, probably, but it'd all be automatic, no user intervention required... Kind of...

Unless Downloading a movie you already have is illegal...

Anyway, my 2cents...

[foxyshadis]

(1) the ca5e/cat6, jumbo frames, nic teaming, expensive layer 3 switches stuff is a bit silly/misleading for this application, i think. that stuff is crucial only for the most hardcore i/o intensive link-saturating applications. streaming video is not a gigabit ethernet-saturating application. even if you are streaming 5 movies at some crazy hd resolution (45 megabits, say) you're still only using 25% of theoretical gigabit. cat5e is capable of doing up to something like 60% and cat6 will do 80-90%. cat5e is sufficient in almost all cases, though cat6 makes sense for longer runs. jumbo frames will improve your sustained throughput rates but can cause a huge headache if you are not network-savvy; and, for this application, they are by no means a requirement, unless your front-end application needs to buffer the ENTIRE FILE before playing it back. managed switches are nice, and if money is no object why not go with a nicer switch, but again, i doubt you will see much of a difference between a layer 3 cisco gbe switch and a dell semi-managed gbe (which is about 5% of the price and much easier to manage) for this application.

Once you have gigabit, it's usually cheapie network cards that become the bottleneck. They'll shoot cpu use through the roof, or they'll cut off somewhere well under 1gb, often both. Buy a real offload gbE card and you won't need any fancy tweaks and tunings and switches. 'course, solaris is great for serving. :p

[Shinigami-Sama]

yeah, a case like this is pretty much one of the reasons Solaris owns most of the internet

I doubt nic teaming is needed
jumbo frames are just good anyways, all consumer devices should be able to handle it anyways, its been in RFCs forever

and foxy is right, don't cheap out on the nics!

[mewash]

nic teaming only ever really complicates things. i haven't run into many cases where nic teaming was -actually- necessary. plus when it breaks, it breaks real good.

the problem with jumbo frames is basically no equipment supports them out of the box. what does this mean? cpu saturation on the box receiving the frames (fragmenting/reassembling the packets). also this kind of thing will BURY a lan (frame size mismatch between the switch and a box). so yeah, they are nice and fine so long as you put the time in to make sure all the equipment in the chain is configured to support a large MTU.

if you are speccing out a 25tb box with 16gb of ram and you decide to save money by going with cheap nics then, er, i can't really help you...

though y'all may be surprised to learn that a 64-bit server board that supports that much ram will generally have an onboard tcp offloading chip that will perform to your satisfaction.

[TEB]

My suggestion is using a:
http://www.infortrend.com/main/2_product/es_a24s-r(g)2130.asp
in RAID6 mode, connected to a linux box with a LSI Logic PCI-e 8 lane SAS-controller.
Run it on a 64bit linux based distribution, XFS FS, 22TB partition, GUID partition table, Samba 3.0 over a trunked 1+1 gigabitlink against a cisco or HP gigabit switch if needed.

[MfA]

If cost really doesn't matter that does look like nice ... compared to simply using 5 bay SATA enclosures using port multipliers and software RAID you are going to be spending over twice as much for that kind of storage though (~20K $ vs ~10K$).