Mass Torrent Server Build

[Ensefalon]

I probably have zero Idea what I'm doing and I need hardware recommendations Including both a solid lightweight OS and a powerful client.

I plan on using about 18 Terabytes worth of torrents, Same for being able to seed them.

This LAN segment speed is shaped/limited to an average Gigabit speed, with a 4Gb Up/Down coming from my ISP.

Could anyone help with hardware/OS recommendations, and a rackmount enclosure preferred(Any amount of RUs)

I am about 6 years behind in the modern tech/IT industry, Still working with HP G5/G6 server units.

 

[therealmeep]

1.Go for something such as ubuntu's lightweight server installs, I think either 17 or the upcoming 18 is going to be around a couple of gigs, if you can live with command based interfacing if not use a desktop like xfce or something
2.Skimp a bit on CPU possibly? I'm thinking as high end of a CPU you have laying around, if not something probably like a Xeon 5850 or 2. If you have 4Gb a second coming from your ISP you have a damn good connection and there's no reason to waste that, get all of the NICs you can to max out that speed on seeding and the like
3.Drives if you don't already have them, I have 6 Seagate Ironwolfs that happen to be awesome and have a special sort of monitoring on them (might be gimmicky, I like it)
4.Have you put any thought into raid? I have a 16 TB NAS that is in some sort of raid (forgot what) that gives me 12 TB of storage, not really applicable but just saying, drive failure protection is nice
5.You should be able to put this in just about any sort of case, though I would prefer an ATX mid/full tower, but this should fit in a 3-4U case I was looking at Rosewill's 4U a while ago for my home server, but left it in my antec 900 that holds 4 or 5 drives.

 

[Ensefalon]

1.Go for something such as ubuntu's lightweight server installs, I think either 17 or the upcoming 18 is going to be around a couple of gigs, if you can live with command based interfacing if not use a desktop like xfce or something
2.Skimp a bit on CPU possibly? I'm thinking as high end of a CPU you have laying around, if not something probably like a Xeon 5850 or 2. If you have 4Gb a second coming from your ISP you have a damn good connection and there's no reason to waste that, get all of the NICs you can to max out that speed on seeding and the like
3.Drives if you don't already have them, I have 6 Seagate Ironwolfs that happen to be awesome and have a special sort of monitoring on them (might be gimmicky, I like it)
4.Have you put any thought into raid? I have a 16 TB NAS that is in some sort of raid (forgot what) that gives me 12 TB of storage, not really applicable but just saying, drive failure protection is nice
5.You should be able to put this in just about any sort of case, though I would prefer an ATX mid/full tower, but this should fit in a 3-4U case I was looking at Rosewill's 4U a while ago for my home server, but left it in my antec 900 that holds 4 or 5 drives.

I usually prefer rack enclosures because I have all the cooling and the proper environment needed to sustain multiple servers, I don't really need RAID, as most of the data I'm gonna use will be eventually deleted and placed in with new torrents, So redundancy really isn't needed here.* Do you have any socket/Motherboard recommendations, same for a raid controller that could handle 8-12 drives in either a RAID 1(eh) or JBOD setup.

*I am going to RAID the boot volume, I hecking hate OS reinstalls, same for reconfiguration.

 

[therealmeep]

I myself don't do a whole lot of drive stuff, but if you want JBOD I'd grab up a pci sata controller and populate mobo then the addin card. As for Mobo I'd probably go with a mainstream x58 board that's cheap because lots of people on here still use x58 and CPUs for it can be found just about as cheap as a bag of dirt.

 

[AhokZYashA]

i can suggest an addon 4port GigE NIC, and an LSI HBA controller

for motherboards, you can go for a cheap x58 board, a 1366 xeon CPU and ECC RAM,
those setup will spare you from rebooting the OS every now and then.

 

[Ensefalon]

i can suggest an addon 4port GigE NIC, and an LSI HBA controller

for motherboards, you can go for a cheap x58 board, a 1366 xeon CPU and ECC RAM,
those setup will spare you from rebooting the OS every now and then.

What the hell do I need a 4 port GigE NIC for? I'm not maxing my ISP, Only my gigabit connection from this subnet, To my next subnet

 

[therealmeep]

What the hell do I need a 4 port GigE NIC for? I'm not maxing my ISP, Only my gigabit connection from this subnet, To my next subnet

It's hard to understand how somebody's network is without either being there in person or it being well explained by them. I would say that I was a little confused when you were talking about your subnet so I defaulted back to "hey you have 4 gig uplink lets use it all" That said I think we are narrowing down the parts for this for you. So far we have: X58 mobo, Xeon such as 5850 etc, you will probably want as much ecc as you can get for cheap (ddr3 ecc should be coming down because its not mainstream)

 

[Jetster]

Why would you want to serve torrents? Sorry probably don't wan to know

 

[Kursah]

What the hell do I need a 4 port GigE NIC for? I'm not maxing my ISP, Only my gigabit connection from this subnet, To my next subnet

In IT, redundancy is the key to reliability too. NIC teaming is critical in server environments. I wouldn't rely on a single NIC for any kind of data service or reliability. NIC teaming to improve bandwidth potential, failover and routing offload capabilities all could help greatly in data transfer reliability and availability. Many servers I deploy come standard with 4 NICs, I use all of them and adjust the deployment as needed. Highly recommend not overlooking this part...it could save your ass later.

Also as public warning to all members viewing this thread, please do not discuss the type of content in said torrents or the legality of them or this thread will closed and points given to those that choose to earn them. As a fair warning, it may still be closed as the discussion of torrents can lead to that, please review the forum guidelines for any questions. So far the thread is staying server-side focused and that is preferable to the topic here, thanks and let's keep it that way!

 

[AhokZYashA]

What the hell do I need a 4 port GigE NIC for? I'm not maxing my ISP, Only my gigabit connection from this subnet, To my next subnet

i thought that you want to max your ISP bandwidth, so i suggest that,

but if you dont want to max it, just go for the LSI HBA card. it has served me well for my 15k SAS drives,

because most motherboard now has 1 or 2 ports gigabit ethernet, so you are all set with that.

 

[Recca29]

Ryzen support ECC right?
So why not Ryzen 1700 + ECC memory. low power usage and warranty then old hardware.

 

[therealmeep]

Ryzen support ECC right?
So why not Ryzen 1700 + ECC memory. low power usage and warranty then old hardware.

I don't know about OP, but personally I'd rather take a chance on a pair of 20$ Xeon 5850s on a build that could be done most likely by a current i5 rather than spend 300$ on a CPU alone when the entire budget for CPU RAM and mobo could be half that and not worry about the extra dollar or 2 a month.

 

[Aquinus]

I used to run a headless torrent server on my gateway server before I decommissioned it. Since my connection is >150Mbit, I used to do larger downloads on that box so I didn't have to use the wireless for it. I used Debian and Transmission then used Transmission Remote to have a GUI to manage it on another machine on the same network. I was using 3-disk software RAID-5 with mdadm and it was fast enough to saturate my internet connection.

 

[Ensefalon]

In IT, redundancy is the key to reliability too. NIC teaming is critical in server environments. I wouldn't rely on a single NIC for any kind of data service or reliability. NIC teaming to improve bandwidth potential, failover and routing offload capabilities all could help greatly in data transfer reliability and availability. Many servers I deploy come standard with 4 NICs, I use all of them and adjust the deployment as needed. Highly recommend not overlooking this part...it could save your ass later.

Also as public warning to all members viewing this thread, please do not discuss the type of content in said torrents or the legality of them or this thread will closed and points given to those that choose to earn them. As a fair warning, it may still be closed as the discussion of torrents can lead to that, please review the forum guidelines for any questions. So far the thread is staying server-side focused and that is preferable to the topic here, thanks and let's keep it that way!

Nothing illegal I assure you
I probably won't have the amount of available RJ45 females available to bother tossing in more NICs than I need, But I'm open to all suggestions and I look at yours as a good possibility

Ryzen support ECC right?
So why not Ryzen 1700 + ECC memory. low power usage and warranty then old hardware.

I prefer redundancy over raw performance, so two processors may be my way to go. We're talking about a machine managing 20 terabytes of torrents, Same for seeding them over a single gigabit line running through my daily backup subnet into my gateway.

Why would you want to serve torrents? Sorry probably don't wan to know

There aren't many seeders for massive 200GB+ torrents in this country(US). I do it for fun, watching all the leechers download data I send them. I get satisfied when I help people like that

 

[Solaris17]

Ryzen support ECC right?
So why not Ryzen 1700 + ECC memory. low power usage and warranty then old hardware.

I don't know about OP, but personally I'd rather take a chance on a pair of 20$ Xeon 5850s on a build that could be done most likely by a current i5 rather than spend 300$ on a CPU alone when the entire budget for CPU RAM and mobo could be half that and not worry about the extra dollar or 2 a month.

Ugh Ametur hour. Agreed infrastructure at this level is important. mainstream stuff honestly shouldnt even be a recommendation and only goes to serve who is speaking out of scope to be perfectly candid. Honestly something like this should consist of rack mount Dell R810s or similar. They are cheap enough and built for the task. Then just grab some high density Drives if you arent worried about data retention or backup or RAID then simply forgo lookig at actual DC level drives and just go with your run of the mill house hold drives like WD REDs. or a similar NAS drive. Then throw in a cheap Intel 1000 PT Quads. enable teaming to make 2 pairs and jack them in https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.XIntel+PRO/1000+PT+Quad.TRS0&_nkw=Intel+PRO/1000+PT+Quad&_sacat=0 I run 4 of these and they run great.

Then load up some ubuntu or BSD server OS and run it.

Your biggest limitation is going to be sata controllers and I/O queue depth please do NOT get consumer grade gear. The attention to firmware and hardware optimization is apparent with this equipment. I run about 13TB of live data 24/7 if you dont want dell equipment which is cheap and highly availible I reccomend a custom 2U with some supermicro gear, another great pick.

 

[AhokZYashA]

i can assure you most server hardware last a very long time,

i have a IBM x3650 which is still running strong, and i've seen Compaq proliants dating back to 2003 still going strong today.
so if you want longetivity and good upgradeability, get used Nehalem based server hardware.
the performance is still relevant, you can squeeze a lot of live from them, and they come very cheap