Hackintosh Lion Storage Server - GA-H67N-USB3 - i3-2105

[TheOllyBanks]

TheOllyBanks' Build: GA-H67N-USB3 - i3-2105 - Lion​

Build A Hackintosh Storage Server
41UMd8sEn4L._SL500_AA300_.jpg


Components

Motherboard: Gigabyte H67N-USB3-B3
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004Q6078Y/?tag=tonymacx86-21

Processor: Intel Core i3 2105
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0051FFBX0/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE
Memory: Corsair XMS3 8GB
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003N8GVUY/?tag=tonymacx86-21

Power Supply: Integrated In Case


Comments

So I recently caught the hackintosh fever, i've been making them left right and centre. I have "Real Mac's" in my home as well, but hackintoshes are a great alternative and are normally faster. So the time came to call it a day with my windows based AMD storage server, as a replacement I built a hackintosh storage server based around the CustoMac Mini Build, and I though I would share my results with the forum.

The first question you might ask is "Why would you go to the trouble of hackintoshing this perfectly good hardware?" well there's two reasons; A) Its good fun! and B) Mac OS X Lion Server is very expandable and simple to use, it features a very competitive price tag that smokes the price tag of various other server operating systems, no names mentioned *Cough* windows server (£500+)

Now for the important stuff, turning this relatively pedestrian hardware and "server-ifying" it!

First off we need some storage, now I was shy and didn't want risk buying 2TB drives, instead I went with some 1TB drives for safety...

I bought myself 3 of these:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002E7HEVU/?tag=tonymacx86-21

Now if you have eyes you will notice that these are external hard drives, and the reason I bought these over an OEM internal hard drive is that they worked out cheaper that the OEM Internal version. inside that sleek black plastic box is just a WD Hard Drive that's 1TB, so I *Lovingly* ripped the hard drives from inside the plastic caddy, and thus I was left with 3 1TB internal hard drives from a respectable manufacturer (Western Digital)

For a boot drive I decided to buy a 60GB SSD, although this server will be on for most of the time I want it to boot fast when I need it to, also I think SSD's are awesome and every build should have one. so I got this Corsair Nova 60GB SSD: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0057A5RA6/?tag=tonymacx86-21

So now we need to put our frankenstein's monster server build in a case. this part is totally optional but I decided to go with the sexy Fractal Design Array R2. this case looks very mac like with its dark brushed aluminum, I would say that fingerprints get "burnt" on to this case like crazy so ware some kind of gloves when handling the case body! the case comes with a 300W power supply, and this build chimes in at a comfortable 230-245W under load so the power supply is more than sufficient. Grab the case here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00407HUFM/?tag=tonymacx86-21

Now your going to want to build your system into the case of your choice being sure to RTFM
Remember to always discharge static electricity from your person by waring an anti static wrist band or touching your power supply before you handle a sensitive component. (ensure it's plugged in to the wall but not switched on)

So you've built your black box of hardware goodness, now what to do? Well. you need to follow some other guides on how to install the operating system from the amazing TonyMac and MacMan. follow those to the letter, then come back here, it's okay I'll wait.

Install Mac On Your Hardware:
http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/2011/10/unibeast-install-mac-os-x-lion-using.html

All done? Great, so now we need to make this CustoMac Mini into a CustoMac Mini Server!

So first off before we install Lion server we need to make a software RAID so open up disk utility and follow the steps below:

• 1) In disk utility select one of the drives you want to RAID, then click on the RAID tab in disk utility
  2) drag all three of the drives you wish to raid together into the white box.
  3) Above the white square is the options field, give your new raid set a name, then change the "RAID Type" to: Concatenated Disk Set. this type of RAID set is a RAID 0, the combined capacity of the drives is added together into one big 3TB drive.
  4) Click the create button and sit and watch it takes any where from 40 seconds to 2 minuets depending on system speed

So now we have created our RAID array we can install Mac OS X Lion Server!

Lion Server is a separate purchase available from the app store for the very reasonable price of £34.99. So, buy that puppy and let it do its magic. otherwise known as installation.

There"s so much in lion server I could talk about but I don't have the time so instead I'll link you to this guide by the folks at We Got Served:
http://www.wegotserved.com/2011/08/12/apple-os-lion-server-home-server/

So, that's about it my hackintosh server is running stable and speedy. A few disclaimers:

• - This is not server grade hardware, therefore it is more susceptible to long term failure!
  - A RAID 1 Array is not very safe, if one drive fails you lose ALL the data on the entire array. always backup sensitive and important data to at least 2 locations

My total cost (including all software) was £664.72 or about $1000 US pound things...yeah

 

[ericdano]

Re: Hackintosh Storage Server Guide (Lion Server)

Why would you take 3 1tb drives and make them one big 3tb drive? I'd only consider raid 5 or 6 for any type of server. My current server is a raid 5 setup with 4 1tb drives. I've had to replace 1 drive in it, and it was simple. No data got lost or corrupted. Just shut down the system, take out the old drive, put in the new drive, rebuild the array....and boom, all back to normal.

 

[TheOllyBanks]

I wanted the 3TB array for video editing purposes, just chucking a load of video and audio on there, also the motherboard only has 4 SATA ports, 1 for the boot SSD the other 3 for the 1TB hard drives

 

[ericdano]

I wanted the 3TB array for video editing purposes, just chucking a load of video and audio on there, also the motherboard only has 4 SATA ports, 1 for the boot SSD the other 3 for the 1TB hard drives

But the RAID you have going.....doesn't make sense.....

I think it would be smarter to do RAID 5, and if you need more SATA ports, look into getting a card for the machine.

 

[powerpcg5]

- A RAID 1 Array is not very safe, if one drive fails you lose ALL the data on the entire array.

You mean RAID 0, right?... Wow. Like playing Russian Roulette.

For that same hardware, you could have built a FreeNAS. with a more robust RAID and dataset snapshots/rollbacks.

 

[ericdano]

You mean RAID 0, right?... Wow. Like playing Russian Roulette.

For that same hardware, you could have built a FreeNAS. with a more robust RAID and dataset snapshots/rollbacks.

Exactly. It's retarded. Unless you need some sort of Lion Server specific feature, there are PLENTY of other solutions (Ubuntu, FreeNAS) that would be more stable.

My server is running Ubuntu and I'd never consider putting OS X. Ubuntu works fine and probably faster.

 

[TheOllyBanks]

I took the advice, dumped one drive, now i've got x2 1TB in RAID 1

 

[powerpcg5]

Much safer... but now you have this whole another machine running acting just like any external USB storage. -- a very expensive storage for a mere 1TB storage.

What we're trying to say is Lion OSX server is not the right fit for this job. Take a look at FreeNAS, download it, it's free, if you have Parallels or VMWare, set it up there and play with it and play "what if" scenarios (setup a RAIDs, simulate a bad hard drive, simulate replacing the hard drive, etc...) and you'll maybe like it's power and flexibility.

freenas.org

* If OSX offered Software RAID 5 then I may have a different view on a Lion Server. But without this feature out of the box, it's a dealbreaker if you want to build a NAS using OSX.

 

[TheOllyBanks]

As it goes I do have a freeness box! its used in off site location to receive the backup's from my storage server, its a really great little box. the reason I needed Mac OS X is for its Quicktime Streaming Server, I use the streaming server to send the video footage to clients from the server.

 

[iborg]

One of the possible scenarios is to use FreeNAS as file server, mount NFS from it on a Lion Server, and provide services in that way.