Backblaze storage pod

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icanflyindreams

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Jun 22, 2011, 10:13:09 AM6/22/11
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Hi everyone,

I tried sending the group an e-mail, but it bounced. So here's what
you would have gotten in your inboxes:

Hello,

While I was doing research on the Backblaze storage pod, I discovered
your Google Group. I'm currently in the process of building a
Backblaze storage pod and I'm interested in joining together a
community of people to pool their collective knowledge together and
develop a step-by-step manual of how to successfully complete the pod.

It appears this group has fallen into disuse, and I was hoping it
might be re-energized if I created a new community that would allow
those interested in building to talk to those who have already built a
pod and create a community dedicated to expanding on the original
design to accomodate all types of users, from the experienced to the
inexperienced.

If you're interested in joining the community, please let me know. If
not, if you have any helpful tips or knowledge to pass along about
building the Backblaze, any tips, hints, tricks, things you discovered
along the way, any information you can provide at all to make my
project a success would be appreciated.

Thank you,
Eli

Glen Duncan

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Jun 22, 2011, 12:10:23 PM6/22/11
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I'd be interested. It might also be beneficial to coordinate a group buy of components and metal work, rather than everyone sourcing material separately.

-Glen

Tom Hall

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Jun 22, 2011, 1:03:35 PM6/22/11
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Where are you guys based? I did a run of pods a while back int he UK,
could arrange another.

Tom

Jeff Anderson

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Jun 22, 2011, 1:38:56 PM6/22/11
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I'm interested.  What's needed?

Steel City Phantom

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Jun 22, 2011, 1:12:46 PM6/22/11
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well, im in the planning stages of building a blaze but im not going to use a pod case.  im going to build a carbon fiber/fiberglass desk in some strange shape.  kinda thinking something like a bat computer looking thing.  

biggest thing i need is a supplier of hard drives.  if someone knows a place where i can buy them by the case it would be cool
--
You want it fast, cheap, or right.  Pick two!!

Joseph Meier

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Jun 22, 2011, 1:09:36 PM6/22/11
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To all:

I still possess a great deal of interest in the Backblaze project,
although I have not built one. I did some research into sourcing the
parts (after reading the original article), but never proceeded any
further. If there are other people/groups who are committed to
building, I would like to add my order to theirs. I can retrieve my
parts listing ( created from the original article) and confirm the
current details and costs from the various manufacturers, and then
email or post the results if you wish.

Thank you for the effort to re-start the project.

Joseph

--
Joseph Meier, Ph.D., MCSE
Chief Technology Officer
Stargate Films, Inc.
1001 El Centro Street
South Pasadena, CA  91030
Voice      (626) 403-8403
Fax          (626) 403-8444
Cell         (213) 709-2664

Stargate Vancouver
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Fax          (604) 488-1242

***NOTICE***

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Jay P

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Jun 22, 2011, 9:50:02 PM6/22/11
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I am interested.

On Wed, Jun 22, 2011 at 10:13 AM, icanflyindreams <marb...@gmail.com> wrote:

--
Jay H. Paszamant

President/CEO
Digi Technologies, Inc.
116 Village Blvd.,Suite 200
Princeton, NJ 08540
609.228.0590

irukard

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Jun 23, 2011, 5:39:19 AM6/23/11
to OpenStoragePod
I'm interested too :)

Eduardo Casarero

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Jun 23, 2011, 8:45:33 AM6/23/11
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I'm interested too :)

2011/6/23 irukard <iru...@gmail.com>

icanflyindreams

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Jun 23, 2011, 9:42:38 AM6/23/11
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Awesome! It's encouraging to know there are still others out there
interested in the project. To answer some of your questions, we're a
small company based out of Buffalo, NY currently conducting a test
build of a Backblaze pod. We already have all the parts, some of which
were very difficult to find the ones listed by Backblaze. We're doing
a trial run with five drives, rather than take the risk with many
drives all at once, and if we're successful, we'll fill up the pod.

I'm creating a listserv that will enable us all to better communicate
and more quickly. If you're comfortable with that idea, send me an e-
mail at marb...@gmail.com and a name to use on the listserv. This
will be kind of the first step in getting to know each other and
finding out where everyone is.

I'm literally installing Debian as we speak! It seems for some,
helping you source the parts may very well be the first step you need
to take. However, for others, like Tom, it seems you may have already
had some success. That's really what I'm ultimately after. By having
those working on it and those who have already blazed a trail in the
same place, we ultimately all cross the finish line and can help each
other troubleshoot the issues. I look forward to hearing from each of
you!

JTSM

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Jun 23, 2011, 10:25:45 AM6/23/11
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Yes, please add me as well. I have not yet build a POD, but I am
building an NPO where we have plans for a number of them.

I contacted Protcase and the cost has gone up to about $849, stock, no
customizations for the enclosure.

FYI, BackBlaze also put out a 2nd version of "Petabytes On A Budget"

http://blog.backblaze.com/2011/06/09/ignite-lean-startup-petabytes-on-a-budget-the-video/

-Jason
--
Jason T. Slack-Moehrle
The Digiology Group

On Jun 23, 6:42 am, icanflyindreams <marbs2...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Awesome! It's encouraging to know there are still others out there
> interested in the project. To answer some of your questions, we're a
> small company based out of Buffalo, NY currently conducting a test
> build of a Backblaze pod. We already have all the parts, some of which
> were very difficult to find the ones listed by Backblaze. We're doing
> a trial run with five drives, rather than take the risk with many
> drives all at once, and if we're successful, we'll fill up the pod.
>
> I'm creating a listserv that will enable us all to better communicate
> and more quickly. If you're comfortable with that idea, send me an e-
> mail at marbs2...@gmail.com and a name to use on the listserv. This

Steel City Phantom

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Jun 23, 2011, 10:40:42 AM6/23/11
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why create a listserv when there is a perfectly fine google group already created and already with subscribers?  listserv is a clunky POS compared to google groups.

icanflyindreams

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Jun 23, 2011, 10:52:55 AM6/23/11
to OpenStoragePod, Steel City Phantom
Well, this group has a number of members and I'm not sure they're all
interested. A listserv will allow the core group of people interested
to better communicate.

Honestly, I wasn't even sure this group was still active. The most
recent post before my own I believe was the first week of May. I
feared it had fallen to disuse and have been pleasently surprised to
see at least a few of the members are still active.

The final reason is this is a serious venture for myself and the
company I work for. This group started out with a focus and ended up
not really going anywhere. The listserv is a way to effectively
communicate with those who have that same focus and can provide a way
for all of us to cross the finish line together.

I hope that answers your question!

On Jun 23, 10:40 am, Steel City Phantom <scph...@gmail.com> wrote:
> why create a listserv when there is a perfectly fine google group already
> created and already with subscribers?  listserv is a clunky POS compared to
> google groups.
>
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 10:25 AM, JTSM <slackm...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Yes, please add me as well. I have not yet build a POD, but I am
> > building an NPO where we have plans for a number of them.
>
> > I contacted Protcase and the cost has gone up to about $849, stock, no
> > customizations for the enclosure.
>
> > FYI, BackBlaze also put out a 2nd version of "Petabytes On A Budget"
>
> >http://blog.backblaze.com/2011/06/09/ignite-lean-startup-petabytes-on...
> You want it fast, cheap, or right.  Pick two!!- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

John Wagner

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Jun 23, 2011, 12:20:13 PM6/23/11
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I would be interested as well.. I've been busy testing out other nas/san options to compare. The issue i ran into was getting a client to backup to the pod. i dont have a programming background so i wasn't able to create a program to install to systems that i wanted to backup to the pod.

Sent from my ASUS Eee Pad


Eduardo Casarero <ecas...@gmail.com> wrote:

I'm interested too :)

2011/6/23 irukard <iru...@gmail.com>
I'm interested too :)

Benjamin Lau

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Jun 23, 2011, 12:25:17 PM6/23/11
to opensto...@googlegroups.com, Steel City Phantom
Well... at least what your proposing is "on topic" so I don't think
most of the people here would mind. :-)

Are you aware the protocase also sells the sata port multipliers and
the anti vibration sleeves? Or at least they did when I build my
storage pod last summer. It'll save some trouble with getting what
you need.

What power supplies are you using? Are you planning to use the ones
that backblaze used for theirs?

Ben

Kiran Patil

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Jun 29, 2011, 3:30:12 AM6/29/11
to OpenStoragePod
Please use the current "OpenStoragePod" group for communication
instead of listserv.

On Jun 23, 6:42 pm, icanflyindreams <marbs2...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Awesome! It's encouraging to know there are still others out there
> interested in the project. To answer some of your questions, we're a
> small company based out of Buffalo, NY currently conducting a test
> build of a Backblaze pod. We already have all the parts, some of which
> were very difficult to find the ones listed by Backblaze. We're doing
> a trial run with five drives, rather than take the risk with many
> drives all at once, and if we're successful, we'll fill up the pod.
>
> I'm creating a listserv that will enable us all to better communicate
> and more quickly. If you're comfortable with that idea, send me an e-
> mail at marbs2...@gmail.com and a name to use on the listserv. This

Nickolas Youngworth

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Jun 29, 2011, 11:21:28 AM6/29/11
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All,

In the research i have done on this i found a new parts list. I really want to build a box but i don't have the capital. Also, they now make 5 port back plans the models here are using 4. If someone were to expand on the case that you give you several more drives.

Some of the parts could swapped out for cheaper depending on your need. Like the SSD isn't necessary but is a very nice to have.

Parts list


ItemQuantity PriceTotal Vendor
Nylon Backplane Standoffs100 $0.29$29.00 Fastener Superstore
On/Off Switch1 $24.95$24.95 Frozencpu
4U Enclosure 1$748 $748Protocase
HD Anti Vibration Sleeves45 $1.00$45.00 Protocase
Port Multiplier Backplanes 9$60.00 $540.00Protocase
Fan Mount (per 8)3 $5.75$17.25 Quietpcusa
Power Supply Vibration Dampener 2$6.95 $13.90Quietpcusa
Acetal Screws100 ~$0.03$3.23 Smallparts
2 TB Hard Drive45 $79.00$3,555.00 Newegg
Intel Core I5 760 1$169.99 $169.99Microcenter
2 Port PCIe SATA3 $37.99$113.97 Microcenter
4 Port PCIe SATA 1$149.99 $149.99Microcenter
ASUS P7P55D-E Motherboard1 $124.99$124.99 Microcenter
Casefan 6$15.99 $95.94Microcenter
4 GB RAM1 $54.99$54.99 Microcenter
2.5" to 3.5" adapter for bootdrive 1$12.95 $12.95Microcenter
Bootdrive Ocztech 60 GB1 $119.99$119.99 Microcenter
Graphics Card 1$15.00 $15.00Microcenter
SATA II Cable 36" 90 degrees9 $2.00$18.00 Performance-pcs
Custom-built 4-pin 90-degree Molex HD Connectors with two connectors each 36" 9$15.45 $139.05Performance-pcs
3-pin 12V fan connectors 12"9 $5.99$53.91 Performance-pcs
Daisy chain Two Power Supplies 1$9.95 $9.95Performance-pcs
Enermax MODU82+ 625 Watt 82+ Modular Power Supply2 $159.00 $318.00Performance-pcs
Fan grill3 1.49$4.47 Performance-pcs
Foam Rubber Pad1 $4.60$4.60 Houseoffoam
   Total $6,377.52
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