Podcast #125: 45Drives and the Creation of the HL15 Homelab Storage Server

45Drives has been a cloud-scale staple for some time, delivering some of the first purpose-built storage servers for service providers. Over time the company has added many more servers, most recently an exciting 15-bay rig designed specifically for the homelab enthusiast.

Doug Milburn joins the podcast to discuss the origins of 45Drives and the considerations that went into the HL15. Doug also discusses some of the roadmap for the homelab line, which should get enthusiasts bubbling in the event the HL15 isn’t your cup of tea.

Doug describes himself as a “geek by birth.” He likes everything electronic, computer, mechanical, whatever, studying physics for a couple of degrees, a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, and picking up everything else along the way.

We are just starting our test and review of the HL15, to get up to speed on our progress check out our unboxing and setup video here.

The podcast was done live on Discord – join Discord to keep up to date with all the latest from the SR Lab!

We are transcribing the podcast here, so you can skip to sections that might be more interesting to our listeners. However, if you have time, catch the podcast in its entirety. You won’t be disappointed. The YT video in embedded below for those who prefer the visuals.

00:00 Introduction

Personal background
Life in Nova Scotia
Education background
Building metal things
Challenges doing research
Building enclosures

05:00 Integrating everything

Materials, research, building, manufacturing equipment, etc
Created 3D CAD software – Protocase Designer
Backblaze cold storage
Met with Netflix to build computers
Drives operating in parallel
- incredible data transfer rates
- Multiplexing slows things down
- Tripping over drivers

10:00 Get up to speed on the HL15

Check out our YouTube Video
Brian talks about building the server
- Jordan and Kevin get top billing
- Kevin and Jordan try to explain the reasoning
- Brian closes his eyes and pretends not to listen
Storage demands were not as significant as today
- Data sets were smaller 15 years ago
- AI is driving these massive data sets
What’s different for 45Drives today
- Focus
- Customers drive 45Drives business direction

15:00 Working with government agencies

Federal government creates lots of data
- everything from law enforcement to scientific agencies to military
University research
- Univ of California San Diego
  - Wildfire project
  - Utilizing video cameras for fire observation
  - Using AI creating massive data sets
  - Lots of videos to process
Municipalities
- Video Everywhere
- Forensic data
- Body cams
- Car dash cams
Creating the Server Zoo
- Data is here, there, everywhere
Adopting clusters
What’s interesting to 45Drives

20:00 Cold storage

Enterprises like the reliability that comes from 45Drives
Moving to flash
- Flash 32 drive unit
- SATA and SAS
- First tri-mode unit
- Building a machine
  - Hot-swap drives
  - 16 million IOPs
  - 32 Gb/s
- Lab guys love the HL15
- Impressive build

25:00 Delivering a clean build to customers

Machines cut the die, but people inspect and clean up
Why 45Drives build safe and solid chassis
Sharing anecdotes

30:00 Building affordable home lab equipment

Affordability range
Get it down to $2K
Business is brisk
Sold in excess of 250 units
Discord question: Why build a white server instead of the traditional black?
Came from feedback from many resources
Discord question: does adding color and graphics add to the cost?

35:00 Built in North America

45Drives is a believer in fair wages
Employees are in with variable pay
Build with quality
Let customers add to it easily
Cost-effective customization
- Add whatever drives you want
- Use the software you need

40:00 People have their own idea of what they want

45Drives fills 45 percent full builds
55 percent are built with other options

45:00 You can’t please all the people all the time

People should buy what they can afford
Just getting started, buy from eBay
Get a used server like a PowerEdge
build it so you can use it
the HL15 is a premium server
Is there a thin client on the way?

50:00 Looking at the hardware build design

Keeping the price point
Top loading caddy
relieving repetitive stress injury
Do you really need 240 screws?
Reducing vibration on hard drives
Flash vs HDD
- The right tool for the job
- Cost per terabyte

55:00 Question from Discord audience

How do 45Drives characterize support and warrant for the HL15
- Low defect rate
- Ship it back, or they send the part via FedEx on 45Drive’s nickel

60:00. Things you should and shouldn’t try

Don’t try what we did in the lab
Want another podcast with 45Drives?

63:00 Wrapup

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5 months ago

Harold Fritts

I have been in the tech industry since IBM created Selectric. My background, though, is writing. So I decided to get out of the pre-sales biz and return to my roots, doing a bit of writing but still being involved in technology.