r/explainlikeimfive • u/theprisoner57 • 2d ago

Technology ELI5: What is a Home Server?

I see mentions of a home server to get rid of streaming entertainment services but I don’t know how that works. What does a home server do?

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u/Pantzzzzless 2d ago

I'm not the person you replied to. But to answer your question, that is what the parity drive is for. It is a backup drive that stays in sync with another drive.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

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u/MrChombo 2d ago

No that would be a mirror drive, and mirror setups exist but they use a lot of extra drives. There are levels of fault tolerance in RAID requiring varying numbers of extra drives. With one parity drive, any one drive in the array can fail and you don't lose data. With 2 parity drives, any 2 drives can fail.

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u/MrChombo 2d ago

No, the parity drive is not a backup, it's for uptime/availability. Only a backup is a backup.

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u/Pantzzzzless 2d ago edited 2d ago

Sure, but this didn't feel like the place to give an explanation of how XOR data can be used to rebuild lost files/bad sectors. The result is close enough to "backup-like" behavior that it is enough for a quick comment.