Im looking to build a video hosting service from scratch. I have access to several traffic channels, so there will be immediate usage of such service. I wanted to see what sort of options there are out there for doing this.
The function of the site is simple.
User uploads a video in any video format. Video converted to mp4 and 3gpp formats, after which point its available to be streamed via a private (or public) url.
I estimate there to be several terabytes of data within the first 4 months, with over 3 gigabits of bandwidth usage.
Speed is key, I want videos to load quickly, but I also dont want to spend a fortune getting $20,000 servers.
Can you guys recommend a simple, solution that can be scaled from 1 to 100 servers.
EDIT 1:
What I originally thought about is this:
- 1 front end server for the DB and mysql (mysql then could be moved to its own server)
- 1 conversion server
- 1 media server
The problem that "scares" me, is a single server will have about 500-800GB of space (15k SAS drives in raid5). Once thats exceeded... adding new servers and just keeping the ID of the server in the master file list isn't a big deal.... but after some time this will be very inefficient... since once a server is filled up, and files get old, fewer people will be accessing them... so at that point it becomes an over-powered archive server, which is a waste. I want to avoid this problem.