Need advice on RAID-capable server build.

[Yves]

Howdy,

I need to build a pair of machines for file-serving and backup storage
for 25 or so users - low intensity use. I'd probably want to setup the
second machine as a mirror of the first.

Originally I was thinking of simply getting a pair of Dell 750s with
RAID-1 but the price really racks up when you add components on Dell's
site. Here's what I need ...

- A Gig of RAM
- RAID controller (on board or seperate)
- CPU doesn't matter that much (2 Gighz, doesn't
need to be firebreathing monster) - AMD or Intel
is fine by me.
- Rackmount or Tower (prefer rackmount)
- ATA, SATA or SCSI - I'm open for suggestions
- DVD ROM drive
- No need to factor in the drives for now, whatever
solution comes out the most cost effective.

Need recommendations for:

- motherboards (on board RAID is fine)
- PSUs, Cases, NICs, etc ...

I'd love to have something that's under 1000$ CDN (without drives).

Thank ye all.

- Me.

yves<at>cheznousse<dot>com

 

[Dorothy Bradbury]

Investigate 3ware RAID controllers with SATA drives:
o 4-port card
o SATA Barrcuda 7200rpm drives

Yes, SATA WD Raptor 10,000rpm drives are faster, but if you use
say 4 drives in RAID-10 you get the benefit of striping (& mirror).

3ware offers auto-rebuild, true enterprise level RAID solution.

SCSI will cost you a lot more - but has some benefits:
o SCSI has higher IOPS that SATA
---- IOPS = Multi-User I/O Per Second
o SATA has higher SDTR than SCSI
---- Sustained Data Transfer Rate, more single-user environment

So it comes down to the application.
o If it is 25 users hammering away full-tilt at a dbase application
---- SCSI will have some benefit re higher IOPS
---- RAM will be as or more important - re cache & dbase keys (2GB+)
o If it is 25 users doing routine office tasks
---- SATA will have a benefit re cost
---- RAM should still not be underestimated - re cache

So comes down to usage & data-set.

The cost is in removable hot-swap drive bays, they cost
If self-building, factor in support, O/S & other costs.

 

[Yves]

Howdy,

(e-mail address removed) sayeth ...

Investigate 3ware RAID controllers with SATA drives:
o 4-port card
o SATA Barrcuda 7200rpm drives

Yes, SATA WD Raptor 10,000rpm drives are faster, but if you use
say 4 drives in RAID-10 you get the benefit of striping (& mirror).

3ware offers auto-rebuild, true enterprise level RAID solution.

<snipped some very good information>

Doroty, thanks for taking the time to answer my query!

What you are talking about is quite alot of overkill - it's not an SQL
server or anything of the sort with high transaction loads. It's
basically a small shared file server that will be mainly used to backup
user profiles daily from personnal workstations so the actual load on
the machines will be very low for a small office setting. There will be
space used for shared files between everyone involved but other than
that, if there's a gig a day of transfers I'll be very surprised.

That's why I'm not gunning for top notch performance - it's not needed.
Most SATA Mobos these days have on-board RAID0/RAID1 capability so
I was thinking of using such a mobo to build a pair of machines with
RAID1, each with a pair of 120Gig SATA drives namely for redundancy.

Since I don't need a top-of-the-line processor, I was thinking about
this combination:

Abit NF7-S2G mobo (about 90$ CDN)
AMD 2400 XP+ (about 90$ CDN)
a Gig of RAM (180$ CDN)
Generic Case without PSU (40$ CDN)
ANTEC 400W PSU (75$ CDN)
LG CDROM (20$ CDN)
WD 120GIG SATAx2 (240$ CDN)

Total = 745$ CDN

I would assemble two such machines and mirror the data off the other to
keep on hot-standby just in case the other croaks.

What's wrong with this idea?

-- Yves

 

[Conor]

What you are talking about is quite alot of overkill - it's not an SQL
server or anything of the sort with high transaction loads.
Since I don't need a top-of-the-line processor, I was thinking about
this combination:

Abit NF7-S2G mobo (about 90$ CDN)
AMD 2400 XP+ (about 90$ CDN)
a Gig of RAM (180$ CDN)
Generic Case without PSU (40$ CDN)
ANTEC 400W PSU (75$ CDN)
LG CDROM (20$ CDN)
WD 120GIG SATAx2 (240$ CDN)

ROFLMAO. I love the.."What you are talking about is quite alot of
overkill" bit. You then go on to list a shitload of stuff you don;t
need like a Gig of RAM.

Youi can do what you want with a P3 machine. E-Bay has loads of old
dual P3 Compaq servers on for very little money usually with hot swap
SCSI too.

 

[Yves]

Abit NF7-S2G mobo (about 90$ CDN)
ROFLMAO. I love the.."What you are talking about is quite alot of
overkill" bit. You then go on to list a shitload of stuff you don;t
need like a Gig of RAM.

Okay - so 512Ms should suffice then (?) - no need to be rude about it.
Of course, keyboard bravery seems to be the word of the day here on
usenet.

Youi can do what you want with a P3 machine. E-Bay has loads of old
dual P3 Compaq servers on for very little money usually with hot swap
SCSI too.

I was hoping to go with new equipment but thanks for the idea.

- Yves

 

[Yeechang Lee]

ROFLMAO. I love the.."What you are talking about is quite alot of
overkill" bit. You then go on to list a shitload of stuff you don;t
need like a Gig of RAM.

Youi can do what you want with a P3 machine. E-Bay has loads of old
dual P3 Compaq servers on for very little money usually with hot swap
SCSI too.

I'm planning to do something very similar to the original poster (see
<URL:http://groups.google.ca/[email protected]>)
and certainly wasn't planning on buying 1GB. That said, Would a P3
really be sufficient for

 

[Yeechang Lee]

Youi can do what you want with a P3 machine. E-Bay has loads of old
dual P3 Compaq servers on for very little money usually with hot
swap SCSI too.

I'm planning to do something similar to the original poster (see
<URL:http://groups.google.ca/[email protected]>)
and certainly wasn't planning on buying 1GB of memory. That said,
would a dual P3 really be sufficient for software RAID with eight
drives?

 

[Dorothy Bradbury]

I'm planning to do something very similar to the original poster (see

<URL:http://groups.google.ca/[email protected]>)
and certainly wasn't planning on buying 1GB. That said, Would a P3
really be sufficient for

Haven't checked the link, but yes, a P3 would be fine:
o P4s are very clock-inefficient remember
---- P-M is based on the P3 architecture (improved)
o P3 have 512KB cache, short-pipeline, fsb133 bus
---- so PC133 memory will cost a bit
---- however 256MB would probably be fine (depends on O/S & use)
o P4 have a much deeper pipeline, so need far more cache
---- you need 1.5-1.8x the P3 clockspeed for an equivalent P4
---- not quite the case re memory-bandwidh, but for general use

The P3 platform is under-rated - and low wattage too.

 

[Dorothy Bradbury]

It's basically a small shared file server that will be mainly used to backup

user profiles daily from personnal workstations so the actual load on
the machines will be very low for a small office setting. There will be
space used for shared files between everyone involved but other than
that, if there's a gig a day of transfers I'll be very surprised.

So it is a simple file server:
o 256MB, light processor (P4-Celeron or P3/Tualatin, AMD Sempron)

I don't like RAID-1 on motherboards:
o It can use proprietary format (re loss of board)
o It is not auto-recovery (requiring manual, error-vulnerable recovery)

All RAID-1/0 on motherboards does is just have a Boot BIOS.

So I would consider, depending on O/S chosen...
o Windows s/w RAID
o Linux s/w RAID

As commented, you don't need 1GB of RAM - frankly 256MB will do,
384MB would be a good compromise. Sparkle/FSP-Group/Forton PSU,
Antec just rebadge someone else's PSU - a branding relabelling job.

I would go for Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm drives over WD, however
that is down to preference/experience - Barracuda are well proven.