[mdlug] Time to build a new server

[Robert Adkins II]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mdlug-bounces at mdlug.org 
> [mailto:mdlug-bounces at mdlug.org] On Behalf Of Mark Thuemmel
> Sent: Friday, August 12, 2011 9:47 PM
> To: MDLUG's Main discussion list
> Subject: Re: [mdlug] Time to build a new server
> 
> 
> You might want to detail a few more goals;
> 
> Is "here" at your business, or personal home use?
> 

	Business Server.

	Total of 30 users simultaneously hitting multiple sized files and
low-end crap applications that run their own database and can share access
to the file over a network on a shared disk.

	I have been running such a setup for almost 12 years now, using
desktop hardware. The initial "server", which replaced a more powerful, in
absolute hardware terms, Windows NT 4.0 server, provided file access
considerably faster. That was almost 12 years ago.

	That server is long since dead.

	I attempt to replace the "server" hardware every 3 or so years, to
avoid suffering catastrophic hardware failures that bring the whole network
down, direct me to focus singly on build a new server while being pestered
every 5 minutes about whether or not it is done yet. On those days, if I had
a taser with enough juice to hit 65 people, it would be drained within
minutes.

> what is a "actual server" exactly?  Listed for sale in the "server" 
> section of Dell or HP?  Like built to run 24x7, "server class"?
> 

	Nothing over the top.

> why do you need hotplug drives?  is your uptime requirement 
> so much that you can't power down and remove a few screws?
> 

	I want my weekends.

	I would rather leave the server up and running, have it scripted to
duplicate the important data over night and then when I am in the next day,
unmount a disk, take it out and put a different disk in. Then take a disk
home every day and back every day.

> How are you plugging the drives in, and what kind are they?  
> You need super fast 15000 rpm scsi drives, or going cheap 
> with 5400 rpm drives?
> 

	7200 to 10000rpm drives will be perfectly fine.

> Are you thinking ESATA or USB3 or what?
> 

	I am thinking SATA.

> What is the capacity you need total?  Is this one or two 
> terabytes, or enough to store your whole porn collection in HD?
> 
	
	1 TB will be plenty of storage capacity.

> Is this rack mounted?
> 

	There's not really room for a rack mount setup in the closet. 

> How are you planning to backup?

	Copying to a drive every night and swapping the drive out in the
morning.

> 
> How often are you going to change the configuration of the drives?
> 

	Every few days for the back-up drives, almost never for the data
serving drives.

> Overall, consider getting a used "server" box with lots of 
> drive bays that had Linux support from the manufacturer when 
> they were originally sold.  IBM, HP, Dell have made lots of 
> boxes that came with Linux a couple of years ago that can be 
> found cheap and have lots of connectors for hard drives.
> 

	I would rather not go with used, old hardware. Granted, special
built server hardware is significantly better than tasking desktop
mainboards to act as a server.

> Me, being the dangerous type, might look at a good Linux 
> compatable esata card with the raid and number of drives I 
> wanted, and a usb 3.0 card  for backup external drives.  Then 
> build my own box with a 8 or 16 HD enclosure 4U case for SATA 
> drives.  I'd buy a nice NIC or two and any old 
> motherboard/cpu.  Probably jack the memory up to 8 gig just becuse. 
>   I don't need dual power supplies, but a nice UPS is required.

	It really doesn't need all that much memory, I have been running the
servers on about 1GB of RAM since the beginning here and I never see the
systems straining for memory resources.

	My goal is to get more potential out of the server in a way that
lets me stay home more often. I would like to have more free time on the
weekends instead of being forced to come in at 3pm on a Saturday or 3pm on a
Sunday, because that just happpens to be the time that nobody is using the
server.

	Regards,
	Rob