[mdlug] New Server - Hardware Configuration

[Robert Adkins II]

The plan is to copy all of the data to the hot swap drives and... 

Swap them out every day, every few days.

There would essentially be upwards of 6 full copies, two of which would be
100% current and 1 that might be 1 to 2 days behind, of everything on the
server.

They aren't pushing the design, I called them and explained what I was
looking to do.

I haven't really dug into SAN technology and I am wary of tying data into
something that could leave me with an unproduceable (or very difficult to
reproduce) system in the event of a motherboard hardware failure.

-Rob
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mdlug-bounces at mdlug.org 
> [mailto:mdlug-bounces at mdlug.org] On Behalf Of Michael ORourke
> Sent: Sunday, April 22, 2012 11:02 PM
> To: MDLUG's Main discussion list
> Subject: Re: [mdlug] New Server - Hardware Configuration
> 
> What about a small SAN device?  Also, you could attach an 
> iSCSI SAN to a front-end Linux server.  Another thing you 
> didn't mention was backups. 
> Having multiple RAID sets is NOT a backup strategy.  This is 
> a common mistake many people make.
> If it were me, I would try to seperate the storage from the 
> server.  Perhaps with a RAID6 configuration and a hot spare.  
> That way you could lose up to 3 drives and still be fully 
> operational.  There are several low cost SAN vendors out 
> there which are certainly worth a look.  I don't quite 
> understand why they are pushing a server with 3 RAID cards.  
> Sounds like this might become an expensive and difficult to 
> support file server.
> 
> -Mike
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Robert Adkins II" <radkins at impelind.com>
> To: "'MDLUG's Main discussion list'" <mdlug at mdlug.org>
> Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2012 8:34 AM
> Subject: [mdlug] New Server - Hardware Configuration
> 
> 
> > It's time to upgrade the old servers here at the office.
> >
> > Here's the plan:
> >
> > Matched pair of HDs for the Main OS Drive. These will be mirrored.
> >
> > Matched Pair or two matched pairs of drives for 
> Filesharing. These will be
> > mirrored.
> >
> > Separate RAID Card that supports Hot Swap on Linux to allow 
> for two to 
> > three
> > removable drive bays that will be used to duplicate the 
> entirety of the
> > mirrored data drives.
> >
> > I have a quote from Dell for a server that uses their Linux 
> Compatible 
> > RAID
> > cards. Right now, they are quoting three RAID Cards. The 
> onboad card that
> > the OS will be booting off of, a second card that will be 
> for the data
> > drives and a final card that won't be setup as RAID, which 
> means that it
> > won't/shouldn't crap out the kernel while supporting hot swapping.
> >
> > Thoughts? Opinions?
> >
> > Thanks.
> >
> >
> > -- 
> >
> > Regards,
> > Robert Adkins II
> >
> >
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