[mdlug] New Server - Hardware Configuration

[Aaron Kulkis]

Michael ORourke wrote:
> 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.

Mirroring over SAN????

No... just no.

Way too slow.

> 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.
> 

A SAN is nothing more than a file server.

Now you're converting this into a file server with external storage
in another file server.  By this logic, we should implement the
SAN with a small box and ITS hard drives in a 3rd box...which are
actually located in a 4th box... ad infinitum or until the budget
runs out.

So... maybe the best thing to do is just keep the disk drives
in the same box, and keep things as simple as possible.

All the SAN does is in this case is introduce additional points
of failure without any increase in system reliability or data
availability.

> -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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> 
> 
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