We're going to replace an older Solaris7/Netbackup/TapeRobot server with a new Centos box using backup-to-disk-to-tape (probably using Arkeia). The specs are up in the air, but generally: - CentOS/RHEL friendly (3Ware SATA? SCSI?) - 2U/3U/4U-ish form factor - hotswap RAID5 - dual PS, hotswap a plus - USB2.0 port(s) (*) To give you an idea of where I'm starting to look, take a gander at this page: http://www.serversdirect.com/system_dept.asp?dept_id=SD-043 Obviously we'd like to keep the price low, but realize that a major cost will be the 400GB drives. We may only start with 4 or 5 of them and add more as time goes (LVM), depends on how the costs break down. We've even looked at a Dell 2850 as an option, fyi. Anyone have some good ideas? My main concern is choosing a motherboard with a disk controller that's robust, tried and true with the current standard kernels (or maybe the unsupported branch, but I'd like to stick to the stock RPMs). thanks! -te (*) for those wondering, we like jacking in cheap external USB 1TB lacie drives, syncing data over to them using rdiff, and carrying offsite -- Troy Engel | Systems Engineer Fluid, Inc | http://www.fluid.com
On Thursday 12 January 2006 12:03 pm, Troy Engel wrote:> To give you an idea of where I'm starting to look, take a gander at > this page: > > http://www.serversdirect.com/system_dept.asp?dept_id=SD-043We've been very happy with 1U webservers from them; the SuperCom servers. Our 2U Terrabyte backup server is from them as well which recently had a problem with losing the ability to find drives by label; we ended up rebuilding the system because I don't know how to manage a problem I can't figure out. It's back in the data center and running like a champ. It's got a RAID controller in it, but we set each of the four 250G drives as it's own RAID array; we don't use RAID on our backup servers. In general I can see the systems have proven their value to us. Jeff -- Jeff Lasman, Nobaloney Internet Services 1254 So Waterman Ave., Suite 50, San Bernardino, CA 92408 Our blists address used on lists is for list email only Phone +1 909 266-9209, or see: "http://www.nobaloney.net/contactus.html"
On Thursday 12 January 2006 14:03, Troy Engel wrote:> To give you an idea of where I'm starting to look, take a gander at this > page: > > http://www.serversdirect.com/system_dept.asp?dept_id=SD-043 > > Obviously we'd like to keep the price low, but realize that a major cost > will be the 400GB drives. We may only start with 4 or 5 of them and add > more as time goes (LVM), depends on how the costs break down. We've even > looked at a Dell 2850 as an option, fyi.i just got one of these http://www.visionman.com/prodlandings/product.php?prod=NAS-4U20HS200 another option they have is http://www.visionman.com/prodlandings/product.php?prod=NAS-3U16HS100 the 3ware controllers are supported i ended up using a mixture of raid 5 raid 50 and raid 1 in my setup. i used the hardware raid so i get the hot swapability. the server has 3 power supplies im very happy with it so far Dennis
We bought 4 AIC computer systems some time ago, 1U P4 systems. They were HORRIBLE. CPU fans died quickly, the cases were so flimsy they had to be mounted front and back, HDD failures, the list goes on. And their tech support left EVERYTHING to be desired. I would NEVER, EVER buy from them again. I've now bought 4 systems from AVADirect and I've had no issues with them - they've worked well, quality products, great performance. I can't comment yet on their tech support since we haven't had any issues so far to call them on. http://www.avadirect.com/Server_Systems What we've bought are 1U Opteron SCSI servers with dual proc and 10k drives, and they've been a dream. They're supposed to be hot swap, but I used software RAID 1 to set them up. -Ben On Thursday 12 January 2006 12:03, Troy Engel wrote:> We're going to replace an older Solaris7/Netbackup/TapeRobot server with > a new Centos box using backup-to-disk-to-tape (probably using Arkeia). > The specs are up in the air, but generally: > > - CentOS/RHEL friendly (3Ware SATA? SCSI?) > - 2U/3U/4U-ish form factor > - hotswap RAID5 > - dual PS, hotswap a plus > - USB2.0 port(s) (*) > > To give you an idea of where I'm starting to look, take a gander at this > page: > > http://www.serversdirect.com/system_dept.asp?dept_id=SD-043 > > Obviously we'd like to keep the price low, but realize that a major cost > will be the 400GB drives. We may only start with 4 or 5 of them and add > more as time goes (LVM), depends on how the costs break down. We've even > looked at a Dell 2850 as an option, fyi. > > Anyone have some good ideas? My main concern is choosing a motherboard > with a disk controller that's robust, tried and true with the current > standard kernels (or maybe the unsupported branch, but I'd like to stick > to the stock RPMs). > > thanks! > -te > > (*) for those wondering, we like jacking in cheap external USB 1TB lacie > drives, syncing data over to them using rdiff, and carrying offsite > > -- > Troy Engel | Systems Engineer > Fluid, Inc | http://www.fluid.com > _______________________________________________ > CentOS mailing list > CentOS at centos.org > http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos >-- "The best way to predict the future is to invent it." - XEROX PARC slogan, circa 1978