[luau] Upgrading servers

[R. Scott Belford]

Brian Chee wrote:
> Hi folks:
> I'm looking at someday soon building two new servers....
> 
> 1.    Apache server with other nice doodads, but needs RAID 1 for
> reliability.
> 2.    NFS/Samba server with lots of fast RAID 5 disks.
> 
> What RAID controllers are people using now, and is SATA something worth
> moving towards? All my previous servers have been LVD2 and cost a kings
> ransom or fiber channel and cost even more. I'm trying to create some ultra
> reliable servers (disk wise) that won't kill my entire budget.

Brian,

I have three raid controllers in my production stable at Price Busters. 
  The first string box uses Adaptec's 3410 64-bit card powering a raid-5 
scsi array.  The drives are not in SAFTE compatible housing, and so a 
failed drive requires a shutdown for repair.  Bios configuration is very 
solid and easy, and Adaptec's Storage Manager is a good X11 app. Price - 
very expensive

The second is an older, icp-vortex, 32-bit controller powering a raid-5 
scsi array.  These drives are in a SAFTE compatible housing and can be 
hot-swapped.  It is managed by bios as well as a tcp/ip based utility. 
*Great* controller, but pricy.

The third is a 3-ware, ide controller with a raid-1 array with 7200 rpm 
drives.  The drives are in very basic, $25 drive trays.  A drive 
recently failed, and I was able to disable it through 3ware's web 
interface, remove the bad drive, replace it, and rebuild it with no down 
time.  Price - *very* affordable.

When deliberating the scsi vs ide issue, I obviously compromised.  If I 
were you, especially after seeing Production Products like the XServe 
using ATA drives, I would use 3Ware's raid controller.  Price/performane 
ratio seems superior.  I would even use sata drives.

Why not raid 1 or raid 10 on both boxes?

> 
> I'm looking at going all Fedora...

With the greatest of respect to Warren, why not debian?

> 
> /brian chee

--scott