RE: Storage subsystem for HA server

["Paul Gale" <groups2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

You know my recommendation - 3Ware 9590SE - but they are quite
expensive. E=
xcellent card and features though.

Paul.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx [mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx] On Behalf
> Of Paul Gordon
> Sent: 01 February 2007 13:20
> To: UKHA_D Group
> Subject: [ukha_d] Storage subsystem for HA server
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> Chaps,
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> I've started assembling the hardware to rebuild my main server. This
is
> my HA server (Homeseer), File server, Webserver, Geovision server,
> Domain Controller, Exchange 2003 server, and a few other little bits
> besides (so it does quite a bit!) I've already got the Mobo, CPU, RAM,
> & new Geovision card ready to go, my thoughts are now turning to
the
> storage subsystem...
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> The current server has 2 x 250GB drives in a stripe set, (500GB
> capacity, no redundancy), and a single 80GB disk for the OS etc. (also
> no redundancy). All these disks are standard PATA IDE disks, off the
> mobo's IDE channels. (This server runs all those apps just fine by the
> way, but for several reasons, I need to upgrade it regardless...)
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> This time round, I definitely want redundancy in the storage. I don't
> particularly need to increase the capacity; around about the 0.5TB
> level is sufficient for this server - I haven't filled the 580GB that
I
> have currently. I also want to build a server that is as power
> efficient as possible, which implies not bunging in loads of disk
> drives, so I'd rather use fewer larger drives, in preference to more
> smaller ones. This is at odds with my first thought which was to have
a
> pair of 80GB drives as a RAID1 (mirror) set for the OS, and then a
> separate RAID5 set for the data volume.. - this demands 5 drives which
> increases the power requirements quite a bit... and since an 80GB
drive
> uses the same amount of power to run as does a 400GB drive, this seems
> quite wasteful from an electrical efficiency viewpoint.. (I definitely
> want redundancy for the OS as well as the data, so sticking with a
> single disk for the OS is not desirable).
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> So my next thought is just 3 larger drives, possibly 3 x 320GB or 3 x
> 400GB in a single RAID5 set, yielding either 640GB or 800GB useable
> space respectively), and to put everything on that, just using the
> standard Windows partitioning to create the separate volumes on the
> array. This gives a slight increase in capacity, no increase in the
> physical number of drives, and provides redundancy for everything.
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> I want the drives to be SATAII-300 to maximise performance, and
> possibly utilise the hot-plug facilities in future. I intend to use
> "Raid Edition" drives, probably the Western Digital RE
range. And
> although I'll probably configure 3 drives initially, I may add a 4th
> later as a standby/hot spare, or indeed, for capacity expansion should
> the need arise.
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> The choice I'm mulling at the moment is the controller... firstly,
Mobo
> integrated, or dedicated card? - Mobo doesn't support RAID5, so I
would
> have to use Windows software RAID.. - not overly keen on this
option...
> So that points to a dedicated RAID controller card, -  but which one?
I
> need at least 4 ports, and I'm quite constrained on PCI slots, but I
> have 1 each of PCI-e x1, x4 and x16 slots, not currently intended for
> use by anything else, so I'm looking for a PCI-express 4-port jobbie.
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> A cheap option is something like the Highpoint RocketRaid 2310 at
> around =A3100. However, I'm also quite tempted by the ARECA 1210,
which
> is almost exactly double that, at around =A3220... Both are 4-port
PCI-
> Express cards, both would probably do the necessary... The dearer
> option is clearly a better featured card, but I've never heard of this
> manufacturer before, which is always a bit of a concern...
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> Does anyone have experience of either of these particular cards, or of
> other cards from ARECA? - I already have a highpoint RocketRaid card
in
> another server (an RR1820 PCI, 8-port), which has been just fine for
> the last year or so, although to be honest, I haven't yet tested the
> abilities of it's array expansion feature (although that is looming
> quite soon), and fortunately, I've also never needed to test its
> redundancy abilities to deal with a failed drive... Alternatively,
> anyone got any other candidates I should look at?
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> http://www.areca.com.tw/products/pcie.htm
> http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA/rr2310.htm
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> Discuss....
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> Cheers
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> Paul G.
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> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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