Servers and RAID..

[chkm8]

Alright, need some help here.

What are your thoughts on rackmount vs standalone servers? If I'm not running a datacenter, and only really need 2 servers.. What are the advantages to paying the higher cost of a rackmount system (besides saving space, and looking sharp)?

Secondly.. Does anyone know if a RAID array can be shared? Ie. Either by using an external RAID solution, and attaching both servers' SCSI cable to it.. or do I need 2 RAID controllers, each in the server? OR.. RAID arrays can't be shared between servers?

 

[DarkManX]

no reason to get rackmount unless you got the money and need to save space, I dont think 2 computers can share 1 RAID setup, unless you get a raid setup that plugs into the network without a computer, I have seen those for sale in tiger direct magazine, if ur interested I can look it up for you. but im sure that 2 computers cant share there harddrives. that woudnt make sence if they both tried to write to the same sector/block.

 

[lessthanjoey]

yes 2 servers can share 1 raid set

they however, will do the same thing, and do load balancing and redundancy...its called a cluster under nt or win2k
compaq actually produce a server which is actually two completely seperate servers using a common disk space....

 

[Homerboy]

the primary advantage of rackmounts over "normal" servers is space. In most CoLo invironments you pay $x/rack/month, obviously your ging to want to squeeze in as much as you can into your rented vetival space.... with rack mounts you can obviously get a whol ot more than with a tradional "case" server. Also th uniformity etc if you have 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 etc servers can make maintance etc a whole lot easier...