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super server questions

H

hungrygoose

Senior member
ok....here's my situation.....i have a customer that is basically wanting to over-spend on a server that is way more than he needs for his business, but i can't seem to convince him otherwise.....he will be using this server in a 12-15 workstation environment with pc's and mac's.....wants to be able to work on a file on the server without having to load onto workstation withough experiencing lag from workstation or server......here's the breakdown

wants mirror raid and possible striping as well, so probably looking for a raid 10 setup

wants 500gb of storage or more (scsi or ide better for situation???)

wants plenty of power as far as cpu and ram (dually)

video and sound are irrelevant

looking for some advice on mobo, hard drives, and raid controllers.....also.....any other advice would be appreciated......thnx guys for all your advice
 
Shock him with the price of a tape drive that can back up 500Gb of data, that should wake him up. 🙂

How is he planning to work on a file on the server without it coming to the workstation, Terminal Services or something? Sounds like a strong case for gigabit ethernet, to start with.
 
yea.....that was my though as well on the ethernet......the mirror raid should eliminate the need for tape backup so.....unless i'm confused or just plain wrong...thnx for the post
 
Well, but if the building burns down, or some other catastrophe nukes the whole computer, having a tape stored off-premesis is going to save his bacon. :Q Something to think about, anyway.

A 24-port unmanaged gigabit switch is in the $1500 neighborhood over at mwave.com (Netgear) and I think they have some smaller ones for you too. You can get a dual-port Intel gigabit server NIC through Intel's evaluation program here and team the two ports for an effective 2Gbit connection between the server and the switch.

500Gb of storage divided by fifteen people is 33Gb per person. Do they seriously need that kind of storage? As for the rest, a dual-AthlonMP, dual-Xeon or dual-Opteron (come Monday) would be pretty powerful, check out Supermicro.com, Tyan.com or Appro.com for some ideas there.
 
the mirror raid should eliminate the need for tape backup so
Click to expand...
Good theory until something happens that corrupts your data - virus, controller flakes out, etc.

I'd do RAID-5 with a 64MB controller w/battery and backup to an SDLT or LTO tape drive.


 
hmmmm......interesting thoughts......when it comes to gigabit networking technology, i am a complete noob.....does networking pretty much work the same with one of these routers or is something different in the setup process?......thnx for the comments
 
gigabit works the same as 10/100 ethernet, except its peak throughput capabilities are 1000, PEAK being the key just as it is with everything else.

All other equipment works just like everyother networking equipment, except it is for 10/100/1000 and costs more
 
Just buy something from HPaq, Dell, IBM, etc.

If your client wants to overspend, you'll always find something expensive enough at those places, and you'll have kickass service to back it up, should something go wrong.
The second you get above basement company crap there's no reason to get your stuff from anything but a top tier OEM.
 
Go with this setup from HPaQ. MP capable (4) Can configure with RAID. I'd also go with an external AIT or SDLT tape backup. Good solid server with great chipset (Server Works Grand Champion) and excellent tech support. Gigabit shouldn't be a problem either.
 
wants to be able to work on a file on the server without having to load onto workstation withough experiencing lag from workstation or server
Click to expand...
are you saying he needs a terminal server/metaframe solution or he just needs to store files on the server and have it be fast?

Terminal services/citrix metaframe licence costs should correct his "lets overspend" outlook
 
hehe.......we're definitely "just saying no" to the terminal services......he just wants it to be fast.....thnx for all the help guys.....i really appreciate it.....any more ideas are of course welcome
 
Originally posted by: hungrygoose
yea.....that was my though as well on the ethernet......the mirror raid should eliminate the need for tape backup so.....unless i'm confused or just plain wrong...thnx for the post
Click to expand...

Whoa!

Bad idea, BAD! Raid is NOT a substitute for backups. Never sell a server without a backup solution.

If he's wanting just really fast file-serving do this:
15k rpm scsi drives in a raid 5. Id recommend using an array made from 32gig scsi drives but with him wanting half a terabyte of space you're probably going to have to go with 72 gig drives.

A single processor that's at least 733Mhz is going to be plenty (Overkill actually).

Get a GOOD raid controller - I would definately dump my money into the controller before I'd try going to a dual processor. You'll get way more performance for much less money that way.

512megs of ECC memory should be plenty as well.

Convince your customer that since he wants a file server and not an apps/citrix server that he should pour his money into:
Drives
Raid Controller
Tape backup (Ultrium, LTO, SDLT)

He should NOT put money into:
Processor
Memory (us 512, no more, no less)
Gigabit/Fibre (unless he doubles the no. of users)

As far as your network goes.. Full Duplex 100mbit will be plenty fast. If you still have money leftover you can go gigabit but it's not 100% necessary.
 


Ah...
One other thing. Since you're doing just file/print you should checkout some of the NAS solutions from HP & Dell. You'll save yourself the cost of buying CALS for your network operating system.

I picked up a Powervault NAS from dell a couple years ago with about a half terabyte of space for about 10 grand. I've been quite happy with it.
 
thnx for the info on gigabit networking guys....this may be the solution i am looking for.....now, the question is, where to buy from????
 
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