Replacing Fileserver.

[Geoff]

Currently I have 2x Fujitsu RX220's (Dual Opteron, Raid 1 250Gb SATA) installed by my predecessor around 5 years ago as our main file servers. One runs all the pupils file shares the other runs the staff file shares.

I need to replace both of these, the pupil server it bottle necking at the I/O level and the staff server is simply full.

At a minimum I want to replace like for like but with upgraded hardware. 500Gb+ storage, SAS RAID, hotplug drives, rack mounted.

Ideally though I'd prefer to go the SAN route, but its looking a lot more expensive than the beefy file server option.

I have around £5,000 for this.

So any suggestions as to what I should do?

[j17sparky]

£5k! I wish i had even close to that to replace 3 servers!

Anyway Dell always seem to be one of the cheapest for servers and you cant really knock them for build quality and service.
Remember that some of the tower cases can be rack mountable. "True" rack cases seem to add a fair amount onto the cost so this could save you a packet.

[torledo]

Originally Posted by Geoff

Currently I have 2x Fujitsu RX220's (Dual Opteron, Raid 1 250Gb SATA) installed by my predecessor around 5 years ago as our main file servers. One runs all the pupils file shares the other runs the staff file shares.

I need to replace both of these, the pupil server it bottle necking at the I/O level and the staff server is simply full.

At a minimum I want to replace like for like but with upgraded hardware. 500Gb+ storage, SAS RAID, hotplug drives, rack mounted.

Ideally though I'd prefer to go the SAN route, but its looking a lot more expensive than the beefy file server option.

I have around £5,000 for this.

So any suggestions as to what I should do?

haven't checked the prices recently, but you can't go wrong with a Dell PE1950 or 2950....If you go with two of the less expensive 1950's you might have enough left over for a very cheap SAS or iSCSI external array. Although with a budget of £5000 it would be tight.

You could recreate you're current setup execept with x2 2950's with 4x 146gb SAS disks in a RAID 5 for user data on each, if you want to expand beyond 500gb go with SATA backplane option you'll get upwards of 750gb usable. If you don't need to price for backup software or scsi cards then you could come in under the 5k if you went with SATA.

[Netman]

How about...
HP 2012l SC Modular Smart Array c£2500
5 x HP MSA2 300Gb 15k SAS HDD c£2300
Openfiler on one of your old servers...
Just need to get a low latency switch between them et voila....

[dhicks]

Originally Posted by Geoff

At a minimum I want to replace like for like but with upgraded hardware. 500Gb+ storage, SAS RAID, hotplug drives, rack mounted.

The new WD VelociRaptor 300GB drive looked interesting - SATA interface, but runs at 10,000rpm, costs less than 300GB SAS drives, is (seemingly) rated as "enterprise ready" (although I still reckon the whole point of buying an expensive hardware RAID controller is so things like harddrive failures don't matter). Might hit the perfect price/performance/capacity trade-off. Has a strange form-factor (is actually a 2.5" drive sunk into a 3.5" heat-sink) so you might have difficulty finding a hotswap tray to fit it.

--
David Hicks

[DMcCoy]

Originally Posted by dhicks

The new WD VelociRaptor 300GB drive looked interesting - SATA interface, but runs at 10,000rpm, costs less than 300GB SAS drives, is (seemingly) rated as "enterprise ready" (although I still reckon the whole point of buying an expensive hardware RAID controller is so things like harddrive failures don't matter). Might hit the perfect price/performance/capacity trade-off. Has a strange form-factor (is actually a 2.5" drive sunk into a 3.5" heat-sink) so you might have difficulty finding a hotswap tray to fit it.

--
David Hicks

I've stopped believing anything WD say when they add "Enterprise" to a product.

Currently running at a 75% failure rate of their 400GB raid edition drives in less than 3 years (I've had 3 of 4 die in 6 months). Other people have had the same problems.

Moved to Seagate again.

[torledo]

Originally Posted by Netman

How about...
HP 2012l SC Modular Smart Array c£2500
5 x HP MSA2 300Gb 15k SAS HDD c£2300
Openfiler on one of your old servers...
Just need to get a low latency switch between them et voila....

nearly 5k for a very basic smb iscsi array with just 5 sas disks

That is absolutely terrible value for money, i take it that's list price in which case for education should be able to negotiate a good discount. But if you can't get that lot for less than 3.5k he'd be better off looking at alternative products to get more bang for buck.

[Geoff]

A little digging about yields:

HP StorageWorks Modular Smart Array 1000 Small Business SAN G2 Kit AG525A - PC World Business Online Store UK - Buy The Best Deals Online.

Thanks for all the suggestions, keep them coming.

[bossman]

@Geoff:

looks really solid and a fantastic price but what is the catch me thinks?

[bossman]

@Geoff:

could it be the cost of accessories: Sa5300/msa1000/sa Cluster Storage 256mb Controller Upgrade Module 254786-B21 - PC World Business Online Store UK - Buy The Best Deals Online.

It's the little things that seem to cost the most.

[greenfieldsupport]

Geoff, our latest server we built cost ~£800 (without software)
It includes a £300 fully hardware HP broadcom network card, a hardware RAID5 card (without battery) 4 x 500GB SATA 300 7200 drives.

1.5TB storage, with I/O close to that of our dell poweredge with its 4 x 146gb scsi drives...
The dell cost £4500, about 3 years ago.

Im not suggesting you go for this, as this is our "option" on the budget we have, but im pointing out that we went for a specialized machine, which we built ourselves.

with a budget of even just 3 x this, you could go for a 2u / 4u multi processor machine (instead of multi core) with redundant PSU's, more RAM (ours has only 2gb, as its only a fileserver), 15k drives etc etc..

I would recommend you get just one machine at around £3k, that way you should have a spare W2k3 license + CAL'S, maybe to use as a virtual machine somewhere? and £2k in the bank

[greenfieldsupport]

Or if your happy with samba servers and not bothering with windows...

get 5 x what we got

one for each year group, Im sure that'll solve your bottleneck of a problem,

also you wouldnt go wrong with 7.5TB of storage

[torledo]

Originally Posted by bossman

@Geoff:

could it be the cost of accessories: Sa5300/msa1000/sa Cluster Storage 256mb Controller Upgrade Module 254786-B21 - PC World Business Online Store UK - Buy The Best Deals Online.

It's the little things that seem to cost the most.

makes you wonder doesn't it ?
that cost from the pcwb website is without disks, and as you've mentioned other upgrades will cost extra. You'd probably need an additional I/O module for FC multipathing. And a redundant controller if available.

The catch with the MSA1000 is that it's a little long in the tooth compared to other FC arrays, the entry level products from the likes of HDS, IBM and EMC get renewed every 3-4 years with brand new models....the MSA1000 advertised is atleast 4 years old, as indicated by the presence of 2gbps fiber ports, has been been kept refreshed mainly thru firmware updates.


IT's still a solid entry level array, can be configured through a CLI and is dirt cheap.

That bundle is great value...the hba's and the switch alone are probably worth the total price.