<html><head><style type='text/css'>body { font-family: 'Arial'; font-size: 12pt; color: #000000}</style></head><body><br><br><br>----- Original Message -----<br>From: "boisvert guy" <boisvert.guy@videotron.ca><br>To: "CentOS mailing list" <centos@centos.org><br>Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 1:01:32 PM (GMT+1000) Australia/Brisbane<br>Subject: Re : Re: [CentOS] Need advice on storage<br><br><br><br>----- Message d'origine -----<br>De: "redhat@mckerrs.net" <redhat@mckerrs.net><br>Date: Lundi, Novembre 12, 2007 9:25 pm<br>Objet: Re: [CentOS] Need advice on storage<br>À: CentOS mailing list <centos@centos.org><br>> Guy, <br>> <br>> I don't think raptor hard drives are necessarily value for money <br>> and in your case, I believe that you'd be *much* better served <br>> with some sort of redundancy and not just plain old striping. <br>> <br>> I'd recommend that you stick with software raid and do something <br>> like this; <br>> <br>> <br>> 1 x silicon image PCI 4 port sata controller *not hardware raid* <br>> ($25 from ebay for example) <br>> 3 x 320gb sata hdd (~ $100 each here in Australia) <br>> <br>> for a total of $325 AUD you'd get around 640gb or redundant <br>> storage. <br>> <br>> <br>> 2 x 74gb raptors will cost you $400 here in Australia ..... so <br>> thats $75 *more* for almost 400gb *less* storage that is *not* <br>> redundant ! <br>> <br>> Linux software raid-5 performance is pretty good, my 4 x 400gb <br>> sata's show 155mb/s reads with 'hdparm -t'. <br>> <br>> No brainer ! <br>> <br>> Cheers, <br>> <br>> <br>> Brian. <br>> <br><br><br>Hi Brian,<br><br> Thanks for your response. I didn't say it but i can't go more than 2 drives (no more space in the case) and i backup the entire "mail drive" on a LVM backup array of 1.2 TB (3 drives) that serves to backup a windows file server too (Backup Array is 3 drives). It's not a perfect solution but it cames like it is because the Linux server took more and more job over the years. The Windoze servers do file serving + AD and Terminal Server. They have both server grade hardware but this little CentOS 4.5 server running on cheap hardware does almost all the job!<br><br> As for RAID 5, with the *poor* CPU i have (Athlon 2500+), i'd be curious how fast it could write with multiples "streams" (server supports 45 WS). Don't get me wrong, i'm not saying that what you said is not right nor this isn't a good idea!<br><br> I'm waiting a budget to change the server but it seems that for now, i have to search a temporary solution that could provide the most speed for the money and taking into account i'm dealing with low end mainboard / cpu.<br><br> The next server should be something like the Tyan Transport TA26 (though doesn't seem to have redundant PS) with something like an Adaptec 3085 and SAS 15K Drives.<br><br><br>Thanks again for your input!<br><br>Guy Boisvert<br>
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how many drives can the server take ? and how many are there in it just now ?<br>
<br>
I'd even go as far as to say install the OS and the data on the 3 x
320gb sata drives and ditch the 80gb IDE. That is what I do and it is
one of the strengths of software raid, the fact that you can mix and
match raid types on the same physical disks. I'd go for a triple mirror
for /boot and install the rest of the OS on the RAID-5 set or along
with the data (grub can't boot of raid-5 as far as I'm aware).<br>
<br>
<br>
Alternatively if re-installing or copying your current OS onto new
drives is not practical at this point I'd get 2 x 320g drives mirror
them and also get that extra 1gb of RAM. The extra RAM could make more
of a difference than 10k rpm drives. I dont think that you'll get
anywhere near the performance you'd expect from a stripe compared to a
mirror. As mentioned earlier, Raptors, IMO, are overrated and they are way
hotter and noisier due to their higher spindle speed.<br>
<br>
How is the box performing ? what are you noticing when it is slow ? Wait IO ? Can you determine if it is IO bound or CPU bound ?<br>
<br>
<br>
Cheers,<br>
<br>
Brian.<br>
<br>
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