Cen Tos wrote: > On 3/31/07, John R Pierce <pierce at hogranch.com> wrote: > >> >> thats a desktop motherboard, not really what I'd consider 'server' >> grade. Now, if this is just a SOHO 'server', that may not matter, but >> if this is going into a colocation site to host production websites, I'd >> want a 1U or 2U server with niceties like hotswap hard drives, redundant >> power supplies, and ECC memory, perhaps one of the Tyan or SuperMicro >> servers. >> > > This is going into a 4U chassis with redundant PSU and hotswap :) The > remaining hardware is largely constrained by budget. But of course, if > anybody has a better suggestion for a reasonably priced board from Asus or > Gigabyte that has two NIC, supports Core 2 Duo and ECC with onboard > graphics, I'm all game :) > > Tyan & SuperMicro are out because it would take the local reseller like a > week or two to get the board, I don't want to know what will happen if the > board dies. It's far safer and cheaper for me to keep a spare desktop board > from Asus/Gigabyte. I have close to zero confidence in Abit boards, little > confidence in product quality and after sales support of other brands > distributors in my local area. If this wasn't for a server, I would pick an > MSI board for cheap pricing and excellent local support. > > On another issue, I feel that generic 1P servers are more defined by the > redundancy features than the board itself. Raid, Hotswap drives and > redundant power supplies are more crucial than the board. I've clients who > ran lan gaming shops and I supplied them easily thousands of systems over > the past few years. Although they don't run 24/7 like servers, the 12~16 > hours or so they are in operation tend to see much more intensive usage > compared to what I'm expecting on this setup. Relatively few boards have > died compared to numerous fans, drives and power supplies. > > Hence even if I can get the budget for it, I'd rather spend it on a standby > system, and do this HA heartbeat thing I've been reading up, than spend it > on an expensive board from Tyan/SuperMicro. I recently read a Goot Trick, might even have been on this list. Bloke has software raid configured involving two internal drives and one firewire (I expect USB 2 would do as well). He attaches drive, syncs the RAID, removes it. Takes it away for offsite backup. I already new of some of the ideas here: http://lcic.org/ha.html and my preference is DRBD, but I'd have to redo the research. There's also enbd, which requires a kernel patch, but then my research there's pretty old too. nbd is in the standard kernel source. -- Cheers John -- spambait 1aaaaaaa at coco.merseine.nu Z1aaaaaaa at coco.merseine.nu Please do not reply off-list