Therese Trudeau wrote: > >>> This is getting OT and you are going to end up spending > >>> more on redundancy then if you just called Dell and ordered > >>> another computer. > >> > >> I agree with you in that it's cheaper to buy another home > >> computer than to design a system with redundancy. > >> However that new conputer I would order from Dell probabally > >> would not have the redundancy I need in a > >> a workstation, and I would just end up back where I started anyway. > > > > I think you missed my point. If workstation A fails, call Dell and > > have another one overnighted, or call Dell today and order a second > > workstation to have as a backup or act as a secondary workstation. > > > > Their Vostros line is cheap (in appearance, components and price), > > but is functional, performs well and did I say cheap already, so > > you can get 2 for the price of 1 highly redundant system. > > Ah I got it now thanks. > > Does the Vostros come with either a bare metal restore tape > backup system or RAID > ( which is required for my situation)? They will sell you the moon if you want, but let me give you some practical advice. You seem like you are running your own consulting business, so this advice will not only save you time, but money which is key when running your own business. Buy your computers with NO hardware RAID, your not setting up high performance database systems for hundreds of users here. Get systems with 2 identical internal 250GB SATA drives and setup software RAID1 on them. Get an external USB/Firewire drive, you can even get those in RAID1 too and have automated dump scripts backup your data to it. Install your Linux distro with common reproduceable options using standard repos and document it. Here's how I would setup the internal hard drives, can be done easily through anaconda even with kickstart. /dev/sda1 - 100MB RAID /dev/sda2 - Rest of Disk RAID /dev/sdb1 - 100MB RAID /dev/sdb2 - Rest of Disk RAID /dev/md0 - /dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1 RAID1, ext3, /boot /dev/md1 - /dev/sda2 /dev/sdb2 RAID1, LVM VG CentOS - PV /dev/md1 LV root - VG CentOS, 16GB, ext3, / LV swap - VG CentOS, 4GB, swap LV home - VG CentOS, 32GB, ext3, /home LV work - VG CentOS, 64GB, ext3, /work If the system crashes you can move your USB drive over to the other system and restore there, and/or have rsync keep the other system identical to the first. Setup NIS/NFS or whatever to share the data/authentication information. This setup will be more cost effective and faster then what you are currently planning. -Ross ______________________________________________________________________ This e-mail, and any attachments thereto, is intended only for use by the addressee(s) named herein and may contain legally privileged and/or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail, and any attachments thereto, is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please immediately notify the sender and permanently delete the original and any copy or printout thereof.