[CentOS] Slightly OT: which hardware for CentOS file server (Samba, 2 To storage, 50 users)?

Mon Apr 12 16:01:23 UTC 2010
rainer at ultra-secure.de <rainer at ultra-secure.de>

> Hi,
>
> The language lab from the local university has contacted me. They'd like
> to have a low-cost file server for storing all their language video
> files. They have a mix of Windows, Mac OS X and even Linux clients,
> roughly 50 machines. The files are quite big, and they calculated a
> total amount of 2 To of storage.
>
> I'm not very proficient with hardware, meaning either I'm dealing with
> remote servers in some datacenter, or otherwise I install CentOS
> desktops on any hardware people throw at me.
>
> Since the aim is lowcost, would it be wrong to install that fileserver
> on a no-name desktop PC with a 64bit processor and enough RAM, and then
> simply put 2 x 2 To hard disks in it, either with a mirroring RAID (can
> never remember which does what in 0, 1 and 5) or some rsync script
> regularly copying over the first disk to the second? Or do you have
> something more apt to suggest?
>


What value does the language lab associate to these files?
And how is backup done?



Rainer