Re: Building a file server - advice please


<daves@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1136455498.273967.215780@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Michael Heiming wrote:
>> In comp.os.linux.setup daves@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:
>> > Hi,
>>
>
>> I'd built sw raid (5) out of the drives, put it in a volume group
>> (lvm), create logical volumes groups as needed and use ext3 or if
>> online grow-able is important xfs as fs. There are howto
>> (www.tldp.org) about the tasks.
>
> I've just read up on raid 5 now, (http://www.raid.com/04_01_05.html)
> and I'm only marginally less confused than before. Does this mean that
> the discs all look like a single disc? Or is this what lvm does? (I'm
> pretty much a beginner where linux is concerned - now VME on the other
> hand ... discs->partitions->categories->allocations->files lovely! ;-)

That's what RAID5 does. That way, if one drive fails, you can keep going for
a while until you can replace the drive. And with 4 drives, your odds of a
single drive failing go way, way, way up.

> I've already got most of the hardware I'll be using, and having just
> dug out the motherboard manual, it's a K7S5APRO Socket A motherboard.
> There's no mention of SATA (I or II) anywhere in the manual. Does this
> preclude Raid?

Nope. SATA is just a specific way to connect the drives, just like ATA or
SCSI. It's typically faster than ATA and has thinner cables that permit
easier cabling, with better airflow, but doesn't cost as much as SCSI and
only approaches SCSI speeds in practice: it doesn't match them. But SCSI
tends to be grossly expensive and has the really super-fast hard drives,
SATA drives tend to be much larger for the same amount of money.

But SATA RAID cards are not too expensive: www.tomshardware.com has a good
reviews on them, including very good reviews on the new RAID6 cards.

>> Good luck
>
> Thanks, I just know it's going to cause me more than 1 headache!
>
>> BTW
>> Really a pity, someone else already mentioned the "p0rn"
>> collection, even if might just be warez? ;-)
>
> Actually, Nigel is a professional photographer doing model portfolios
> and the like. He probably takes between 1000&1200 digital photographs a
> week, avg 5.8mb per raw image, all of which get burned to DVD as soon
> as he has finished the shoot. (And yes, many of them would be legally
> classed as 'adult' ie nudes, but not as 'porn' aka 'gyneacologists
> weekly'.) What he wants to be able to do is to have the last couple of
> months stuff ready to hand to show the clients.

That makes sense. You know, if your time costs anything, you might just buy
a modest 200 Gig network appliance to get him started, and buy another one
when he needs more space.


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: SATA vs. SCSI, RAID?
    ... There's a wealth of RAID information on the Adaptec site. ... page comparing SCSI and SATA RAID. ... with SATA in servers, so I'm not commenting. ... > However going from SATA drives with software RAID to SCSI ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)
  • Re: RAID Controller & Info
    ... The issue appears to be with the SATA Driver responding to an IO Control Request that should only be handled by ... "Returns information about the geometry of floppy drives. ... The setup code actually believes that the RAID volume ... | ATA controllers with or without SW/firmware RAID. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)
  • Re: separate hard drive for scratch disks for two different programs?
    ... measures out at a higher speed than the 750GB SATA ... much faster using the middle cylinders than the SCSI ... This is a function of the way the OS deals with the disk, ... of sharing the load between multiple drives, ...
    (rec.photo.digital.slr-systems)
  • Asus A7N8X-E w/SATA and SCSI, 4.10 sys install snafu
    ... Old buslogic SCSI controller with 2 drives, a cd, and a tape. ... and nt going off the sata drives. ... I configured the mobo to boot from cd first, ...
    (freebsd-questions)
  • RE: lpfc RAID1 device panics when one device goes away
    ... Are we talking about a failure of one of the HBA's or a failure of a drive? ... attached you have, typically, one scsi connection to the raid array, not ... difference being the two "drives" are located on a storage array ...
    (RedHat)