What kind of system works best?

[Peter Debus]

There is a heap of info about RAID. Only some RAID hardware is supported,
You must read the HOWTOs and other recources to find out if the supllied
DELL hardware is supported. DPT RAID hardware, there are others, is well
supported.

A little light reading:

 http://sunsite.unc.edu/mdw/HOWTO/mini/DPT-Hardware-RAID.html
 http://sunsite.unc.edu/mdw/HOWTO/Root-RAID-HOWTO.html
 http://sunsite.unc.edu/mdw/HOWTO/mini/Software-RAID.html
  RAID at linas.org:
  http://linas.org/linux/raid.html

also check out the following for general and Linux specific 
RAID discussions.

http://www.uni-mainz.de/~neuffer/scsi/

If you are unsure about the Dell hardware, try a search on 
Deja news, someone may have been over that territory before.


Benjamin Suto wrote:
> 
> If any of you recall, I sent a message before regarding issues with a
> 100 client-based Samba server.  After speaking with the company I'm
> working with and showing them some of the replies, they are enthusiastic
> about the system, and we're all looking forward to seeing it working.
> 
> Thank you for all your replies and for your help.  There were quite a
> few replies, and I can't get a chance to reply to all of them.  All this
> help I'm getting really makes me want to try and contribute back however
> I can.  The support on this mailing list is remarkable.
> 
> One last question, I promise. :-)  They're willing to spend around
> $10000 USD for the system, as they want the best system, since this will
> be a mission-critical part of their corporation.  I figure that the
> amount is probably overkill, but I'd like to spend the money in getting
> the most fault-tolerant and reliable system they can get.  We're also
> looking for a good disk subsystem with a lot of storage.
> 
> They use Dell as a vendor for most of their systems.  Is a Dell
> Poweredge server shipped with no OS installed and RAID a good buy?  Will
> the hardware work with Linux?  They're looking to have a RAID 5 based
> array.  There are too many options with those systems, and I'm not sure
> what all of it means.
> 
> Dell is their preferred vendor.  If there is another vendor that would
> make a system that works better, and it's a compelling difference, I'm
> sure they would go along with it.
> 
> If you have any experiences with hardware for a powerful fault-tolerant
> redundant RAID system on the budget of $10000 or less, I'd be interested
> in finding out what kind of hardware you got and whether you have any
> problems with it.  
> 
> Thanks for your help,
> 
> Ben
> 


-- 
Peter Debus
Computer Systems Administrator
School of Mathematical Computer Sciences
University of New England
Armidale NSW 
Australia

Ph: 61 (0)267 73 2412 Fax: 61 (0)267 73 3312