[ale] Hardware for a Samba file (and application?) server

[Keith Hopkins]

Keith Hopkins wrote:

> Ben Ostrowsky wrote:
> 
>> When our Netware 3.12 server started pooping out last week, I copied all
>> the files (currently only around 7GB) to a Linux server and started up
>> Samba.  (Linux to the rescue again, hurrah!)  It has no backup drive,
>> though, and the drive isn't mirrored or anything.  So now that my
>> organization sees once again that, yes Virginia, Linux can do that too,
>> and cheaper, it's time to put together a machine to do this properly.
>>
>> I spent most of yesterday working on my plan for a Samba file server
>> (optionally to be an application server for X clients, too, since what
>> else am I gonna do with that much CPU?).  I based it on the Ultimate
>> Linux Box article (q. you definitely ought to v.) in Linux Journal. 
>> I've listed the parts I'm thinking of below, but the interesting thing
>> is that without going beyond DDS4 capacities, I've had a hard time
>> pushing the price above $5000.  (We've got $6000 budgeted, and might not
>> throw any more money at this until we replace it in three years or so.)
>>
>> What I'm thinking about so far:
>>
>> A Tyan Tiger with two 1.4GHz Palominos and four Registered PC2100
>> 512MBs, the new 3Com 3CR990-TX-97 NIC that has some onboard crypto (even
>> though we're not using it yet), an Adaptec Ultra160 RAID adapter, three
>> IBM 36GB 10000rpm Ultra160 drives (I'm thinking 0/5), an HP DDS4 Ultra2
>> LVD drive with ten tapes, a Pioneer SCSI 10xDVD/40xCD, a Matrox G450, a
>> plain old floppy drive, a Lian-Li PC68 aluminum case with a PC Power &
>> Cooling 450W power supply.
>>
>> Short of case mods to make it look like the Mystery Machine, what else
>> can I do to make this thing useful?  Maybe a fourth drive and just
>> stripe 'em all to 36GB total?  That sounds like it's gotta be pushing
>> some sort of diminishing return, but I dunno.
>>
>> Guess I could rackmount it -- anyone have a favorite manufacturer of 4U
>> cases?  I'm guessing that's what I'd need.  And I'm loath to turn my
>> rack into an oven with two 1.4GHz Palominos, so great cooling would be
>> important if I rackmount it.
>>
>> Of course, if I go beyond DDS4 (20GB native, 40GB with an average 2:1
>> compression) capacities, I could have four drives and mirror two for
>> 72GB. Or 0/5 for 108GB, I think.  What's a decent way to back up that
>> kind of data on a removable medium?  I heard DLT's more fragile.
>>
>> ext3, ReiserFS, other journaling filesystem?  Haven't decided.  ext3's
>> easy to install if I put RH7.2 on here... that's tempting.  But if I'm
>> going to do things other than Samba with this, Debian's apt system is
>> very handy.  And a certifiably completely Free machine is a nice
>> voluntary quest, as it were.
>>
>> Be gentle with me -- I'm fairly new to SCSI, RAID, and filesystems.
>>
>> Evidence, anecdotes, rumors, propaganda and holy wars welcomed, but in
>> that order. ;)
>>
>> Ben
>>
> 
> 
> Just off the top of my head, since I'm sitting here playing with the 
> technology right now.... drop a Gigabit card into the server, and use 
> part of that extra $1000 you have budgeted towards a 100MB-FastEthernet 
> Switch with a Gigabit Uplink port.
> 


Hmm, let me ramble some more:

   3x 36G drives in RAID 0 (Stripped, NO FAULT TOLERANCE), gives you 108G, fast reads, fast writes.
   3x 36G drives in RAID 1 (Mirrored), gives you 36G, a hot spare, fast reads, relatively slow writes.
   4x 36G drives in RAID 0/1 (Stripped & Mirrored), gives you 64G, fast reads, relatively slow writes.
   4x 36G drives in RAID 5 (Parity), gives you 64G, a hot spare, speed someplace the average speed of the RAID 0/1 setup for both read and write.
   4x 36G drives in RAID 5 (Parity), gives you 108G, no spare, speed someplace the average speed of the RAID 0/1 setup for both read and write.

   For a good (and rather lengthy) write-up on RAID, look at http://megaraid.lsilogic.com/support/docdl.cfm?DLFile=support/doc/Enterprise1300_hw_man.pdf&FileID=42
   It's a HW guide for a AMI MegaRAID card I own, but it has some good chapters on how the technology works.

   Reiserfs on top of LVM. (It's a godsend)  Easy to expand LVols & file systems.  Yeah!

   DDS is good, that tapes are dirt cheap (compared to DLT).  The drives do suffer (and your backups will suffer) if you don't keep the heads clean.

   Um, the Tyan Tiger is a good board, but you can't run two 1.4GHz Palominos on it.  The Palominos is a Uniprocessor chip.  You need an Athlon MP.  Those run at 1G, 1.2 (old die set) and 1.5, 1.6 & 1.8G (new die set).  http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ProductInformation/0,,30_118_756_809%5E609,00.html

Still Lost In Tokyo,
   Keith


-- 
What did the skeleton say to the bartender?
I'll have two beers and a mop...



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