[badtz]

Greetings

I'm currently looking into getting an xServe (500gb x 3 = RAID-5) as the main server that the 20-30 computers here in the office will connect into to store data/etc.

Since the effective disk space will be only 1TB, we'll definitely need to get some type of external box that will house additional 500gb drives to help us get additional storage.

We'll just need that external box purely for massive amounts of space.

In the near term, we'll most likely use 3 drives (1TB effective space), but will add more 500gb drives in the future, so we're looking for upgradability. (more bays than just 3. Probably 5+ bays).

Are there any hardware RAID-5 external solutions that will work well with the xServe?

I guess the external drive would need to be Firewire800/400 or USB 2.0?

Are there external enclosures that connect via fibre channel? xRAID is too expensive for what we'd like to do.

Hopefully the external enclosure will be sub $2000 (rackmount would be great if possible)

Any suggestions/comments would be great!! thanks for any help.

[mduell]

Promise has some rackmountable RAID boxes that connect via SCSI (U160 or U320) for a couple grand.

There are some 4 drive boxes, but the names of the companies escape me at the moment.

Most of the "similar" hardware to the Xserve RAID is quite a step up in performance, features, and price (using SCSI disks, etc).

[OreoCookie]

Sounds like you almost need an XRaid … but that would be well above your budget.

You could use external SATA enclosures as well and connect that to an additional SATA card. There are some 4-bay enclosures, some with built-in RAID in the price range which is interesting for you. Just keep in mind that 500 GB drives are very pricey, just the drives alone go for at least 300 € a piece here in Germany. Multiply that by four and you almost have nothing left for a hardware RAID.

Do a search in this forum, this topic has been covered before, including the names of some companies (I forgot them as well).