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C.J. Moof · Mar 3, 2003, 03:35 PM

So a shiny not-quite-new XServe is on the way, with an Ultra160SCSI card- it should be quite an upgrade from our 2 ASIP servers.

So, now she'll need a nice RAID system to hold our data. 8 bays should do nicely, ATA drives with RAID5 are the right price/performance for our needs. The ability to expand the logical drive will be needed too.

Does anyone have a good review of RAID vendors? I'm not sure how to decide who's offerings are best.

Camelot · Mar 6, 2003, 10:56 AM

How much storage do you want/need?
How many clients are you supporting?
What OS are those clients running?
What networking protocols are you using?

There's many vendors you could use. The right one depends on your situation.

For example, there's clearly the Apple XServe RAID system which can handle up to 2.52TB raw capacity.

If you need more than that, I'd look at Network Appliance. Their Filer series can handle more than that, and has much better software.

Alternatively, maybe you need a SAN solution, in which case Network Appliance and EMC have options.

C.J. Moof · Mar 6, 2003, 02:57 PM

Yes, but we're not getting the Xserve raid- its fiberchannel. We're going Ultra160 SCSI, so that's out.

We're in the half-terrabyte range. I've been looking at 8 bay IDE internal/scsi external setups, starting with 5 120 gig drives (RAID 5) + hot swap. That gives the space of 4*120= 480, with capacity expansion up with another 240-360 gigs if we're willing to not have a hot swap. I expect that by the time we outgrow 840 gigs, it's time to see where technology has grown to.

I've talked to FireWire Direct, RAIDKing and Akumen so far. Anybody else have a IDE to SCSI raid vendor to recomend?

JLL · Mar 6, 2003, 03:03 PM

Originally posted by C.J. Moof:
Yes, but we're not getting the Xserve raid- its fiberchannel. We're going Ultra160 SCSI, so that's out.

Why? Wouldn't it have been better to find the RAID you want and then use the connection it requires?

Camelot · Mar 12, 2003, 01:46 PM

Originally posted by C.J. Moof:
Yes, but we're not getting the Xserve raid- its fiberchannel. We're going Ultra160 SCSI, so that's out.

OK, I'm REALLY confused.

You say you're going Ultra 160, but plan on using IDE drives??

huh?

C.J. Moof · Mar 12, 2003, 05:36 PM

Originally posted by Camelot:
OK, I'm REALLY confused.

You say you're going Ultra 160, but plan on using IDE drives??

huh?

A bunch of IDE drives on the inside, hooked up to the server over ultra160 SCSI. The xserve raid is just like this, except for using fiberchannel instead of SCSI.

There are quite a few RAID boxes on the market like this... my delimma is how to decide which one is the best value.

Deal · Mar 29, 2003, 11:09 PM

I thought Apple was the ONLY vendor to have a hot swap ATA RAID.... ?

The Fiber card is only like $500. Small potatoes compared to the price of the RAID and drives.

Not to mention Ultra 160 SCSI is going to give you a total through put of 160mb/s while the XRaid will give you 100mb/s per channel. You said 5 drives, so that's 500mb/s through put (actually using raid 5 it will be less then that and I'm also not really sure how much the fiber will allow through at one time, but I'll bet it blows the doors off of Ultra 160).

I really would re-think that. What will be backing up the server? If you are backing it up locally it will most likely use the Ultra 160 SCSI card. If you read the suggestions that come with any tape back up, they like to be the only device on their SCSI channel.

I'm sure you'll be happy with your new system. I can't wait to get the rest of mine in.