Well, I am Not a Raid EXPERT, but I deal with Dell Servers all day. So PLEASE anyone correct me or add info as I learn everyday also..........
Why not go with 3 or 4 drives in a Raid-5 config. Software Raid will cause more downtime in the event of a failure. Why NOT go with Dell. Use a PERC4 controller and do SCSI U320 drives? This will be very fast and reliable. And if you lose a drive, just hot swap it and it will automatically rebuild. And if the O.S. is on this Array, then (technically)you should never have to worry about reinstalling it.
Just a thought.
I've seen a lot of data base servers the usual configuration is a RAID 1 H/W RAID for the O/S and transaction logs, then a big RAID 5 for the data. the two arrays are on seperate SCSI channels, and some times on different controllers.
For expandability I'd say go with SCSI dual channel or quad channel RAID such as the PERC 4/DC or PERC 4/QC. You can add an ecternal drive enclosure with 14 additional hard drives with SCSI, and currently SATA RAID controllers do not give that option.
I guess this is what my question boils down to. Most cases look like they can't hold many drives (especially on the systems I'm looking at -- say 4 max). How much are those external enclosures to add more drives to the array?
The PE1800 can take 6 SCSI hard drives internally...
Check out the PV220 at www.dell.com . The biggest cost of an external array will be the drives themselves. The PV220 can be shared between two systems devoting 7 drive slots to each server. It will support use as a quroum drive for a cluster of two servers as well. It can also be configured with only a single SCSI Channel connector to save a little cash.
You could also go out on EBAY and find PV200's and PV210's that are being retired if speed of the external array is not critical. (the PV200 supports 8 drives, the PV210, 12 drives) If you go with the older external arrays you will not need U320 drives as the interfaces and BP will cause them to auto negoiate down to 80 or 160 speeds depending on the exact mix of components in the boxes.
warwizard
P.S. I cannot list prices here, this will be read for months or perhaps years, and any prices I put here would not be accurate for long.
lpprikej
650 Posts
0
January 12th, 2006 12:00
Why not go with 3 or 4 drives in a Raid-5 config. Software Raid will cause more downtime in the event of a failure. Why NOT go with Dell. Use a PERC4 controller and do SCSI U320 drives? This will be very fast and reliable. And if you lose a drive, just hot swap it and it will automatically rebuild. And if the O.S. is on this Array, then (technically)you should never have to worry about reinstalling it.
Just a thought.
Jason
warwizard55
720 Posts
0
January 12th, 2006 15:00
NemesisDB
2 Intern
•
7.9K Posts
0
January 12th, 2006 22:00
warwizard55
720 Posts
0
January 13th, 2006 12:00
The PE1800 can take 6 SCSI hard drives internally...
Check out the PV220 at www.dell.com . The biggest cost of an external array will be the drives themselves. The PV220 can be shared between two systems devoting 7 drive slots to each server. It will support use as a quroum drive for a cluster of two servers as well. It can also be configured with only a single SCSI Channel connector to save a little cash.
You could also go out on EBAY and find PV200's and PV210's that are being retired if speed of the external array is not critical. (the PV200 supports 8 drives, the PV210, 12 drives) If you go with the older external arrays you will not need U320 drives as the interfaces and BP will cause them to auto negoiate down to 80 or 160 speeds depending on the exact mix of components in the boxes.
warwizard
P.S. I cannot list prices here, this will be read for months or perhaps years, and any prices I put here would not be accurate for long.
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=04&kc=6W300&l=en&oc=pv220sapp&s=bsd
Message Edited by Warwizard on 01-13-2006 08:29 AM