[gentoo-user] Redundant / hot-swap server hardware (available in UK).

[Stroller]

Hi there,

I'm looking to deploy a couple of servers for Gentoo use & I'm  
wondering if anyone has any recommendations. There requirements for  
each are slightly different, but what is in common is that I want  
hotswap SATA hard-drives (a simple mirror RAID is probably fine) & PSUs.

Background / what I've used before:

At home:
- Compaq Proliant 6500, which I picked up cheap a couple of years  
ago. This is an older PII quad Xeon with hot-swap SCSI drives on  
hardware RAID and it has been fun to play around with (I wrote the  
HOWTO on the Gentoo-wiki for this machine) but ultimately I haven't  
migrated services to it because it has quirks that I don't seem to be  
able to overcome. I don't know whether there is a problem with my  
particular machine or whether the problem is Linux support for this  
model of hardware - it is quite unusual,  sporting big riser cards  
for RAM and various sub-boards elsewhere in the machine which are  
cabled to the m/board - but I've pretty much resigned myself to the  
fact that I've wasted FAR too much of my spare time troubleshooting  
it & I'm much better off junking the hardware & replacing it. That  
frees up my time to actually do something constructive on my server.  
Also new hardware would seem to allow me to use SATA drives, which  
are much cheaper than the Proliant's SCSI.

At work:
- I also need a server for a client. Load & data-throughput aren't  
going to be high, but reliability is obviously important. The client  
probably doesn't need hot-swap hard-drives & PSUs but can afford to  
pay for the reassurance that they give him - a £1200 high-end server  
like this would probably be seen as "more professional" and "better"  
than two cheap £400 boxes, even though some analyses might reason the  
latter to provide more redundancy. After all, the PSUs and hard- 
drives are the components most likely to fail, so this does make  
sense. About a year ago I chose a Dell PowerEdge 2800 for another  
customer and although that is running Windows Server what I really  
like about this system is that it's much quieter than the Proliant  
(variable speed fans) and a 3-year on-site warranty was quite  
affordable.


So for the home server, big & cheap is order of the day. It just  
needs loads of space for all the hard-drives I'm going to stuff in  
there & fill with music & movies, and I want PCI slots so I can stuff  
TV tuners, wireless cards, ADSL modems & whatnot for my home-geekery,  
secure in the knowledge that a failing hard-drive won't affect my  
email server.

I know about the 5.25" SATA hot-swap hard-drive trays such as <http:// 
www.pc-pitstop.com/sata_cages_enclosures/mb455spf.asp> <http:// 
www.icydock.com/product/images/455_largeview_open.jpg> but I suspect  
by the time I've bought two or three of them (£80 each at Scan.co.uk)  
and a honkin' big case to put them in that something purpose made  
might be better.

This Chenbro server case looks extremely tempting <http:// 
www.chenbro.com/corporatesite/products_01features.php?serno=33>. As I  
understand it, you choose the empty case AND a backplane suitable for  
the kind of drive (SATA, SCSI) you want to put in it - presumably the  
drive doors at the front are just simple doors and the standard  
connector at the back of the hard-drive needs the backplane (of the  
suitable variety) to connect to. I've found a number of European  
suppliers whose webpages say "click for a quote" but the US site  
rackmountnet.com lists this at $763 including the SATA backplane.

It seems to me that using a "standard" server case like this would  
allow me to repurpose an ATX m/board that I'm not using much at the  
moment, and after all, the Tyan Tiger 760MPX that I have in mind is  
"server grade". That has a 64-bit PCI slow, which would enable me to  
use a 3ware SATA controller - I'm told (via the MythTV list) that  
these are the bee's knees under Linux, and the PCI version is  
affordable if I shop around.

Finally, for a home-build server, I find PSUs such as <http:// 
www.chieftec.de/?page=products_big&id=266&k_id=4&language=uk> listed.  
These appear to be intended as "standard" parts that can be put in  
your server case of choice - that site's FAQ <http://www.chieftec.de/? 
page=faq&language=uk&id=34> suggests that they're the same ATX form- 
factor as the PSU in my workstation, or possibly a little larger  
"extended ATX", presumably good for the Chenbro.

My concerns about these components are:
- the price _is_ starting to add up now. It will be ... um ...  
interesting to see how this stacks up against the off-the-shelf  
server I spec up for my clients.
- the Chenbro has 4 fans across the centre of the case. Is it  
possible to manage their speed in Linux?
- the Dell & Compaq servers have a light & o/s-level notifications if  
one of the PSUs fail. I doubt if this is the case with the PSUs above?



So the office server needs to be available off the shelf, with decent  
warranty / service options. It doesn't need any PCI space or many  
hard-drive bays, but things like fan-speed & hard-drive failure  
notifications (I'd prefer PSU, too) need to be supported by Linux.  
OSS / main kernel-tree drivers are good. It doesn't matter if this  
server is quite a large tower or rackmount design, but it needs to  
sit in the corner of the client's office, so it can't be too loud. 15  
months ago we paid about £1300 for the Dell PowerEdge with 3 hot-swap  
drives, hot-swap PSUs & some bells & whistles - I'd expect cost  
comparative with that, but using SATA.

Thanks for your tolerance over the length of this post.

Any suggestions?

Stroller.

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