Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001 14:22:49 -0400 From: Paul Chvostek <paul@it.ca> To: Edwin Culp <eculp@EnContacto.Net> Cc: freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Server recommendation for co-location. Message-ID: <20011010142249.H14443@gahch.it.ca> In-Reply-To: <1002720909.3bc44e8dd35fa@Mail.SavvyWorld.Net>; from eculp@EnContacto.Net on Wed, Oct 10, 2001 at 06:35:09AM -0700 References: <1001470583.3bb13a7799dd4@Mail.SavvyWorld.Net> <20011010040211.A36943@gahch.it.ca> <1002720909.3bc44e8dd35fa@Mail.SavvyWorld.Net>
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Hi Edwin. I've been using vinum for years to run various levels of RAID. I'm not in your "unlimited cash" position; my requirements are usually pretty severely tempered by finances. Right at the moment, I've got a vinum RAID10 system that consists of four 40GB UDMA100 drives on a 300MHz P-II. The system handles about 15000 mailboxes, running an average of about 40000 unique emails per day (not counting inbound attempts from places on a dnsbl). Another system is a Pentium-166 overclocked to 187MHz with a single Adaptec 2940 with five wide 18GB disks in it. The machine serves up web pages for about 300 domains, pushing an average of about 400Kbps of traffic. I have "forced" single drive failures on both machines to experiment with vinum's behaviour. With the RAID10, I was able to shut down the machine and replace the pulled drive with a blank spare, and when the box rebooted, vinum rand the drives for a while to resync, and then everything was back to normal. Similar story on the box with the SCSI RAID5, only I was ablt to shut off and replace the drive without rebooting the server courtesy of camcontrol(8). For this kind of volume I really don't need UW160 and platters that spin at 10krpm. Sure, Internet services take lots of disk IO if you're really popular, but with enough memory and SOFTUPDATES running, I really don't see the need to go overboard. YMMV. If you want to put together your own hardware, I'm partial to the cases sold by General Technics at http://gtweb.net/. p On Wed, Oct 10, 2001 at 06:35:09AM -0700, Edwin Culp wrote: > > Paul, thank you for taking the time to make these suggestions. They are > excellent and I will certainly share the results with the list. > > I have purchased what I consider to be the best solution for our company, > right now. I know many folks will have issues with 3ware, drives in the > same box, etc. but it meets our specs and is within our budget of "unlimited > cash":-) that you mention and seems solid good ventilation, adequete power > in a 4u box. The server can be seen at: > http://www.fnordsystems.com/4U_fnord_430_product_page.shtmlServerworks III HE-SL > > I have been thinking about vinum across the two controlers and would be very > interested to hear of experiences, especially with 3ware raid and vinum. The > bios issue is very important and I'll have a solution before deploying in > Singapore. I plan to work these issues out here in the office before sending > it to the co-location facility. RealWeasel looks really interesting. Maybe > I can even get on their "asses saved" page (LOL) The FnordSystem has > Serverworks III HE-SL chipset. I've never used it but it does come well > recommended although I don't remember anything from the specs about the > ability to "spew" to the serial port,though.:-) > > Thanks again and I would appreciate any comments or suggestions, especially > with vinum. > > ed > > > > Quoting Paul Chvostek <paul@it.ca>: > > | > | Hi Edwin. > | > | On the basis of your specs, I infer that you have unlimited cash. :) > | > | I have three things to add to your equation. Since this box will be > | mostly inaccessible, you should probably allocate at least two drives > | as spares in your RAID. Having one spare is obvious, but you really > | don't want to have to do repairs to this unit even *after* a failure > | if you can help it, and one more drive is (relatively) cheap. > | > | Which brings us to the second point. I've just been probing the list > | regarding a problem I'm having with a Dell PowerEdge that has a > | MegaRAID controller in it. I can't find any way to have the RAID > | controller tell FreeBSD that there's a problem, without doing hardware > | mods that void the warranty on the unit. (I'm still looking.) If you > | plan to buy a brand-name box (Dell, IBM, whatever), MAKE SURE that the > | configuration you're using includes the ability to report drive (and > | fan and heat) problems to the operating system. The man page for > | ports/sysutils/healthd lists a number of monitoring chipsets for the > | basic stuff, but I don't know where you'd look for the RAID, unless > | you don't mind the performance hit and are comfortable running vinum. > | > | The third point ... is that you want remote access to this box at all > | times. The Dell PowerEdge server I installed yesterday has a BIOS > | setting that apparently lets the unit spew its CMOS config interface > | through the serial port. For a less vendor-specific solution, check > | out http://www.realweasel.com/. It's an awesome product. > | > | When you complete your research, please let the list know. I'm sure > | lots of us will be interested in your findings. > | > | p > | > | > | On Tue, Sep 25, 2001 at 07:16:23PM -0700, Edwin Culp wrote: > | > > | > I need to co-locate a server in Singapore so reliability is > | > important:-). I am thinking of something with a ServerWorks > | > LE-based board, multiprocessor, but with one P-III Xeon to > | > start, running at from 700 Mhz to 1,000 Mhz, 2Gb initial ram, > | > an extremely well ventilated box with multiple, hot swap, > | > power supplies 500-750 watts, each. I would like to have a > | > Raid 10 array with from .5 TB to 1 TB initially. > | > I find the 3ware escalade 64 bit, switched, 7000 series to be a a > | > very compelling solution but I remember seeing a thread not long > | > ago about it having pretty serious problems in one installation, > | > but I've also heard some very good things about it. Does anyone > | > know of a solid raid 10 SCSI solution for FreeBSD? > | > > | > All suggestions appreciated especially about 3ware, motherboard, > | > drives, etc. If I remember the drives that were having problems > | > in the 3ware thread were IBM, so they are out. I was thinking > | > about maxtor, I've used several (7500 rpm) for a couple > | > of years with no problems. > | > > | > Now for the hard part, our finance guy wants to lease the equipment > | > and would prefer to buy from a supplier rather than build it in house.:-( > | > He obviously suggested, IBM, Dell, HP, Compaq, etc. etc. all of which > | > have more trade-offs than I would like to make. Does anyone know of a > | real > | > company that [could|would|does] build[s] something similar? > | > > | > Thanks, > | > > | > ed > | > > | > --- > | > > | > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > | > with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the message > | > | -- > | Paul Chvostek <paul@it.ca> > | Operations / Development / Abuse / Whatever vox: +1 416 598-0000 > | IT Canada http://www.it.ca/ > | > | > > > > > --- -- Paul Chvostek <paul@it.ca> Operations / Development / Abuse / Whatever vox: +1 416 598-0000 IT Canada http://www.it.ca/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the message
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