Comments on: Big Disks? http://www.hlynes.com/2007/04/27/big-disks/ Tue, 06 Sep 2011 19:08:21 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Ceri Davies http://www.hlynes.com/2007/04/27/big-disks/comment-page-1/#comment-19986 Ceri Davies Wed, 30 May 2007 18:25:58 +0000 http://www.hlynes.com/2007/04/27/big-disks/#comment-19986 Huw, If this decision hasn't been made yet, mail me in work; we had a pair of x4500s turn up yesterday on try and buy and there's no reason why you couldn't abuse one for a while. Ceri Huw,

If this decision hasn’t been made yet, mail me in work; we had a pair of x4500s turn up yesterday on try and buy and there’s no reason why you couldn’t abuse one for a while.

Ceri

]]> By: Anantha http://www.hlynes.com/2007/04/27/big-disks/comment-page-1/#comment-17687 Anantha Sat, 28 Apr 2007 13:48:03 +0000 http://www.hlynes.com/2007/04/27/big-disks/#comment-17687 x4500 is your best bet. Currently Sun is selling it at 50% discount as part of their 25th anniversary celebration. You can't beat $1/GB, not to mention the high quality construction. It is designed for the very type of workload you're describing, run in a remote corner and do your job. I'd set it up with a Raid-Z with 3 hot spares. That'll mean you don't have to worry about it for a good 3 years; disks fail and get swapped out and you don't have to worry about replacing them. Fail in place is the approach. x4500 is your best bet. Currently Sun is selling it at 50% discount as part of their 25th anniversary celebration. You can’t beat $1/GB, not to mention the high quality construction. It is designed for the very type of workload you’re describing, run in a remote corner and do your job. I’d set it up with a Raid-Z with 3 hot spares. That’ll mean you don’t have to worry about it for a good 3 years; disks fail and get swapped out and you don’t have to worry about replacing them. Fail in place is the approach.

]]> By: huw http://www.hlynes.com/2007/04/27/big-disks/comment-page-1/#comment-17684 huw Sat, 28 Apr 2007 12:57:52 +0000 http://www.hlynes.com/2007/04/27/big-disks/#comment-17684 Steve, I totally agree about the Sun rails. I've got other x-series boxes, they are a joy to install. The ILO has SSH which makes remote management much easier. With the Teravault I'd need a console server as well. I also agree that ZFS is very easy to look after. Our primary storage will be served by V880s running Solaris 10 and ZFS. Steve, I totally agree about the Sun rails. I’ve got other x-series boxes, they are a joy to install. The ILO has SSH which makes remote management much easier. With the Teravault I’d need a console server as well. I also agree that ZFS is very easy to look after. Our primary storage will be served by V880s running Solaris 10 and ZFS.

]]> By: huw http://www.hlynes.com/2007/04/27/big-disks/comment-page-1/#comment-17678 huw Sat, 28 Apr 2007 12:21:12 +0000 http://www.hlynes.com/2007/04/27/big-disks/#comment-17678 Simon, we already use S3 to back up our subversion system. For this amount of data the cost and also the speed issues argue for a self-hosted solution. Because we are a big university we have the option of hosting kit in machine rooms accross campus which gives us safety in case of primary site failure but still gives us decent bandwidth. If we were paying for commercial hosting and connectivity the calculation would be different. Simon, we already use S3 to back up our subversion system. For this amount of data the cost and also the speed issues argue for a self-hosted solution. Because we are a big university we have the option of hosting kit in machine rooms accross campus which gives us safety in case of primary site failure but still gives us decent bandwidth. If we were paying for commercial hosting and connectivity the calculation would be different.

]]> By: Steve http://www.hlynes.com/2007/04/27/big-disks/comment-page-1/#comment-17643 Steve Sat, 28 Apr 2007 03:37:46 +0000 http://www.hlynes.com/2007/04/27/big-disks/#comment-17643 Stumbled across your site. Couple thoughts: remote management...can't beat the Sun remote management card in this server. Very nice, easy to use, eliminated the need for a KVM for us (when running Windows on Opterons). And the new Sun rails....the best I've worked with, even better than Dell's RapidRails. If the Sun box is too pricy, try to run Solaris 10 w/ ZFS on the white-box hardware. Find something like the Teravault with components in the Solaris 10 HCL. The Teravault would probably work, except the Areca 1170 isn't in the HCL (but the 1110 is, and it looks like a similar architecture with fewer ports). I've been bitten by silent bitrot in RAID5 three times in the last month, and am sick of rebuilding raidgroups. The scrubbing features of ZFS should help prevent that, and ZFS is super easy to use. I've got 61 SCSI disks in a ZFS pool (RAIDZ2 and a hot spare) and they've been humming along great for 3 months. Stumbled across your site. Couple thoughts: remote management…can’t beat the Sun remote management card in this server. Very nice, easy to use, eliminated the need for a KVM for us (when running Windows on Opterons). And the new Sun rails….the best I’ve worked with, even better than Dell’s RapidRails.

If the Sun box is too pricy, try to run Solaris 10 w/ ZFS on the white-box hardware. Find something like the Teravault with components in the Solaris 10 HCL. The Teravault would probably work, except the Areca 1170 isn’t in the HCL (but the 1110 is, and it looks like a similar architecture with fewer ports).

I’ve been bitten by silent bitrot in RAID5 three times in the last month, and am sick of rebuilding raidgroups. The scrubbing features of ZFS should help prevent that, and ZFS is super easy to use. I’ve got 61 SCSI disks in a ZFS pool (RAIDZ2 and a hot spare) and they’ve been humming along great for 3 months.

]]> By: Simon Rumble http://www.hlynes.com/2007/04/27/big-disks/comment-page-1/#comment-17637 Simon Rumble Sat, 28 Apr 2007 02:19:23 +0000 http://www.hlynes.com/2007/04/27/big-disks/#comment-17637 Have you thought about Amazon S3? Though with that kinda storage requirement, it might well be cheaper to do yourself. Have you thought about Amazon S3? Though with that kinda storage requirement, it might well be cheaper to do yourself.

]]>