[OX User] scsi or sata

[Peter Kluth]

Hi Robert,

we are using OX commercial version on a FSC server (Primergy series).

Short to our history:
We started june 2003 (with SLOX 4) with only 512 MB RAM but dual
motherboard with 2 x XEON 1.8 GHz and 3 x 36 GB HD 10K rpm as RAID-5
(SCSI). We decided to use ONLY SCSI-drives in all our server cause all of
them running 24 hours a day and 7 days a week - minimum 5 years. We are
satisfied with that strategy cause we only have few hardware errors a year
(and it doesn´t matter if a hd fails in a RAID-system).

As we startet with 25 user the system performance was ok. With 50 user the
system began to swap and as we reached 75 user I decided to upgrade the
system up to 2.5 GB. Now we have nearly 100 User and an average
mail-traffic of 1.2 GB +/- 100 MB a month (for all of our user) and system
is NOT swapping. We are using the complete groupware accept the forum.

So I would prefer the first option (2 GB RAM & SCSI HDs) but only with
redundant CPU, power and RAID-1 or RAID-5 hd system ...

Kind regards

Peter Kluth
Network- and system-administration

Tel.: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
E-Mail: ***@ikor.de

========================================
IKOR Management- und Systemberatung GmbH
Essener Straße 5
46047 Oberhausen

Geschäftsführer Dipl. Math. Jörg Franke
Handelsregister Duisburg HRB 13536

http://www.ikor.de
========================================

[Peer Oliver Schmidt]

Hello Peter,

Post by Peter Kluth
So I would prefer the first option (2 GB RAM & SCSI HDs) but only with
redundant CPU, power and RAID-1 or RAID-5 hd system ...

do you have replacement RAID controller, or do you hope that it will not
cause problems?

Reason for pointing it out is, I have once been bitten by this problem.
Controller fails, and I can't get a replacement. This caused quite a
long downtime. Since then, whenever I do HW RAID, I *always* have a
replacement available.
--
Best regards

Peer Oliver Schmidt
the internet company
PGP Key ID: 0x83E1C2EA

[Peter Kluth]

Hello Peer Oliver,

the - maybe strange - fact is that I never had problems with our RAID-
controller (or SCSI-controller also) in our company so I don´t store
replacement. Our company exists since 1997 and in the last 10 years we have
installed up to 30 server. So my experience tells me to keep this strategy.
Maybe I´m only a lucky man or using products of good quality that I don´t
had problems with RAID- (and SCSI-) controller in the past.

But you done well by storing replacement if you had problems in the past.

BTW: The RAID-controller is not the only single component in our servers.
The mainboard is another single-point-of-failure and I also don´t store a
backup board for every server. Do you store replacement for mainboards, too?

Kind regards

Peter Kluth
Network- and system-administration

Tel.: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
E-Mail: ***@ikor.de

========================================
IKOR Management- und Systemberatung GmbH
Essener Straße 5
46047 Oberhausen

Geschäftsführer Dipl. Math. Jörg Franke
Handelsregister Duisburg HRB 13536

http://www.ikor.de
========================================

[Robert Penz]

On Saturday 17 February 2007 18:45, Peter Kluth wrote:

We normally have 4h restore time by the vendor for our critical servers. And
as we only use 3ware controllers I've replacement ones lying around, as I do
with harddisk. I'm using SATA and so its quite cheap, even if I'd never a
controller failure sofar.
--
Robert Penz
Tel: [phone] - 232
Fax: [phone] - 70
email: ***@hitt.at

Send documents please in OpenDocument-Format (ODF) alias ISO/IEC 26300

HITT - health information technologies tirol GmbH
A 6020 Innsbruck, Leopoldstr. 1 - http://www.hitt.at
Rechtsform: GmbH Sitz: Innsbruck
FN 219076x (Landesgericht Innsbruck)

[Peer Oliver Schmidt]

Hello Peter,

sorry for the late reply, I enjoyed a vacation.

Post by Peter Kluth
the - maybe strange - fact is that I never had problems with our RAID-
controller (or SCSI-controller also) in our company so I don´t store
replacement.

Congratulation, you should play in the lottery :-) Even brand name
RAID controllers do fail. I used to work for a controller chip
company and sh!t happens. If you compare the total cost of installing
a new machine, the additional cost of a second RAID controller is
neglectable.

Post by Peter Kluth
BTW: The RAID-controller is not the only single component in our servers.
The mainboard is another single-point-of-failure and I also don´t store a
backup board for every server. Do you store replacement for mainboards, too?

No. We have found out, by staying with the original OS drivers we
don't experience problems installing a later mainboard.

YMMV