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Homebuilt server (NAS/SAN) vs the prefab ones? Peformance differences? SAN vs NAS vs Homebuilt Server
On Jan 24, 10:58 pm, "markm75" wrote: On Jan 24, 8:24 pm, Bill Todd wrote: markm75 wrote: I'm working on building a new server to basically be the backup server for all of our 800GB or so of data. IE: Symantec BackupExec will run on this server.. communicating with remote agents on 4 other servers. Those 4 servers total 800gb of data in a full backup via gigabit ethernet. I'm still not sure I see the difference between a NAS, SAN, or a server with lots of harddrive capacity and dual gigabit ports? For instance.. here is what we are considering doing: Building the server piece by piece for a total of $3200, inclusive of drives and controller cards etc, using either of these 2U rackmount systems: http://www.rackmountpro.com/productp...?prodid=2918(I can get a combination of all needed hardware with a 3 year warranty on the whole deal for around $3700 instead of $3200) http://www.acmemicro.com/estore/merc...&lastcatid=233... That $3200 included a Woodcrest 2.0GHZ cpu with virtualization ability (not really needed for the backup server though). We've already got server 2003 storage edition. This would include a 4x PCI-e 3ware 9590SE-8ML card and 2GB of 667 DDR2 ram. I'm assuming that with a NAS or SAN you can install 2003 onto it and use it just the same as any other server? The other option appears to be going with a system like this: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...m-details.asp?... The price is alittle more and the CPU type is not a Woodcrest, but there are 2 of them now. I've also seen these units without DVD/floppy drives, I'm assuming with one like that you would have to use a usb dvd rom drive to install the OS? Any thoughts on all this?Well, if I were going about this and weren't going to use spare pieces that I already had sitting around the house, I'd budget under $1000 for the whole thing (*'way* under unless you want to mirror the backup storage rather than use RAID-5) - excluding any costs for the backup and system software (I'd probably use Linux and some form of open-source backup, but since you apparently already have the Win2K3 server system and seem to want BackupExec, that's fine too). Any relatively current processor should be up to the task (Athlon64s are under $100 these days, but even a middle-of-the-road Sempron might do the job: even if you opt to use software RAID-5 the main load should be handling the Gigabit Ethernet I/O at link speed, which shouldn't be too bad if you can use jumbo frames - though using double GigE ports adds to that unless you use add-on NICs that include TCP/IP offload engines, which aren't very expensive any more). The lowest-end quality motherboard (probably microATX so you won't need to mess around with video or sound cards) you can find with one (or two) on-board Gigabit Ethernet ports (unless you go the TOE NIC route) that has enough (4 should do it) SATA connectors to avoid the need for an add-on card (IIRC Win2K3 Server includes software RAID support by Veritas - more than adequate for a backup server) should do nicely for backup-server operation (though a motherboard with just the what-used-to-be-normal pair of ATA connectors would do in a pinch, since three 400 GB backup disks plus a modest system disk would be enough, and if you wanted to mirror instead of using RAID-5 you could make one of the 4 drives 500 GB to leave room for the system - or make two of them 500 GB and mirror the system). MB and processor together (including fan & heatsink, which given a modest processor can also be modest) should total $200 or less - a *lot* less if you find Outpost (Fry's), Newegg, or ZipZoomFly offering a combination special (I do like the three-year warranties on retail processors, though, and on MBs as well, so I'd hold out for those if I were building this and use a well-recognized brand like Asus or Gigabyte for the MB). At $180 (on the WDC.com Web site, which means you could likely get a somewhat better deal if you looked around - ah, yes, Newegg has them, shipped, for $136) Western Digital's 400 GB Enterprise (5-year warranty, 1.2 million hour MTBF @ 100% duty cycle) RE2 drives should be more than sufficient for backup-service tasks. Even the Enterprise Seagate Barracuda ES 400 GB drive (which appears to have replaced their NL 'Nearline' series and purports to be suitable for more general enterprise use) only runs $176 shipped by Newegg, but I'd have to consider that overkill for this application. You could save a bit more and get conventional desktop drives ($126 shipped for a 400 GB Seagate or WD SATA drive from Newegg), which given that you're going to protect them with RAID anyway should be more than adequate for use in a backup server (if I went with desktop drives I'd probably opt for the Seagates because of their 5-year vs. 3-year warranty - and because I have just a smidge more confidence in their durability). Bottom line is that you'll find it difficult to spend much over $600 on the disks, and could get by for under $500 using RAID-5. RAM's kind of expensive at the moment, but you can still get 1 GB for under $100 if you shop around (and it's not clear why you'd need even half that much for a backup server: it's not as if you wanted to cache data as you would on a file server). Other pieces don't add up to all that much. If you'd rather not have to take the server case apart to change a disk, you can find ATA removable-drive bays (to place in a 5.25" drive bay and hold a 3.5" drive), including trays, for as little as $7 (at geeks.com, of course; they're plastic but have worked just fine for me, though I wouldn't recommend them for constant day-in/day-out disk substitutions). I haven't searched much for SATA removable racks, but IIRC xpcgear has one for $20. With a RAID-5, system-on-the-backup-disks approach, you need only three drives to reach 800 GB of net backup storage (one or two being 500 GB drives to include room for the - possibly mirrored - system if you don't want a small separate system drive that you'd have to remove the case to get to), and can get an Ultra mid-tower case with three 5.25" external bays free after rebate (with free shipping) for the next couple of weeks at outpost.com. Outpost also has a free-after-rebate (but you'll pay under $10 for shipping) Ultra 500W power supply, with plenty of 12v current to spin up over a half-dozen drives simultaneously and power the motherboard without breaking a sweat: Ultra, while relatively well-known, is not a first-tier name in power supplies, but if you look at Newegg's recent customer reviews of Antec units (which used to have a great reputation) you begin to wonder how much difference this makes (I got one of the Ultra cases and PSUs and am happy with both). If you were impressed by the redundant power supplies in Tiger Direct's server, consider that you could instead build *two complete servers* (mirroring each other rather than using redundant storage internally) for around $1400 using these parts (you'd have to wait for another rebate cycle on the case and PSU to get them for free, though). If you don't like dealing with rebates (or want to mirror your backed-up data and thus need a case with four external 5.25" bays), just add $40 each for the case and, if applicable, PSU. Of course, you *can* spend close to $200 for a case plus power supply, just as you *can* spend close to $4K for an 800 GB backup server... That's about it, save for some SATA drive cables. You said you wanted to 'build' a server - here's your chance. Good luck, - bill- Hide quoted text -- Show quoted text -Thanks for all the great info.. your details on the homebuilt system are great. Not far off from the preliminary plans I've made. My price of $3200 was for a rackmount server.. as we dont have the space for any more towers.. we are getting a 42U rackmount 4 post cabinet within a week, I already have a 3U rackmount server jerry rigged in the bottom of the existing 2 post unit. We have 4 total servers now (and 1 DC).. the 4 servers would go over ethernet... Do I need a special kind of nic card to be able to use the jumbo frames options.. as I dont see this on any of our existing NICs on any of the servers. I also have a 48 port gigabit managed switch, I bet it has these options on it though. Like I said our full load at full backup time is 800 or so , but my a month's end before the next one after incrementals we are at 1.1TB.. so for the backup server I was planning on purchasing Seagate 400GB drives (I dont think they were enterprise class, I'm still unclear on the real advantage there? Though I agree.. I like Seagate better as far as reliability).. I was going to put 5 of these in RAID5 giving 2 TB of space (goal for all of this being to last 3 years at least). the seagate I was going with: SATAII 3 Gbps. So I had priced the WoodCrest CPU ($384).. the Ram 2x1gb PC2640 DDR2 667($329).. The 5 400 GB HDs and 2 mirrored 120gb OS drives ($950). The motherboard Asus DSBV-D $339, finally the 3ware card 3ware 9590SE-8ML $484 and then the SATAII 2U server case at $689 (with mini sas/ncq) ability. Maybe the cpu/motherboard is overpriced but I want longevity.. And then ill use the exebyte magnum 224 lto3 (upgradable to lto4) for offsite backup via u320 scsi...- Hide quoted text -- Show quoted text - I should summarize my basic question from all this.. Is there any benefit to using Enterprise class drives vs Desktop ones.. I believe I had order regular desktop ones in most of the other servers... I havent really had any big issues in 2 years time.. the ones I used as removable external drives though, had some issues and had to be replaced. My internal drives are generally raid5, and will be with the new backup server.. except the OS which will be mirrored anyway. Thanks |
#12
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Homebuilt server (NAS/SAN) vs the prefab ones? Peformance differences? SAN vs NAS vs Homebuilt Server
On Jan 25, 7:18 am, "Maxim S. Shatskih" wrote: Do I need a special kind of nic card to be able to use the jumbo frames options.. as I dont see this on any of our existing NICs on any of the servers.Cheap Intel's PRO/1000MT GigE card has this option. You should turn it on in Device Manager/Properties in Windows though. By default, it is off. -- Maxim Shatskih, Windows DDK MVP StorageCraft Corporation Would I want to set jumbo frames on all of my servers sending data, or just the receiving, backup server? Are there any drawbacks to using this setting, as I'm not sure what it provides for exactly? I only noticed the jumbo frames option on one of my various NICs, even a built in Intel Pro/1000 PM didnt seem to have the setting, for the one that did it had several "size" options, I'm assuming I'd set that to the max? Same question on dual NICs.. I'm wondering if this will make the backups and general access that much better (I'm assuming I would have to use trunking via the switch?).. Would I want dual nics on each server or only the backup server? Cheers |
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