8TB Storage Solutions

[ARH]

Hi

I have seen your storage configuration in Storage Showoff thread and have some question about this work because I want to implement similar solution in our office.

We want to Install Sixteen 500GB HDD to achieve 8TB or twelve 750GB HDD of storage with RAID capability, but we are limited in economic aspect (about 4 to 5 thousand dollar)
we want to use DAS solutions like this SCSI to SATA disk enclosure:
http://www.infortrend.com/main/2_product/a16u-g2430.asp
but in my research I see HP MSA 20 disk enclosure with the lower price , what is your idea about this storage ?
I have ASUS P5W64 WS Professional mainboard that have one PCI-X slot , could I Install HP SA 642 SCSI Card on this board or it is work only with HP Server board ?

Do you know better product or solution for my job ?

I would appreciate of your answers or suggestions.

 

[fibroptikl]

Where I work we sell Infortrend. Great products. (I work in storage) That specific model is the new ASIC 400 - which has proven to be a good platform.

I've never used the HP, so I can't comment on that. You can't go wrong on the Infortrend though.

The HP SA 642 SCSI Card is a PCI-X/133 card. However, I looked at the ASUS P5W64 WS page, and found no mention of it having a PCI-X slot, only PCI. You'd be better off getting a PCI-Express SCSI Card.

 

[unhappy_mage]

What use will this be for? File share? Storing Word documents, editing video or mailboxes?

I've got a price list up, sorted by price per GB, which will probably help you find drives. I'd probably recommend the T7K500s myself, from ZZF.

As fibroptikl says, those are pci express slots, not PCI-X. Make sure to buy the proper card.

I'm not so hot on the DAS idea. It seems expensive, though - the places I see it are selling it for $5000 with no drives. 16 T7K500s will run you $1840, 12 7200.10s will be $2580. I'd consider something like this - you get a case, power supply, and 16 hotswap drive bays. It won't be quiet, but it's much cheaper and IMHO it's a better solution unless you're planning to get another four of these boxes in the next year and just plain need more expandability. But if that's your plan, start spending more than $5k for these boxes - buy stuff with a warranty now.

Also, whatever drives you get, get a cold spare or two. It'll be good to have them around in case something goes drastically wrong and you need a same-firmware drive to do a board swap with.

 

[eth00]

I'd consider something like this - you get a case, power supply, and 16 hotswap drive bays. It won't be quiet, but it's much cheaper and IMHO it's a better solution unless you're planning to get another four of these boxes in the next year and just plain need more expandability. But if that's your plan, start spending more than $5k for these boxes - buy stuff with a warranty now.

If you are looking at building it on the cheap that chassis is great. We have built a few fileservers for clients and have had great luck with it. The chassis provides plenty of cooling for the drives.

 

[ARH]

Where I work we sell Infortrend. Great products. (I work in storage) That specific model is the new ASIC 400 - which has proven to be a good platform.

The HP SA 642 SCSI Card is a PCI-X/133 card. However, I looked at the ASUS P5W64 WS page, and found no mention of it having a PCI-X slot, only PCI. You'd be better off getting a PCI-Express SCSI Card.

Thank you for attention,
We want to purchase a DAS Disk enclosure with RAID capabilities. there are many company that we could use their products but there are no review or benchmark for comparing SCSI to SATA RAID disk enclosure to find the best product.
total money for this purchase limit to 3000 euru, I have seen some excellent product from Enhance like this :
http://www.enhance-tech.com/products/ultrastor/RS16_new.html
or some product from Arena Maxtronic like this :
http://www.maxtronic.com/raid_systems/sivy_series/sivy_sa-6630s/
or that models from Inforterm.

But I have 2 problem now:
this product isn't available in my country and if I find the best fitted to my money I should ask reseller to send it for me, so I should find a good and honest reseller in eurpe.

another think is that HP MSA 20 is avalibale in my country and I can purchase it now but I am not really know if it work for me.

would you mind to link me some Dual Channel SCSI card use PCI-Express bus ?

 

[ARH]

What use will this be for? File share? Storing Word documents, editing video or mailboxes?


As fibroptikl says, those are pci express slots, not PCI-X. Make sure to buy the proper card.

.

Hi

There are no file Sharing and it use only for locally storage files. the files are not big and but the amount of them are very very large.

I've got a price list up, sorted by price per GB, which will probably help you find drives. I'd probably recommend the T7K500s myself, from ZZF.

what is your Idea about Diamondmax 500GB or 7200.10 500GB ? I saw that T7K500 have lower price than other HDD in this capacity, are there any problem in this HDD ?

I'm not so hot on the DAS idea. It seems expensive, though - the places I see it are selling it for $5000 with no drives. 16 T7K500s will run you $1840, 12 7200.10s will be $2580. I'd consider something like this - you get a case, power supply, and 16 hotswap drive bays. It won't be quiet, but it's much cheaper and IMHO it's a better solution unless you're planning to get another four of these boxes in the next year and just plain need more expandability. But if that's your plan, start spending more than $5k for these boxes - buy stuff with a warranty now.

This is good solution for my job, thank you , I should searching for avalibity of these Chassis in my country, as I understand we should only install mainboard ,CPU and HDDs on this chassis.
do you know some European reseller that selling these product?

Also, whatever drives you get, get a cold spare or two. It'll be good to have them around in case something goes drastically wrong and you need a same-firmware drive to do a board swap with

I can't understand what you say ...

 

[ARH]

are you sure supermicro chassis are suitable?
all the chassis that specified here comes with specific mainboard and need high-end and expensive Xeon processors.

I think that we can install our core 2 due board in these chassis.

 

[unhappy_mage]

There are no file Sharing and it use only for locally storage files. the files are not big and but the amount of them are very very large.

What kind of access pattern is this? Do you read the files sequentially, or at random? What's your current solution for this like?

what is your Idea about Diamondmax 500GB or 7200.10 500GB ? I saw that T7K500 have lower price than other HDD in this capacity, are there any problem in this HDD ?

Not at all. These disks are widely used in enterprise roles - Sun uses them, for example - and they perform quite well in general.

This is good solution for my job, thank you , I should searching for avalibity of these Chassis in my country, as I understand we should only install mainboard ,CPU and HDDs on this chassis.
do you know some European reseller that selling these product?

Which European country, specifically? Wiredzone takes international orders, it seems.

I can't understand what you say ...

If you get a 16-disk case, buy 17 or 18 disks. Then if a disk or two die, you'll have exact replacements around and not need to go searching for them.

would you mind to link me some Dual Channel SCSI card use PCI-Express bus ?

Here is LSI's offering.

are you sure supermicro chassis are suitable?
all the chassis that specified here comes with specific mainboard and need high-end and expensive Xeon processors.

I think that we can install our core 2 due board in these chassis.

These chassis will indeed work with consumer-type boards. They don't include a motherboard; the pictures show one included because Supermicro makes barebones systems. They mention "dual xeon" support only because they want to make sure everyone knows they'll handle that kind of cooling requirement. A single core 2 duo processor is a lot easier to keep happy. As long as your heatsink fits in the case (there's only 3u = 5.2 inches = 132mm of room for it) you'll have no problems with it. The case is standard ATX, so the Asus board should fit fine. I suggest you take a look at the manual for more details.

 

[ARH]

What kind of access pattern is this? Do you read the files sequentially, or at random? What's your current solution for this like?

this system working as web based ebook library so there are so many random access to the files. currently we simply connect 1TB HDD to the mainboard, but this solution wasn't expandable.

These chassis will indeed work with consumer-type boards. They don't include a motherboard; the pictures show one included because Supermicro makes barebones systems. They mention "dual xeon" support only because they want to make sure everyone knows they'll handle that kind of cooling requirement. A single core 2 duo processor is a lot easier to keep happy. As long as your heatsink fits in the case (there's only 3u = 5.2 inches = 132mm of room for it) you'll have no problems with it. The case is standard ATX, so the Asus board should fit fine. I suggest you take a look at the manual for more details.

thank you very much , I will working on this solution if these chassis available in my country

 

[Ockie]

You should look at the Promise VClass productline, it's quite economical and should work for what you need.

 

[fibroptikl]

You should look at the Promise VClass productline, it's quite economical and should work for what you need.

We do Promise as well - works great.