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Current solution unreliable.. Looking for alternatives

L

Laforge

2[H]4U
Joined
Jun 29, 2003
Messages
3,132
Hi all (i'm sure Ice Czar will have some input)

I'm looking for a suggestion for the solution to this need.


What I have

12 quantity 400 Gig S-ATA Drives inbound

Plan is to mirror them. End result 2.4 Terabytes
Looking for

1) A freestanding external enclosure (*not* rackmount)
Would like option of it being MOVABLE, and/or adding more drives, hot swapping, etc..


2) a controller card for the pc that can interface with this 'external 2.4 terabyte hard drive' via 1 plug. Preferably something standardized, and not proprietary.

I don't care what the method of the enclosure electronics are.. if it's sata->scsi to scsi card is fine. if it's sata->sata 'concentrator' to sata card with an external sata port [although, I mean, do they have a"lock in" mechanism?]

Speed should be at least decent. But do I need FC performance? No.


Why no scsi drives? Simple. Price and size.. No matter what I pay, I can't find a "over 300 gig" scsi drive.

Have plenty of options in rackmount. -- This is not a rackmount situation.
 
This badboy has 11 external 5.25 drive bays. Perfect for hot-swappable SATA enclosures.

I'm not following about the controller though. Do you want your drive array to be in a separate chassis from the server? Basically one giant external enclosure?
 
nomar said:
This badboy has 11 external 5.25 drive bays. Perfect for hot-swappable SATA enclosures.

I'm not following about the controller though. Do you want your drive array to be in a separate chassis from the server? Basically one giant external enclosure?
Click to expand...


Exactly..

Server here --------------CABLE----------------> enclosure here.
 
You could build something with 4 of these.

I've seen 8-port SATA controllers but they may not have all been external ports. The problem with this solution is you will have 14 cables going to the chassis.

How close to the server will this drive array be? What about making a NAS appliance instead? There are some pretty good solutions for build-your-own NAS available now.
 
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nomar said:
You could build something with 4 of these.

I've seen 8-port SATA controllers but they may not have all been external ports. The problem with this solution is you will have 14 cables going to the chassis.

How close to the server will this drive array be? What about making a NAS appliance instead? There are some pretty good solutions for build-your-own NAS available now.
Click to expand...


The problem is, i'm really looking for something "portable" .. nas solutions, rackmount solutions, etc, aren't "portable" -- I can live with "heavy" because of the drives and such, but i'm looking for an immense amount of storage that I can bring somewhere.
even "back and forth" to different locations.

and I'd like it to be able to be shown as one "drive letter"
I'm thinking i may HAVE to go with the codegen case and build the 'big box on wheels' as a server...


That ebay device you showed is for installation into a server (internal install)

The only nas solutions I've seen are still 'rackmount' -- It'd be great if I could take a "tower/cube" that had no motherboard, video card, p4 processor but just a powersupply, a logic board, and 12 s-ata hdd's in it. and plug it in via an ethernet jack..

Imagine that codegen with no "computer" inside...

that's what I'm wanting. just a power plug, and network plug at the back end.. or power plug and scsi plug... I don't care.. ethernet would be even 'better'.. yes.
 
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A NAS solution in that codegen case or something similar would look like one big external drive, and could be portable.

Check out Zetta Systems. They have a 30-day unlimited trail of their software. I only used it on an IDE system but it worked great.
 
OH..
and i meant to say "current solution unDESIRable.. for the topic"

meh
 
http://www.promise.com/product/externalstorage.htm

had some in PATA (PIC}
and I know they are about, but Im suffering from caffine deprivation this morning
and have to go to work

you could always add wheels to one side of the rackmount :p (jk)

with this seemingly pointless post
I will actually be remined to look if it doesnt get solved by the time I get back ;)
 
Just wondering, why don't you just get a cheap/used mobo/cpu/etc combo and connect it over a GB ethernet, then map the drive? Bandwidth issues? I'm just saying for 'portability', if it were an actual computer w/ an ethernet connection, one could argue it would actually be more portable that way than relying on whatever computer you decide to connect it to having the same connection capabilities. (e.g., if you went w/ a scsi connection, only computers w/ an external scsi connection could ever use/see it, etc.).

I admit, I'm a bit of a n00b when it comes to large arrays and whatnot, but I figured I would ask just the same for future reference! :D
 
Ice Czar said:
http://www.promise.com/product/externalstorage.htm

had some in PATA (PIC}
and I know they are about, but Im suffering from caffine deprivation this morning
and have to go to work

you could always add wheels to one side of the rackmount :p (jk)

with this seemingly pointless post
I will actually be remined to look if it doesnt get solved by the time I get back ;)
Click to expand...

Thanks, Czar : THe ultratrak is what I'm looking for, except it's pata like you said.. it's a lot closer to my goal, though.
 
wow why dont you just make a usb2 tower using the usb2 external enclosueres and plug them all into a hub and go from there.....it wont be the fastest thing on the block.. but it will be as fast as a network cable!!!!! :D
 
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