Moving storage server

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Firebug24k

Weaksauce
Joined
Aug 31, 2006
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Hey guys,

I've got a Norco 4220 populated with 20 2TB drives that's been powered up and running perfectly for about two years. It's an ESXi pass through server with Solaris 11, ZFS storage, arranged in four groups of 5 drive RAIDZ1.

I'm getting ready to move cross-country (from San Diego to Connecticut), and I'm wondering what the chances are of my server getting completely hosed in the move. It'll go onto the moving truck with the rest of my stuff - I'll make sure it's packed as well as I can, but who knows.

There's about 25TB of data on it. I will make an offsite backup of the most important data (a few TB), but as for the rest - while I can afford to lose it, I'd be sad. So I have two options, the way I see it:

1) Build another server, duplicate the data. Would run me about $2000ish for something with 8 4TB drives.

2) Do nothing, and hope for the best.

Thoughts?
 
Overall, I like the idea of building a second server the best. You just need to focus on getting the bulk storage, so I suppose it wouldn't need high end components. One thing I'd do is see if you have a friend in San Diego that would be willing to hold onto the duplicate box until you can verify how the move went for the Norco. That way you'd be leaving it in a known good configuration in a low risk environment. That should greatly increase your chances of success over shipping both systems.

Some other stuff that came to mind, but are probably too expensive or would likely be off the table for other conditional reasons.. but you never know.
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You could look at short term use of some cloud based storage. Pay versions of Dropbox, etc... I derped around with some of the calculators for Amazon and such and it came out pretty expensive for that amount of storage, though it's quite possible I was doing it wrong. Depending on your time table and available bandwidth, this may just not be an option anyway you shake it.

Purchase a backup solution - You could spool it all off to tape. Probably expensive to get into, but the upside is that you'll have a backup solution to continue using when you've arrived and settled in.
 
Beside the problem that I would not use Z1 but Z2 with more disks per vdev
I see no probleme beside an accident or a thief.

Put a blanket below the server to reduce vibrations.
A backup of important data on a second place is always a good idea.
 
I think it will be fine in the moving van but they do have a tendency to park those in the blazing sun for days. You have a couple of other options: A) Pack the server separately and ship it via UPS or FedEx from CA to CT or B) Export the zpool(s) and ship the drives separately.

I would probably go for option B if you are worried.
 
If you go the new server route, I have a Supermicro 846 / X9SCM-F / E3-1220 combo I am looking to sell. I am in Boston and could meet you halfway.
 
Another option... Buy a Pelican case with the foam slots. Get 20 antistatic bags. Pack the drives in the Pelican case and put that in the truck or bring that with you.
 
Thanks for the advice, guys. I think I like the pelican case hard drive box idea best. I know I should've done the array a bit differently, but by the time I figured out I should've gone something more like a raidz2 I had too much stuff on the server to reconfigure it. So I suppose if I ever do build that second server I could rework the layout of the raid volumes.

Cloud storage would be nice, but my upload bandwidth is small enough it'd take too long, and I'm sure my ISP would shut me down before I got much uploaded. Are there any cloud storage guys that let you mail them hard drives (other than Amazon, which is too $$).

Just FYI, the drives are all SAMSUNG HD204UI. So here's a data point for these drives - I've had them all 2+ years, and not a single one has failed. I run a zpool scrub monthly, and have yet to see any errors, either (I do run ECC ram).
 
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Buy 12 2TB hard drives. Copy your data to them. Put the copies in your car and drive them to your new place.

Not really that hard.
 
never ever ever ever ship a server with the hard drives in place, remove them and put them in a foam hard drive box
 
I moved with a 4220 recently. I just put the entire server in the original box. Everything still works.

The movers hired by my company put everything into wooden crates. They had it for about 2 weeks. I also had backups on my personal computer that moved with me.

If you're willing to pay to backup your data, why haven't you done so until now?
 
Back in 2008, I moved a storage server with 20x250gb drives in my Scion tC. The server was just set in the back of the hatch. I drove aggressively too. Those drives lived to be sold. :)

Since you don't want to be that much of a jackass and your trip is longer, I would box up the server. U-Haul has a big box that will fix and packing peanuts. Then put that in your car. The packing job doesn't have to be UPS safe, just enough to survive bumps and give you piece of mind. Or use the original box.
 
A basic problem here is that you do not already have a full backup. What if your PSU decides to roast all your drives at once?
 
FLECOM said:
never ever ever ever ship a server with the hard drives in place, remove them and put them in a foam hard drive box
Click to expand...

+1.

You don't have to go overboard on protecting the drives. Static bags and well packed with bubble wrap would be OK even if you put them in the truck with the movers. You don't even need to take them out the Norco drive carriers - just pull them an pack them carefully.

But don't ship them installed in the server. The chassis isn't designed to take shocks from the weight of the drives. You're likely to crack the PCB on the backplanes. Etc. This is true with good, well built servers like SM or HP. Double true with the Norco where workmanship issues are already well known.
 
I know I don't have a "real" backup, I get it. I've been willing to accept the loss of most of the data, the stuff that I'm not willing to lose I do have a dupe of (1-2TBish).

After thinking about it a little more though, I decided that a couple of years of trouble free ops on 20 hard drives might be pushing my luck. So I ordered 8 of those 4TB drives that are on sale over at B&H and bought one of those SGI storage expanders off of Ebay - I still have a free port on my LSI 9201 so I can hook it up and duplicate the whole array over. Cheaper than building another server, and lets me expand my storage in the future.
 
FLECOM said:
never ever ever ever ship a server with the hard drives in place, remove them and put them in a foam hard drive box
Click to expand...

I don't know what people need to do, but a large number of people move computers in cars or in moving vans long distances without removing the hard drives. Nothing happens.

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I often drive 1500-4000 miles on vacation - 2 or 4 times a year.. I do that with my computer and my wife's computers. The hard drives have never had problems.
 
I've done it before too.. usually just a computer or two. I figure the failure rate of getting bounced around like that as "X". With twenty hard drives, I've got more like "20X" chance of something going wrong.
 
GeorgeHR said:
I don't know what people need to do, but a large number of people move computers in cars or in moving vans long distances without removing the hard drives. Nothing happens.

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I often drive 1500-4000 miles on vacation - 2 or 4 times a year.. I do that with my computer and my wife's computers. The hard drives have never had problems.
Click to expand...

Large numbers of people ride in cars without wearing seat belts too. Most of the time nothing happens. Still doesn't make it a good idea.
 
GeorgeHR said:
I don't know what people need to do, but a large number of people move computers in cars or in moving vans long distances without removing the hard drives. Nothing happens.

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I often drive 1500-4000 miles on vacation - 2 or 4 times a year.. I do that with my computer and my wife's computers. The hard drives have never had problems.
Click to expand...

there is a HUGE difference between a desktop and a server with 20 drives and a backplane

I have seen plenty of servers shipped with drives in place that have resulted in all sorts of problems, 99% of the servers that shipped the drives separately have been just fine.. the 1% were things like forklift through box etc...
 
Can you rip out the disks and package them safely in a box? The whole server is heavy, but the disks are lighter and they can be packaged easier.

Or, because you have four raidz1, you can rip out 16 disks and package them safely in a small box? The rest four disks can stay in the server, because raidz1 allow one disk to crash. So if one disk in the server crash, you have redundancy and can resilver it.

I would prefer one of these solutions, to move the entire server?
 
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