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i'm setting up a new fileserver soon, but would like some discussion on a few things strictly to do with the storage system.
i've been looking at basically 3 options for setting up the raid array (5). one, a $300+ hardware raid card that will most certainly do the job. second, software raid, and third, not necessarily a super-hardcore lsi or 3ware job but one that has grown on me, the intel storage matrix controller that's built in to many of the nicer intel desktop boards.
first off, i'm trying to keep the project relatively low-budget, so shying from the lsi or 3ware offerings would be nice.. or at least less of a hinderance.
so, i thought, even with the relatively pricey 975xbx board from intel, it's still cheaper than a 3ware card, and is supposed to be all-hardware. i have only used it with raid 0 and 1, but the performance seems to be good.
then reading about some of the software-raid setups, it got me to thinking. granted, a hardware-raid solution is going to have a highly specialized processor for the task, but i imagine on an onboard solution like the intel controller, it's still rather limited. the primary processor has much greater power, albeit not specialized.
since the machine is going to be strictly fileserving (aside from backups and antivirus), the performance hit the processor takes by making raid calculations seems to be, for the most part, completely inconsequential, other than the possibility it just can't keep up with the system.
so, what are your opinions on the setup? i would not imagine the system would ever need to serve more than 10 clients simultaneously (very high estimation). also, would there be that much of an advantage to running linux instead of freebsd? i much prefer freebsd on a server.
thanks!
edit: also, how much power/ram would this setup require, for the above listed client load (while running antivirus and a backup program such as bacula)? i realize generally fileservers for small networks require very little processing power, but i would think purely software raid would up the ante a little bit. would a cel d with 512mb ram be sufficient for the task, or would one look closer to something like the p4 d 805, and a gig of ram?
i've been looking at basically 3 options for setting up the raid array (5). one, a $300+ hardware raid card that will most certainly do the job. second, software raid, and third, not necessarily a super-hardcore lsi or 3ware job but one that has grown on me, the intel storage matrix controller that's built in to many of the nicer intel desktop boards.
first off, i'm trying to keep the project relatively low-budget, so shying from the lsi or 3ware offerings would be nice.. or at least less of a hinderance.
so, i thought, even with the relatively pricey 975xbx board from intel, it's still cheaper than a 3ware card, and is supposed to be all-hardware. i have only used it with raid 0 and 1, but the performance seems to be good.
then reading about some of the software-raid setups, it got me to thinking. granted, a hardware-raid solution is going to have a highly specialized processor for the task, but i imagine on an onboard solution like the intel controller, it's still rather limited. the primary processor has much greater power, albeit not specialized.
since the machine is going to be strictly fileserving (aside from backups and antivirus), the performance hit the processor takes by making raid calculations seems to be, for the most part, completely inconsequential, other than the possibility it just can't keep up with the system.
so, what are your opinions on the setup? i would not imagine the system would ever need to serve more than 10 clients simultaneously (very high estimation). also, would there be that much of an advantage to running linux instead of freebsd? i much prefer freebsd on a server.
thanks!
edit: also, how much power/ram would this setup require, for the above listed client load (while running antivirus and a backup program such as bacula)? i realize generally fileservers for small networks require very little processing power, but i would think purely software raid would up the ante a little bit. would a cel d with 512mb ram be sufficient for the task, or would one look closer to something like the p4 d 805, and a gig of ram?