Upgrading our storage server...

bla4free

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Mar 8, 2008
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Hi. We currently have a Supermicro CSE-743T-645B server chassis with 8 500 gb hard drives. We are quickly running out of storage and we were considering purchasing some new equipment to accommodate our ever expanding storage issues. I was thinking about purchasing a RaidAge 3164-G1A3 RAID Sub System since it supports 16 hard drives. I have never worked with any storage devices that resided outside the server so I am unsure how this could be connected to a new server.

My plan is to buy another server chassis and just connect this to the new server to serve as our new storage solution. How do I connect the two? Are there any better options available? My budget is about $15,000 for everything. I appreciate any suggestions.
 
Dell will sell you a MD1000 with 15 1TB drives for $11k retail, or if more expansion is desired, an MD3000 for 13. I'd really suggest going with something with a warranty rather than build it yourself.
 
Thank you for the suggestion. I'll look into the Dell solution. How would I go about connecting the Dell MD1000 to a server? Can I connect it to our server so it shows as a physical hard drive?
 
It includes (as an option, make sure to configure one) a Perc 5 or 6 card that goes in a pci express slot. You can do raid 5 or 6 with it, and it'll appear as one large drive to the OS.
 
The Dell solution looks promising. But just for kicks, how would I go about building my own? Is this possible? I've never really worked with a SAN before and I would like to know how to build my own in case I decide to do something like this on my own time. Do you know what kind of RAID cage and PCI card I would need to accomplish the same thing as the Dell solution?
 
Well you can buy PERC cards all day long. At my work we run a Hitachi and EMC Storage Area Networks, tho on certain servers we order internal storage to keep it off the SAN.

A lot of factors need to be considered in a storage sub-system. If you are looking to build a direct attached solution, then that's pretty simple. The workstation I'm typing this on right now has more storage than your storage server. I run 8 Western Digital 750gb SE in RAID5 on a Areca 1231ML with 1gb of cache. The performance is excellent for a SATA disk solution. There is a big difference between SATA and SAS or FC, but if you are just lookng at an office file-server, then it's not a bad solution. I run mine 24x7 and have for the last 14 months without a single issue (knock on wood). It makes desktop operations super fast.

I use a Coolermaster Stacker 832 case. I went with this case due to all of the 5-1/4" bays, along with the ease of cooling the chassis. I installed two 5x3 3-1/2" SATA Hot Swap Super Micro bays, and they have worked great. For a file-server, you don't need a lot of CPU. But you do need a good network interface card (I suggest Intel), and decent disk sub-system. The NIC in my system will never receive data at a rate where it will saturate my array. With your $15000 budget, you could build two complete file-servers with 10 750gb drives in RAID6 for a bit over half your budget.

If you have a backup solution in place, then I don't mind using lesser storage hardware. I would not use something like this in my enterprise data center, but I have been surprised at how well the Areca 1231ML has ran. It supports 12 drives, tho 10 in the bay configurations I mentioned. PM me if you need some additional help. I've worked as a Systems Administrator in an enterprise environment for the last 11 years and am now an IT Manager with a Fortune 500 company.

The card I have is about $800. Each 750gb drive is about $150.
 
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