Hello there,

I am starting the process of building up a machine for intensive computation that should handle a hard disk system of about 2 Terabytes. This should be done preferably on RedHat Enterprise 3 WS, but that's negotiable. As I read in this forum, it seems that the new SATA drives require the newest kernels, so maybe it is safer to go ATA? Does anyone can provide inputs on how to build 2 TB linux machines? Could it be a system of several 160 GB ATA HD controlled by a linux box? How to plug them together? Another option would be to have like 4 external HDs from Lacie (500 GB each), but they use Firewire interface, so would RHEWS be able to handle that? How about several external 160 GB USB drives?

Basic system specs (it can be changed if you have other suggestions):
AMD Athlon XP 3000+
Mobo Asus A7V600
2 GB DDR
Radeon 9200 256MB

If you have any ideas on these issues, your help is most welcome.

Thanks,
413x

Have you considered SCSI?

Hello michaelk and other people,

Thanks for posting. As I keep searching information on this over the forums, I now believe that SCSI may really be an option. Since RH Enterprise only uses well-established hardware, I guess SATA doesn't apply yet, RHE kernel would not have SATA support. So maybe what I need is a SCSI adapter for several SCSI disks that sum up to 2 TB?? Would that be ok?

Thank you,
413x

IMHO that is the way to go. Maybe RAID with logical volume management (LVM).
I suggest a 2 channel controller, install the OS on channel A and channel B as the data drives. A SCSI controller with 2 channels is capable of 30 devices. BTW is cost an issue? With SCSI you talking at least twice the cost or more then with SATA.