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I'm looking for a good RAID File Server to hold up to 1 Terabyte for data backups, etc.
We mostly have Apple Computers, ranging from OS 8 to OS X. And then also have a few Windows machines (98-XP). So I want something that can act as a big data dump/backup for both mac and windows computers.
I'm also looking a an Apple XServe Raid. Has 1 Terabyte for $6,000. However, I was hoping I could get a Linux Server cheaper.
SATA is probably a pretty good, inexpensive solution, but be careful! SATA support on some distributions is still hit and miss. Some of the drivers for the adapters are not open-source and they don't keep up very well with kernel updates.
I'd also look into getting a system with a "real" hardware raid controller in it from folks like IBM, HP, or DELL. These are mostly SCSI solutions (ultra 160 or ultra 320). Most of these solutions are well supported and the price on them has come way down in the past couple of years.
SATA is probably a pretty good, inexpensive solution, but be careful! SATA support on some distributions is still hit and miss. Some of the drivers for the adapters are not open-source and they don't keep up very well with kernel updates.
That would not be a big problem if you research what adapters to get.
Quote:
I'd also look into getting a system with a "real" hardware raid controller in it from folks like IBM, HP, or DELL. These are mostly SCSI solutions (ultra 160 or ultra 320). Most of these solutions are well supported and the price on them has come way down in the past couple of years.
That also is not a problem b/c there main purpose is the take the load off the cpu, so with a good cpu and a good amount of RAM it would be fine, and SATA is alot cheaper than SCSI.
For what you want to do, I would use:
CPU: athlon XP 3200 $210
RAM: 3 Gig pc 3200 $600.00
HD: 5 250 SATA $1100
SATA cards: $180
Highpoint has open source drivers for their controllers. You can get their 8 channel SATA controllers. Then use Linux software RAID (not software RAID through Highpoint BIOS) and setup RAID 5. Though I suggest using atleast a dual processor system because software RAID 5 will consume a lot of CPU resources. The hard drives that I would get is IBM/Hitachi 400 GB SATA hard drives. These are very fast for file servers. If you want to go the hardware RAID route, you can go with 3ware controllers.
If you want to keep adding data to the server, you can use a bunch of 4 channel SATA controllers using Linux software RAID 5 and the partitions as LVM or EVMS.
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