Hi Gibran, On 2010-01-08 Furosh wrote: > Thanks a bunch Dan! > > > I'm thinking about a (2)-xeon (Quad-core) processors, with 12-16GB > > RAM, and either (1) Hard Drive for OS and additional RAID10 for > > storage or possibly placing OS and Storage all on RAID10 setup. > > > The server configuration sounds quite adequate. The bSAM agent is > very processor intensive. We have not done extensive profiling of the > Nomos agent, but it too is quite a CPU hog, so the quad-core CPUs will > be well-used. The memory is less of an issue, but the Postgres > database will certainly benefit from it. > > As for disks, we typically run the OS disk on a local hard drive, and > the FOSSology repo data - files and database - on a RAID10 array. Any > RAID over a couple of TB in size will probably be more than adequate > for a year or more of analyses. I'm not sure what kind of analysis > you're doing, but we have (I think) about 5TB on our internal > "production" FOSSology system here at HP. > > > > One of the selling points on this server that I proposed to our manager > in our meeting yesterday was why the RAID setup and added cost > would/could benefit us while increasing cost from $500 - $1500 for RAID. > > His remark was if the RAID setup would allow for us to remain > functioning as opposed to 3-5 days downtime then the RAID sounded like > a great option and added value to the system. The storage benefits as > well but one of my concerns is the OS availability. > > I understand your setup (1) Hard driver for OS, and (1) RAID for > Storage/repos. > > What is your expected downtime if you have an issue with the OS? > Have you ever had an issue with anything happening on the OS for > Database/Web-server? I'm sure you could reinstall main OS/DB/WEB and > then go to backups for restoring but I've proposed minimal downtime > for Fossology scans with the suggested setup/quote. > > In your opinion, what are the Pros/Cons to simply placing the OS & > Storage ALL on the RAID for high-availability purposes? > Would you consider that? or still remain with setup you laid out?
As long as your hardware supports booting from the RAID (i.e. boot over Fiberchannel, or whatever the case may be) then it's no big deal, and you might as well put the OS on the RAID. In our case, all of our "internal" disks are actually running mirrored atop an HP SmartArray controller, so they are, in fact, on a RAID also. Thus I rarely worry about losing an OS disk. But if the OS really was running on an unprotected single disk mechanism, you'd have to give that some thought. Most experienced sysadmins could recover an OS crash from backups to a fresh disk in an hour. If you're really, really looking for true high availability, you should also consider multipath setup to your RAID; ultimately you want to eliminate any single point of failure. So you'd want dual storage controllers, dual storage busses, dual (or quadruple?) network connections, in addition to just RAID. In my experience, nothing that FOSSology is doing could be called "mission critical" or requiring that level of high availability. If the server were down for a day or two, it would not risk anyone's life or livelihood. BUT it depends on the risks you're trying to prevent against. Dan _______________________________________________ fossology mailing list [email protected] http://fossology.org/mailman/listinfo/fossology
