On Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 9:07 PM, Ahmed Kamal < [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Hi gurus, > I am looking for an infrastructure advice as I upgrade the network. I > will attempt to explain my environment and seek "advice". I will try > to be concise > > Current Environment: > ============ > - A single server with 30 workstations. All running rhel for CAD > simulations > - The server is NFS/NIS/iptables/DNS/DHCP/samba/http/vmware ... and others > ;) > - The server is a supermicro board server with a 3ware 9550 SX SATA > controller attached to 6 1TB disks (3 production, and 3 for backup on > software raid to avoid being locked into the 3ware crapware raid) > I run a similar environment, and have no problem with hardware raid, just use raid5 for lots of storage. > The Pain: > ======= > - Running backups with rsnapshot brings the server to its knees (as > caching is disabled for data integrity, I had a very bad experience > and disabled the cache) > - I need more storage (I need like 3 ~ 4TB now) > - Data and it's backup are on one machine > - We need a new server for simulations anyway > do you really want to be using your storage server as the cpu farm also? it may not take a lot of i/o but it hogs your cores. Why not get some high end processors for CAD only. > The Future (options): > ======== > 1- Turn old server into backup data store only, Get an iSCSI SAN to > store primary data, get the simulations only server > 2- Or, Turn old server into backup data store only, Get a NAS box to > store primary data, get the simulations only server > 3- Or, Turn old server into backup data store only, Get a new power > edge 2900 server with 4TB installed storage. The new server will run > NFS server, and will double with a Xen guest to run simulations on. I > would CPU limit the xen guest to avoid CPU abuse. Since simulations > are CPU intensive only, and NFS is IO intensive only, I see them as > orthogonal, and are ok to run on one server seeking cheapest viable > solution. > > Basically, I am pro option 3, very flexible, everything custom and on > Linux. It would solve our pains, I hope the PERC controller with 1TB > SAS disks will be fast enough for rsnapshot (~20GB) data, if so, it > should solve our issues. However, the cool buzzwords on "storage > consolidation and virtualization" mentions that it's best to > centralize data off servers. I am seeking some advice on this setup. I > know there is no single true solution though. I am afraid to get > locked into a storage "box" that I can't really control, and since I > won't be running any clusters or such, I don't quite get any direct > benefits of storage consolidation in such a small environment. NFS > shares are enough :) > Appreciating your thoughts, btw, cost is very important :) > > Regards > > _______________________________________________ > rhelv5-list mailing list > [email protected] > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/rhelv5-list >
_______________________________________________ rhelv5-list mailing list [email protected] https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/rhelv5-list
