[Gllug] mini Linux?

[Ian Northeast]

Martin A. Brooks wrote:
> Steve Nelson wrote:
> 
>> I know I've queried this before, but am I the only person who is a bit 
>> edgy about a 'server' without redundant disks?

No. I like my servers to have redundant disks. I insist on it.

> It Depends[tm].
> 
> I've rolled out server clusters where redundancy made no sense at the 
> server level.  It would only be an issue when the number of failed 
> servers got up to near 50% of the total servers available.

Blade servers are intended to work on this principle. A basic IBM x86 
blade until recently came with a single 2.5" IDE disk, like you'd put in 
a laptop.

<rant>
Currently I'm working on Linux in LVM over software RAID in old blades 
with *two* dodgy disks each, but this is only because the powers that be 
will not give me either enough blades to do it properly or the nice new 
ones with SCSI hardware RAID. I can't get the IDE hardware RAID in an 
old blade to work. And they won't let me have real servers either, the 
policy is that it should all be blades because they're "cheaper". Well 
they are, but this disregards the absence of proper hardware RAID, real 
keyboards and CD drives (IBM blades use USB for these which is a PITA).

To be fair to the powers that be, if my job wasn't difficult it would be 
outsourced to India. So I suppose I should be grateful that it is:)
</rant>

Regards, Ian


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