[Gllug] Fileserver hardware advice

[Andy Smith]

On Mon, Mar 19, 2007 at 10:23:57PM +0000, Mike Brodbelt wrote:
> Thomi Richards wrote:
> 
> >I plan to have roughly 400GB of free space to start with, but add disks as 
> >I need them. I was thinking of using EVMS for that. I want to 'export' 
> >this space using both NFS and SMB network protocols to an internal network 
> >(only).
> 
> Ideally, you should buy a RAID controller that allows you to add disks 
> into an array - 3ware or Areca make nice SATA controllers that have 
> excellent Linux support, and don't cost an arm and a leg. You can always 
> use MD instead if cost is a huge issue - you don't mention whether this 
> is a personal project, or for a business. I'd also use LVM, rather than 
> EVMS, but that's your call.

Sounds like a personal fileserver from the original post.. you have
to spend a lot on 3ware or areca before you end up with something
that approaches the flexibility and performance of linux+md+lvm.
Unless battery backup is desired I wouldn't bother with hardware
RAID at all.

> >Can anyone offer me some advice on this topic? It's been a while since 
> >I've had cause to build a PC from parts, and I'd like to do it correctly 
> >the first time...
> 
> Buy decent hardware. Resist the temptation to chuck any old crap in the 
> case just because you have it lying around. Avoid like the *plague* 
> anything that requires proprietary drivers - I suggest using "make 
> menuconfig" to put together your shopping list. If it's not in the 
> vanilla kernel tree, don't even bother.

Along those lines I would also say: buy a decent make of
motherboard, SATA controllers, power supply and case.  You can most
likely get away with the cheapest CPU you can buy, such a pentium D
or a core 2 duo.

If you cheap out on the cooling or power and then try to put lots of
disks in then you may well find you get unreliable disks and
spontaneous reboots.

Cheers,
Andy

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