[Wylug-discuss] Q1: RAID capable network file servers and Linux

[Steven Dodd]

Gary Stainburn wrote:
> Hi folks.
> 
> We're looking into ways of performing backups of our Windows XP network 
> and we've just had a salesman in suggesting a VERITAS based solution.
> 
> Part of this solution consisted of having a large DELL/IBM/HP server 
> with a RAID controller and 4 hot-swap disks, running NT/2003/whatever.
> 
> How well does Linux behave on such a platform?  Can you do a hot-swap of 
> a faulty disk and rebuild the RAID array with no downtime, and if so, 
> how easy is it?  Are there any gotchas I need to be aware of, or any 
> reason for me to not put Linux forward for this solution (seem like the 
> perfect Linux application for me)?
> 
> Gary

Gary,

As John said, the RAID (re)building should be all done in hardware and 
the OS will be blissfully unaware.  The only thing to make sure of, 
though, is that you can run the RAID card's management utility on the 
flavour of Linux you choose.  For example, Adaptec's Storage Manager is 
available only for certain RedHat and Suse versions.  Otherwise, you 
might have to reboot the system to get into the card's BIOS to trigger 
the rebuild.

I suspect that the server spec. will centred around making sure it can 
drive the I/O in a backup solution (data coming in from the network 
going to disk and out to tape, possibly all at the same time).

I've used Veritas NetBackup on a few occasions and I've found it to be a 
good backup product.  It also is supported on the likes of RedHat and Suse.

	from,
		Steve.