[YLUG] Server purchase

[Richard G. Clegg]

Robert Hulme wrote:
>> I've had a brief scout and the hardware RAID I could see
>> involved stupidly expensive SCSI disks -- is this unavoidable?
> 
> The Megaraid cards are reasonable inexpensive real hardware SATA RAID
> cards. We use them in our Linux boxen at work.

AHa... I had seen them but wasn't sure if they were the right thing.

> Depending on what the server is going to be doing you could then
> either use normal 7200RPM disks or the 10,000RPM SATA Raptor disks.

Well, it's been running happily on very standard desktop kit for years 
(hardware failure notwithstanding) so I guess we don't really need the 
extra RPM but it might be nice to future proof.  I will look at the 
price trade off.

>> Does this seem a reasonable set up?  Anything I need
>> to think about?
> 
> Sounds reasonable to me. There are some projects out there that do
> this kind of thing... I don't really know much about it but
> 'Ultramonkey' rings a bell.

Thanks, I'd come across that one in my web-based searches on the subject 
but it's nice to have it confirmed that it does the right kind of thing.

-- 
Richard G. Clegg,
Networks & NonLinear Dynamics Group,
Dept. of Maths, Uni. of York.
http://www.richardclegg.org/