Quick Hard Drive Question

[FlashMac]

Hello

Just about to order a new XServe with a RAID array:

Axux 12 bay SCSI - SATAII RAID Storage System configured with 5 x 750Gb for 3TB useable at RAID 5 including hot spare, 7 spare drive bays for up to 8.2TB useable.

One of my colleagues has suggested that data retrieval on 750Gb HDs would be too slow, and I know HP only support up to 300Gb for the same reason. To be honest its not something that would have occurred to me - is it something worth worrying about?
If we're talking milliseconds here then there's nothing in it for me, we publish books so we're not saving the world with seconds to spare or anything.

I don't have a huge amount of server experience so will be getting the supplier to install it (then its their fault if it goes wrong) but I have to agree the purchase, so any advice would be appreciated. My instinct is not to worry about it, its not like we're a rendering farm or something where every second counts.

Thanks

 

[Go3iverson]

I don't think you should have an issue, but it all depends on the architecture of the storage, really. The current Apple Promise RAID is configured primarily with 750GB SATA drives and provides very good performance. Any reason why you're going with the array you're looking at?

I don't think you'd find any real reason to not go with the 750's in your solution, but, again, that does depend on the architecture you have there. If the RAID is a new purchase, you could check with the vendor to provide you with a trial of the unit to be sure it meets your requirements.

I know tons of creative field folks (publishers, advertising, etc) that have Xserve RAIDs full of 750GB drives without issue.

Michael

 

[FlashMac]

Thanks! Yes, I think we'll just go with it.

Any reason why you're going with the array you're looking at?

Thats just what the reseller's offering in the quote. I don't really have time to research it thoroughly myself, otherwise I would try and second-guess them. Their work is guaranteed and I can always send it back if I'm not happy with it, to be honest on this one I just decided to hand it over to them as it was sprung on me with short notice (having refused to buy a Mac server for ages management suddenly told me we're getting one) and I've got about a dozen desktops to rebuild. I'm even going to pay the supplier to install and configure it as they have server guys and I don't have a lot of experience of building servers. Of course I'll be doing the Workgroup stuff etc and once its in I have to design an 8 Terabyte backup cycle. It might seem lazy to just go with what they say but I have to prioritize, I basically sent them a copy of the invoice they sent for the last one they installed for my sister company before I joined (which works beautifully), and "said same again please" with obviously the current versions of whatever were on that one, which we've had for about a year now.
Anyway, thanks for your reply!

 

[Go3iverson]

Cool. Fair enough. You may owe it to yourself to take a quick look at the Promise RAID that Apple now ships. It has active/active RAID controllers and would provide 4Gb FC connectivity instead of SCSI.

If you need to find a backup solution, take a peek at the white paper on my site. I should have a new version coming out soon, which outlines the new version of PresSTORE.

http://www.district13computing.com/projects.html

Feel free to ask if you have any questions. Putting in a new server is a big task. Be sure you're considering how you want to design your data storage, so that permissions are easy to follow and that you are leveraging any available Directory Services you have at your disposal.

Good luck!

Michael