Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001 07:57:57 -0700 From: Edwin Culp <eculp@EnContacto.Net> To: Lawrence Farr <freebsd-hw@epcdirect.co.uk> Cc: "'Paul Chvostek'" <paul@it.ca>, freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org, msmith@freebsd.org, eric@fnordsystems.com Subject: RE: Server recommendation for co-location. Message-ID: <1002725877.3bc461f518856@Mail.SavvyWorld.Net> In-Reply-To: <001b01c15198$b49b73d0$c806a8c0@lfarr> References: <001b01c15198$b49b73d0$c806a8c0@lfarr>
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Thanks, Lawrence. I wasn't aware of this. I wonder if Mike Smith would be kind enough to add a little of his first hand knowledge of 3ware and if we should jump ship. Thanks, ed Quoting Lawrence Farr <freebsd-hw@epcdirect.co.uk>: | 3ware have withdrawn sales of their controllers. see: | | http://www.3ware.com/products/EscaladeLetter.asp?Title=Product&subTitle= | 3&ImageNumber=2 | | Lawrence Farr | EPC Direct Limited mailto:lawrence@epcdirect.co.uk | T:01179666123 F:01179666111 M:07970780901 | | -----Original Message----- | From: owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG | [mailto:owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG] On Behalf Of Edwin Culp | Sent: 10 October 2001 14:35 | To: Paul Chvostek | Cc: freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG | Subject: Re: Server recommendation for co-location. | | | Paul, thank you for taking the time to make these suggestions. They are | excellent and I will certainly share the results with the list. | | I have purchased what I consider to be the best solution for our | company, | right now. I know many folks will have issues with 3ware, drives in the | | same box, etc. but it meets our specs and is within our budget of | "unlimited | cash":-) that you mention and seems solid good ventilation, adequete | power | in a 4u box. The server can be seen at: | http://www.fnordsystems.com/4U_fnord_430_product_page.shtmlServerworks | III HE-SL | | I have been thinking about vinum across the two controlers and would be | very | interested to hear of experiences, especially with 3ware raid and vinum. | The | bios issue is very important and I'll have a solution before deploying | in | Singapore. I plan to work these issues out here in the office before | sending | it to the co-location facility. RealWeasel looks really interesting. | Maybe | I can even get on their "asses saved" page (LOL) The FnordSystem has | Serverworks III HE-SL chipset. I've never used it but it does come well | recommended although I don't remember anything from the specs about the | ability to "spew" to the serial port,though.:-) | | Thanks again and I would appreciate any comments or suggestions, | especially | with vinum. | | ed | | | | Quoting Paul Chvostek <paul@it.ca>: | | | | | Hi Edwin. | | | | On the basis of your specs, I infer that you have unlimited cash. :) | | | | I have three things to add to your equation. Since this box will be | | mostly inaccessible, you should probably allocate at least two drives | | as spares in your RAID. Having one spare is obvious, but you really | | don't want to have to do repairs to this unit even *after* a failure | | if you can help it, and one more drive is (relatively) cheap. | | | | Which brings us to the second point. I've just been probing the list | | regarding a problem I'm having with a Dell PowerEdge that has a | | MegaRAID controller in it. I can't find any way to have the RAID | | controller tell FreeBSD that there's a problem, without doing hardware | | mods that void the warranty on the unit. (I'm still looking.) If you | | plan to buy a brand-name box (Dell, IBM, whatever), MAKE SURE that the | | configuration you're using includes the ability to report drive (and | | fan and heat) problems to the operating system. The man page for | | ports/sysutils/healthd lists a number of monitoring chipsets for the | | basic stuff, but I don't know where you'd look for the RAID, unless | | you don't mind the performance hit and are comfortable running vinum. | | | | The third point ... is that you want remote access to this box at all | | times. The Dell PowerEdge server I installed yesterday has a BIOS | | setting that apparently lets the unit spew its CMOS config interface | | through the serial port. For a less vendor-specific solution, check | | out http://www.realweasel.com/. It's an awesome product. | | | | When you complete your research, please let the list know. I'm sure | | lots of us will be interested in your findings. | | | | p | | | | | | On Tue, Sep 25, 2001 at 07:16:23PM -0700, Edwin Culp wrote: | | > | | > I need to co-locate a server in Singapore so reliability is | | > important:-). I am thinking of something with a ServerWorks | | > LE-based board, multiprocessor, but with one P-III Xeon to | | > start, running at from 700 Mhz to 1,000 Mhz, 2Gb initial ram, | | > an extremely well ventilated box with multiple, hot swap, | | > power supplies 500-750 watts, each. I would like to have a | | > Raid 10 array with from .5 TB to 1 TB initially. | | > I find the 3ware escalade 64 bit, switched, 7000 series to be a a | | > very compelling solution but I remember seeing a thread not long | | > ago about it having pretty serious problems in one installation, | | > but I've also heard some very good things about it. Does anyone | | > know of a solid raid 10 SCSI solution for FreeBSD? | | > | | > All suggestions appreciated especially about 3ware, motherboard, | | > drives, etc. If I remember the drives that were having problems | | > in the 3ware thread were IBM, so they are out. I was thinking | | > about maxtor, I've used several (7500 rpm) for a couple | | > of years with no problems. | | > | | > Now for the hard part, our finance guy wants to lease the equipment | | > and would prefer to buy from a supplier rather than build it in | house.:-( | | > He obviously suggested, IBM, Dell, HP, Compaq, etc. etc. all of | which | | > have more trade-offs than I would like to make. Does anyone know of | a | | real | | > company that [could|would|does] build[s] something similar? | | > | | > Thanks, | | > | | > ed | | > | | > --- | | > | | > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org | | > with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the message | | | | -- | | Paul Chvostek | <paul@it.ca> | | Operations / Development / Abuse / Whatever vox: +1 416 | 598-0000 | | IT Canada | http://www.it.ca/ | | | | | | | | | --- | | To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org | with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the message | | --- To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the message
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