On Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 9:58 AM, Craig White wrote: > On Fri, 2009-01-16 at 09:36 -0700, Mark Phillips wrote: > > I am running out of room for my backups. I use backuppc and I have > > almost filled a 150GB drive with backups from 7 computers, and I need > > to add another 2 computers to the set. I have an old Dell Poweredge > > 1300 server (Pentium III 550 Mhz, 500 MB RAM, PCI 33.3Mhz) that I > > could turn into a backup server. I am looking for suggestions/thoughts > > on how to set this up. I need to keep the cost down as much as > > possible; under $150. > > > > My initial thoughts: > > > > * Keep current 72 GB drive for OS (debian testing, about 68% full) > > * Add two 500 GB SATA drives and a PCI SATA controller ~$130 > > * Software RAID and LVM for the two drives > > * Move current 150 GB of backups to the RAID > > * Backuppc now runs on this machine and slowly fills up the RAID > > > > > > My questions: > > > > 1. Should I keep the 72 GB drive for OS, or put it on the RAID? > > > > 2. I can add another CPU (P III 550 MHz) processor to the box - is it > > worth the effort to find one? I found one source for $5/CPU, I just > > need to find the heat sink and mounting hardware. Will this improve > > performance? > > > > 3. The box has a built-in SCSI 68-pin Ultra2/wide bus/controller, but > > SCSI drives are more expensive, at least from a cursory google search. > > Is this correct? I don't think I can use SCSI drives within my budget > > constraint. > > > > > > 4. Would upgrading the memory to 1GB improve performance - top shows: > > Mem: 646676k total, 639300k used 7376k free, 64548k > > buffers > > This would add another ~$60 to my cost. > > > > > > 5. Should I look at hardware RAID cards - they seem very cheap, so > > perhaps software is better? > > > > 4. Does this plan make sense, or is there a better way to proceed for > > about the same cost? > ---- > 1. One of the tricky things about backuppc (and I don't use it so I am > working from just a general understanding of things) is that it > creates/utilizes lots of hard linked files so if the boot os dies, your > backup may die along with it. The point of RAID is the redundancy part > which means things just keep working even if there's a complete failure > of a single hard drive (assuming everything but RAID 0). Having a RAID > array for your OS would ensure that. OK, then I can dump the old OS and do a fresh install. Appears to be a little easier with Debian these days for RAID and LVM. > > > 2. Real hard to match processors at this point and unlikely you would > find one that exactly matched. Might be easier to find 2 that match each > other and install them both but for a backup box, that seems > unnecessary. I was trying to find another use for this monster (ie big imposing black Dell case....), so I thought I would have some fun with a dual processor. > > > 3. Yes, SCSI drives are more expensive - but performance should be much > better. > > 4. RAM may help a little. Free shows output of virtual memory but > doesn't suggest how much real RAM you have there. Assuming a text based > interface (not GUI), 256 MB RAM for what you're doing should be enough. There is currently 512 MB installed. > > > 5. Cheap RAID hardware cards are cheap because they suck. Most of the > SATA 'RAID' cards are either 'fake' RAID (they aren't really hardware > RAID) and perform especially poorly on commonly used RAID 5 (3 drives > minimum but maximum drive space). So, I need three 500GB drives, not 2? And 3 PCI SATA controllers (based on your comments below)? Any recommendations on manufacturerers? Do all three drives have to be the same? > > > 6. Makes sense. Especially since you are better at creating a list of 6 consecutive numbers than I am. ;-) > > > Software RAID works well. You can create a RAID volume for your OS is > you wish - i.e. one drive on SCSI and one on SATA but the suck thing is > that... > - You can't just convert from an existing filesystem to a RAID array. > You'd have to copy it all off, create your RAID array, copy the files > back and then fix the boot issues > - RAID works much better if the drives are on different controllers - a > controller can only write one drive at a time. Thanks! > > > Craig > > --------------------------------------------------- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss >