Looking For RAID Hardware/Software Advice

[Eric Shubert]

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?
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Mark
> 

Good replies, all. To sum things up, I think a SATAII PCI card (2 or 4 
port) and 2 drives is all the HW you need to add to the backup box you 
currently have. Set up the drives with SW RAID-1 (mirrored) and you're 
good to go. Migrate the data to the raid device, and keep the OS on the 
existing drive.

With KeepItSimpleStupid in mind, I recommend using RAID-1 as opposed to 
RAID-5. With the price of drives these days, the additional space you 
get with RAID-5 isn't worth the headache you'll get when there's a 
problem. With RAID-1, each drive can be mounted (and used) individually 
if necessary. Not so with RAID-5.

-- 
-Eric 'shubes'