Jason
Guest
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 Posted:
Thu Oct 27, 2005 1:24 am Post subject:
Ideas of affordable SCSI solution for downsizing 120 person |
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We have to retire an end-of-life fiber SAN and replace it with
something that costs under $15k. The office is downsizing from about
120 to 60 people in the next three years, and after that will not need
a solution. We have been oversold so many times from vendors but this
time I can end that cycle.
Currently we have about 150GB of Windows user files, many of them
static, and 50GB of very active Exchange mail stores. I was very
excited to see that DELL sells refurb PowerVault 220S with 14x73GB(15k)
drives for under $5k, but then I saw that the 220S has a very bad
reputation (hence the price?). Even DELL's community support forum has
a sticky FAQ about the problems. We have two DELL PE 2550 servers that
would have hosted the 220S just fine.
But when I look at HP solutions the prices are much higher, in some
cases just for their SATA solutions. Can anyone suggest something that
could handle both the space requirements and performance requirements
for Exchange?
My thought at this point is simply to buy two refurbed DELL PE servers
for about $5k each. I see one now that has 2x73GB(10k) and 3x300GB(10k)
SCSI disks. I mirror the 73s and RAID-5 the 300GB. Use that for the
file server and then do something similar for Exchange but go for the
15k drives instead. I know Exchange runs better configured with more
drives but this office will be downsizing as will the mail stores. As
part of this project I'd also do disk-to-disk backups to inexpensive
SATA disks for added security (we have tape too).
Anyway, ideas or suggestions appreciated. I have about four months left
working here and want to leave them something simple yet reliable.
-Jason |
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The Moojit
Guest
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| Posted:
Sat Oct 29, 2005 6:09 am Post subject:
Re: Ideas of affordable SCSI solution for downsizing 120 per |
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I would suggest staying in an entry-level fibre channel RAID controller.
HP's MSA1000, single controller, no failover may meet your requirements.
Also try finding a refurb or ebay of this same model. It's very simple to
configure. If this is still too complicated/expensive, have a look at JMR
and some of thier JBOD solutions.
The Moojit
"Jason" <shortpet@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1130358289.987325.120070@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
| Quote: | We have to retire an end-of-life fiber SAN and replace it with
something that costs under $15k. The office is downsizing from about
120 to 60 people in the next three years, and after that will not need
a solution. We have been oversold so many times from vendors but this
time I can end that cycle.
Currently we have about 150GB of Windows user files, many of them
static, and 50GB of very active Exchange mail stores. I was very
excited to see that DELL sells refurb PowerVault 220S with 14x73GB(15k)
drives for under $5k, but then I saw that the 220S has a very bad
reputation (hence the price?). Even DELL's community support forum has
a sticky FAQ about the problems. We have two DELL PE 2550 servers that
would have hosted the 220S just fine.
But when I look at HP solutions the prices are much higher, in some
cases just for their SATA solutions. Can anyone suggest something that
could handle both the space requirements and performance requirements
for Exchange?
My thought at this point is simply to buy two refurbed DELL PE servers
for about $5k each. I see one now that has 2x73GB(10k) and 3x300GB(10k)
SCSI disks. I mirror the 73s and RAID-5 the 300GB. Use that for the
file server and then do something similar for Exchange but go for the
15k drives instead. I know Exchange runs better configured with more
drives but this office will be downsizing as will the mail stores. As
part of this project I'd also do disk-to-disk backups to inexpensive
SATA disks for added security (we have tape too).
Anyway, ideas or suggestions appreciated. I have about four months left
working here and want to leave them something simple yet reliable.
-Jason
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