First , I must apologize for the delay, and second I want to thank you
for your answers.
So, it appears that :
- A good RAID is an hardware RAID.
- You can't put non Sun disks in a Sun A1000 (the firmware is a special
one).
- Sun disks for A1000 are a lot _too_ expensive (3 times the street
price).
- RAID 5 is space consumer.
Ok, we will use an hardware driven RAID, but the Sun solution is too
expensive. We have gathered some information from others RAID
manufacturer : Digital, Mylex and CMD.
The Digital solution is quit similar than the Sun one : the raid
controller is not very expensive, but the disks are _very_ expensive,
and they also ave a special firmware, so they are mandatory.
The Mylex (960 SXI) and the CMD (5440) solution are very near also. They
use a SCSI to SCSI model, so they can be put on any computer with SCSI
capabilities.
The RAID controllers are about the same price than the Sun or the
Digital ones, but normal SCSI disks are used. This makes _the_ point.
First we can use the new 36 Go SCSI disks (the Sun RAID is limited to 18
Go), and a 36 Go disk costs about $1700 (the Sun 18 Go costs about
$2500)
want to use some other harware driven RAID.
The Mylex RAID comes with a RAID bay (N'Stor) designed for him, and have
2 SCSI bus. The Mylex guy says we can put 2 RAID bays with 7 disks on
each of the 2 channels (up to 2*2*7*36 Go) driven by only one RAID
controller.
So now we will buy :
- Sun Ultra 5 333 Mhz
- Ultra SCSI card
- Mylex RAID with 8*36 Go disks (about $25000).
Does this sounds OK for you ?
And of course thank you :
- Owens, Vincent J [Vincent.Owens@capgemini.co.uk]
- Carsten B. Knudsen [cbk@terma.dk]
- Pang Toon Fatt [tfpang@pacific.net.sg]
- Richard Gibbs [rgibbs@nwc.com.jm]
- Nicolas De Rico [derico@drea.dnd.ca]
- Jon LaBadie [jon@jgcomp.com]
- Jeff Woolsey [woolsey@jlw.com]
> -----Message d'origine-----
> De: Frederic Piard [mailto:Frederic.Piard@erli.fr]
> Date: lundi 11 janvier 1999 17:46
> À: Sun Manager List (Adresse de messagerie)
> Cc: Frederic Piard
> Objet: Question about RAID 5 on Sun hardware.
>
>
> Dear Gurus,
>
> We are about to buy a new data server with RAID disk, and as this kind
> of device is new to me I am looking for some advices.
>
> This new server will hold 50 or 100 Gb of datas, but must be
> expandable
> behond this limit. And, of course, the cheaper is the better :=))
> As it will be our Clearcase server (20 users), it must be able to do
> some CPU tasks.
> So I think I will put the datas on a pool of 6x18 Gb (RAID 5, hardware
> driven : A1000 or software : Solstice Disk Suite), and the OS
> on a pool
> of 2x4 Gb (Raid 0, software driven : Solstice Disk Suite).
> Sun said that the software controlled RAID 5 work well but needs a lot
> of CPU. Ok, but I don't know how much cpu it needs.
>
> I think there are (at less) four configuration that will
> match our needs
> :
>
> 1) An Ultra 5 333 Mhz with a differential SCSI card and a Sun StorEdge
> A1000 with 8x18 Gb disks for the datas, and a SCSI 3 card with 2x4 Gb
> external disks for the OS.
> Advantage : Hardware RAID
> Disavantage : Price, unexpandability, non redundant alimentation
>
> 2) An Enterprise Server 250 with one 300 Mhz Cpu, 6x18 Gb
> internal disks
> for the datas and 2x4Gb external disks for the OS.
> Advantage : Price, expandability, redundant alimentation
> Disavantage : Software RAID
>
> 3) An Enterprise Server 250 with two 250 Mhz Cpu, 6x18 Gb
> internal disks
> for the datas and 2x4Gb external disks for the OS.
> Advantage : Price, expandability, powerfull, redundant alimentation
> Disavantage : Software RAID
>
> 4) An Enterprise Server 250 with one 300 Mhz Cpu, a Sun StorEdge A1000
> with 6x18 Gb disks for the datas and 2x4 Gb internal disks for the OS.
> Advantage : Expandability, hardware RAID, redundant alimentation
> Disavantage : Price.
>
> I don't know if I have to chose between hardware or software RAID.
> At this time, if I had to chose an hardware RAID based solution I will
> chose No 1
> At this time, if I had to chose a software RAID based solution I will
> chose No 3
>
> And another question : do you think I can bought 18 Gb disk
> from another
> company than Sun ?
> I saw this kind of disk at half the price than the Sun one's !!!
>
> Do you have any tips to share ?
>
> Thank you, and I will summarize :=)
>
>
> -Frédéric Piard
>
> ERLI
> 261, rue de Paris - 93556 Montreuil, France
> E-mail : Frederic.Piard@erli.fr - WWW : <http://www.erli.fr>
>
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