David Phillips wrote: > superbeast writes: > >>1. I was thinking about going with 8 200gb SATA hdd. I guess I would >>get the 3Ware 8-port SATA controller and use hw raid 5. There are >>alot of arguments about using sw vs. hw raid, but I think I need the >>controller anyways just to support 8 drives in one box. Is that right? > > > Hardware RAID is much better. There are many advantages to having it > separate from the OS. One of them being you can boot from it. > > >>2.I'm thinking about performing daily backups to the hdd rather than >>tape. The raid will protect them from hdd failure, and they only need >>5 days worth of backups. I think the only problem would be with a >>disaster situation. Any other thoughts? > > > Backing up to IDE HDs is almost always the cheapest solution. Backing up to > the same RAID array will protect you from accidental deletions, etc., but > not from the entire array being corrupted (unlikely, but possible). > > >>4. It seems to me that I could build a decent file server with 1.2tb >>for between $3k and $4k. Am I missing something? > > > Nope. The company I work for has built several like that recently. They > work quite well. > I agree that your thinking is pretty correct. I would recommend some sort of off machine backup - if you are looking for cheap and easy it's hard to beat a cheapo ($250) computer with a big humpin hard drive located as far away from the server as possible (backup over a network link). Kent _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota Help beta test TCLUG's potential new home: http://plone.mn-linux.org Got pictures for TCLUG? Beta test http://plone.mn-linux.org/gallery tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list