Backup Station

[jsbowen]

Hey all.

I am considering recommending a backup workstation to replace the current tapes backup system the Firm has now.

What I would like to do is setup a RAID system with about 3 drives now and have it explanable to at least 6 in the future. Otherwise, I just want to put an average processor, RAM, etc. in this system. Since its only purpose will be to backup over the wire, I will need to put a gigabit NIC in it.

The main points that I would like to get input on are the case, the motherboard, RAID controller, and hard drives.

Here's what I'm thinking for each component:

Motherboard - I have no particular one in mind

Processor - something in the lower 2 ghz range and 32 bit

Raid controller - really not set on one

Hard drive - dependable and about 100GB for each

Case - space to have a CDROM, Tape drive, and hold at least 6 hard drives

I will warn you, I've never built a system from scratch.

Thanks in advance for all the help.

[Pierce]

First off, you want to use FreeBSD, or a linux system. Reason being is that their formatting is extremly efficent compared to FAT/NTFS tables.

Secondly *nix because its TCP/IP Stack is more effient allowing you to use more of that gigabit nic.

If your not comfortable using *nix, then stick with windows, preferably a windows 2k3 operating system and not windows xp.

With 3 drives you cant "mirror", with 6 you could setup a Raid 5, and have stripping and mirroring accross 2 sets of 3. (so you have 6 hard drives, each 200GB big, would be 600GB of storage not 1.2TB, cause the other 600GB is being used to mirror.

The best way to think about expanding is like this. If you have to expand your talking about buying not 3 new drives, but 6 (if you only start with 3). Because its best to keep all the drives exactly the same.

Bit of advice, burn test the drives for 24/48 hours before usage (this if you dont know means write/read stuff of the drives to make sure they wont fail)

Motherboard anything that can handle Raid5

Processor preferably AMD, better memory management

Hard drives, a 200GB sata150 set me back $100 today, $600 on drives is not a lot if it saves you time and money in the future unless your tightend money wise.

A 650watt powersupply

Case, any really tall towercase, that has plenty of space for fans front and back

You need to have the gigabit nic built into the motherboard, unless your going pci-e, because pci has a dataflow limit which gigabit nic over takes. The network structure for gigabit ethernet is fragile, preferably all cable is bought with pre-moulded cables and gold contacts. The cable also needs to be able to handle 350mhz frequencies.

If your network is 100mbit limited then trying to achive gigabit is impossible. Also you need to consider hard drive speeds. Gigabit ethernet is speeds of 128MB/s, so each hard drive needs to be able to write at 43MB/s+. Unless your cute and put 4GB of ram into it, and create a huge ram drive.

Achiving gigabit ethernet is hard, and you need to invest in high quality hardware. Using windows is also going to slow down your gigabit ethernet.

Pierce

[Aluvus]

I'll echo the recommendation for RAID 5; it simply makes the most sense. But I'll redo the math a little. Starting out with 3 drives (the minimum for RAID 5), and assuming a capacity of 200 GB each, you would have 400 GB of storage (ignoring the quirks of hard drive capacity specs). With 6 drives, 800 GB.

As for the drives, I would go with this Seagate because it is currently $100 - $50 rebate for 200 GB of space. It's a solid deal.

RAID controller: I haven't shopped these in a while, but Adaptec is one of the better brands. I would go with a PCI solution simply because you're likely to get support for more drives than with onboard. Most modern standalone controllers support RAID 5.

Case: big and airy. With so many drives, you're going to want a full tower that has plenty of drive bays and space for at least one, preferably 2 or 3, 120 mm fans. And maybe some 80 mm as well. That many drives (especially Seagates) will produce a fair amount of heat.

Buy a good power supply. With a lot of extra headroom. If it were me, I'd tend to overshoot with a PC Power & Cooling Turbo Cool 510 (also in 24 pin). Solid quality, high capacity, 1% regulation, and a 5 year warranty.

For all the rest, it would probably be easiest to repurpose an old system. For this type of duty, not that much is really required of the processor. An Athlon XP Barton, downclocked to maybe 75% of its stock speed (less heat) would do the trick. Tack on an nForce2 motherboard with some sort of integrated video and ethernet (some nForce2 Ultra 400 boards include gigabit ethernet), and you're in good shape for cheap.

[jsbowen]

Thanks for all the suggestions!

I was planning on doing a RAID 5 setup, but wasn't sure why types of hard drives to go with. When I learned hard drives, there were only IDE and SCSI. How different is SATA to work with?

Also, I will have to run a Windows setup as I'm going to use existing BackupExec licensing.

As you can tell, I'm not a hardware guy at all. I can handle networking, web development and software, but I've never had to deal with much hardware.

This is what I have so far. I would appreciate it if you all could check to see if I've made any glaring mistakes in the following system:

MB - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16813128281

Processor - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16819103417

Power/Cooling - http://www.pcpowercooling.com/products/vie...php?show=T51ATX

RAM - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16820236112

Harddrives (3) - http://shop3.outpost.com/product/4008252

I haven't picked out a RAID controller or a case yet. If you all could point me in the right direction for a case, that would be great. Also, I'm going to add a Gbit NIC and a cheap PCI video card.

Again, your help is greatly appreciated.

[Pete_C]

What are you using to do these backups; and how much data (or ghost image file ) do you have? Since you are dealing with a Network, would a Network Attatched Storage (NAS) drive be an option?

How many computers are you backing up? Do you do it automatically or manually?

[jsbowen]

What are you using to do these backups; and how much data (or ghost image file ) do you have?  Since you are dealing with a Network, would a Network Attatched Storage (NAS) drive be an option? 

How many computers are you backing up? Do you do it automatically or manually?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

All good questions, Pete.

My goal with this, is to create my own NAS, but not have any proprietary hardware that some NAS devices include.

I will primarily be backing up two servers, one Windows 2000 and the other NetWare 6.0, but Windows XP workstations wouldn't be out the question. Total backup size should be in the 90GB range, currently uncompressed. This will be an automatic full backup nightly through BackupExec. Once or twice a week, I will also make a copy to DDS4 tape for off-site storage.

[Pete_C]

What are you using to do these backups; and how much data (or ghost image file ) do you have?  Since you are dealing with a Network, would a Network Attatched Storage (NAS) drive be an option? 

How many computers are you backing up? Do you do it automatically or manually?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

All good questions, Pete.

My goal with this, is to create my own NAS, but not have any proprietary hardware that some NAS devices include.

I will primarily be backing up two servers, one Windows 2000 and the other NetWare 6.0, but Windows XP workstations wouldn't be out the question. Total backup size should be in the 90GB range, currently uncompressed. This will be an automatic full backup nightly through BackupExec. Once or twice a week, I will also make a copy to DDS4 tape for off-site storage.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ah, I understand now. I was wondering why you did not just buy off the shelf, like a Ximeta or buffalo 250- 300GB

http://www.ximeta.com/products/network_dri...disk/index.html

Of course Buffalo Technology offers ones with RAID already setup

http://www.buffalotech.com/products/catego...p?categoryid=10

1.6Terrabyte, now that is storage.

[jsbowen]

I've picked out my RAID controller:

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/Product...ategory_id=5689

Dell had the cheapest price I could find.

Any issues with this and the above configuration?

[Parrotgeek7]

I think pete has the best solution. Find a NAS, HP makes some good ones that you can easily hot swap scsi drives in and out of (remember, that after the inital backup, you're not writing 90new gis of info everyday, just whats changed, so a set of 250G scsi will last you a while.

[jsbowen]

I think pete has the best solution. Find a NAS, HP makes some good ones that you can easily hot swap scsi drives in and out of (remember, that after the inital backup, you're not writing 90new gis of info everyday, just whats changed, so a set of 250G scsi will last you a while.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I appreciate the suggestion, but I'm going to stick to my guns with this. I want to put something together myself, so I can control all the components. The main hangups I had with pre-built NAS devices (and I've looked at quite a few) were the lack of Novell support and proprietary hardware.

As I've said, I'm not much of a hardware guy, but was hoping to find some help on picking out a case and motherboard, as those are the two things I'm most confused on.

[Parrotgeek7]

I think pete has the best solution. Find a NAS, HP makes some good ones that you can easily hot swap scsi drives in and out of (remember, that after the inital backup, you're not writing 90new gis of info everyday, just whats changed, so a set of 250G scsi will last you a while.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I appreciate the suggestion, but I'm going to stick to my guns with this. I want to put something together myself, so I can control all the components. The main hangups I had with pre-built NAS devices (and I've looked at quite a few) were the lack of Novell support and proprietary hardware.

As I've said, I'm not much of a hardware guy, but was hoping to find some help on picking out a case and motherboard, as those are the two things I'm most confused on.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Just get a big Antec case and an Intel mobo w/on board video, a Celeron D, several hdds and alot of ram. NAS's don't need to be powerfull, they just need to be reliable