[rescue] A Question about Snap Servers

[Bob Keyes]

On Fri, 30 Jul 2004, Zach Lowry wrote:

> Well, the big problem is that I don't want another clunky PC sitting
> around, I'd like something with a low power draw and small desk
> footprint. Can you recommend any other kind of "appliance" that can
> support large disks like this?

What's the application? What's important? if you're just looking for some
place to store all of your MP3s, you can get a stack of 200gb drives and
fit them in a desktop case. But get 5400 rpm drives. The faster the drive,
the more power it takes and heat it radiates. At work I have a machine
with 4 x 160GB 7200RPM SATA drives and it gets HOT! If you get a PC case
for it, lots of them have a space in the front of the case for an
additional fan; I suggest it.

For the above described application, I had to buy seperate SATA
controllers; the motherboard didn't come with them built in. I couldn't
find a place that had 4 ports SATA cards that had all the connectors
inside, so I had to go with 2 separate cards, which left my no PIC slots
for the SCSI card for the tape backup, so it's done over the ethernet. Far
from optimal. Also, I had problems with some brands of SATA cards not
being linux compatible. So, if you go the SATA route, be careful.

Linux has nice software RAID functionality. Not to be a linux chauvanist,
I am sure some other OSs do, as well (I never feel comfortable pluralizing OS,
or using period to abbreviate it. Has anyone else here read "Eats, shoots,
and leaves"?). This may be particular to the motherboard I was using, but
I couldn't support more than 4 ide devices. I had thought that more cards
would mean more devices, until I ran out of IRQs.

-Bob

p.s. anyone need a sysadmin / wireless junkie / security guy in the Boston
area? I am getting tired of my job and want to move one (Bill, maybe a
jobs at rescue mailing list is in order?).