TB Server

HDD Failure in my TB Array Update

Steve Bargelt — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 01:16:00 GMT

I finally the email notification that I've been waiting to receive.

[ORTHANC][1017] [CRITICAL][8/23/2006] [5:23:00 PM] [Controller Group 1] A Rebuild has Started on Array 1.

Yes it took me 9 days to get my main server Orthanc up and functional... mostly my fault. Kind a comedy of errors. See when the drive died I figured that it would be quicker to order a new drive from newegg.com then when it arrived I was going to RMA the dead drive back to Maxtor and keep the replacement as a spare. Well the first thing I did was use a "saved" credit card that was expired. Next fiasco - I ended up re-ordering from newegg.com and I ordered a parallel drive instead of a serial drive. Of course I didn't notice that fact until I had removed the dead drive and completely mounted the new parallel drive. Argh. Yes next chance I get I'm going with a hot-swap case! This was last Friday right before I left for 4 days of camping.

Before we hopped in the motorhome I decided to do the Maxtor RMA and the process was damned painless and 100% automated. Received the drive today, swapped the parallel drive our for the serial drive (did I mention that I really want a hot-swap case?) booted, set the new drive as a spare and boom the array is rebuilding (approximate time to rebuild = 6 hours).

Now I just hope that this was an anomaly - I'd hate to have to start replacing drives. Time to fill up some DVD+Rs with backup content!

tags: array, terabyte, tb, drvie+failure, raid, maxtor

TB Server: Power Supply Problem

Steve Bargelt — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 02:57:00 GMT

So after receiving my Tyan motherboard and reading the documentation I realized that the power supplies I had planned to use would not work. The Tyan motherboard requires an EPS12V compatible power supply.

What is EPS12V? EPS12V is a special, non-ATX standard adopted by the Server System Infrastructure (SSI) group to provide a more powerful and stable environment for critical server-based systems and applications. EPS12V equipment is not compatible with standard ATX or ATX12V PCs found in homes and offices. Power supplies built to the EPS12V standard include a 24-pin motherboard power connector and an 8-pin +12V connector.

Reading on in the Tyan manual they also recommend dual 12V. So I decided to check out Tyan.com to see if they had a list of recommended hardware. They do. Here is the list of power supply recommendations:

Manufacturer	Model	Review	My Comments	Price
Enermax	EG701AX-VE (W)SFMA	BigBruin.com	I do not see that this PS is EPS12V Enermax’s web site sucks	$125.00
Enermax	EG651AX-VE	Hi-Techreviews.com	Enermax’s web site sucks	$169.00
PC Power & Cooling	Turbo-Cool 850 SSI	MadShrimps.com	Simply Kick-Ass Selected for the MaximumPC Dream Machine 2005 Expensive!!!!!	$449.00
I-Star Computer Co. Ltd.	TC-500R8A		Not SLI I’ve had two I-Star power supplies fail on me	$412.00
SilverStone	ST-65ZF	PlanetAmd64.com	Very Nice Reasonable price	$169.99
Zippy (Emacs)	HP2-6460P		Not SLI No way in hell am I putting a “Zippy” anything in Orthanc!!!	$100.00

Now I have to decide between the (now famous) PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 850 and the Silverstone ST-65ZF. The simple choice is the 850 SSI. Rave reviews everywhere, MaximumPC selected it to power their Dream Machine 2005 and it is built like a tank… it does have two strikes against it though. Strike 1 = the price. $450 is more than I have paid for any other single component aside from the raid card. That is insane! Strike 2 = it is out of stock everywhere. I probably would have bought one from NewEgg last week if they had been in stock. Okay Strike 3 – it is huge. I’ve read where you need to mod the CoolerMaster Stacker 810 to make the 850 SSi fit. Okay – the simple choice is now the Silverstone ST-65ZF. I will update my component list next change I get.

TB Server: Processors, RAM, Video & System Drives

Steve Bargelt — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 17:10:00 GMT

I thought I would combine a few components that really aren’t all that special. Don’t get me wrong, these are pretty important components but I’m not going to tell you much that you don’t know about an AMD Opteron.

Processors: (2) AMD Opteron 246
The decision was between the Intel Xeon and the AMD Opteron. I was swayed over to AMD by three facts.

Opterons use less power than an equivalent Xeon.
Opterons create less heat than an equivalent Xeon.
I like AMD’s dual-core strategy / architecture better than Intel’s (even though I didn’t opt for dual-core processors)

Why did I select the Opteron 246 and not super-duper dual-core Opteron 280s? This decision was based almost exclusively on price. I paid a little under $240 per proc while dual-core 280s go for over $1300 each. Even the cheapest dual-core Opterons (270) sell in the $870 range. I figure in 12–18 months I can upgrade to dual dual-core processors and relegate my two Opteron 246s to media center front-end boxes – or sell them on ebay. This will also give me time to determine if the applications I use take advantage of multiple processors and then I can decide if I will benefit from multi-core processors.

RAM: (4) Corsair 1GB DDR SDRAM ECC Registered DDR 400 (PC 3200)
Not much to say here. The Tyan Thunder K8WE S2895 motherboard needs ECC Registered RAM. Corsair makes a solid product and these are reasonably priced for ECC Registered RAM. I decided on 4GB since I will be running, or at least experimenting with, 64bit operating systems. The Tyan motherboard also serves each processor with it’s own RAM… I’m not sure how that looks to the O/S… but 4GB of RAM seems like a good number.

Video: Leadtek Geforce 6200TC
Pretty simple. This was the cheapest PCI Express video card that newegg.com sells. I am not going to game with this machine… although my options are open and once I get this server up and running and do some performance benchmarking I may decide to put this machine under my desk instead of in the server closet. If I do decide to replace my current workstation I can upgrade to dual BFG GeForce 7800GTs in SLI while relegating the Leadtek to a media front end or to the “parts bin” as a backup card.

System Drives: Maxtor 200GB L01M200 8MB Buffer Serial ATA (SATA)
You will notice a theme. I picked up these drives at Fry’s for $69 each out the door. No mail-in-rebate to deal with. I will run these two drives in RAID 0, attached to the SATA RAID on the motherboard. These drives will only contain the O/S other easy-to-reinstall applications.

Next Post: The RAID Adapter and the data drives

Technorati Tags: terrabyte, computers, server, DIY, RAID

TB Server: The Motherboard

Steve Bargelt — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 15:11:00 GMT

I have chosen the Tyan Thunder K8WE (S2895) dual AMD Opteron motherboard as the basis for my TB Server. MaximumPC chose this board to power their 2005 Dream Machine (aka DMX) and PlanetAMD64 picked this board for their ultimate graphics workstation. Yeah, I really wish I would have found the PlanetAMD64 article sooner – it would have saved me many hours of research into motherboards and cases! This was really a no-brainer selection as the Thunder K8WE has it all – the detailed specifications are here.

Supports dual AMD Opteron™ 200 series processors
Support for Registered DDR400 memory with ECC, ChipKill
DUAL PCI Express x16 slots with FULL SPEED x16 lanes
Integrated dual Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports, and ActiveArmor™ support
Built-in multi-channel audio
4-port SATA ports with SATA-II NVRAID™
1394a FireWire ports
NVIDIA nTune™ performance tuning support

Technorati Tags: terrabyte, computers, server, DIY, RAID, motherboard, Tyan

TB Server: Getting Started

Steve Bargelt — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 12:58:00 GMT

In my first post on this subject, I Need More Hard Drive Space I casually state at the end that “I am seriously considering a complete server retrofit (Option 4?) in order to get a 64-bit PCI or PCI-X slot or both.” Well folks I decided to take the plunge, that it was time to completely retire my two old workhorse servers Apollo and Athena which are both dual PIIIs with 512MB of RAM and assorted 120GB – 200GB IDE hard drives. And yes – by retire I mean make them useful Linux boxes of some sort. Nothing ever hits the graveyard around here.

In my first post my only real requirements were “I need more space and I need some level of fault tolerance. I think I’ve decided what I want is 1+ TB in RAID 5.” Since I’m going to be spending a rather large sum of money on my new server I am going to up the ante a bit.

Here are my new requirements:

2TB + in RAID 5
Dual processors with dual core possibilities
64bit support
Handle multiple VMs or VPCs
Low heat dissipation
Low power consumption
Case

Space for 10+ drives
Excellent cooling
Not too expensive (sub $400)

I’m not asking for much, am I?

Over the next few days I will post mini-reviews about each of the chosen components. Review is probably not the right term – I will speak to each component and highlight the features that led me to the choice. Next, I will create a series of posts tracking the build of my new TB server. Finally I will blog some performance numbers after the server is up and running.

Here is a synopsis of the hardware I have selected for my new system:

ORTHANC PHASE I
General Description	Item Detail	QTY	Price Each
Case	COOLER MASTER Stacker 810 RC-810-SSN1 Silver	1	$165.00
Motherboard	TYAN S2895A2NRF SSI EEB 3.0	1	$424.50
Processor	AMD Opteron 246 800MHz FSB	1	$239.00
RAM	CORSAIR 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM	2	$129.00
Video	Leadtek Geforce 6200TC PX6200 TC-64-H	1	$ 59.00
System HDD	Maxtor SATA Ultra 200 GB	2	$ 69.00
RAID Card	3ware 9550SX-8LP 64-bit/133MHz PCI-X SATA II Raid Controller Card	1	$509.00
RAID HDDs	Maxtor MaXLine III 300GB SATA	8	$133.00
Drive Cages	CoolerMaster	2	$ 16.95
Power Supply	Ultra X-Connect 500W ATX Modular Power Suppy	2	$14.99

Technorati Tags: terrabyte, computers, server, DIY, RAID

Awesome review of SATA RAID controllers

Steve Bargelt — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 05:13:00 GMT

As you may well know I am building a TB server – I found a great guide on Tom’s Hardware that compares five new SATA RAID controllers. I’ve decided on the AMCC/3Ware 9550SX-8LP for my machine (NewEgg is out of stock… so my machine build is on hold!).

[via Tom's Hardware Guide Mass Storage: SATA Spells Trouble for SCSI RAID: Five Controllers Put to the Test - SATA II Hits The RAID Stage]