Topic: 3ware 8506 - 8 SATA raid

[David Woolley]

Hi,

I'm considering making a server for audio & video streaming to my LAN.

Could you advise me:

1. Should I plan to have a separate ATA boot disk for the os?

2. Will SME run this raid card with 8 x 250GB drives as one i-bay?

3. Does SME 6.0bx have any issues with Intel 845GE chipset or Intel 82540EM gigabit LAN controller?

4. Any better ideas or reasons not to do this?

Many thanks

David

[%sig%]

[Reinhold]

1. You do not need one with that controller - your decision -
...you may go raid1 for system drive mirrored and raid5 for (all) that storage.

2. YES (...raid5-ed this is going to be one drive and capacity will be (8-1)x250Gb)

3. Not afaik ... running a 845GE here ... nic is supported by kernel used ... look at RH 7.3 compatibility data for more.

4. No - except: go buy a good (hotplugging) case if you can afford this too.
...and do buy a good case/powersupply (solution).
you may want to look at serial-ata solutions - look around at the 3ware site.

[David Woolley]

Many thanks Reinhold.  I think I can take that as a green light

btw, the case I was considering is http://www.tmc-uk.com/Products/enclosure/rackmount/2u/RM215.htm

all the best

David

[%sig%]

[Reinhold]

David,

Case looks good to me

Just one little reminder: With 2U 19" all fans (6+) will be of miniature type.
Thoses beasts are incredibly noisy (and still run somewhat hot).
IF you do not plan on a separate room you better go 3U or 4U
 ...most likely same price or cheaper (configured for same no of drives i.e.).
Imo: cpu cooler looks crappy .-) buy Intel-in-a-box or better.
 
GA

[bill]

Dave I have a few questions about some of your old posts, anyway I can email you?

[dmajwool]

Dave I have a few questions about some of your old posts, anyway I can email you?

Sure, do you have my address?

David

[dmajwool]

Report after a couple of months use

This server is working fine and replays about 100 48kHz 16 bit wav files simultaneously, which is good enough for me.

I do have a bit of a problem which is that under much lower load than 100 files occasionally (like once a day) my audio workstation application gives the message "disk too slow" meaning that the server cannot stream the files fast enough for the app to play in real time.

Anyone know if there is some SME housekeeping function that runs occasionally that may interrupt serving streamed files?  Or should I be looking elsewhere?

Thanks

David

[Graeme Fleming]

.. if the slowdown is at the same time (approx) each day then just run top on the SME box and watch the output.

If you are generating a lot of traffic off the system then perhaps the logrotate process is having to do a lot of work compressing and archiving the Samba logs.

HTH

[dmajwool]

Thanks Graeme.  I'll have a look

David