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Wednesday 8 August 2012

Server plans

One of my servers is 90% full - that means I need to upgrade it from 2tb volumes to 4tb before it hits 100%. I was using 2tb volumes because fdisk-type partitions can't cope with 4tb, but there's a new type of partition, the GPT, and that can, so with a more recent version of Linux, I can have these bigger partitions.

I'm also going to try using 3tb drives - I've read that some motherboards can't handle them, so I'm going to get just one, to experiment with. 3tb drives are now the same price-per-byte as 2tb, so they're now a sensible buy.

I'm also going to make my first foray into SSD (solid state drives). They're much faster than mechanical drives, and because they don't have moving parts, I can hope they'll be less failures. I'm going to use 16gb SSDs for the system drive - SSD is far too expensive to use it for mass data storage. So I've ordered the SSDs, they come in at about $40 (£25) for a 16gb drive. We'll see how that goes. I also ordered ten 4-port Sata cards; they'll be needed to make the beefier servers. I got them for $15 (£10); I've been paying £25, so I'm hoping that these cheaper ones actually work! Bluepoint offer 30gb SSDs for £33, so I might also try those.

So, I'm planning to make four servers. Three of the "small" ones, with 4 2-tb drives, and one of the larger, with a 3tb and 5 2tbs. I already had 4 2tbs in stock, so I'll need to order 14 more, plus the 3tb.

2 comments:

  1. Well Doc, thats a lot of terras, But is this just to house all those stories you wrote about Father Christams and his IT system you installed for him some 30 years ago? Or Does this house all the original software for the good ole Doctor Solomon's Toolkit 1978 Edition, when both you and I weree much younger than we are now:)

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  2. You're referring to the stories about Rudolf the Red (the reindeer's shop steward).

    Actually, the earliest Toolkit edition was 1988.

    The stories are here:


    http://www.drsolly.com/stories.htm

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