Need some help on deciding what hardware to get for MSCS 1

[PHead2]

I have two servers, both of which have indentical SCSI cards installed...

I'm really unclear on what exactly the requirements are for the shared disk system. My understanding is that I need an external disk enclosure which can allow both servers to access its' drives.

If this is the case I'd like a unit which can have RAID arrays for redundancy. I assume the the enclosure should manage the RAID arrays so that the drives available to the servers appear identical at all time.

Any suggestions on the hardware, or am I off on my understanding of what is necessary/possible?

 

[GiaBetiu]

I don't understand exaclty what you want.
Whatever, don't forget to look on your disk drives to accept SCSI reservation protocol.
Then decide which kind of cable you want to use. Y or not. Depending on this choice you will know where to put terminators on your SCSI bus.
Again,.. about which brand to use for enclosure,... that I don't know the answer. Just searching google it gives me a lot of possibilities. it depends on requirements and the price able to pay for it.
Also, don't forget to have your hardware devices listed in the Microsoft HCL list.

Gia Betiu
gia@almondeyes.net
Computer Eng. CNE 4, CNE 5, MCSE Win2K
new:

http://www.almondeyes.net

(just started)

 

[PHead2]

I would like to get an external enclosure that handles the RAID array(s) and allows me to connect the two nodes of the cluster to it via SCSI cables.

If this is not possible then is it possible to buy any external SCSI enclosure I like and have identical SCSI RAID cards in the two nodes for setting up and accessing RAID arrays I create (for the quorum and other shared data)?

Is using a Y cable a good solution for attaching two nodes to an enclosure that has one external SCSI connector?

Price isn't too much of an issue, but I don't really need one of those enclosures that holds 14 drives which seem to be all that's available from the bigger vendors...

Thanks for your help.

 

[pebutler]

I did this using AMI express 300 RAID cards with Cluster Support turned on- make sure the SCSI ID's are not the same across the boxes! The RAID card you choose must have cluster support (i.e. the ability to recognize another HBA at the other end of the chain, and read config info from it).

I bought a two disk external SCSI box and put disks in it, cabled it, and was up and running. Paid about $65.00 for the disk box from

http://www.computergate.com.

 

[doomhamur]

I am going to do a cluster also. The hardware i have chosen with the help of some Dell engineers:

2 x Poweredge 2650's: 2 x2.8Ghz Xeon, 2GIG RAM, mirrored 36gig 15k drives, Perc 3QC external raid card

1 x Powervault 220s raid cage with 2 controllers and 5 73GIG 15k HD's. usint 2 cables.

1 x Powervault 110T LTO 200GB tape backup drive.

now, these servers may be overkill for some apps, but we are going to run our company database on this. you can also use the base 2650's or even 1650s.

I am also going to use VERTAS Cluster server rather than MSCS. you dont need advanced server, just standard and veritas has better performance and stability ratings than MSCS

You can also get everything you need from dell refurbised and a large discount if you have a tight budget. Dell refurbs can get the 3yr extended 24x7 support also.

If you get everything like mine it will cost about $24k for the hardware. use refurbished and you could do it for $10k.

Doomhamur
Network Engineer
"Certifications? we dont need no stinking certifiaction."
yahoo IM handle: greater_vortex

 

[pshankland]

Don't let the fact that some / most Raid Array enclosures can hold 14+ disks worry you, as obviously you don't have to fill them all at once. The following spec is one of the SANs / Clusters that I manage -->

2 x IBM xSeries 345's - 2 x 2.4GHz Xeon, 2.5Gb Memory, Mirrored 18Gb 15k Drives, 3 x 10/100/1000Mbps NICs

2 x IBM TotalStorage SAN Switch F08 - 8 Port Fibre Switches

1 x IBM FAStT200 Storage Server - 2 Controllers, 2 x 18Gb 15K Mirrored Drives (Quorum) & 6 x 36Gb 15k RAID5 Drives (Data)

This SAN is for our SQL2000 Database(s) at the moment, but the really good thing about it is, is that we can add clusters to it when we need to, making it the centre of our network. This did initially cost a lot of money, but we will certainly get that money back over a few years.

 

[PHead2]

Thanks for the input, I'm going for the DELL 220S with 6 36GB hard drives and 2 Mylex AcceleRAID 170 cards to put into two dual 2.4 GHz, 4 GB RAM servers that I already purchased from another vendor.

I'm using this setup to cluster Terminal Server Sessions Directory Services. My total cost was about $11k for everything new (not including OS, I'm using Windows 2003 Enterprise Server).

 

[SpacemanTR]

Hello user,

please help me.

I want to upgrade a win200server with the Acceleraid 170 card to win2003server. But i cannot find any driver for this card. How does this hardware works with the software together.

Thanks