SCSI vs IDE 1

[qmann]

i am currently looking to upgrade my server. we have PDC and a BDC. The primary we have a RAID system with 3 18gig scsi drives. We are running winnt 4.0 sp6 server and have a tecmar backup drive (by the way anyone know where i can find firmware upgrade and drivers - i think they went out of business, can't find phone # that works or email - website down too). We need to drastically increase space at the most cost effective way possible. On our BDC we have 2 - 10 gig ide hard drives.. slower than 7200rpm i'm sure and the network seems to run fine other than the lack of space.

What i want to do is maybe upgrade two more 18 gig scsi and throw 2 - 120 gig ide in the bdc. Would this be the best way to add space to the network or is there another more cost effective method. The bdc is basically used to store files that are occassionally referenced. The pdc has a lot of vault files for solidworks that are constantly being accessed. I was planning on basically dedicating the pdc for solidworks and all other files on the bdc.

Any information on this would be great.

 

[Serbtastic]

Have you considered a NAS (network attached storage) device? Perhaps a SNAP server (

http://www.snapappliance.com/)?

It may be the easiest way to get additional storage on your network.

 

[Jq4Yahweh]

If you are comfortable with the performance of your servers then you'll probably be alright to proceed with your plans. Personally I would never advise someone to mirror IDE drives, nor would I ever run IDE drives on a server that is being used daily. If you search around you'll find that 36.7 SCSI drives are only around $200 each.

A snap server can store as much data as your "pockets" can handle. I don't know what solidworks is, but a snap server isn't designed for running programs. It is strickly for storage. I found that out the hard way.

 

[jsd2003]

I think I'd recommend yanking out the 3x18G drives and replace with however many 36s or 72s you can afford. Even if you don't fill all 5 bays 36s or 72s will last you longer than 2 more 18s will, plus all drives are new. Then, although it may be impossible, try to find a scsi card for BDC to use the 18s there. Worst case, you eat the 18s or ebay them for whatever you can get.

 

[ricpinto]

I agree with JSD2003, but before you purchase SCSI adapter for your 3 18g for the BDC, make sure they compatible each (SCSI cable connector, HDD and adapter).

Tip: This is from QuiltedCamel on Compaq server forum:

"Been there and done it before - you might find it easier to expand your array by some drive swapping:

If you have a RAID array made of (say) 9Gb drives, you can swap one out for a larger drive (say 18Gb) and let the array rebuild. Then when it's rebuilt (you can see in Insight Manager when it's done, or if you don't have IM setup and don't want to do so, leave it 24hours) swap the next drive out in the same way and keep doing it until you've swapped all of them.

Then into the Array Configuration Utility and you ought to see a pile of free space - which you can assign to a new logical drive (partition) and then assign space on that new partition to your logical drives as appropriate.

Disclaimer: It depends on the vintage of your array controller if this will work reliably - I've tried it on Smart-2/DH, 3200, 4200 and 5i and it worked for me. "
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Above case is 9 to 18 GB but for your case 18 to 72 GB maybe . .

 

[qmann]

all this information is great. i am getting quoted about 497 cdn. dollars for one 18 gig scsi drive. I'm going to shop around a bit and see if i can get bigger for cheaper. Any places in mind. I'd rather not go ebay or second hand.

Also, what would be the major disadvantage to going to ide on my bdc.. it's so much cheaper but i guess there are reasons.

 

[qmann]

check out these prices on scsi drives. does this look too good to be true

http://www.discountechnology.com

 

[jsd2003]

One of my favorite shopping sites is

http://www.pricewatch.com,

although shipping to Canada will depend on the retailer.

One reason why IDE is cheaper in general is MTBF (mean time between failure) rates for IDE drives are an order of magnitude lower (worse) than for SCSI.

 

[qmann]

wow, pricematch.com is a fabulous site. thanks for the tip. Is maxtor a decent brand? The price is great.

 

[ricpinto]

It depends to the capabilities and how you configure of your IDE but basically hardware RAID is really, really faster than IDE so what will happen is your OS residing in your IDE will be the bottleneck. RAID will wait for your IDE because OS is there, so basically RAID speed is equal to your IDE.

 

[jsd2003]

Maxtor is middle of the road in my experience. My money goes to Seagate whenever possible.