Terminal Server Hard disks SATA or SAS 1

[PaulGillespie]

Hi Guys,

Going to be installing a terminal server for 5 users. They will be using AutoCAD, Office and maybe photoshop form time to time. I was going to have a RAID 1 for redundancy but can't decide, is SATA drives would be ok or i should go for SAS.

Anyone got any experience of these disks in these situations? I dont want to get SATA disks and they are not upto the job.

Thanks
Paul

 

[twicki]

I run terminal servers for 35 users and we have raid 5 with 3 scsi disks as in the event of a failure you can pull out and swap the disk without affecting users. The best fail safe is a second server but i suppose with 5 users that isn't an option. I still prefer the scsi method with disks.

 

[PaulGillespie]

Yeah with 35 users i'd use scsi too but for 5 will there be a noticible performance drop?

Cheers

 

[twicki]

no but you wont have hot swappable

 

[PaulGillespie]

Not really an issue to be honest. I can take the server down out of hours to do a swap if needed. I have an HP Proliant 310 (i think) which has SATA hot swaps. This server will be a Dell though.

Thanks again.

 

[twicki]

Don't do it not dell they are crap stay HP

 

[PaulGillespie]

Lol, ony had good experience with Dells i'm affraid and mediocre experience of HPs. If they were cheaper than Dell then i'd give them more of a chance but as it stands Dells are coming out cheaper for the same spec.

Ta

 

[crobin1]

Umm, note that AutoCAD isn't supported on Terminal Server:

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/item?siteID=123112&id=4176059&linkID=2475323

We ran in to this about 2 years ago. You might can get it to run, but if you need support Autodesk won't help you.

 

[PaulGillespie]

Ah,
Thanks for that. I was going to check first but just assumed that it would work fine.

Have you tried to run it?

 

[crobin1]

Some prior admins tried AutoCAD 2000, had a lot of problems and never could get it to work right.

 

[ArizonaGeek]

I've used the SAS drives on one of our Dell servers and they are VERY fast. I haven't tested them against SCSI but I was pretty surprised at how fast they were. I dont know if I would trust them with a huge database or something getting hammered all the time. At least not till they've been out a while longer.

SATA drives CAN be hot swappable in the Dell servers if you purchase the correct card. Whether SAS or SATA I'd go with a RAID 5 instead of 1 but that is just me.

And I agree with you Paul, we run our whole shop on Dell (around 50 servers) and have never had any major problems. At least with all of our hardware purchased in the last couple of years. Good luck!

Cheers
Rob

 

[itsp1965]

Also depends on the controller you are using. A lot of servers have built-in LSI SAS controllers (1030s and 1064s) which are great for the OS, but have lousy write performance since these controllers then not have a battery backup thus write cache perf is hindered. So if you are going to be performing a lot of write operations.. I would suggest migration to SCSI-RAID or SAN disk. Hope this helps.

 

[LWComputingMVP]

I've worked on dozens of Dell servers... they are fine. ANY server can have problems - this is why you buy 3 year 4 hour response 7x24 warranty. FROM ANYONE. If you get an HP, you get the same type of warranty.

 

[ShackDaddy]

I've found that when you are buying the mid-to-high end servers from either Dell or HP, the frequency of failures are about equal. When I worked in an HP shop with 30 servers, I replaced a bad power supply, fan or hard disk every three months.

Now, working with Dell equipment, I've got half as many servers on my hands and I'm doing an RMA every six months...

Workstations are another story. Both vendors have their bottom-of-the-bucket crap packages that they make their margin on a warranty gamble with. I don't buy them, but sometimes I get clients who have.

ShackDaddy
Shackelford Consulting

 

[PaulGillespie]

Thanks for the info guys. I look after about 15 Dell servers and have about 2-3 hardware issues a year.

Looks like AutoCAD will not work on a terminal server so this idea will be scrapped.

Thanks for the info!

Paul