[KLUG Members] File Server Appliances anyone?

[Adam Tauno Williams]

> I need to add file server storage space to start doing nightly backups of
> mydocs for about 45 winbloz clients.
> I am looking at file server appliances in the 120-250GB range as opposed to
> buying something like a low end Compaq DL140 rack mount server, popping in
> 160GB ATA drive and setting up a Suse 9 Samba server for around a grand.
> Recommendations?

We have very much the same thing. "Hoopoe" is an IBM x300 (or is a x305?
whatever) 1U rack mount server with a pair of 120GB ATA drive.  A small
OS install is a mirrored logical volume spanning both drives, with the
bulk of the space being a linear logical volume.  The server has dual
100Mbps interfaces.  This cost significantly LESS than $1000.  And the
drives can always be swapped out for even bigger ones.

> Chastisements?

Depends on what you want to use it for.   Ours is used for storing
online copies of CDs, large sets of data due to be processed, laptop
backups, etc... Nothing critical that can't be replaced or
restored/regenerated from some source.  ATA drives have poor reliability
and the whole configuration is going to have *BAD* random I/O
throughput.  But it works very well for swinging around huge chunks of
sequential data with a low simultaneous user count.