Need your thoughts on mirrored raids...

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Posted by Siterack_net, 02-14-2011, 08:49 PM
I will be moving my operations from leased Softlayer servers to self owned equipment. One of my main concerns, going self owned, is data integrity. Even on my 2 drive SL servers, I always worry about data integrity. With my own servers, my budget dictated that I purchase 1u servers, from supermicro. These certain units only have enough space in to fit 2 HDD's, which I will be mirroring. It's rare to have 2 drives fail nearly simultaniously, but it has happened, and does still happen. My question is, if I purchase 2 drives from 2 different manufacturer's, A. will it reduce any liklyhood of near simultanious failure, and B. is it even adviseable to mix brands on a RAID?(again, it's just a mirror, not striped) Currently my options appear to be 2x WD RE4's, 1 RE4+1 Samsung F3R, or 2x Samsung F3R's. Both Drives seems to have excellent reviews and high reliability. Any thoughts?
Posted by Squidix - SamBarrow, 02-14-2011, 08:57 PM
Yes, it will, but it won't be much different than two drives from the same manufacturer bought from different places. Usually simultaneous failures happen when the drives are all manufactured in the same batch. Buy each from a different store and you should be fine. As far as manufacturers go, all the big guys are about the same as far as reliability. Also - If you're worried I'm assuming you keep offsite backups.
Posted by Siterack_net, 02-14-2011, 09:04 PM
As of current, in the SL servers, I have an independant 3rd drive that stores the client backups, each night, but no off-site full system backup. Unfortunately the servers I have purchased do not have space for a 3rd drive. I'm still quite young, at only 1 year in business; so budget contstraints are quite tight, as I only turn a small profit of a couple hundred dollars a month. Off site backup is definitely something I have been looking into, and plan to implement in the later half of this year.
Posted by Squidix - SamBarrow, 02-14-2011, 09:14 PM
Check out BQBackup, they're dirt cheap. We're pretty new at this too, but backups are the 1 thing you should never be cheap about. It's always good to have something offsite, since no matter how many drives are in your server it won't protected you from fire/theft/etc. But anyway, hope I helped with the RAID issue.
Posted by Siterack_net, 02-14-2011, 09:22 PM
Yes, that was a good thought. I didn't really think about the batches, and purchasing from the same location. So that pretty tells me I can get the lower (almost 50% less) cost Samsung drives, which have close to the same performance specs , and just as good reviews, as the WD's. I'll get one from my local MicroCenter store, and the other from Newegg I'll be sure to check out BQBackup - Thanks for the info
Posted by peep96, 02-14-2011, 09:26 PM
Sort of a newbie as well, depending on the space could you make use of an external hard drive? I second the offsite backup, many places online are dirt cheap.
Posted by Siterack_net, 02-15-2011, 01:40 AM
I leased 5U's of rackspace from the DC. So I am considering setting up a NAS storage box for full system backups. Problem with remote backup, is that bandwidth in Atlanta is very expensive. If I do an in house NAS, then I don't have any issues with bandwidth. I don't think an external HDD is going to meet my needs That would just make clutter, not to mention external HDD's are just unreliable. and not even sure AtlantaNAP/GNAX would even allow a free standing external drive. - Not to mention the security risk of having an unmounted portable data device.
Posted by RyanD, 02-15-2011, 01:54 AM
Being in Atlanta I would argue that transit here is actually very affordable. 56 Marietta is one of the most wired locations in the country. To the point of your provider allowing the drive, afaik as long as it fits within your U space, they'll let you stick anything in there.
Posted by Siterack_net, 02-15-2011, 03:19 AM
I'm actually at the 1100 White Street AtlantaNAP facility, owned by GNAX. As I do not have a full rack or cage, i'm not getting great deals on 95th% bandwidth. As of current I get 5Mbps 95th% which comes to roughly 1.6tb/month. Each addition 1Mbps prices about $40.
Posted by RyanD, 02-15-2011, 03:25 AM
I'm familiar with it. Many years ago before we opened our own facilities we had ~800sqft of cage space there With 5U, you are most likely in the open colo area which is pretty much anything goes as long as you are within your 5U spacing. As they are 'carrier neutral' you could get connectivity from Cogent, OneRing, or any of their other clients, you would just need to cross-connect to them.
Posted by RyanD, 02-15-2011, 03:26 AM
Actually, just looked at your site, I'm out here in Douglasville also, right off riverside parkway Howdy neighbor!
Posted by Siterack_net, 02-15-2011, 03:33 AM
THey have bandwidth packages which are already cross connected now, with some proprietary traffic routing mechanism. I went with the "gold" network, as it was a good balance of affordability and ping times from both US and international locations. The top echelon premium network was a bit out range for my small operation, but it has some impressive pings, from the UK - less than 100. UK ping on the network I chose was about 130-150. Which is still much better than what I get on the Softalyer network. They actually have a fairly extensive list of network providers. http://www.atlantanap.com/index/carrier
Posted by Siterack_net, 02-15-2011, 03:36 AM
Wow how fun - such a small world
Posted by RyanD, 02-15-2011, 03:39 AM
That is actually a list of providers in 56 Marietta, they can provide you with connectivity back to there for a fee, GNAX, XO, Cogent, AT&T, and Onering are the only ones actually there at the AtlantaNAP. Their 'gold' blend is http://bgp.he.net/AS3595 Regardless, thats off topic for your needs Specifically in regards to the backup drives, I would highly suggest not sticking a external disk on your systems if you are not in an individually locked cabinet. What is to stop any other client or person from walking up and taking it from your server? Virtually nothing. For that fact alone it would be a major concern. You might also look into something like R1soft, it would be a very tiny data transfer after your initial data sync and you could easily limit it to just a few mbps for it's incremental, that wouldn't cost you a large sum for the bandwidth.
Posted by Siterack_net, 02-15-2011, 03:45 AM
I wasn't planning on using an external. that was a recommendation of another user. I said A. externals are unreliable, and B. the security risk would be too great. I have looked at R1, but it's still a bit out my price range. As I grow I am reinvesting 100% of the profits back into the biz. I'm just figuring out best ways to utilize the growth capital.
Posted by DeanoC, 02-15-2011, 06:50 AM
Offsite backup is probably the cheapest/highest quality for your budget, if however the bandwidth is an issue, I'd look at building a 1U storage server. Assuming you don't need massive storage sizes or high speeds. You should be able to build a pretty cheap backup server and place it directly in your colocate space. You can probably even buy a cheap refurb server on ebay and fit it with new drives, for the cheapest solution. Obviously you have to weigh up the chance of it failing versus new.
Posted by sailor, 02-15-2011, 05:06 PM
Use the free transit from atlantanap to dallasnap - it doesnt cost you anything.

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