Topic: Cloud vs Dedicated Servers

[BlackBox]

IMO .. Nice choice BB .. I have something similar and now my throughput speed is limited by Gbit tech. All is more than well on our part ... but we're a a small company.

Cheers, ronjon; we've just crossed into the double-digits ourselves. 

[ChrisCarlson]

The spec's on that sever seem odd for the intended usage. The way I read this topic it will be used for storage but the specs seem similar to an application server (Apache, SQL, etc).


Hard drive space seems quite limited, assuming the raid5 array of 600GB disks will be used for storage? I can't recall the formula we used but I want to say we took 2013's usage, accounted for 20% yearly growth and figured a 5 year hardware cycle.

For the CAD storage drive we now have this

[BlackBox]

The spec's on that sever seem odd for the intended usage. The way I read this topic it will be used for storage but the specs seem similar to an application server (Apache, SQL, etc).

How so? I'm unsure what I could have stated that would give you that idea. 

Hard drive space seems quite limited, assuming the raid5 array of 600GB disks will be used for storage? I can't recall the formula we used but I want to say we took 2013's usage, accounted for 20% yearly growth and figured a 5 year hardware cycle.

For the CAD storage drive we now have this

Again, I'm not sure that I understand your meaning....

The RAID5 array proposed is more than triple what we're currently consuming on our existing file server (I work for a very small company; hiring me put the employee count into double-digits)... Even at your proposed 20% yearly growth, we would have to use this exact configuration (with no additional hot plug drives, NAS, etc.), and never archive, or delete any data created, for +/- 8 years to even reach capacity.

With the max extended warranty/support being 7 years, and the fact that we can expand RAID5 on the fly, both internally using the available hot plug drive slots, or externally via NAS, secondary server, etc. I feel very comfortable with our options for growth... I'm no expert at this, so kindly educate me where my logic may be wrong.

Cheers

[ronjonp]

BB,

When you get your new server, would you mind doing a disk benchmark on your RAID5 array? I went with a RAID 10 configuration for the performance and am curious how much faster it actually is. Also ... what raid controller did you choose?

[BlackBox]

When you get your new server, would you mind doing a disk benchmark on your RAID5 array? I went with a RAID 10 configuration for the performance and am curious how much faster it actually is.

I don't mind at all. 

I'm not a network architect, nor a sysadmin, and have had to learn all of this through the process... I cannot speak to the advantages, nor disadvantages of either, frankly.

Also ... what raid controller did you choose?

The RAID controller that is included with our PER620 server spec from Dell is a PERC H710P.

[ronjonp]

Same Raid controller here .. it will be interesting to see the numbers.

I'm not a network architect, nor a sysadmin, and have had to learn all of this through the process... I cannot speak to the advantages, nor disadvantages of either, frankly.

Same here .. I'm just a code writing CAD monkey breakin stuff  :kewl:

[BlackBox]

I'm not a network architect, nor a sysadmin, and have had to learn all of this through the process... I cannot speak to the advantages, nor disadvantages of either, frankly.

Same Raid controller here .. it will be interesting to see the numbers.

Hrmmm... Read this, and am now curious as well.

The original spec for the RAID1 + RAID5 combo came from our existing 3rd party IT firm's server infrastructure proposal (again, being a small firm, we have no in-house IT; err, I guess now me? ).

[ronjonp]

I have read that article as well as many others. The conclusion I came to was if you have the money and don't need all the space go with RAID 10. It has all the benefits of RAID 5 plus an added performance boost and it can sustain two drives falling (one out of each mirror) out of the array where RAID 5 cannot. 

[BlackBox]

I have read that article as well as many others. The conclusion I came to was if you have the money and don't need all the space go with RAID 10. It has all the benefits of RAID 5 plus an added performance boost and it can sustain two drives falling (one out of each mirror) out of the array where RAID 5 cannot. 

I appreciate that; I've already fired off an inquiry to my network architect at Dell who helped get us to where we are now.

Given the equal mirror for RAID10, how would that work with the 5 drives I'm getting? Or am I misunderstanding the configuration?

[ChrisCarlson]

Well that sounds like plenty of disk space then  :kewl:


Not possible with 5 drives, would need to add a 6th.

(6) 600GB drives in RAID10 would equal 1.8TB estimated space

[BlackBox]

Well that sounds like plenty of disk space then  :kewl:

Cheers dude. :beer:

Not possible with 5 drives, would need to add a 6th.

(6) 600GB drives in RAID10 would equal 1.8TB estimated space

While RAID5 may very well be (significantly?) slower than RAID10 in a write speed shootout... At the end of this migration we will still have jumped from 32-Bit server, with a single Quad-Core Intel Xeon E5506 processor, 4GB RAM, 7.2K RPM mechanical drives, 10/100 switch, 32-Bit WinXP Dell Dimension computers with 4GB RAM, 7.2K RPM mechanical drives, 1GB Video cards, and Land Desktop 2004 (used as vanilla AutoCAD; sigh... You don't even want to ask)... To soon using 64-Bit server, with dual Oct-Core Intel Xeon E5 2640 processors, 64GB RAM, 15K RPM mechanical drives, Gigabit switch, and 64-Bit Win7 Dell Precision T3600 workstations with 32GB RAM, SSD, 3GB Video cards, and IDS 2014.

Especially given how little we will have spent in total (and I still need to order another workstation and monitors this week), I'm certainly not disappointed with the results thus far. 

[ronjonp]

With that jump in technology you're gonna have fun

[BlackBox]

With that jump in technology you're gonna have fun

When the owner hired me, my initial task was to 'bring us into the 21st century'... I feel confident that I've set us up for success in what I've been able to accomplish in less than 90 days. 


Not particularly looking forward to working awkward hours during the migration, but I'm sure to learn a lot; being salary now, instead of hourly makes it much easier on me anyway... Now to inform my 3rd party IT firm that their services are not longer needed.

[JohnK]

I just noticed this thread. Forgive me for commenting without reading all of it (yet) but I quickly scanned this thread and noticed that you are getting a server. …In addition to the he RAID discussion, you have plenty of what you need to give the ZFS (file system) a try; and to make things extra easy, go download FreeNAS and give it a whirl.

As a quick test, take an old decent cad machine and test it out on that:
You should try with:
1. 64bit machine
2. minimum 4gb ram
3. you'll need two hard drives.
    a. find the smallest one you can and it will be master dedicated for the OS.
    b. the second will be reformatted by FreeNAS and be used for the storage.
4. Install the OS and go to the IP the OS lists after install is done.

This can make for a super quick server setup.

[jonesy]

A previous company I worked at was a small office of a big multi-national trying to get into the UK market.  As it was a small office (10-20 people) It was decided that the CAD person should look after the network on a day-to-day business, but they engaged an IT services company to come in on an "as-and-when-needed" basis. This company had remote access to allow them to fault-find when they were given access.
This set up worked well for that office (mainly as I didnt feel confident enough to be trained as a full-on network manager as well as do my real job)