[SAC] New Server Feedback or Vote

[Alex Mandel]

Looks like the 480GB drive option is a good way to go at $5,654.00 +shipping
http://www.siliconmechanics.com/quotes/287261?confirmation=1741652039

As pointed out, this will have a hot spare disk, and 3 empty slots for
future disk expansion.

Final feedback before I put it to a vote?

Thanks,
Alex

On 04/08/2015 08:20 AM, Eli Adam wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 7, 2015 at 1:28 PM, Alex Mandel <tech_dev at wildintellect.com> wrote:
>> For comparison here's the 480GB SSD idea.
>> http://www.siliconmechanics.com/i57328/8-drive-xeon-1u.php?cp=pGV4AmV2ZF4kAmDkAwHlZQZ5YwDmBQD2ZD%3D%3D&config_id=1733315
> 
> I like the 480.  No one ever says, "I wish we had less storage or
> fewer available bays."
> 
> I would suggest even filling more of the bays with 480s.  How many
> years do we plan to run these?  How much storage do we plan to have by
> the end?  How difficult is it to get extra drives ordered and time
> zones coordinated and have OSL put the drive in?  Rebuild times have
> not been trivial (I know these are SSDs but still it is easier to do
> it in advance).
> 
> SAC has deferred new machines for a long time so I don't think that
> the additional cost is a big deal.
> 
> Best regards, Eli
> 
>>
>> (Does not include our 3% non-profit discount)
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Alex
>>
>> On 04/07/2015 12:56 PM, Alex Mandel wrote:
>>> You are correct, often times the difference is the Firmware not the
>>> hardware.
>>>
>>> The Raid 50 was about safety without compromising performance and faster
>>> rebuilds. Price wise the 6x240 is still cheaper than 3x480 (in general,
>>> though in this case only by ~$250). http://amzn.com/B006VCP9PM  is
>>> likely what I would buy if we bought 3rd party or something similar and
>>> the price spikes above 300GB still (not linear). Though from Silicon
>>> Mechanics the price jumps do appear linear.
>>>
>>> More background reading "Consumer-grade SSDs actually last a hell of a
>>> long time" http://ars.to/T4dLhF
>>>
>>> 3rd party does make things more annoying for warranty service. Under
>>> this plan we just call Silicon Mechanics and they handle replacing it.
>>>
>>> Convenience is important since we don't have physical access ourselves
>>> and want to make hosting this as little work as possible for OSUOSL.
>>>
>>> Your plan does make sense if we think about replacing both osgeo3 and
>>> osgeo4 with only 1 machine. Adding the extra 3 drives next year. Under
>>> that idea I would also suggest bumping to 8 core for 16 total instead of 12.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Alex
>>>
>>> On 04/07/2015 12:38 PM, Harrison Grundy wrote:
>>>> Using SSDs, you may not need the performance improvement 50 gives over
>>>> 5. Aside from this, we've found the larger SSDs tend to outperform their
>>>> smaller counterparts.
>>>>
>>>> We have not seen a notable difference between the "Datacenter" series
>>>> MLC SSDs and their consumer counterparts in production deployments.
>>>> Depending on how the machine is going to be set up, it may make more
>>>> sense to get the drives from a third party.
>>>>
>>>> Given the price per GB, you may be able to go with 3x480 for roughly the
>>>> same price point, and leave yourself 3 extra bays if you end up needing
>>>> additional space later.
>>>>
>>>> That being said, it looks good to me. The stuff outlined above is all
>>>> pretty minor or more preference-driven than functional.
>>>>
>>>> --- Harrison
>>>>
>>>> On 04/07/15 12:25, Alex Mandel wrote:
>>>>> Here's what I'm thinking we should order to replace osgeo4.
>>>>>
>>>>> http://www.siliconmechanics.com/quotes/287252?confirmation=1751481707
>>>>> I expect the price to be about $5626.97 before shipping costs.
>>>>>
>>>>> Plan:
>>>>> Latest Debian
>>>>> Software RAID 1 Mirror 80GB SSD OS Drives
>>>>> Software RAID 50 2x3 240GB SSD (usable space n-2 with performance of
>>>>> RAID 5) ~ 860 GB usable after formatting
>>>>> 1 Hot spare 240GB drive in the optical drive slot.
>>>>>
>>>>> Please provide feedback. I'd like to try and order by the end of this week.
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>> Alex
>>>>>
>>>>> PS: We also plan to ship Astrodog's FreeBSD machine to OSUOSL. This
>>>>> machine will provide additional capacity. Not sure where we are in that
>>>>> plan timeline it depended on the JIRA migration.
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Sac mailing list
>>>>> Sac at lists.osgeo.org
>>>>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/sac
>>>>>
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