> I expect between 4 and 10 people to use it at the same time. Most jobs will
> be CPU intensive, but I can also envision some sporadic jobs to require
> several GB of RAM. He also wants to store quite a bit of data there, and
> maybe host a database. I assume that nobody would use it as a desktop, but
> it would be accessed remotely. In principle, the main concern is to make it
> a fast computer.
Have you considered the potential benefits of a number of smaller servers
instead of a single large server? I'm not familiar with exactly what you're
doing, but it be worth investigating.
> I've read a little bit about RAID arrays, but never met anybody who used
> them. I'm interested in those configurations where data is mirrored, so that
> the system can tolerate the failure of one of the disks. And I've been
> warned that if all the disks composing the array are of the same brand and
> design, more than one may fail at the same time. Do you think RAID is worthy
> at all, or not necessary with a good back up system? what is better, an
> operating system RAID controller, or a hardware one?
If the data is considered important, RAID is a must. The data on my home
servers isn't critical and no financial meltdown will occur if I lose
it, but it's
important enough to me that I use RAID at home.
Steven mentioned hot spares. I'm also a big fan of hot spares, as the
failed drive
is automatically replaced by another (hopefully good!) drive and
rebuilding begins
(almost) immediately. Without a hot spare, someone must physically
pull the failed
drive and replace it before rebuilding of the array will begin.
During that time, if
another drive happens to fails, you will (typically) lose data -- this
is dependent on
what type of RAID you're using, however.
Also, and I can't stress this enough: RAID IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR BACKUPS.
As I said, if a drive in a RAID array fails, you can pull the dead
drive and replace it
without (online) losing any data. Heck, I've done just that less than
an hour ago.
If, however, your data becomes corrupted/accidentally deleted/etc., RAID is not
going to help you out a bit, and you're going to wish you had those backups.
--
Jeremy L. Gaddis
http://evilrouters.net/
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