Killer SCSI 1 TB fileserver

[Bill Broadley]

Heh, well at least it's fitting our needs quite well.  Being something
along the lines of:
	quick to deploy
	very reliable
	high performance (mostly linear access)
	very reliable
	less expensive then the turn key solutions
	very reliable

Did I mention reliable?

We ended up (BTW, I have no affiliation with any hardware seller):

Enclosure:
	Kingston data silo DS-500	
	Dual power supplies
	Excellent airflow
	Great cable routing
	Spare power supply on shelf
	http://www.storcase.com/dsilo/ds500.asp
	Very Well built
	Hot swappable fans
	Good cable access
	handles 4 U160 busses (we are using 3).

4 Disk modules (1 spare):
	http://enlightcorp.com/data_storage/8720_drive.shtml
	Turns 3 5.25's into 5 x 1" hotswap bays
	Hot swap fans (4 per module)
	Fan monitoring
	Drive monitoring
	Temp monitoring
	Combined with the DS-500 >= 14 fans all front-back

16 Drives (1 spare):
	Seagate 1" U160 LVD (80 pin) 73 GB drives
	Jumpered to poweron every 12 seconds or so

4 Kingston internal U160 cables (1 spare)

4 Kingston external U160 cables (1 spare)

Adaptec 39160 in a 64 bit pci slot of a tyan thunder motherboard.

Performance in a Raid 5 over 10 disks (86 MB/sec write, 129 MB/sec read):

Version  @version@      ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input-
+--Random-
                    -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks--
Machine        Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP  /sec %CP
beo           6240M           86870  77 42181  67           129498  67 526.9   4+------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create--------
                    -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete--
files:max:min        /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP
beo              24   920  99 +++++ +++ 31621  96   910  99 +++++ +++  2660  99

===========================================================================
Raid-0 performance: (114 MB/sec write, 130 MB/sec read)

beo,6240M,,,114721,89,56306,64,,,131574,63,534.7,2,8,7183,99,+++++,+++,+++++,++++,7393,100,+++++,+++,+++++,+++
Version  @version@      ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input-
+--Random-
                    -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks--
Machine        Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP  /sec %CP
beo           6240M           114721  89 56306  64           131574  63 534.7
+2
                    ------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create--------
                    -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete--
files:max:min        /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP
beo               8  7183  99 +++++ +++ +++++ +++  7393 100 +++++ +++ +++++ +++

In any case we are very pleased with the result, I hope it's as stable
as the last linux raid-5 fileserver I setup that had an uptime of over 400
days.

BTW I did build a 3ware 6800 + 8 EIDE configuration that was a complete
failure, numerous crashes, multiple filesystems lost, very unsatifactory 
response from 3ware (I.e. Oh yeah, common problem, call back next month),
no surprise I guess that they are leaving the Raid+eide market (or so I
hear anyways.

Despite my most optimistic hopes we abandoned the eide raid and are very
happy so far with our 1 TB or so of disk.

Just figured I'd share with the list in case anyone else was looking
for something similar.  Our new 24 node (48 cpu) dual athlon + myrinet
cluster is doing very well, report later.

--
Bill Broadley
Institute of Theoretical Dynamics
University of California, Davis