Re: Homebuilt server (NAS/SAN) vs the prefab ones? Peformance differences? SAN vs NAS vs Homebuilt Server
- From: "markm75" <markm75c@xxxxxxx>
- Date: 24 Jan 2007 10:15:40 -0800
On Jan 24, 11:59 am, "Dave Nickason [SBS MVP]"
<gwdib...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
IMO you need to be careful of terminology when selecting devices. Typically
a NAS device would do storage only, without the ability to run applications.
If you're going to run BE on your storage device, you need something like
Windows Storage Server.
I'm using a Dell PE830 that runs Windows Storage Server. I got it
specifically because it would run backup applications (in my case Arcserve).
I configured this with Arcserve on the Storage Server, with an agent on the
production Windows server, backing up the production server to the Storage
Server over gigabit ethernet. What I found was that the performance was
similar to backup to an external SCSI tape drive (Exabyte). Since my issue
was backup window, using the Storage Server in this way did not improve my
situation over tape.
I ended up using ShadowProtect Server instead of Arcserve, which has
improved my situation significantly in several ways. For one thing, it's
much faster - a full backup of my primary member server takes an hour and a
half, instead of close to three hours. More importantly, ShadowProtect does
frequent incremental backups that are very small and fast - less than a
minute. http://www.storagecraft.com/products/ShadowProtectServer/.
Another cool option is DPM, but the version you'd want for this (IMO) is
still in betahttp://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/dpm/default.mspx.
"markm75" <markm...@xxxxxxx> wrote in messagenews:1169584955.284901.9450@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I'm working on building a new server to basically be the backup server
for all of our 800GB or so of data.
IE: Symantec BackupExec will run on this server.. communicating with
remote agents on 4 other servers. Those 4 servers total 800gb of data
in a full backup via gigabit ethernet.
I'm still not sure I see the difference between a NAS, SAN, or a server
with lots of harddrive capacity and dual gigabit ports?
For instance.. here is what we are considering doing:
Building the server piece by piece for a total of $3200, inclusive of
drives and controller cards etc, using either of these 2U rackmount
systems:
http://www.rackmountpro.com/productpage.php?prodid=2918 (I can get a
combination of all needed hardware with a 3 year warranty on the whole
deal for around $3700 instead of $3200)
http://www.acmemicro.com/estore/merchant.ihtml?pid=3246&lastcatid=233...
That $3200 included a Woodcrest 2.0GHZ cpu with virtualization ability
(not really needed for the backup server though). We've already got
server 2003 storage edition. This would include a 4x PCI-e 3ware
9590SE-8ML card and 2GB of 667 DDR2 ram.
I'm assuming that with a NAS or SAN you can install 2003 onto it and
use it just the same as any other server?
The other option appears to be going with a system like this:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?...
The price is alittle more and the CPU type is not a Woodcrest, but
there are 2 of them now.
I've also seen these units without DVD/floppy drives, I'm assuming with
one like that you would have to use a usb dvd rom drive to install the
OS?
Any thoughts on all this?
Differences between server designated as storage vs a NAS vs a SAN..
and perfomance differences in say my homebuilt model and the ones that
come already to go.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?...
Thanks for any input.- Hide quoted text -- Show quoted text -
I had seen references to ShadowProtect, in fact I have a demo which i
havent tried as of yet.
We do have storage server, so I will be putting that version on the
backup server (I'm not sure what all it adds, feature wise, compared to
regular 2003)..
Have you used Symantec BE.. curious if SP is faster than BE or not...
Also.. for 1 exchange license and 4 cals (4 remote servers), it is
about $2200 in upgrade pricing for BE, not sure how SP compares price
wise...
Curious on your backup times.. how many GB's were you backing up (full
backup)..
My hope is that to do a full backup of 800 GB (450 over ethernet), that
the backup time should be around 8-10 hours or a max of 60 MB/s.. I
think in BE I was getting values of about 2200 mB/min (no where near 60
MB/s, but for some reason a 305gb backup finished in 4 hours)...
We will be attaching the Exebyte Magnum 224 via SCSI in the next 5
months, this unit is capable of 400 GB tape size native, and is
upgradable to LTO4 and has the ability to add a second drive (Which
Exebyte unit have you used?).. I'm guessing for a an end of month (if
doing monthly fulls) we are in need of about 1.1TB of tape space, so
about 2-3 tapes for that.
Lastly, NAS/SAN etc.. I have seen prefab NAS's listed as NAS with
storage server being the OS. I guess SANs are more of a clustering
solution for shared disk access.
At this point I've decided to build the homebrew $3250 storage server
(Xeon Woodcrest 2.0GHZ, dual capable, 2gb ram, 2TB HD) vs spending
$4000 on a prefab system with Dempsey (non virtualization capable )
dual 3.0GHZ CPU type system.
So if you have any comments on the size you were backing up and BE vs
SP that would be great.
Thanks,
Mark
.
- Follow-Ups:
- Re: Homebuilt server (NAS/SAN) vs the prefab ones? Peformance differences? SAN vs NAS vs Homebuilt Server
- From: Dave Nickason [SBS MVP]
- Re: Homebuilt server (NAS/SAN) vs the prefab ones? Peformance differences? SAN vs NAS vs Homebuilt Server
- References:
- Prev by Date: Error setting up SBS 2k3
- Next by Date: Re: Palm Treo 700 - SBS Email
- Previous by thread: Re: Homebuilt server (NAS/SAN) vs the prefab ones? Peformance differences? SAN vs NAS vs Homebuilt Server
- Next by thread: Re: Homebuilt server (NAS/SAN) vs the prefab ones? Peformance differences? SAN vs NAS vs Homebuilt Server
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
