Where to get SCSI disks?
Discussion
Thanks for the replies! eBay is a nonstarter, this is a mission critical server which lost a disk and a hot spare at the same time and there is no way I'm putting anything other than new in it.
Found a company that will sell them to us at £160 each, I'm not prepared to take a risk on any other disks for the sake of saving a bit of cash so that will have to do I think.
Now if only I could get the budget for a new server with a RAID 10 array in it, I'd be happy.
Found a company that will sell them to us at £160 each, I'm not prepared to take a risk on any other disks for the sake of saving a bit of cash so that will have to do I think.
Now if only I could get the budget for a new server with a RAID 10 array in it, I'd be happy.
It's a Dell Poweredge and a fairly biggun at that and it's not that old - and by no means obsolete. Dual Xeons with 3x redundant power supplies and dual gigabit with 2GB of RAM and is plenty fast enough for our needs. And plenty powerful enough by current standards given it's role.
We also have a warm standby running the same specs, so both servers represent something like £10k of initial investment. No need replace perfectly adequate equipment at a cost of several thousand pounds, providing it can be maintained...
Initial concern was that the disks are not readily available from your day to day retailers, hence my question. I've managed to source a good supply now so it's not really an issue.
We also have a warm standby running the same specs, so both servers represent something like £10k of initial investment. No need replace perfectly adequate equipment at a cost of several thousand pounds, providing it can be maintained...
Initial concern was that the disks are not readily available from your day to day retailers, hence my question. I've managed to source a good supply now so it's not really an issue.
Or attach a storage box on the gigabit?
Amazing how things move on. 2 CPUs, 2 GB and 2x Gigabit network was fairly heavy duty stuff not long ago. Now I have one next to me with a pile of Car mags sat on it and running the massive demands of a web browser and an email client. In 5 years time we'll be wondering how on earth we managed to boot up into a mere 2GB.
Amazing how things move on. 2 CPUs, 2 GB and 2x Gigabit network was fairly heavy duty stuff not long ago. Now I have one next to me with a pile of Car mags sat on it and running the massive demands of a web browser and an email client. In 5 years time we'll be wondering how on earth we managed to boot up into a mere 2GB.
_dobbo_ said:
zumbruk said:
I think you'll find that the vast majority of mission critical systems are running on obsolete kit. If it does the job, why change it?
That's basically the size of it - as long as you have a nice pile of spares!
Or an appropriate service contract. I've never worked anywhere where were allowed not to have stuff on a contract. And then it's someone elses problem.
AFAIK U160 disks became obsolete pretty quick as they were superceded by U320 technology. If you do a bit of research though you should find that U320 disks are mainly backwards compatable with U160 controllers. We have/had 3 dell poweredge servers with U160 controllers which all eventually needed upgrading or replacements. After a bit of research I ended up putting U320 disks into them without any problems at all. You just need to match up the technology (think ours were LVD SCSI) and spend a bit of time making sure they will work. Having said that £160 isn't too bad a price for this kind of disk, but current pricing puts a U320 73 gig at around £130 ish, so a reasonable saving for you, they should also be more reliable and faster due to spin speed and cache than buying the new 'old' disk!
zumbruk said:
agent006 said:
_dobbo_ said:
this is a mission critical server
Not meaning to nit-pick, but why is a mission critical server running on obsolete kit?
I think you'll find that the vast majority of mission critical systems are running on obsolete kit. If it does the job, why change it?
I support loads of kit that's 10 years old or more.These are systems that run business' main apps too!
roadsweeper said:
roadsweeper said:
What about a RAID6 card?
Problem is anything other than replacing the disks with like for like requires me to rebuild the server - I've done that twice in the last few years and whilst it's not the hardest thing in the world I'm a delicate soul and I hate the first few days whilst I watch it like a hawk to make sure it's all working!
If I'm going to rebuilt it, it will be onto all new hardware running RAID 10 and lots more RAM, and upgraded SQL and OS (you don't want to know what version of SQL and what OS this system is currently running - legacy systems, don't you just love them!)
Dual CPU versions of the latest SQL don't come cheap though, so that all might be a pipedream...
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