[ale] Fault Tolerant High Read Rate System Configuration

[Jim Kinney]

On Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 2:45 PM, Greg Clifton<gccfof5 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks for the wiki link, will check. But, quite right, we need to maximize
> the bandwidth utilization of each link in the chain as it were, drives,
> controller, host slot, more than enough is of no use, who can drink from a
> fire hose?
>
> We're talking server grade stuff here, no 'home brew' mobos, this is a board
> of realtors office and they don't want no stinkin down time, in so far as
> possible/affordable.

Motherboard recommendations: Tyan and SuperMicro. I (and many others)
have excellent success with their system boards. Both offer multi-bus
capabilities that suit this as well as systems with ready for and OS
load that will meet this need. The wiki data plus card data and
motherboard specs will let you engineer a properly balanced solution.
>
> On Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 2:19 PM, Jim Kinney <jim.kinney at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> There are some rather fast pci bus config around but you need serious
>> mobo data to know for sure. Most home-user pc's are crap with even
>> multiple pcie sharing a common interconnect.
>>
>> For numbers on device bandwidth, see here:
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_device_bandwidths
>>
>> You don't want more devices on a card than the slot it's plugged into
>> can take :-)
>>
>> On Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 1:37 PM, Greg Clifton<gccfof5 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Hi Jim,
>> >
>> > You do mean PCIe these days, don't you? Being serial point to point data
>> > xfer resolves the bus contention issue, no? Ain't much in the way of
>> > multi-PCI bus mobos to be had any more as the migration to PCIe is in
>> > full
>> > swing. I expect PCI will be SO 20th century by Q1 '10.
>> >
>> > What about a single 12, 16, or 24 drive RAID controller from 3Ware or
>> > Areca
>> > (PCIe x8 native, I believe for both now). I'm sure it is much greater
>> > than
>> > PCI (even PCIX @ 133MHz ~ 800mb/s), but what is the bandwidth on PCIe
>> > anyways?
>> >
>> > You are basically talking RAID 10 type configuration, no? Using the
>> > entire
>> > drive vs. short stroking so no complications in prepping a replacement
>> > drive, good thought.
>> >
>> > As Richard suggested, customer is interested in some sort of
>> > mirrored/load
>> > balanced/failover setup with 2 systems (if it fits the budget). How to,
>> > is
>> > where I am mostly clueless.
>> >
>> > Thanks,
>> > Greg
>> >
>> > On Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 12:24 PM, Jim Kinney <jim.kinney at gmail.com>
>> > wrote:
>> >>
>> >> multi-pci bus (not just multi pci _slot_) mobo with several add-on
>> >> SATA300 cards. Hang fast drives from each card matching the aggregate
>> >> drive throughput to the bandwidth of the pci bus slot. Make pairs of
>> >> drives on different cards be mirrors. Join all mirror pairs into a
>> >> stripped array for speed.
>> >>
>> >> Use entire drive for each mirror slice so any failure is just a drive
>> >> replacement. Add extra cooling for the drives.
>> >>
>> >> On Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 11:35 AM, Greg Clifton<gccfof5 at gmail.com>
>> >> wrote:
>> >> > Hi Guys,
>> >> >
>> >> > I am working on a quote for a board of realtors customer who has ~
>> >> > 6000
>> >> > people hitting his database, presumably daily per the info I pasted
>> >> > below.
>> >> > He wants fast reads and maximum up time, perhaps mirrored systems. So
>> >> > I
>> >> > though I would pick you smart guys brains for any suggestions as to
>> >> > the
>> >> > most
>> >> > reliable/economical means of achieving his goals. He is thinking in
>> >> > terms of
>> >> > some sort of mirror of iSCSI SAN systems.
>> >> >
>> >> > Currently we are only using 50G of drive space, I do not see going
>> >> > above
>> >> > 500G for many years to come. What we need to do is to maximize IO
>> >> > throughput, primarily read access (95% read, 5% write). We have over
>> >> > 6,000
>> >> > people continually accessing 1,132,829 Million (as of today) small
>> >> > (<1M)
>> >> > files.
>> >> >
>> >> > Tkx,
>> >> > Greg Clifton
>> >> > Sr. Sales Engineer
>> >> > CCSI.us
>> >> > 770-491-1131 x 302
>> >> >
>> >> >
>> >> > _______________________________________________
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>> >> >
>> >> >
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> --
>> >> --
>> >> James P. Kinney III
>> >> Actively in pursuit of Life, Liberty and Happiness
>> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> Ale mailing list
>> >> Ale at ale.org
>> >> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>> >
>> >
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>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> --
>> James P. Kinney III
>> Actively in pursuit of Life, Liberty and Happiness
>> _______________________________________________
>> Ale mailing list
>> Ale at ale.org
>> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>
>
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-- 
-- 
James P. Kinney III
Actively in pursuit of Life, Liberty and Happiness