[ILUG] OT: server spec

[Niall O Broin]

On 10 Nov 2004, at 12:32, Paul Kelly :: Blacknight Solutions wrote:

> Sorry for the off topic post, but there are lots of people in the know
> on the list ;)

Indeed - and I'm sure this server will be running Linux so it's not 
completely O.T.

> Basically a customer requires a beefy server with a difference.
> Memory/processing power/storage are not what they require. Ultimately
> they are after redundancy.
>
> So Redundant memory slots, multiple CPU's with fail over, hot swap pci
> cards, raid 5+1 etc
>
> Does such a system exist or are they better off looking at a cluster?
>
> Note: this isn't for a shared environment, its for an office that is
> manned 24/7 and the software they use is required to be available 100%
> off the time.
>
> I've looked at the HP DL 380 Cluster pack, I have also set one of these
> up in the past few months for another customer. But they cost a bloody
> fortune! :)

"they cost a bloody fortune!" and "required to be available 100% of the 
time" are two conflicting statements. If the customer truly requires 
100% uptime then he has to pay what it costs. If that costs more than 
he's willing to pay, then he doesn't really need it - he has to 
distinguish between needs and felt needs, or wants.

That said, analyse the needs. As the business is manned 24/7 they need 
availability 24/7 - but I bet a little questioning will reveal that 
they could stand a small break in availability e.g. for as long as it 
takes to bring a warm standby into play. I bet their people take tea 
breaks, bathroom breaks etc.

I've done this before, for a customer which needed 24/7 availability, 
or rather had busy periods when they absolutely could not wait anything 
like a normal response time for service - but a five minute wait while 
a warm standby server was brought on line was fine. So that was the 
solution - keep a warm standby server. In this case, actually, it was a 
COLD standby server, which was periodically updated. But it could have 
been a warm server, which could have been synced with the primary 
server much more regularly.

And this of course can be done for a LOT less than a HP DL 380 Cluster 
pack, and for an AWFUL LOT less than a stratus system.

Bottom line - analyse the needs, see what the budget is, and find the 
meeting point of the two. It's amazing how often that's the answer, in 
fact.


Niall