I was considering leasing the following server(to pricey to buy_

Dual 2.0Ghz Xeon
2GB RAM
6 73GB 10k RPM HD's
(3 for storage/3for backup of others)
FreeBSD OS


My question,, apprx how much bandwidth could i push through this server if it was utilizing mostly basic ftp, mail, and website features and not much dynamic content...

Could i fill the drives with plans and be able to push the bandwidth?

Probably close to 25-50 Mbps depending on the server config and sites.

raid 1,5?

pretty sweet config there

Originally posted by anantatman
raid 1,5?

pretty sweet config there
RAID 5, yes?

If you really need a dual XEON setup at least go with Linux instead of FreeBSD otherwise you can't use the full potential of the system.

Originally posted by Aussie Bob

RAID 5, yes?

what i meant was, do you have raid 1 and 5..

raid 5 across 3 drives, and then that mirrored on the other 3?

wasnt going to use raid

rackmy you said close to 25-50? thats not close at all,,lol

So what are you saying if basic look up of html sites, etc. i should be good for 50..

But if dynamic content, cgi,etc. around only 25?

I'd add more RAM... With only 2GB, your memory resources are going to be consumed before your disk/CPU.

Other than that, you could probably push 35-40 Mbps, depending on what kind of content you're moving. My estimate is based on html and mixed media.

George

Only 2GB,,, cheesh i thought it would be fine.... hmm, what do you suggest,, i cant go too high because i run out of slots.
I want to split it up and not have like 1GB sticks of ram, because then if one stick fails im screwed etc.. if i split it up in 512's, etc. then it is still a workable system till i get problem solved..

How much ram do you suggest, the system is already running about 9500 with a 2year warranty...

Fill it with RAM. 4x1GB sticks is better than 4x512MB sticks. If you've got a failure, then you can yank a pair and still run at 2GB.

What motherboard / manufacturer are you using?

Let's look at server costs... Do you really need all that many SCSI disks? When you say backup, are you looking to dump data from a 3-disk RAID5 to another 3-disk RAID5? You'd be better off getting a 4-disk RAID5 (3-active, 1 hot spare) and two mirrorred 200GB EIDE drives.

But personally, if you're really thinking about backup, don't do it on the same server. You could lose your backup due to a malicious user, or even a surge from your power supplies could theoretically damage all of your components. I'd get a second low-end server with EIDE disks for backup purposes.

George

I dont want to mirror because of problems with mirroring... File gets screwed,, it mirrors a screwed up file..

Im looking for solution on the same server,, any ideas?

Originally posted by jdp29053
I dont want to mirror because of problems with mirroring... File gets screwed,, it mirrors a screwed up file..


Could you elaborate please? And better explain what you're looking to do with the disks you've spec'd out?

George

rynsc, no raid

How are you going to use the first 3 SCSIs?

George

what do you mean how am i going to use them?

Are you going to use them as individual disks, or some sort of RAID?

George

Oh,, im sorry.. i want to use raid simply to make the drives appear as one unit, but will not be using raid for backup if that makes any since...

You have to forgive me as im not familiar with all details of the server hardware,, thats why im having built by someone else,, but im more or less telling what i want and getting it.. all the details are not worked out yet, im just wondering about how much bandwidth i could get out of the machine to see if it would be cheaper this route or paying for multiple smaller servers andpaying the extra U fee's....

I dont' know how many other folks are watching this thread, but I stand by my idea of 4 SCSI and 2 IDE as being your most reliable and cost-effective single server solution that includes a large backup opportunity (remember, it's opportunity until you use it!). Anyone else?

Since you mention "extra U fees", how big of a chassis are you going to jam these components into? I wouldn't do this many big fast disks and two Xeons in a 1U/2U chassis.

What kind of data are you going to be pushing out of this unit? Small files (<100k), medium (100-500k), large (500k-1500k), big (1500k+) or streams? Are your visitors on fat pipes or not? What O/S are you going to run?

There are so many factors here...

George

Medium size files, was going into a 2U case, its on there website in a 2u, but with pentiums, i custom configured with xeon...

www.qsol.com

I am just placing larger drives than in there config.

Originally posted by jdp29053
You have to forgive me as im not familiar with all details of the server hardware,, thats why im having built by someone else,, but im more or less telling what i want and getting it..

Perhaps telling us exactly what you want to do with the hardware will let some folks with more intimate knowledge of servers propose a solution to your problem. :D

George

I am with tilted, I would go raid 5 on 4 and 2 ide's for backup. However, I did read somewhere...maybe here...that a test was done of dual xeons vs dual P3 1G regarding the amount of pages that could be pushed out of apache and the P3's won.

Good luck on your server

I have a client that has that same setup, actully dual 2.4 xeons 5 scsi drives though.. same ram.... and he pushes about 80mbits off of it.

Originally posted by ZakT4PH
I have a client that has that same setup, actully dual 2.4 xeons 5 scsi drives though.. same ram.... and he pushes about 80mbits off of it.

With what content type and how many file requests?

George

80Mbps as in 320GBs of transfer x's 80???

Jesus!,,

Originally posted by jdp29053
80Mbps as in 320GBs of transfer x's 80???

Jesus!,,

lol yea i would guess 320x80 = 25600

i'm sure thats what he means ;) its alot yea heh but i pushed alot on a 1ghz celeron on cogent lol

www.wofut.com/speed that was on fdc way back before i moved and before they got oversold so i moved to atrivo but i kept the screenshots ;)

and the load on that 1ghz celeron with 512 ram and ide drives was very load not even 0.50 so your box can push easily 80mbit/s especially with dynamic content