>> 1) How important is the data stored on the server?
>> 2) What is your budget?
>> 3) What are the storage options for the server?
>> 4) How reliable does the service being provided need to be?
>
> 1) Not mission critical. Not personal user data. No one will die if
> the server goes down for a couple of days.
> 2) I don't know yet. I'm in the thinking out loud phase.
> 3) I need around 8TB of storage, with room to expand the storage space.
> 4) Need to have reasonable uptime, but it can be taken down once a
> week (or in the night time) for maintenance if needed.

1) Wasn't about server down time but about lost data, as in for good.
Can you afford to even lose a bit of the data permanently? Can the
server completely die and all data be lost and not cause you to lose
any sleep (or whoever the stored data effects).

3) Storage was meant to mean where the server(s) will physically be housed.

4) What about unplanned down time? I have had servers running critical
databases go down for 1-5 days due to a predecessors lack of
appreciation for testing setups and considering backup equipment.


> How about RAID 5 with hot standby?

I have only used RAID 1 before but a quick read up makes me think that
read/write times are going to be very slow, especially with the amount
of disks you need.

Refurbished hardware might save you a couple of =A31000

example:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-StorageWorks-MSA20-Modular-Smart-Array-20-Encl=
osure6x250GB-SATA-SAN-NAS-iSCSI-/150726571432?pt=3DUK_Computing_Networking_=
SM&hash=3Ditem231800f5a8#ht_3100wt_1037

I would normally say stay away from 2TB drives for servers but
considering price is a concern then 2TB would make buying a chassis a
lot cheaper (need less bays).

Alex

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