This would indeed look epic, but the problem is the size i guess. His client does want it as small as possible. Man what is your obsession with so much space? Do you really have THAT much pron?? Jokes aside, this looks like it will be great!
I know that one RAID card (This was U320 SCSI, but I think the principle's the same) that I was working on that's BIOS had a feature that would seek the drive head from track 0 to track 1 very quickly on a single drive in an on-off pattern, which would have the effect of flashing that drive (and only that drive)'s activity light. It was completely non-intrusive, and made identifying a bad drive comically easy, especially in a dedicated drive enclosure.
A small update on the hardware side ^^ 4x 16 port 3ware pci-x 4 controllers will be used for this build, dont have details on the model though Anyone know where to get backplates for hotswap/sas expanders that does the job right?
To find a vendor, who sells only the backplane is not an easy task. Usually you get to buy the backplane with an enclosure in a package.. like this -> http://www.raidsonic.de/en/products/backplanes.php?we_objectID=5896 Supermicro has backplanes as parts, but you need to find a reseller or contact them directly -> http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/index.cfm
Something this epic needs a commanding place in the center of your living room! Preferably on a raised platform. You don't hide it in a closet like most servers.
OK, a few RAID specific questions. Does your client want enterprise level, hardware based RAID? Is software RAID being considered? What sort of throughput are they expecting, or is it all just to have massive redundant storage? I would also cast a vote for making backplanes work. Here is a place where you can get the backplanes used in the Backblaze servers: http://www.storage4mac.com/cfpomupba.html But at $54, they are getting a 20% markup on the actual part, which in quantity is more like $45 (USD). This type of backplane is a port-multiplier which means that the maximum throughput per unit is going to be in the 200-250 MB/sec range (for a 3 Gbps connection). It also means that using software RAID and simple host bus adapters, the amount of cabling is greatly reduced (each backplane supports 5 drives on 1 cable, same with power). That in turn reduces the amount of SATA connections you need to make 80 disks a reality. More research is needed to know if this type of backplane can be used properly with the hardware RAID cards you spec'ed. (4) 16x RAID cards only adds up to 64 disks, however - you need 5 of these cards to utilize 80 disks. I was definitely kidding about the Wargames reference. I think a hybrid of your tall tower and the more densely packed one jrs77 came up with makes the most sense - but I would really love to see the spiral concept come to life.
You could build a custom wrapper around one of these http://www.serversdirect.com/product.asp?pf_id=CS4545 (with 2TB drives) if you wanted hot-swap capability or you could buy one off the shelf :-D http://eracks.com/products/Storage Servers - NAS/config?sku=NAS50 See here for someone who has already done it http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1512972
Keep the ideas coming guys, really appreciated The design files aint going to be cnc'ed before next week, so we still have time! Regards to performance, it doesnt really matter much, it will be more or less 4x raid 5 arrays, and the server is going to be used as a media server for 1080p material, so as long as its possible to stream full hd movies, the performance is fine ^^
These have 24 SATA channels each...http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/High...al-PCI-e-x8-to-SATA-II-IOP341-RAID-controller One question, when your client said 100TB, did he/she mean usable?
