In an effort to keep performance to a maximum, I am preparing to migrate a
news server to RAID-0. It is currently Linux (Slack 3.5), and running
well, so I believe the boost to disk striping will be a benefit, no matter
how small.
I would like some input on the following hardware choices:
3 Adaptec 2940UW SCSI-III controllers.
- One for root (/) which will include all logging
- One for mounting just alt.binaries.*
- One for mounting everything else that goes to the spool.
Single CPU Pentium II 400 Mhz, with 512MB of memory.
The two controllers for /var/spool/news/articles/ will each have about 22
Gig of drive space, for a total of ~44 Gig. There will be 2 different
raid groups, something like:
/var/spool/news/articles/
/var/spool/news/articles/alt/binaries/
We usually chose smaller block sizes for groups outside of binaries
(around 1k) and 2-4k block sizes for groups with binaries. Does this
still sound reasonable? In addition to that, what sort of stripe size
should I consider?
We are considering 5 x 4.5 GIG SCSI-III disks for each raid mountpoint.
Although smaller drives would be better to reduce disk thrash, no?
We will continue to use INN-2.1 with standard files storage methods (so we
can maintain good control over expires.)
I had considered using the new Adaptec 2940U2W controller with appropriate
disks, but cannot locate any good information on compatibility and reports
of failure or success from anyone using this controller under Linux.
I appreciate anyone's input or criticisms.
Regards,
-Matt.
--
Matthew D. Lammers
NetSet Internet Services, Inc., Columbus, Ohio, US
