What hardware would you suggest for this backup array and what software & OS
to drive the system? Also needs to allow for expansion since these projects
look to be ongoing.
From what I hear, the Apple Xserve RAID box is a wonderful thing (even if you are not using macs). From what I've seen, it has all the reliability that you could hope for. It is essentially an external hard drive and you can hook it up to several servers simultaneously (including Xserves, Linux, Windows, etc).
If you are going to have offsite backup, you are going to need a second server with an equal amount of disk storage. One at home and one elsewhere. Given the amount of data you'll be changing on a daily basis, the question you need to ask yourself is what is the purpose of the offsite storage.
if your goal is to have the data survive a fire or theft, then you might want to consider installing your backup server in a neighbors home next door to you and just run a cable between your homes. They get free high speed internet access, you get a backup site.
if your goal is to have others able to access the data even if your network connection goes down, then you need a colo. You probably do not need to have the offsite server as a RAID but it does need to be the same amount of disk space. Chances are you would need to see what is the maximum number of drives you can fit into one server and given the maximum drive size, see if that will meet your needs. If not, buy a second Xserve RAID.
As for replication, if I was doing this, there is a unix utility that does file syncing (I forget what it is called) and when you change and close a file, it will automatically move it to the remote server. We use it on Macs and on Linux servers.
Good luck. Terabytes are not cheap.
Kee Nethery
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