[tech] [committee] More space on Molmol
Matt Johnston
matt at ucc.asn.au
Sat Aug 6 09:43:52 AWST 2016
Why can't we just run some long sata cables out to
http://www.scorptec.com.au/product/Hard_Drives_&_SSDs/Enclosures/63052-MRK-M3505T
externally? 2.5" drives have always seemed silly - UCC has
relatively copious space, we're not paying per-RU colo
prices.
A couple of 4TB 3.5" sata drives should be fine for current
expansion and further drives are easy to add.
Matt
On Fri, Aug 05, 2016 at 06:32:51PM +0800, Mitchell Pomery wrote:
>
> The SAS Card currently in the machine is a LSI HBA 9207-8i which we paid
> $315ex for back when we built the machine. You can find them now on eBay for
> the lowl low price of $155 from China. Alternatively we could go back to
> DigiCor and get it through them again.
>
> The 5.25" Bay currently in the machine holds a couple the non storage drives
> in the machine. My plan has been to neaten that up with one of these: http://www.scorptec.com.au/product/Hard_Drives_&_SSDs/Enclosures/47295-MRK-425ST-BK?gclid=Cj0KEQjw8pC9BRCqrq37zZil4a0BEiQAZO_zrF7SRs1uMZSQ__s9fWf9ucJHpV4p1u13krscls7gOjgaAnGC8P8HAQ
>
> As for the argument that SAS has gotten more expensive, the numbers from
> years ago are for 6 disks not 8. Taking that into account the price hasn't
> really changed.
>
> >- Having examined it now, there is room to push the cards forward in the
> >hotswap bays, and drill new mounting holes, and then we would have just
> >enough space to to put in the SATA
> >- Or we can just not push the hotswap bays all the way in.
>
> Both of these ideas scare me. You're butchering a perfectly good machine to
> try and make it do something it's not designed for. I would like to see a
> lot of thought go into this plan before anyone even considers attempting it.
>
> >- The other, really Hacky way (that [*OX] likes) is to Mount another case
> >on top of this case
>
> You said hacky. Why do we still do hacky...
>
> If by this you mean build a second storage server and move some stuff to it
> (website, services, the 300ish GB of webcam archives from the past two
> years) then I approve!
>
> > - This would involve cutting a hole in the top of the existing case,
> > and the bottom of the one we put in top
>
> Oh. That sounds as bad as the previous suggestion. Again, if you really want
> to do this, I would like to hear exactly what your plan is and it shouldn't
> be "we'll wing it", cause that's not a plan.
>
>
> Regards,
> Mitch
>
> P.S. I've already had to move heaven and earth to get MolMol running. Please
> don't make me have to do it again.
>
> P.P.S. Fundraising's always an option. And I'm sure there are people who
> would be willing to put money in to make sure that we have some "service
> continuity".
>
>
> On Fri, 5 Aug 2016, Frames wrote:
>
> >Ok, here is the deal with Molmol. We're running out space. The situation is just below and the potential
> >solutions are under that.
> > * It has its book disk on an internal USB.
> > * It has its system disk on a 2.5inch SSD internally.
> > + Using 1 of its 4, motherboard SATA 3 (Black) ports
> > * It has 2 2.5 inch SDDs in raid for disk cache in the first 5.2inch bay,
> > + they are connected to its Motherboard SAS (White) ports (running SATA3). There ports are not multiplexed
> > -- that are endpoint SAS, ie SATA ports
> > * It has piles of SATA 2 ports on the motherboard. Like 8 or so. These are Blue.
> > * It has nothing in the bottom 5.2 inch bay, and it's fully accessible.
> > + We could stick some hard drives of any description here (may be hard to get 2 x 3.5inches)
> > + And use any of the free connectors (prob SATA3 -- of which we have 3 )
> > * It s 8 taken 2.5 inch bays (hotswappable), which match to 2 4x SAS multipliers, which we have connected to
> > the two ports on its SAS card and we run SATA 3 through that.
> > * It has 8 free 2.5 inch bays (hotswappable), which match to 2 4x SAS multipliers
> > + due to the physical nature of the SAS multiplexer (all 4, multiplexer are on once card), we can probably
> > not directly connect those to SATA cable*** (more or less, see below)
> >That more or less summarizes what we're working with. Here's the potential angles of approach.
> >NOTE: No matter what we do, we need to add drives in pairs, for RAID 1+0, and we really would like at very least
> >2TB more space. Which requires at least 4TB of drives..
> >
> > * The straightforward approach is to buy a new SAS card, allowing us to mount 8 2.5" more hard-drives in the
> > existing bays.
> > * This is what [BG3] suggested
> > + [GOZ] likes this since it is good to have them before our exact model goes out of production
> > * Issue with this is that there is not much range on 2.5inch disks, they are relatively expensive and small.
> > + I guess the bet that was made when choosing the case, that 2.5 inch cards would be come the norm, did not
> > pay off.
> > + The only 2TB 2.5 inch disks are Toshiba laptop hard drives
> > + Otherwise you are stuck with the 1TB WD-Reds, which is what is has in its taken bays.
> > * According to [BG3] a SAS card + 8WD reds (1TB), was $1.3 grand.
> > + Buying a SAS card alone is $200-$400
> > * This is much more expensive than the numbers from several years ago
> > http://wiki.ucc.asn.au/MoneyMoneyMoney/NewStorage#Level_2:_Optional_extra.2C_add_a_SAS_card
> > of $929
> > * *** The drives plug straight into the SAS multiplexer, but there are holes in the SAS multiplexer plate which
> > you can just squeeze SATA and power through
> > + [GOZ] believes, that mounted in the hotswap bays they will be too close to the end to fit the SATA plug
> > in (after going through the holes in the SAS multiplexer plate).
> > o Having examined it now, there is room to push the cards forward in the hotswap bays, and drill new
> > mounting holes, and then we would have just enough space to to put in the SATA
> > o Or we can just not push the hotswap bays all the way in.
> > + Eitherway, connecting these to SATA would let us save on buying another SAS card
> > * The other option would be to get the capacity to have 3.5 inch disks
> > + One way would be to move to a new case that has 3.5 inch bays (Possibly one of the spares we have laying
> > around)
> > o This would mean replacing all our disks with 3.5 inch disk, or just leaving the 2.5in rattling around
> > in the over large slots
> > o This isn't such a big deal since 3.5 inch disks are cheap
> > + The other, really Hacky way (that [*OX] likes) is to Mount another case on top of this case
> > o This would involve cutting a hole in the top of the existing case, and the bottom of the one we put
> > in top
> > o Could basically remove the bottom of the top one and the top of the bottom and bolt/weld them
> > together. For a huge 5RU-7RU case.
> > o This would make deracking molmol pretty shit
> > o It would however let us have hotswap both 3.5 and 2.5 disks
> > + Either way This is compatible with either using the spare SATA ports on the MB, or with buying another
> > SAS card.
> > + Potentially, but not necessarily may require buying a SAS multiplexer
> >So wheel members/committee members, how would you approach this situation? Bear in mind the club is stingy
> >(committee doesn't really want to pay $1300 for 4TB of extra space)
> >
> >[*OX] / [CHS]
> >Wheel Members
> >
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