I will be taking the system down sometime tonight overnight to install new hard disks and re-work the system in general for better stability. Thanks to donations from SickAndWrong we'll have a mirror set of 1TB drives for the data side and thanks to a friend of mine from NJ (not a member of the site) we'll have a mirror set of 500GB drives for the OS and other necessities... Giving us a total of 1.5TB of data storage on the server box between the 4 drives.. Also thanks to Shinnodeous who donated some funding that allowed me to upgrade the networking gear to new and reliable hardware (D-Link DGS-2208, and 2 TrendNet GigaBit PCI cards) as well as the D-Link DIR-655 Wireless-N/gigabit switch we already had (eliminating an old 10/100 hub that was dying due to old age).
The system will now be much more stable and reliable once all these changes are affected.
I greatly appreciate all the help you guys give us and wanted you to know who helped and what your input has gone to. Because of your support we'll have a much more reliable network for the forseeable future.
Well, that went worse than expected.
1) OS wouldn't move to new drives, so had to reinstall.
2) One of the brand new 1TB Seagate's is having some sort of issue and I almost lost all the data because of it.
3) Had to re-install Windows >again< to correct problems caused by #2, due to this the entire system is currently handled by a pair of mirrored 500GB drives until I can get the sitch sorted with the TB drives. (I'm fairly certain that I need to just send the screwy one back for a replacement.
4) Microsoft's DEP (Data Execution Prevention) was preventing me from running PHP AND the E-Mail server. Finally managed to beat it into submission.
As a result, we were down over 12 hours.
2) Mods to the forum itself.
what the frell is up with these terabyte drives taking big steamy dumps?!
Eoraptor wrote: what the frell is up with these terabyte drives taking big steamy dumps?!
From what I've read since this last issue it seems about 1 in 5 1TB drives have some sort of issue that radically changes their life expectancy.
Yeah, that issue is called, "the post office being careless and dropping the package" *sigh*. Poor Shrink (and Rei if applicable), we don't mind being down, just as long as you can do what it is you need to do.
JayJay wrote: Yeah, that issue is called, "the post office being careless and dropping the package" *sigh*. Poor Shrink (and Rei if applicable), we don't mind being down, just as long as you can do what it is you need to do.
Glad the drives got there.
Maybe 1TB is a little far out on the bleeding edge of what we're capable of building right now? Yeesh, I have one of those Seagates in my shopping cart at TD right now... Maybe I'll hold off, but I do need to replace my WD 500GB drive before it completely implodes.
Maybe it's an ish with TD. Like someone pointed out, they are known for buying up potentially questionable lots of merch, maybe some cases got rough-handled? Though, you'd think Seagate would be packaging the drives to withstand a little abuse, because shipping is after all shipping.
Anyway, thanks again for all the work you two put into the site. Pro bono as it were.
The end game here of course being that once we get running with the arrays, any unlikely hardware failures in the future will not be fatal to the site, it should be well worth the effort going into it now.
Hmm... Maybe we just need a lot of Solid State drives. For my use, a 250GB Seagate is working just fine, though I've managed to break the SATA cable.
Perhaps we are better off with one 1TB drive and two 500's for now.
Meh, 2 of each should be fine, once they decide to start working... Then they can fail all they want, so long as they do it one at a time!
I meant until the New 1TB arrives. Personally, make sure it worked, then box it back up and rig up the two 500's to read as one continuous drive. That way if something fails your backup has a backup.
Data stripe across the two 500GB's and mirror that against the 1TB drive?
SickAndWrong wrote: Glad the drives got there.
Triaxx wrote: Hmm... Maybe we just need a lot of Solid State drives. For my use, a 250GB Seagate is working just fine, though I've managed to break the SATA cable.
I don't know, would we be better off with a solid state drive? If these HDs keep failing, it might be a good idea to do away with the moving parts. Oh yeah, keep in mind that all of my "knowledge" comes from half a semester of Computer Hardware.