There is certainly no one-size-fits-all answer. If I had to choose from HP,
Dell, or IBM, I would just call them and ask for their recommendation, then go
with the least expensive recommendation, and I would factor in five years of
hardware maintenance into the cost comparison.
On the other hand, if I were I had a real choice in vendors, I would build my
own NetWorker server in a tower configuration with lots of 10 gigabyte network
ports, the fastest 32gigabytes worth of RAM I could find, a pair of the fastest
multicore processors I could find, and a motherboard that allows for expansion
and uses the fastest bus technology available. Of course, it will need at least
2 HBA cards. In addition, I would outfit this home grown server with a pair of
500GB SSDs with one mirroring the other to hold the NetWorker media and CFI
databases and the OS.
Then I would take that configuration and do it again to make a second server
with exactly the same components as the first one, so that if the primary
NetWorker server dies, the second box can quickly be deployed in its place. You
just cannot get that level of flexibility by buying a pre-built server from any
of the major computer manufacturers.
With fast memory and fast SSDs and fast network connectivity, this box ought to
fly for backups regardless of which OS is installed on it.
On Apr 26, 2012, at 10:21, "Eddie Albert" <Eddie.Albert AT CITIZENSFLA DOT COM>
wrote:
I would like to start a discussion about building (new or refreshing) a
networker server environment. I know there is no such thing as a one
size fits all. But I have never seen a discussion of hardware purchase
on the list. As I recall Networker is a single threaded software,
meaning buying multiple processors for your networker server does not
make much sense, but buying gobs of memory does. I have no idea if that
is going to change in Networker 8.0.
Designing the system for speed efficiency and standardizing for ease of
trouble shooting when the need occurs. Let us assume 1,000 client
servers of varying sizes we will have 5 networker servers. For our
example let's say we are not stuck on any brand of server although I
think we would prefer one of the big three (Dell, HP or IBM) to ensure
life cycle service. More important to discuss would be hardware specs
for the server, we can discuss tape/data systems in a separate thread...
Please provide your thoughts, we all value hearing more on Operation
clean slate....Go!
One example from a friend (assuming a 64bit OS) is:
2x Intel Xeon E5649 Hex Core Processors (in the hopes networker 8.0 is
multi-threaded)
36GB of RAM (minimum requirement; more is better)
root file system -- 2x 146GB 15K SFF SAS drives
/nsrindex file system (if no SAN) -- 2x 146GB 15K SFF SAS drives
1x NC550SFP Dual Port 10GbE Server Adapter (if 10GB LAN is available)
Either:
2x LPe-11000 Single port HBA Cards or 1x LPe-11002-E Dual port HBA
Card (for server rooms)
Or:
3x LPe-11002-E Dual port HBA Card (for data centers)
Does this sound like what you would do, what would you change? Thank you
in advance for what I hope is a great discussion...
Semper fidelis et paratus, /ALE
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