With an ever increasing number of computers in my possession, most of them actively used for a variety of tasks, I've finally come to the realization that it's time I start centralizing the data which is now stored on those individual systems. Hence I'm looking at setting up a fileserver which has the following characteristics:
- Runs Linux (Slackware w/ kernel 2.6)
- Provides those services: NFS, SMB, DHCP & TFTP (for diskless systems)
- RAID
The LAN to which this system will be connected consists out of around 8 systems, not all of which will be accessing the data stored on the fileserver continuously (like the (diskless) router).
The only potential problem is the budget for this server. If possible I would like to use one of my spare systems (mostly P1) and outfit it with an IDE-controller to which the HDDs (probably PATA) will be connected. Software RAID would then have to provide the required level of redundancy to protect the data stored on those HDDs.
Questions:
- Which RAID level should I use? Just 1? Or is 5 a realistic option?
- How much RAM should I have in this system? 64 is pushing it, isn't it?
- Which controller card is a good choice in this case?
Any comments are welcome
- Runs Linux (Slackware w/ kernel 2.6)
- Provides those services: NFS, SMB, DHCP & TFTP (for diskless systems)
- RAID
The LAN to which this system will be connected consists out of around 8 systems, not all of which will be accessing the data stored on the fileserver continuously (like the (diskless) router).
The only potential problem is the budget for this server. If possible I would like to use one of my spare systems (mostly P1) and outfit it with an IDE-controller to which the HDDs (probably PATA) will be connected. Software RAID would then have to provide the required level of redundancy to protect the data stored on those HDDs.
Questions:
- Which RAID level should I use? Just 1? Or is 5 a realistic option?
- How much RAM should I have in this system? 64 is pushing it, isn't it?
- Which controller card is a good choice in this case?
Any comments are welcome