Motherboard for a server (WIN2003)

[pgudge]

I know any mobo will be capable of running a server OS, but I'm looking more on the reliable side than performance/features.

Ok then, I dont really wanna cut back on performance, but a server i'm thinking of dont need 8xAGP or 6ch sound, for example.

Everywhere on net seems to be a benchmark / review on The best mobo for gamers, 2D/3D designers, but dont see much on Server requirements.

Personally I can't see the big issue in getting seperate IO cards for RAID/SATA/NET when you can get them on-board, surely they are of the same quality. they're pretty much all the same chips.

I'm looking for a mobo to sit an Intel CPU, whether it be standard or Xeon, dont really matter. take at least 1GB RAM (which most do) and some RAID, there will be (i think) 2 x 200GB drives mirrored, and the last mobo I got didnt support HD > 137GB on the onbaord RAID (Epox cant remember model). So it needs to support RAID 1 and upto at least 200GB. Can be SATA if its worth it? What do you think on that?

i've rammbled on enough, I hope its all understandable

Thanks.

pgudge

[Richie]

Ok, its more a performance board but have a look at the Abit IC7-G board.

P4
10/100/1000 LAN built in
4 x SATA built in (2 with native raid support)

[nichomach]

I'd agree; we have a machine built around that which we use as the basis for a 3D rendering box. Quick, stable, doddle to set up, based around the 875P chipset. Excellent board.

[pgudge]

Cool, thanks,

The IC7-G has the 4xSATA but only the second channel is RAID (0/1). After spec'ing the machine out more, I think i'm going to need upto 5 HD's

1. OS (40GB)
2. Mirror set 1 (2x200GB)
3. Mirror ser 2 (2x80GB)

So would I still need another PCI SATA RAID card for this configuration on this motherbaord? I am not bothered if I have to buy extra I/O cards, its a rock solid motherbaord I am looking for.

Also I notice that the IC7 motherboard is the same except for the Second SATA RAID controller and the GigaLan, which 10/100 is fine anyway. Would I be better with this one if having to get I/O cards?

Thanks again.

[nichomach]

You might be better with the MAX3 version; this has 4 SATA connectors off the SiI controller, as well as two off the Southbridge (you could mirror those too) so you could have your OS mirrored on the Southbridge controller (supports 0/1 RAID) as well as two mirror sets off the SiI controller (supports 0/1/0+1 RAID).

http://www.abit.com.tw/page/uk/mothe...Specifications

Any use?

[pgudge]

Nice although we jumped about £20-£30 in price, but I suppose a good SATA RAID card is more than that.

OT: I would NEVER mirror a MS OS Mirroring is for backup, once the MS Os is ****** so is the mirror

It will be one seperate drive for OS, probably off the Onbaord ATA then the mirror sets off the SATA.

Cool, thats a nice board, is it worth the £116 price tag though?

[Rythmic]

With RAID cards you have two choices - often refered to as 'software' and 'hardware' - depending on wether the card has a seperate processor (often an Intel i960) doing hardwork or not. In a true server you'd be looking to have one of these (opens up RAID 3 and 5 as well), but for a lot of purposes nowadays, onboard would be fine, and you'll be saving >100 pounds.

You might as well get a board with a second integrated RAID controller (the first is inside the ICH5R), as it'll cost you less than a seperate controller card (though a addon card will give the the ability to move the array to a different computer without losing data).

As I'm an Asus fan, I'm going to suggest the P4C800E-Deluxe as I've had a couple of these at work running 24/7 for quite a few months now without a single hardware related crash. (and you gain one extra IDE header )

(edit: heres a link: http://www.asus.com/products/mb/sock...d/overview.htm )

[nichomach]

Nice although we jumped about £20-£30 in price, but I suppose a good SATA RAID card is more than that.

OT: I would NEVER mirror a MS OS Mirroring is for backup, once the MS Os is ****** so is the mirror

It will be one seperate drive for OS, probably off the Onbaord ATA then the mirror sets off the SATA.

Cool, thats a nice board, is it worth the £116 price tag though?

I have to disagree at this point; if you shaft the OS, then sure, the OS is shafted, mirrored or not. However, hard disks fail, and one disk going in a mirror at least doesn't mean a total rebuild. Having had hard disks go in RAID-ed OS partitions before now, and had the server keep running, and been able to plug in the new drive and have the array rebuilt on the fly without interruption of service, I'm a firm believer in RAIDing the OS partition on any server where uptime is an issue. Now, OK, we're not talking about a hot-swap SCSI hardware RAID controller here where you could realistically do that, but there's advantages in being able to down your server, drop in a new drive and boot it straight back up again.

And I'd say yes, it's WELL worth the asking price, and if I were building it? 2x36GB Raptors in RAID1 off the Southbridge RAID controller as your OS partition, Maxtor DM+ 9 120GB drives x2 for one mirrored data array ( Komplett link ) and maybe 2x Maxtor MaXLine Plus II 250GB ( Another Komplett link ) for the second - both drives carry 3 year warranties, and I've yet to have a Maxtor totally screw up on me. I don't know why you'd want to use ATA drives for your OS partition; save those connectors for optical (or maybe tape?) drives. Maybe keep one of each type of drive you're using handy as a spare in case of failure? Your choice, though.

[Jonny M]

http://uk.asus.com/prog/spec.asp?m=PSCH-L&langs=11

?

[pgudge]

Thank you everyone for the input,

After consideration, I might go for a mirrored OS drive, We would have had a system state backup configuration running, and imaging software, so the downtime would have been to the minimum anyway. But I've decided to go for

1. Mirror Set 1 (2x120GB) (OS/Exchange)
2. Mirror Set 2 (circa 2x200GB)

nichomach:- thanks for the suggestions on HD, I only want drives with 3 years warrenty, Both the ones you suggest are 3 years, but why is the 200GB only 1 year?

Caged:- the PSCH-L looks like a good solid server mobo, however, I cannot find anyone selling them, even uk.asus.com aint working here, (prob ISP), although at one page does work I can't help think this mobo is going to be quite pricey, do you have any more info on it?

[nichomach]

nichomach:- thanks for the suggestions on HD, I only want drives with 3 years warrenty, Both the ones you suggest are 3 years, but why is the 200GB only 1 year?

Beats me, mate, since they're essentially the same model at different capacities, but that's why I excluded some of the SATA drives listed from consideration. Some of the Seagate ones listed on Komplett are 3yr also, but I'm a little shy of Seagates since I HAVE had a Barracuda SATA drive fail (a 120GB) and the RMA procedure was a pig (ship it yourself to Holland??? Are they taking the wee?)

[Jiff Lemon]

After consideration, I might go for a mirrored OS drive, We would have had a system state backup configuration running, and imaging software, so the downtime would have been to the minimum anyway. But I've decided to go for

1. Mirror Set 1 (2x120GB) (OS/Exchange)
2. Mirror Set 2 (circa 2x200GB)

Exchange as MS exchange?

Mirrored sets not the best way to configure exchange. If its for relatively few users then ok, but if it for any over 50 you don't want it configured that way.

[pgudge]

Exchange as MS exchange?

Mirrored sets not the best way to configure exchange. If its for relatively few users then ok, but if it for any over 50 you don't want it configured that way.

Yeah MS Exchange, there is going to be a max of 5 clients from what I gather. Why would a RAID 1 be no good for a configuration of over 50 users? out of interest.

nichomach:- I thought all RMA were abroad, I used to eat, sleep, spin IBM drives, they have always been the best drive, but over the last 3 years they have become the most un-reliable drive, plus everyone has cost be between £9 - £13 to ship the drive back to the Netherlands. Best thing about it now is the returned drives are either brandnew (and not serviceable repairs). The last one returned was a complete new drive to the Deskstar drive.

[Jiff Lemon]

You'll be sticking the Paging file, exchange program files and Log files on the same drive. The heads will be bouncing all over the place.
Transaction logs on one drive. Striped raid 0 for extra speed.
Mailbox Data on one drive - Raid 5 preferably.
O/S and Exchange (and at a push) Paging file on one drive - Mirrored.

[scottyman]

with exchange mirroring, you can get some serious thrashing issues of the heads once you're over large amounts of storage. you're better off sticking the exchange data store on a seperate raid 5 array, and backing up daily.
i had a dual processor gigabyte server board die on me last year, running dual 36gb cheetahs raid 1, 3 72gb cheetahs in raid 5 - it decided to pack it in, and recovering onto a new server was very slow coming off the existing disk set, but recovering off tape was significantly cleaner and easier - just meant we lost a day worth of data, but I had transaction logs to roll back which allowed me to recover everything up until the moment of crash.
I wouldn't risk mirroring exchange data files for this reason as you're more likely to increase chances of a delayed write, which could cause data corruption of the store (esp. if it gets quite large) mirroring the install - definitely! without a doubt, but chuck transaction logs on to a seperate disk if you can, ditto with the exchange data files (edb and stm) - greatly increases chances of a successful recovery.
After my massive disaster last year, MS said that it would be impossible to recover, but 72 hours of hard work later, I had a new machine (same machine, new mobo) up and running quite cheerfully.

[pgudge]

You'll be sticking the Paging file, exchange program files and Log files on the same drive. The heads will be bouncing all over the place.
Transaction logs on one drive. Striped raid 0 for extra speed.
Mailbox Data on one drive - Raid 5 preferably.
O/S and Exchange (and at a push) Paging file on one drive - Mirrored.

Is this going to be the case for a 5 user network using Exchange?