SATA Controller to Backplane

"Nigel" wrote
Thanks for the reply. You can probably tell by now I have not had much
involvement in 'proper' server choices before, and my frustration is
showing.

You have to start somewhere...

It is unfortunate that I work for a company that sees IT
infrastructure as an unnecessary plaything.

Something like 90% of companies that loose access to their data for over 3
working days go but within a year.
(I'm not 100% on the figures, but it's a very large % that go bust very
quickly after a relatively short period of data unavailability)

On a past server choice I was
even given a list of users workstations and asked why they could not do
the
job because the user "doesn't use it much". Therefore, I have no choice
but
to try and build something with a future from a budget of nothing, and
learn
as I go.

Good luck...

Never work for a family company!

I am a family company :-D

Therefore the ML-150 is all I have the money to work with and I am trying
to
wring a little extra performance from it.

Hmm. IMHO, don't. Spend the money on a backup device and tapes instead.

I know that the embedded RAID
controller is a cost compromise, which is why I will not be using it, and
have substituted the Adaptec for it.

Again, for the benefit it would give you, I wouldn't bother. Your priority
is availability, not performance.

HP offer an SAS HBA as an upgrade, but
won't tell me how that is ever cabled to the hot-swap backplane.

All HP manuals have a part number.

Technical tell me their longest cable is 12 inches,
yet their own card would require 24".

Hmm. Dork Central is not very good with 100-series servers. At least not
where I am (Belgium).

In the end it is a self defeating policy, but I am using this HP and Linux
as the basis to try and get reliability as opposed to workstations running
Win XP Pro allowing 5 users at a time.

Good strategy. Don't neglect disaster recovery. There'll be a lot of servers
in flooded cellars around the UK at the moment...

I have the choice of doing this, or finding employment elsewhere.

Do both. Experience of the former will help with the later. I wish you every
success.

"Jez T" wrote in message
...

Good strategy. Don't neglect disaster recovery. There'll be a lot of
servers
in flooded cellars around the UK at the moment...



At least I'm ok on that front, I got my hands on an HP Storageworks DDS-4
tape drive and use it nightly. Nice packaged software. 3 tape rotation.
MD didn't like the price, so I bought it anyway :-)

As for the floods, did you see the BBC reporter talking about the 6 foot
deep water in a place called Darfield a couple of weeks back? That's a 200
yards down the road, and my house is downstream from the Ulley reservoir!

Where's me flippers??!!!

Regards

Nigel