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OpenBSD CVS RAID Array Failing, Needs Replacement

Posted by timothy on from the three-small-letters dept.

Sam writes "The OpenBSD cvs server has a failing RAID array. Users of the projects on that array: OpenBSD, OpenSSH, OpenBGPD, OpenNTPD, and the upcoming OpenCVS are all invited to contribute towards the $12,500 cost of a suitably high-spec replacement. OpenBSD Journal article, and original request (thread)."

7 of 164 comments (clear)

  1. Re:$12,500... what is this, MAC hardware? by Noksagt · · Score: 4, Informative
    From TFA:
    The price of a fully populated PowerVault 220S with 4 hour on-site warranty is
    about $12500 USD including tax and shipping. Let me kick this off by donating
    $250 to this cause. A person that shall not be named donated a PERC4/DC RAID
    controller.
  2. Donation Method from TFA by Noksagt · · Score: 3, Informative

    "If you want to help, paypal some money to slash at peereboom dot us, or you can use the OpenBSD ordering system. Be sure to mention its for the cvs machine."

  3. Current Configuration & Need to Upgrade by Noksagt · · Score: 4, Informative
    From this post:
    The current raid array is using 14 U160 drives in a dual raid5
    configuration with a couple of hot spares. It is time to build up.
    See, the actual cvs machine is just a p3/gig machine. While there are
    lots of much faster build machines on the network, there has been no
    reason to crank the processor on cvs. It is not cpu bound but
    *strictly* IO bound. And the raid configuration has been working very
    well to keep that IO load under control, well it has been kind of
    working.

    We support more architectures, which means more NFS load is being
    generated. There are more developers, and that does affect things
    because developers working fast do checkouts directly off cvs instead
    of via mirrors. As well, the array is full (it is half 18GB drives
    and half 36GB drives now due to failures after replacement). All of
    them are U160 drives.

    Now there appears that the raid backplane is developing some issues,
    and at the same time, it is time for the "every three to four years"
    replace some parts plan. It's what most IT shops do as well. The
    drives are also getting a bit up there in age now. Perhaps that is
    why I am starting to lose them more often.

    But if we want more oomph, then it is time to go to U320. It is also
    time to move towards another raid controller (already have it) which
    we hope will have supported raid management soon.
  4. Not just users of those projects by Bastian · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you use any OSS unix-like, or many OSS tools other than something with an Open* name, you are likely using at least a few things that have benefitted directly from the OpenBSD project. In an effort to keep OpenBSD secure, they contribute security patches to all sorts of software that runs on OpenBSD.

    In particular, I'd encourage everyone who uses Linux to contribute.

    1. Re:Not just users of those projects by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Well, OpenSSL, OpenGPS, OpenGFS, OpenOffice, OpenVB, OpenTTD, OpenVPN and OpenWFE just to name a few aren't actually associated with OpenBSD or even BSD licensed. In truth, most Open* things are under the GPL and done by other people. The good OpenBSD stuff is pf, OpenSSH, OpenBGP, OpenNTP, OpenCVS and OpenBSD itself.

  5. Re:Expensive by OrangeSpyderMan · · Score: 4, Informative

    I agree. At one point Dell sold the company I work for some servers that would be clustered and hooked up to SAN's the world over. They sold us "gold" maintenance, knowing fine well where each and every cluster would be located, because we told them, and they even factored that in to the overall quote. This isn't some little deal for a couple of tens of thousands of dollars, this is a 80,000+ users worldwide, who would all be moving from HP desktops and servers to Dell, for the Wintel stuff. Now guess what nearly blew the deal? One of the locations that was destined to receive a Dell cluster was not supported for 2-3 days a week because their support engineer organised deep-dea fishing trips!!! He was the Dell engineer, and they came within a hair's breadth of blowing this as they furiously scrambled for engineer cover in $LOCATION. I wouldn't give Dell ANY money for service over their default baseline, as they may know how to ship boxes, they don't know jack shit about service.

    --
    Try NetBSD... safe,straightforward,useful.
  6. It is done. by Nimrangul · · Score: 4, Informative

    The money has been raised, the purchase shall soon be made. The link is here and you will note that the only companies that put in any money are smaller ones and the rest of the money has come from individuals.

    --
    I'm sick of following my dreams - I'm just going to ask them where they're going and hook up with them later.