OpenBSD CVS RAID Array Failing, Needs Replacement

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)."

Comments

Re:$12,500... what is this, MAC hardware?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think it's because they want quality equipment with a service contract. Your RAID enclosure built of duct tape and popsicle sticks fails to amuse.

Link to make a donation

[abradsn]

How do we actually make a donation?

shut the damned thing down now...

[advocate_one]

while you've still got good data... take a backup first though... but shut it down...

Re:Expensive

[Kalak]

The cost of a spare backplane for the enclosure on this level of equipment is more than a few dollars. We're not just talking having a spare power supply and drives here. 4 hour service is a deal breaker when dealing with highly critical equipment of this level. No amount of spare parts, short of complete redundancy in equipment (another $12k) would be enough to cover every contingency. It's one reason our shop is not going to get an XRAID form Apple - good price point, but our critical infrastructure needs more than next business day response and some "common" spare parts. We're planning on even buying the redundant RAID array as well. Good Sysadmins are supposed to be paranoid and ready to face major disaster with excitement, and to plan for that disaster that should never occurr.

Re:Gee..

[Noksagt]

if I were not a poor college student, I would contribute.

Philanthropy does not require you to be personally wealthy. For one, a small donation from you of $5 will almost certainly help them & not overly burden you. But, as a student, you are in a good position to actually fundraise for them as well. Not only can you encourage your peers to also donate $5, but you can solicit faculty, alumni, and departments to donate much more than $5.

OpenBSD also accepts hardware donations. You can send any spare equipment you have, encourage others to do the same, and/or even dumpster dive for perfectly working components that could use a new home.

Re:"Open" CVS?

[Nimrangul]

FSF views anything they don't make as less free, regardless of anything you may say or think.

Also, the FSF believes everyone has the right to all code, thus anything that allows for a closed source version of anything denies the "right" to said code and is therefore bad.

Another note: The OSI are irrelevant, the only thing that matters for making something open source is there being access to the source; a little slip of words mean nothing, nor does the "thumbs up" from an organisation that does not contribute anything to the community, it is the access to the code that makes something open source by definition.

Re:$12,500... what is this, MAC hardware?

[Triumph The Insult C]

hmm, let's look at the facts

the person organizing the replacement (marco@) works with at lowest level of disks as a day job. he is very involved in all of the obsd scsi stuff

you agree that scsi is "outdated super expensive technology", but offer no facts, nor have you bothered to check the configuration they currently have

who should i consider more knowledgable in this subject matter?

for the kind of work that cvs.openbsd.org does, ide simply will not cut it

for storing big pr0n movies, ide works fine. for lots of cvs commits and checkouts and heavy i/o from nfs, ide sucks

Please learn about data storage before preaching .

[MarkTina]

I think in your whole mini-rant you managed to get one fact right : seek time being important for apps.

The rest was garbage :-)

Have a think about this ... why do clued up sys admins use SCSI/FC disks for server applications when you can buy bigger/faster/cheaper IDE disks instead ? (ignoring seektimes and command queuing etc)

It's really a simple answer you know ... reliability. A server class disk is designed to run for years on end and be thrashed constantly, hence they are built to be more reliable than their desktop cousins. The interface used to connect them to the host is also more reliable, has more error checking and correction, is usually even made of better materials .. in all you get what you pay for!

IDE/ATA/S-ATA is great for desktop use and for nearline storage devices (low activity archives) ... for on-line storage of sev-1 applications it's not so great.

Just a few tidbits of knowledge I've picked up in 10 years of data storage management :-)

Re:Network Appliance should donate a filer

[Okijames]

The percentage of BSD "DNA" in OnTap, far exceeds the percentage of NetApp revenue donated to the BSDs.

1/100,000th of NetApp's 2004 revenue would just about cover the dollar amount requested by OpenBSD.

Does anyone at NetApp care to claim that that OnTap is less than 1/100,000th BSD?

I'm not saying NetApp "owes" anyone, they are fully within their rights per the BSD license. I am saying they would be smart to donate filers to all the BSDs. Think of the R&D ROI they could achieve. The good PR "points-per-dollar" would be higher than any marketing/advertising campaign.

The business case for such donations is clear. It's just sad that NetApp hasn't already donated for more honorable reasons.