GPI Storage

Updates... Even if they are a bit late.

2008-11-16T14:35:00.000-08:00

I am totally sold on the DoubleTake failover/migration. It was so easy to set up my 2½ year old could have done it.

First make sure you have everything you need;
A Windows Small Business Server 2003 (R2) system.
The Failover/Migration System - This should be running Windows Server 2003 (R2).

For my purposes I was running Windows SBS2003 on a Physical system and a trial version of Windows Server 2003 (120 day eval) on a Virtual since I was going to migrate.

Install the DoubleTake software on both systems.
Point DoubleTake on the Server to the SBS2003.
Wait for a few hours for the data to replicate over your ethernet.
Once the Replication is complete unplug the ethernet cable from the SBS.
On the Server the DoubleTake window will state the connection to the SBS is lost.
Simply click on the "Failover" button and wait for a reboot.
Once the Reboot has happend (in my case it took about 15 minutes) verify that everything works then shutdown the old SBS2003 system.
THAT'S IT.

Couldn't be easier... Just as a note this is a failover with out going back to the original. For those who need some redundancy in their SBS2003 (going to test with 2008 soon) this is a must have!

Submitted by Alexander (Chief Geek)

The Home Media Storage Gone Crazy Part 2

2008-08-15T13:08:00.000-07:00

Well it has been two months since an update to this project has been posted. Here are the details thus far...

IBM X3650 Server with 10 GB RAM and 1 Quad-Core Xeon (X5355) Processor

The system is up and running nicely with Windows Server 2008 (thanks to the Heroes Happen Launch Event for supplying the license). Currently in its drive bays are 5 Western Digital 500GB RAID qualified SATA II hard drives and a random Seagate 500 GB. Two of the drives are in a hardware mirror and the others are in a software RAID 5.

The server is attached to a Promise 15110 SCSI to SATA array. This unit has room for 15 drives and a nice web gui interface to manage it. The server has an Adaptec 39160 PCIX adapter to connect with the array.

Currently the array has 5 Western Digital 1 TB Green SATA II and 5 of the Western Digital 500 GB like the server. Both sets are in RAID 5 configurations presently but that will change as the experiments start.

The Host system (Windows 2008 Server 64 bit) is running Hyper-V and has several virtual machines on it. Two destop emulations, one running Windows XP SP3 the other running Vista Business SP1. There are three servers residing in the virtual environment, a Windows 2003 Standard, a Windows 2003 trial, and a Windows 2003 Web (all licenses are thanks to an Action Pack Subscription).

The Windows 2003 Standard is acting like a storage server. The trial will be using DoubleTake Software the migrate an older SBS2003 server. While the Web is just there to be a server as needed.

As everything is now getting online we've got some initial observations;

Machine transfer speeds aren't any better over the "virtual" network than those over the copper wire.

Windows Media Center takes a long time (sometimes nearly 2 minutes) to parse 200+ DVD's.

A virtual desktop is just as good as the real thing if all you've done is remoted in to it anyway. (Actually its better one less computer to draw power)

We'll be back soon to write a summary of the SBS2003 DoubleTake migration.

Submitted by Alexander (Chief Geek)

The Home Media Storage Gone Crazy

2008-06-11T14:25:00.000-07:00

Within the next few weeks we'll have a nice article about Home Media Storage. This preview should give you a small hint on the scope of the project. The list of equipment procured thus far includes:

IBM x3650 Server with one Quad Core Xeon X5355 CPU (2.66 GHz), 10GB RAM, Two SATA Half Terabyte WD RAID Drive.

HP J9077A 1400-8G Gigabit Switch

Promise VT15110 SATA to U160 Array (15 bay)

In the next few article we'll go into more detail about OS's and configurations as well as more HDD space (you didn't think we'd leave 19 open drive bay did you?)

Stay tuned for the continuation of "Home Media Storage Gone Geeky"

Submitted by Alexander (chief geek)

Welcome to GPI Storage Technologies

2008-02-17T13:24:00.000-08:00

Welcome! At Geeks' Product Investigation we have some of the best Subject Matter Experts on Storage. They will discuss the new technologies and answer your questions here.