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Debian on a Dell PowerEdge 2800 server



Hi All

I have been asked to advise on the installation of Debian on a new Dell 
server.

The client is keen on a "PowerEdge 2800". From their spec this has a 
"PERC4" SCSI raid controller on board.

From what I can see "PERC3" used an Adaptec chipset which is well 
supported in the latest kernels. Does anybody know about "PERC4"?

Can this controller be used to setup a "hardware" RAID 5 array using 4 
drives? Will this perform better than a Linux software RAID 5 
configuration?

If they chose RAID 5, is it a good idea to spec an additional drive for 
a boot/root partition? Should this boot/root drive be mirrored with an 
additional drive (ie RAID 1)?

The system is to be used to run a MySQL database and PHP application. My 
suggestion is to use two drives in a software RAID 1 mirror, and beef 
up the RAM and spec dual processors (drive capacity is not an issue).

The initial loading on the server will not be too great but they want to 
plan for expansion. I have suggested they buy a cheaper machine now and 
upgrade when their load picks up.

Thanks for your comments


Regards

Ian

-- 
Ian Forbes ZSD
http://www.zsd.co.za
Office: +27 21 683-1388  Fax: +27 21 674-1106
Snail Mail: P. O. Box 46827, Glosderry, 7702, South Africa



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