HP Proliant ML110 G6 as first file server (RAID)?

Question

Bit of a noobie and this will be the 1st server hardware I have purchased. We are a small design studio and I am about to buy our 1st server. I have successfully run Ubuntu on an old PC which has acted as our file server untill now.

I am keenly looking at the HP Proliant ML110 G6 which seems to me to fit the bill.

Any reason why this wouldnt be a good choice for an Ubuntu file server?

I am hoping to fill the 4 drive bays with 1TB SATA hard drives in some kind of raid configuration. I think RAID 10 or 1. My goal is data mirroring, surviveability, minimum disruption to operation, and fixability if somthing goes wrong. Any sugestions? Will the embedded, HP Smart Array B110i SATA Controller RAID 0/1/10, work for me or will I need a seperate RAID card?

I know this is all a bit vague, but I do hope that someonwe will be able to give me a few words of advice, so as to give me the confidence to make the purchase.

Thanks,

G

Solution

That server should do you well.

I would recommend picking up the add-on that gives the RAID card some cache, that can provide a significant performance improvement. Otherwise, that's a solid value performer.

Comments

[antpaw]

+1 for the RAID cache.

[Dave M]

+1 Good controller with cache really helps. Check forums. Some HP RAID cards are pretty bad even with cache.

[Kedar]

Thanks for everyones advice. I will check out the RAID controller in more detail. Does anybody have anything to add regarding what RAID configuration to go for?

[Deb]

@user54887 Considering this is ubuntu, either RAID10 or RAID1 should be just fine. With LVM the exact raid levels don't matter all that much. On Windows, it would to a point, but LVM is much more forgiving than NTFS/DynamicDisks.

[Kedar]

Thanks for everyones help. I went ahead and purchased the server along with 4 2TB hard disks :-) However I am unable to get the Ubuntu install to see my RAID array. As I understand it, this is because the RAID controller is FAKE-RAID and the Ubuntu installer doesn’t have a driver for it. I have read about others, doing something complicated, with trying to get this to work but have decided instead to go with a software RAID/LVM setup. Does anybody have any ideas/recommendations regarding what setup I should go for? Fault tolerance, continuity, quick recovery from disater are my priorities.