RE: Database design.

[Blanchard_Michael () emc com]

"regular" consumer drives are certainly not reliable enough for something of this scope.   Drive array manufacturers 
(not just us, I'm sure others as well) go through great lengths to ensure that the systems will withstand just about 
anything with a guaranteed zero loss of data.

 At the risk of sounding like I'm praising the almighty EMC Symmetrix:  Heck, take a peek on www.emc.com, I'm sure 
there is a page that explains our testing of the symmetrix systems (this is our flagship product).  They can withstand 
like a 8.5 earthquake (and have in real life too), temps way down below freezing for weeks on end, temps way above 
100deg F for weeks on end.  They really are built like tanks, down to the last component....
  I'm positive that NetApp, IBM, etc all put their storage systems through similar testing, although I don't think they 
are all as thorough with their testing.

  There isn't a consumer IDE or SATA drive that will withstand that kind of torture and not skip a beat.  The drive 
systems is certainly not the place to "penney-pinch" on a project as huge as the one the UK is going to undertake.  


Michael P. Blanchard 
Antivirus / Security Engineer, CISSP, GCIH, CCSA-NGX, MCSE
Office of Information Security & Risk Management 
EMC ² Corporation 
4400 Computer Dr. 
Westboro, MA 01580 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: funsec-bounces () linuxbox org [mailto:funsec-bounces () linuxbox org] On Behalf Of Drsolly
Sent: Tuesday, June 06, 2006 5:48 PM
To: Blue Boar
Cc: funsec () linuxbox org
Subject: Re: [funsec] Database design.

On Tue, 6 Jun 2006, Blue Boar wrote:

> Drsolly wrote:
> > 300 gb drives cost about $100. You can put four of those in one computer, 
> > total cost maybe $600. For 460 terabytes, you'd need some 400 of those, 
> > which would cost $240,000.
>
> If you don't also need the CPUs in those distributed machines, ala 
> Google, then you probably just lost all of your "savings" to space, 
> power, and cooling.
 
400 computers at 100 watts per computer, would need 40 kw. Space 
requirement - you could put it in a double garage. Aircon requirements 
wouldn't be too bad, you could probably go with 20 kw to augment the 
natural cooling. 

Hardware really is cheap.

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