The Repeating Questions That No One Will Look Up
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I see these questions almost every few days and even thought the answers couldn't be simpler or more repetitive, the questions keep getting asked as if things are new. I fill these in as I think of them.
What NAS should I buy for an SMB? Probably the most asked. Um, Synology and ReadyNAS are the far and away top answers. Some people like QNAP, some don't. Buffalo gets mentioned. Someone will always mention Drobo then it will be pointed out how it doesn't do something really important.
Do I need a SAN for my two servers? No, just no.
Should I use one big array or split them? One big array, no matter how many people think that something that they read in the 1990s says otherwise. If you needed to split your arrays, you'd never need to ask us about it.
Should I use virtual of physical servers? Virtual, only physical when virtual is impossible and if it was impossible, why did you ask? Virtual, every time.
I've heard that I need one physical domain controller? See above, were exceptions listed? No, for good reason. Virtual every time.
But I only have one workload to virtualize, that's an exception, right? Seriously? See above, no exceptions.
Is RAID 5 okay for traditional hard disks? No, it is not. If you are deploying something new, don't even talk about RAID 5.
Are SSDs ready for use in servers yet? Really? They've been shipping in top enterprise servers for many years now, they are way past the point of proven.
What server vendors should I look at? Dell, HPE, SuperMicro, Fujitsu and maybe Cisco. That's it.
I'm an SMB, so I need high availability, right? Maybe, but not likely. HA would never be assumed and is very, very unlikely. If you don't have "downtime cost by the hour" figures to work with already, assume that no one actually things you need HA. Companies that need HA know that they need HA and know that that means working with numbers not things like "need HA."
I'm running Active Directory, so I need two domain controllers minimum, right? No. Sometimes, sure. But this is purely an uptime business concern and would never be a simple yes or no from IT people. This is part of the HA conversation from above, evaluate the impact of downtime, the cost to mitigate and decide from there.
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You should add a corollary to the RAID5 and SSD questions (conveniently next to each other) that SSDs in a RAID5 are good.
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@BRRABill said in The Repeating Questions That No One Will Look Up:
You should add a corollary to the RAID5 and SSD questions (conveniently next to each other) that SSDs in a RAID5 are good.
Only because UREs become such an extreme possibility of occurring that OBR5 is viable.
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@DustinB3403 said in The Repeating Questions That No One Will Look Up:
@BRRABill said in The Repeating Questions That No One Will Look Up:
You should add a corollary to the RAID5 and SSD questions (conveniently next to each other) that SSDs in a RAID5 are good.
Only because UREs become such an extreme possibility of occurring that OBR5 is viable.
I'm just saying that a lot of people ask that question as well.
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I swear. Eye's twitch every time RAID5 or SANS or virtualization comes up.
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@NerdyDad you might want to get that checked out...
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@aaronstuder said in The Repeating Questions That No One Will Look Up:
@NerdyDad you might want to get that checked out...
I'd say it's about right, I've got a nasty twitch thanks to those topics myself.
