Hardware recommendations for cluster (multi-OS)

[Frank.Olsen@stonesoft.com]

Hi,

(Am I the first person to post to both sun- and linux managers? Hope you
don't mind...)

I want to set up a cluster where as much as possible of the hardware can be
shared between multiple OSs. (But not the servers ;-) Basically, it is a
cluster for HA with a shared disk array, although I may be interested in
doing clustered file systems and such. The main factor of choice is cost,
which is why I'd like to use the disk array from several platforms. I don't
need to access the disk array from multiple platforms simultaneously. If
possible, I'd also like to cut costs further by using the same HBAs on
multiple platforms. Of course, this being a cluster I need a disk array
that has dual attachment so that I can connect two hosts. Since this will
be used mainly for testing/development, I don't need max. speed. Given the
cost factor I might do software RAID rather than hardware. The OS I will
use are Solaris, Linux, and (possibly, grudgingly) Windows.

At the moment I've got some quotes from Sun where I can get a StorEdge
A1000/12x36G at ~$9,500 or a D1000/12x18G at ~$6,000. What I'd like to know
is whether it is possible to find anything cheaper than Sun hardware? At
least for the HBAs I'll get something other than Sun -- I've looked at
QLogic and LSI.

One issue is whether to get a SCSI or a FC setup. Given the tight budget
I'm likely to go for SCSI, but I saw recently the FC is getting there in
terms of cost; e.g., there was a "SAN connectivity" package from QLogic at
$10k. Now, even $10k may be outside my budget, but maybe it is possible
still to get a basic FC setup without an FC switch? Is there a reasonably
priced disk array (probably JBOD) out there with FC connections, a FC hub,
and FC HBAs?

In advance, thanks for your help!

Regards,
Frank Olsen

PS If hardware recommendations is outside the scope of this mailing list,
could you at least refer me to some lists where such issues are discussed?
_______________________________________________
LinuxManagers mailing list - http://www.linuxmanagers.org
submissions: LinuxManagers@linuxmanagers.org
subscribe/unsubscribe: http://www.linuxmanagers.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxmanagers