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Re: General-Purpose Server for Debian Stable

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On 2020-10-02 04:18, Linux-Fan wrote:
> David Christensen writes:
> 
>> On 2020-10-01 14:37, Linux-Fan wrote:

 >    2x4T SSD for fast storage (VMs, OS)

>> I suggest identifying your workloads, how much CPU, memory, disk I/O, 
>> etc., each requires, and then dividing them across your several 
>> computers.
> 
> Division across multiple machines... I am already doing this for data 
> that exceeds my current 4T storage (2x2T HDD, 2x2T "slow" SSD local and 
> 4x1T outsourced to the other machine). 

Are the SSD's 2 TB or 4 TB?


> I currently do this for data I 
> need rather rarely such that I can run the common tasks on a single 
> machine. Doing this for all (or large amounts of data) will require 
> running at least two machines at the same time which may increase the 
> idle power draw and possibilities for failure?

More devices are going to use more power and have a higher probability 
of failure than a single device of the same size and type, but it's hard 
to predict for devices of different sizes and/or types.  I use HDD's for 
file server data and backups, and I use SSD's for system disks, caches, 
and/or fast local working storage.  I expect drives will break, so I 
have invested in redundancy and disaster planning/ preparedness.


>> Understand that a 4 core 5 GHz CPU and a 16 core 2.5 GHz CPU have 
>> similar prices and power consumption, but the former will run 
>> sequential tasks twice as fast and the latter will run concurrent 
>> tasks twice as fast.
> 
> Is this still true today? AFAIK all modern CPUs "boost" their frequency 
> if they are lightly loaded. Also, the larger CPUs tend to come with more 
> cache which may speed up single-core applications, too.

Yes, frequency scaling blurs the line.  But, the principle remains.


I am not familiar with AMD products, but Intel does offer Xeon 
processors with fewer cores and higher frequencies specifically for 
workstations:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/docs/processors/xeon/ultimate-workstation-performance.html


>> I would think that you should convert one of your existing machines 
>> into a file server.  Splitting 4 TB across 2 @ 2 TB HDD's and 2 @ 4 TB 
>> SSD's can work, but 4 @ 4 TB SSD's with a 10 Gbps Ethernet connection 
>> should be impressive.  If you choose ZFS, it will need memory.  The 
>> rule of thumb is 5 GB of memory per 1 TB of storage.  So, pick a 
>> machine that has at least 20 GB of memory.
> 
> 4x4T is surely nice and future-proof but currently above budget :) 

Yes, $2,000+ for 4 @ 4 TB SATA III SSD's is a lot of money.  But, U.2 
PCIe/NVMe 4X drives are even more money.


That's why I use obsolete, but new, Seagate Constellation ES.2 SATA III 
3 TB HDD's -- ~$50 each on eBay.  Buy four drives for $200, buy small 
SATA III SSD cache and log devices for $100, and you will have 75% the 
capacity and excellent performance for typical file server workloads for 
$300.


> I saw 
> that the Supermicro AS-2113S-WTRT can do 6xU.2 drives. In case I chose 
> Supermicro this would allow upgrading to such a 4x4T configuration.
> 
>> As for the workstation, it is difficult to find a vendor that supports 
>> Debian.  But, there are vendors that support Ubuntu; which is based 
>> upon Debian.  So, you can run Ubuntu and you might be able to run Debian:
>>
>> https://html.duckduckgo.com/html?q=ubuntu%20workstation
> 
> My experience with HP and Fujitsu Workstations is that they run well 
> with Debian. I am still thinking that buying two systems will be more 
> expensive and more power draw. Using one of the existent systems will 
> slow some things down to their speed -- the current "fastest" system 
> here has a Xeon E3-1231 v3 and while it has 3.4GHz it is surely slower 
> (even singlethreaded) than current 16-core server CPUs...

That would make a good file server; even better with 10 Gbps networking.


> Thinking of it, a possible distribution accross multiple machines may be
> 
> * (Existent) Storage server (1U, existent Fujitsu RX 1330 M1)
>    [It does not do NVMe SSDs, though -- alternatively put the disks
>     in the VM server?]
> * (New) VM server (2U, lots of RAM)
> * (New) Workstation (4U, GPU)
>
> For interactive use and experimentation with VMs I would need to 
> power-on all three systems. For non-VM use, it would have to be two... 
> it is an interesting solution that stays within what the systems were 
> designed to do but I think it is currently too much for my uses.

The Fujitsu might do PCIe/NVMe 4X M.2 or U.2 SSD's with the right 
adapter card.


Depending upon what your VM's are doing, a SATA III SSD might be enough 
or you might want something faster.  Similar comment for the workstation.


Rather than a new VM server and a new workstation, perhaps a new 
workstation with enough memory and fast local working storage would be 
adequate for both purposes.


> Still, thanks for the suggestion.

YW.  :-)


David

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Thread

General-Purpose Server for Debian Stable Linux-Fan <Ma_Sys.ma@web.de> - 2020-10-01 23:40 +0200
  Re: General-Purpose Server for Debian Stable Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> - 2020-10-02 00:50 +0200
    Re: General-Purpose Server for Debian Stable Linux-Fan <Ma_Sys.ma@web.de> - 2020-10-02 01:30 +0200
      Re: General-Purpose Server for Debian Stable Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> - 2020-10-02 12:40 +0200
  Re: General-Purpose Server for Debian Stable ghe2001 <ghe2001@protonmail.com> - 2020-10-02 01:00 +0200
  Re: General-Purpose Server for Debian Stable deloptes <deloptes@gmail.com> - 2020-10-02 08:30 +0200
  Re: General-Purpose Server for Debian Stable David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> - 2020-10-02 09:20 +0200
    Re: General-Purpose Server for Debian Stable Linux-Fan <Ma_Sys.ma@web.de> - 2020-10-02 13:20 +0200
      Re: Signing emails, was Re: General-Purpose Server for Debian Stable David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2020-10-02 17:30 +0200
      Re: General-Purpose Server for Debian Stable David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> - 2020-10-03 00:40 +0200
        Re: General-Purpose Server for Debian Stable Linux-Fan <Ma_Sys.ma@web.de> - 2020-10-03 02:20 +0200
          Re: General-Purpose Server for Debian Stable David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> - 2020-10-03 03:40 +0200
  Re: General-Purpose Server for Debian Stable Charles Curley <charlescurley@charlescurley.com> - 2020-10-02 15:50 +0200
    Re: General-Purpose Server for Debian Stable Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> - 2020-10-02 16:50 +0200
  Re: General-Purpose Server for Debian Stable Linux-Fan <Ma_Sys.ma@web.de> - 2020-10-02 21:20 +0200

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