It's upgrade time

[Ghoulish Delight]

Currently descending on our address are various shipments from various vendors via various shipping companies all comprising the next-generation home network at the GD/CP residence. I'm so freaking excited.

We had been hoping to make the jump back into Mac-dom and bet an iBook of some sort. But I'm finally frightened enough of losing our data (we have an external backup drive running over USB 1.0 that's way too slow to be used regularly and I'm way too forgetful to be responsible about making use of it) that it made much more sense to take the same amount of money and buy a mid-range Dell laptop and build myself a RAID-5 backup server.

This is what happens when you work in the enterprise storage industry.

Anyway, so here's the tale of the tape:

Laptop - primary daily use system
*Dell Inspiron 1721, Dual core AMD Turion, 2.0Ghz
*2GB RAM
*17" glossy widescreen (1920x1200)
*Built-in 802.11n (prelim spec, of course)
*(skipped the spiffy $50 paint job)
$1500

File server - Will serve network volumes to be backed up on RAID-5
I'm building this from the ground up to be low power and hopefully fault-tolerant
* Mid-tower case with low 370W power supply
* AMD dual core Athlon 4200 (2.2Ghz, only 65W)
* 2GB ram
* Gigabyte Socket AM2 mother board with Gig-E and built in RAID-5
* 3x400GB Maxtor SATA drives for RAID-5 volume
* 1x160GB Maxtor SATA drive for system OS and network volume
* 1x300GB USB 2.0 external drive for further network volume
* Simple CD-burner/DVD-rom combo drive + floppy (for driver install)
* A few other accessories
A STEAL at $940 delivered, including Windows Vista Ultimate

Included in the price of the laptop is a Wireless-N router

The plan is to have the server be an always-on solution (thus the low power focus) serve a couple network drives (the smaller SATA and the big external USB, 400GB+) to the laptop to store vital files (namely photos and music) while creating some sort of automated backup policy to write it to the RAID-5 volume (should have ~800GB of backup space). I'll have to play with Vista's built-in shadow-copy functionality to see if it'll suffice, or there's some pretty good freeware backup solutions out there.

I'm so excited. Both that I will finally feel some level of comfort about how safe and retrievable my data is (nothing's fool-proof, but automated backup onto a fault-tolerant volume is a good place to start), and because I get to build the server from scratch.

I can already hear the cries of, "Vista?! Go Linux, man!" Eh, I've got my reasons to stick with Windows, chief among them being ease of dealing with RAID drivers and ease of sharing network volumes without dealing with Samba (*shudder*).

[BarTopDancer]

/drool

[Moonliner]

"Vista?! Go Windows Server 2003 or even XP, man!"

[Prudence]

I had my new laptop shipped with XP. Dell still sells them that way, but possibly only the Latitudes.

[FEJ]

Bummer you cant make the jump. I agree with Moonliner. Go 2003 server. My experiences with Vista have been horrible. Not very intuitive and frustrating.

Can you install unbuntu on that raid? ;-)

[Alex]

I've had absolutely no problem with Vista still.

But it would be moot for me, I haven't backed up a computer since 1991 (existing files tend to go in the trash with the old computer) so this system would be wasted space for me.

[Morrigoon]

Wow, color me impressed. I don't even know how to backup my computer.

[Ghoulish Delight]

1) I can't afford Server 2003 and for once I didn't feel like stealing from work (I know, weirded me out too. I think this is the first time I've actually paid for any Microsoft product outside of an OS pre-loaded on an off-the-shelf system).

2) Server 2003 is massive overkill for what I want to do

3) I've been running vista at work since the very first beta release. I'm well versed in it and have no problem getting it to do what I need it to do.

4) I expect newer technologies to be supported on Vista. I'm in the mood to move forward, and unless we're talking failure on the level of Windows ME, I see no reason to hold off just because companies are still catching up on writing drivers.

Believe me, I've thought this through a thousand times.

Unbuntu was an option, but I chose the easy-integration with existing infrastructure (namely TiVo and iTunes) over the gains of going Unbuntu. I know much of it is overcomable, but not worth the inevitable nagging incompatibilities, imo. I'll likely turn the old desktop into a Linux playgound.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Have I mentioned how glad I am to have this man as my husband? :D I'm sure he's glad to have a wife that will let him set up a RAID-5 server from scratch, with only a few questions asked. I'll be sure to bug him throughout the process so I can learn what to expect from such a system. I'm pretty damn excited myself, since our current "system" of the abandoned computer upstairs connected to an external HD that's never turned on has sucked for a long time....plus our laptop is well beyond its peak performance.

Oh crap, we never really shopped for that sofa table, did we?

[Ghoulish Delight]

Grrr, I hate package delivery nonsense. They'll only attempt to deliver during business hours, and if you're lucky, the pickup locations are open until 6 at the latest. 90% of the what we've bought is available in the form of 2 packages (one UPS, one DHL), but I'm only going to be able to pick one up the UPS one tonight because DHL's only open until 5. Then I get to play this game again next week when 3 more packages arrive. Everything is "signature required" and having already had one large, expensive shipment stolen from our carport, I ain't trusting anyone to sign for me.

[Prudence]

Be wary of DHL. They delivered our laptops on Friday - while my parents were out of town - to my parents' front porch. Says signature required. No one was there to sign for it. Sat there until they got home on Monday. Fortunately, they weren't stolen. But there are no "P Anderson"s in their neighborhood. And the "signature" is just a slightly wavy line - not even a regular messy signature like mine, but just a line with maybe a bump in it. But DHL can say someone signed for it and it's not their fault - even if it was just the driver who didn't want to lug it back to the truck and come back again.

[Ghoulish Delight]

I've already called DHL and told them to hold it until I can pick it up on Saturday.

[lizziebith]

I have everything shipped to my office so I no longer worry. Congrats on all the new toys! :D

[FEJ]

glad you have not had any issues with vista. My only workings have been already trouble machines. The owners may have futzed them up already.

Is it going to be hot swappable?

I am going to expand my external firewire/ USB 2.0 backup setup to include a RAID 5 that I can get via the wireless n network or via the gigabit wired network in the apartment. My media library is getting a little big.

[CoasterMatt]

Vista has been really good here in the Nuclear Muffin Test Kitchen - but our slower old boxes run Ubuntu.

[mousepod]

I'll be interested to see how your RAID works out. I've been drooling over the geeky alternative: drobo (http://drobo.com/), but it seems like RAID-5 still makes more sense.

[Ghoulish Delight]

I'll be interested to see how your RAID works out. I've been drooling over the geeky alternative: drobo (http://drobo.com/), but it seems like RAID-5 still makes more sense.
Intriguing. Interesting concept. Gizmodo recommends waiting for the next generation (stability issues, price, and some other minor quibbles), but it's definitely a clever solution.

[Kevy Baby]

I have everything shipped to my office so I no longer worry.I do the same.
Congrats on all the new toys! :DDitto (I hate posting that, but I'm doing it anyways).
__________________________________

At work, we have set ourselves up with Mozy Pro (http://www.mozypro.com/) as our off site backup. This is in addition to our on-site backup. I gotta say that it works very well with the only "interruption" being a small pop-up window (like the one I get whenever an email comes in) saying that it is starting the daily incremental backup. No hit at all to performance. Pretty reasonable at $3.95 per seat plus $0.50 per GB per month.

They also have a free consumer version (http://www.mozy.com/). Backup up to 2 GB for free!

[Kevy Baby]

I've been drooling over the geeky alternative: drobo (http://drobo.com/)...FWIW, Mirra (http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/external/mirra_personal_server/) sucks.

[Ghoulish Delight]

I have everything shipped to my office so I no longer worry. I tried that once. I should have known better knowing our s/r department. The good news was that I got word that it was there faster than any time out (because they couldn't figure out why it didn't seem to have an order # associated with it), but I could tell from the tone of their voice when the called to ask me about it that I very quickly needed to pull out a cover story (I went with, "Damnit, I told them not to ship it to this address, sorry about that."). We get tons (literally and figuratively) of equipment delivered daily, it occurred to me right then that I shouldn't burden them like that, both out of courtesy to them and out of concern for my purchases.

[lizziebith]

I'm sorry to hear that -- we're not really supposed to either, but I always give the mail guys nice holiday gifts of liquor, so they seem really pleased to bring me my stuff all year. Yeah, I bribe, but it works!

[Alex]

About the only thing I collect is Asimov and there was a certain period in his career when he was doing a fair amount of short story publishing in the gentlemen's magazine.

Ebay was a godsend for someone interest in a very select bunch of specific issues without having to go to some fairly grungy places (seriously, I'm buying just for one of the articles). Unfortunately where we lived at the time was a place where packages absolutely could not be delivered so I had everything shipped to me at work.

I was an administrative assistant at the time, one of two in the office, so half the time I did the mail. Plus I instructed that the envelopes be marked personal so that they wouldn't be opened (we opened everybody's mail and put it in their boxes).

You can guess what happened. Fortunately my fellow admin took it reasonably well though I'm not sure she really bought why I was having a Penthouse from the 1970s mailed to me at work.

The next day I went and got acquainted with our local Mailboxes Etc. and have been leery of having things shipped to work since.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Well, UPS has gone up a notch in my book. Not only have they extended their regular business hours at the distribution center to stay open until 7, they actually then reopen from 8-8:30 in case your package is on a straggler truck that didn't quite make it back in time.

[Ghoulish Delight]

It lives! Well, it's got a heartbeat at any rate and nothing is smoking. Tomorrow begins setup and OS install. Laptop also arrives tomorrow.

Kinda wishing I'd thought to buy a black floppy drive.

[RStar]

Congrats on the new system, GD! It sounds realy cool!

Good luck getting it all going. May it go together smooth a silk.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Aaaargh. Just opened the last component, the new wireless-n router.

It rattles. I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to rattle, I did not request the "Deluxe Tambourine Upgrade Package". :(

Vista installed without a hitch, even on a SATA drive, and it's good to go. Just some infrastructure work left to do.

[blueerica]

Oh, I wouldn't worry... the rattling just comes from the security system, ensuring that absolutely no one will be able to connect to your internet.