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Hello Support-Team,
we plan to build an iscsi failover-cluster with 2 intel ssr212mc2.

planned configuration
6x 450 MB SAS HD on Raid 5 (=2250 GB Volume)
Onbord Dual Gbit LAN (bond and direct connected with crossover cables for replication)
2x Intel PRO/1000 PT Dual Gigabit LAN
- one port connect to switch 1 (use MS Windows 2008 with MPIO)
- one port connect to switch 2 (use MS Windows 2008 with MPIO)
- one port connect to Backup-Server
- one port connect to management-lAN

How much memory should i buy?
Which CPU should i use?
-one Intel Xeon X5450 3GHz or two Intel Xeon E5420 2,5GHz? (nearly same price)

Thanks
Jens

PS: I come from germany and i hope you understand my english ;-)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jens

2x Intel PRO/1000 PT Dual Gigabit LAN
- one port connect to switch 1 (use MS Windows 2008 with MPIO)
- one port connect to switch 2 (use MS Windows 2008 with MPIO)
- one port connect to Backup-Server
- one port connect to management-lAN

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I would suggest the Intel Quad port Gigabit adapter -- save space and power for same functionality.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jens

- one port connect to switch 1 (use MS Windows 2008 with MPIO)
- one port connect to switch 2 (use MS Windows 2008 with MPIO)

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Almost forgot...
Rather than have 1 port for each of the Win2008 servers, I would take the 2 ports from a single card and bond them together and use the same bond for both Win2008 servers.

I would go with two Intel Xeon E5420 2,5GHz (more cores)
start with more memory (as much as you can afford)
in file mode teh memory will be used as cache.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by symm

I would go with two Intel Xeon E5420 2,5GHz (more cores)
start with more memory (as much as you can )
in file mode teh memory will be used as cache.

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file mode = NAS? I only wan't to use ISCSI.
Use ISCSI memory to cache data?

If iSCSI is used in file i/o mode (mostly for VMWare), then the system memory will be used as a cache. If iSCSI is used in block i/o mode, then the reads/writes go directly to the storage.

Cheers,
budy

to budy,symm and SeanLeyne:

Thank you for helping me out!