Raid 1 here we come... Part I

NAS servers have come a very long way since their inception...

Problem, the server is too bloody small for the money we are charging, so we bastardise a PC and fit it with 2 hot-swap HD caddies, & 2 x 1 TB hard drives.

Problem, our nice case is too small for caddies, quick, go and get new case.

Problem, only case that fits the caddies is an ugly white case, made in 1962, or thereabout with an old style, non-standard power supply,

No room for fans
No room for air.
No room for front usb
No room for SATA power (but room for a floppy disk)


So our "New Bullet Proof" server - is like the old server, only uglier, slower, slightly worst and definitely a lot hotter..

1st ever attempt at a Raid server,

1. Put PC & bits together,
2. Make sure all is working,
3. Install Windows XP, (XP does not support SATA), we have to use floppy to install SATA drivers.
4. Enable Raid 1 in the bios (PC deletes everything) & we have to start again from scratch.

2nd attempt at a Raid server,

1. Format everything
2. Create new XP install, with SATA drivers slipstreamed into the bootable ISO 
3. Reinstall Windows XP
4. All seems to be working according to the plan
5. Hopefully Raid 1, will be more reliable

I was so happy, with the results, I couldn't help patting myself on the back - the adulation and the ecstasy - We installed everything, MySql server, Software and Data, and all seems to be working OK, so we set off to the customers shop and install the new server, and 1 minute later, this crashed with an recoverable error (crash) that blocked all network services and the network card, with the only way of getting to work, was to reboot the server...

My brain went into Bullshit overdrive mode, and I told the customer, that every time we connect this terminal, the server goes offline, so he said lets take that terminal off, and we did, but the server still crashed when connected to any of the other terminals on the network.. So, and with our tails between our legs, and our heads hanging down in shame, we returned to the office, with our brand new Server, trying to see what had happened.   

3rd time Unlucky - Back to the drawing board

We decided that Raid is bad, and that the crashes were all caused by it. So what other solutions did we have; and the solution that we came up with was to:

1. Stop Raid 1,
2. Format Both HD Drives,
3. Install Everything once again, 
4. Ghost an exact working REPLICA (HD image).
5. Use M$ SyncToy 2.1 to sync all changed files

So we did and guess what, there was only 1 little flaw to the plan:

1. Mysql locks files
2. And SyncToy 2.1 does not sync locked file

And because we no longer have a Raid array, we have the added bonus of randomisation on boot sometimes, disk 1 boots, sometimes, disk 2 boots so we lose all the transactions from the previous session...
we tested software at the office, all is working fine.

So we take the Server to site, and the Software crashes again..  When we return to base, we notice that all our flash drives are virus ridden.

4th and Final Attempt

So this time, go to site prepared, we check all machines for Virus infections, and we reinstall windows on 4 machines, we install anti-virus software on all machines as well.

Everything seems to be working fine now, with no crashes and no Problems, apart from;

1. We no longer have the security of a Raid 1 system and, 
2. We have random boot issue (either one of the 2 hard drives may boot & we have no control over which one, but it's always a 50/50 chance)
3. The server's temperature.

Another job well done and another satisfied customer...