MEF Proposals/F2007

Fall 2007

New server for mirroring

The CSClub is running a mirror for Debian and Ubuntu GNU/Linux distributions. We would also like to archive the raw AVI's of our talks (~ 20 GB each). The machine that is mirroring our talks (natural-flavours) is underpowered and we would like to upgrade it.

We would like to purchase the following:

• Two or three 750 GB SATA disks ($240 each)
• 2 GB of RAM ($100)
• Motherboard ($180)
• SATA RAID controller ($400)
• Power supply ($150)
• SATA and power cables ($20)

We would run the set of disks in RAID 5, which would provide 1.5 TB (if we purchase two disks) or 2.25 TB (if we purchase three disks), of disk space. RAID 5 provides reliability in the case of single disk failure, through the use of parity bits across disks. We are willing to accept funding for two disks, but we would prefer funding for three disks.

Total: $1310 - $1550

Disks for taurine

The CSClub received funding for taurine from MEF, with one of its purposes being to run virtual machines. We currently have two 72 GB disks in RAID 0 (striped) mode, which means the disks are joined to form one logical 144 GB disk providing no redundancy. We would like to request funding for two 146 GB disks (model number 431958-B21). We would then run the two sets of disks in RAID 1, which provides redundancy in the event of single disk failure. The HP public sector pricing for a single disk is $512. However, local vendor pricing is typically a few percentage points lower. The cheapest online retailer is $468 per disk. In total, both disks would be at most $936. The disks are more expensive than commodity desktop disks, as they are low-profile (2.5 inch) and SAS (Serial-Attached-SCSI); these are the only type of disks that will work in this machine.

Total: $936

Dedicated disk server

The CSClub maintains our user data (/users) on our primary server, caffeine. When this system goes down, all of our other machines are rendered effectively unusable. Since this is our primary server, it also runs Kerberos, LDAP, Apache, MySQL, and PostgreSQL. This system is also the system most of users use. As such, caffeine is frequently upgraded, which increases the chances of it malfunctioning and going down. Caffeine has been down a number of times in the past.

We have looked into different fallover systems, but we have not found a successful solution. We would like to create a dedicated disk server that would be used exclusively for holding /users and would not be used as a general-use machine. We are asking for the following hardware:

• Motherboard: "Asus M2A-VM Socket AM2 AMD690G + ATI SB600 Chipset Dual Channel DDR2 800/667/533 Integrated ATI X1250 Graphics Micro ATX" - $79
• Processor: "AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ (65W) Dual-Core Socket AM2, 2.2GHz, 512KB x2 L2 Cache, 2000MHz HT, 90nm (ADO4200CUBOX)" - $98
• RAM: "Mushkin SP2-6400 DDR2-800 2x1GB CS 5-5-5-18 1.8V (996529)" - $103
• Case/PSU: "Antec NSK4480 New Solution ATX Mini Tower Case 3X5.25 2X3.5 3X3.5INT 380W ATX12V V2.0 Silver Black" - $89

We would move the 2 SATA disks from caffeine (400 GB each) and a 40 GB IDE disk from caramel-colour into the new disk server.

Total: $369

KVM-over-IP system

The CSClub has a number of servers in the MC 3015 machine room. MathSoc and other clubs also have a few systems in MC 3015 as well. If system in the machine room goes down after-hours (e.g. the evening or weekends) we are unable to physically access these systems to perform maintenance. Having a KVM-over-IP system would let us diagnose and reboot systems. It would also reduce the number of times we need to bother the operator in MC 3015.