USB 2 on Server

[rmilam]

I wanted to use USB 2.0 attached hard drives for backups but in looking at Dell, and compaq servers it appears that none of them are USB 2.0. Intels server mainboards also seem to be USB 1.1 though for all of them most of the workstations are USB 2. Techs at Dell and Compaq say that the USB on a server is just for a USB mouse or keyboard but I've not had any problem with using USB 2.0 drives for backups. I've installed USB 2 cards on several servers and am doing backups to attached drives but I ran into a Dell 2400 that wouldn't work with any USB 2 card. Am I missing something obvious that makes USB 2 undesirable on a server?
Thanks.

 

[pIII_Man]

I don't know much about servers...but as far as firewire usb and all the other features intigrated into most desktop mobos...servers are always about 6 months behind...mostly because probably a minority of server users even use those features...so manufactureres are not very hard pressed to impliment them....also there could be a very good possibility that intel has not released a chipset that supports intigrated usb 2.0 yet...

I would say go for a usb 2.0 card...although you will be limited by the 133mb/s speed of the pci bus...no hard drives can transfer more than 80mb/s continuosly... so you should be fine...

Normally usb plays nice with other components...it can easly share irq's without conflicts...so i see no reason why they could/should not be used on servers...

If i put my k6 in a Ferrari it would be faster than your your pentium 4 or Athlon XP :tongue:

 

[Crashman]

LIES! He won't be limited by the 133MB/s PCI bus, he'll be limited by the 60MB/s USB 2.0 transfer rate! Haven't you ever actually figured out how many MB/s there are in 480mbits/sec?

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[pIII_Man]

well there are 8 bits in a byte so 60mb/s...

I am sorry i did not know the speed of usb 2.0 off the top of my head i thought it was much faster...However the fact still remains that it is fast enough for a hard drive...

If i put my k6 in a Ferrari it would be faster than your your pentium 4 or Athlon XP :tongue:

 

[Tech53]

What?!!!!!!!MORE LIES!!!!
CISCO curriculum specifically says 400 MB/s (actually a little higher but I can't remember the exact number but it's in the 400 range)

Anyway most people do backups on tape because it is cheaper/easier/faster/more programs written specifically for tape backup.Plus it's basically the industry standard for backup.

Someday we'll have wormhole computing. Processing in effectively no time.

 

[pIII_Man]

are you sure you are not getting bits mixed up with bytes?

Show me and i will beleive you...

If i put my k6 in a Ferrari it would be faster than your your pentium 4 or Athlon XP :tongue:

 

[svol]

Was that written in Mb/s or MB/s? The last on is Bytes while the first is bits.

I love my Delta 60HP 7000 RPM fan that puts out more dB then CFM

 

[rmilam]

Actually backup to tape compared to USB 2.0 is not cheaper/easier or faster.
Travan is the only tape drive type that might be cheaper but I've seen to many problems from Travan to recommend it.

From what I've seen USB is much better in all 3 categoies, especially when it comes to restoring. $200 can get you a 120Gb ide drive, USB tray and a USB card- may be sale prices but usually available. You can buy several drives and rotate backups cheaper than buying a new drive. The annual tape replacement costs are near $1000 for some tape types.

Only problems I've seen are USB attached hard drives are not as easy to take off site and some servers seem to not like the add-on USB cards.

I know tape is the industry standard for backup but that may no longer be the best solution for many.

 

[craqon]

Have you looked iton Hotswap removable IDE drives??? The unit is expensive, but it should work nicely with Veritas Backup exec. You just backup to file. Travan is expensive, and for some odd reason scheduling backups with this software is difficult. Only the DLT and LTO worked fine. But that's like $1000 for the drive and about $90 for the tapes (depending on size) And please oh please stay away from the Onstream ADR crap. Their 30G does not work on 2000Server, only only 2000Pro. Lot's of research for you. I can't remember who did the IDE hot swap units. A quick search should be fruitful. It might have been APC. I just wish Symantec Ghost could be scheduled to reboot, and Ghost the whole server at night to another drive/server. Should be possible with a little script file, but...

 

[Crashman]

Yep, you've been lied to, peak for USB 2.0 is 60MB/s. Which is roughly half the speed of a PCI slot or ATA133 controller. Even if it was a typo using the Capital B instead of the small b, it's still a lie because they are supposed to have fact checkers for that stuff.

USB 2.0 is 480 Megabits per second, which is 60 MegaBytes per second.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>