Snap 4200

starman7 · 08-07-2006, 01:54 PM

We're considering a 1TB 4200, 4x250GB. What capacity will we get in RAID5?

Anyone have any good/bad experience with these? How's GuardianOS compared with SnapOS -are NFS, permissions, etc. as easy to setup?

Is there a better option for < 3k delivered? This is for an office environment with OS X, Win32, and UNIX clients.

How does failure work in the 4200, are drives hot swappable? Can I just put a new drive in? Is there one drive that if failed, I'd be SOL; or can any or several fail? What are the recovery scenarios?

How does RAM affect performance of these? It comes w/ 256MB and apparently maxes at 3GB.

Would buying this new allow me to download software from Adaptec?
Something I've not been able to do ($%^*^ -that's me swearing) with my two 2+ y/o 2200s.

Thanks,
s7

blue68f100 · 08-07-2006, 05:49 PM

I have not used the Guardian OS, It is suppose to be more advanced and user friendly. I do not know about the Hot Swap, will need to read the specs on that. Download the Admin Manual and look it over. Buying the Snap4200 may NOT get you any SnapOS updates. It may for the guardian OS, if it's in the warranty period. You may be able to get a service contract that will get you updates. Adaptec seams to want to sell these service contract. They want even acknowledge you exist without one.

We get a lot of persons through here after trying to deal with Adaptec. All having a low opion of them. They have pretty much shut down all free support. The only thing left is the Knowledge base and it is difficult to find anything with it.

Since Adaptec bought Snap, I have no idea if there is any development work being done on the GuardianOS or SnapOS. When Vista comes out, it will present a brand new set of problems. The networking has totaly been re-written.

The guardian OS is stored on the HD. To the best of my knowledge the Guardian OS units do not have a way to reinstall the OS from a disk/image. They do have a builtin procedure for transfering the OS to new drives. I would recomend pulling and making a image file/cd of the main drive, this gives you a backup of the Boot OS drive. It's similar to the 2200. Requires a image file to setup new drives if none are present.

I hope my rambling did not get you totally confussed. I would love to have a Guardian OS Unit to play with and/or replace my 2200.

jontz · 08-07-2006, 09:41 PM

With RAID 5 and 4x250GB drives, you will end up with 750GB total, before formatting of course. RAID 5 gives you the capacity of all your drives combined, minus 1 drive. If you have 4 drives, you get the capacity of 3, if you have 5, you get 4, etc.

A RAID 5 array will continue to function even after the failure of a drive, so it won't just die on you and leave you in the lurch. I am not sure about hot swapping. I know that I can't do that on my 4100, but it is a snap OS server, not guardian. If a drive fails though, you REALLY want to replace it ASAP because if another drive fails, you are SOL.

In all seriousness, there are some other options if you need fault tolerant hot swap RAID. You could pick up an older server, such as a Dell Poweredge 2500 SC. That server can come configured with 6 hot swap drive bays in it, and you can find them on ebay dirt cheap ($150 or less). Spend some cash and put new drives in it and an OS, and you are off and running. This may not be the way you want to go, but it would be another option and would definitely come in under $3000.

In my snap 4100 at least, more RAM seems to make a difference in how fast it can access files. It seems to use RAM as read cache for the drives, although I can't say for certain that the guardain OS does the same thing. In any event, more RAM can't hurt you, especially if you are going to have multiple access from multiple users on your server.

Hope some of this is of use to you.

cianwill · 09-18-2006, 10:18 PM

Snap 4200's do have hot swappable drives. I just had a failure, so I will be able to tell you firsthand how it works. I picked up my 4200 on ebay for 600 bucks, and it was NIB still in factory packaging. Alas it was no longer under warranty so Adaptec won't let me do downloads...what else is new. I will let you know how the drive replacement goes.

Geek_Ed · 09-18-2006, 11:40 PM

Speaking of other options, there are less costly options than a whole server. I have been looking at products by a company called Thecus (www.thecus.com), especially the N4100, a 4 disk SATA NAS box, RAID 5 capable, hot swap box. Seems like a nice box, but it's about $600 without drives. The literature says it supports drives up to 400GB, so that would be a RAID 5 array of just about 1TB formatted. the also make a 5 disk model with a hot-spare capability.

No, I don't work for them, just looking for alternatives for relatively low-cost NAS solutions.

08-07-2006, 01:54 PM	#1
starman7 Cooling Neophyte Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: in the city Posts: 10	Snap 4200 We're considering a 1TB 4200, 4x250GB. What capacity will we get in RAID5? Anyone have any good/bad experience with these? How's GuardianOS compared with SnapOS -are NFS, permissions, etc. as easy to setup? Is there a better option for < 3k delivered? This is for an office environment with OS X, Win32, and UNIX clients. How does failure work in the 4200, are drives hot swappable? Can I just put a new drive in? Is there one drive that if failed, I'd be SOL; or can any or several fail? What are the recovery scenarios? How does RAM affect performance of these? It comes w/ 256MB and apparently maxes at 3GB. Would buying this new allow me to download software from Adaptec? Something I've not been able to do ($%^*^ -that's me swearing) with my two 2+ y/o 2200s. Thanks, s7

08-07-2006, 05:49 PM	#2
blue68f100 Thermophile Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Plano, TX Posts: 3,135	Re: Snap 4200 I have not used the Guardian OS, It is suppose to be more advanced and user friendly. I do not know about the Hot Swap, will need to read the specs on that. Download the Admin Manual and look it over. Buying the Snap4200 may NOT get you any SnapOS updates. It may for the guardian OS, if it's in the warranty period. You may be able to get a service contract that will get you updates. Adaptec seams to want to sell these service contract. They want even acknowledge you exist without one. We get a lot of persons through here after trying to deal with Adaptec. All having a low opion of them. They have pretty much shut down all free support. The only thing left is the Knowledge base and it is difficult to find anything with it. Since Adaptec bought Snap, I have no idea if there is any development work being done on the GuardianOS or SnapOS. When Vista comes out, it will present a brand new set of problems. The networking has totaly been re-written. The guardian OS is stored on the HD. To the best of my knowledge the Guardian OS units do not have a way to reinstall the OS from a disk/image. They do have a builtin procedure for transfering the OS to new drives. I would recomend pulling and making a image file/cd of the main drive, this gives you a backup of the Boot OS drive. It's similar to the 2200. Requires a image file to setup new drives if none are present. I hope my rambling did not get you totally confussed. I would love to have a Guardian OS Unit to play with and/or replace my 2200. __________________ 1 Snap 4500 - 1.0T (4 x 250gig WD2500SB RE), Raid5, 1 Snap 4500 - 1.6T (4 x 400gig Seagates), Raid5, 1 Snap 4200 - 4.0T (4 x 2gig Seagates), Raid5, Using SATA converts from Andy Link to SnapOS FAQ's http://forums.procooling.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=13820

08-07-2006, 09:41 PM	#3
jontz Cooling Savant Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: South Bend, IN Posts: 385	Re: Snap 4200 With RAID 5 and 4x250GB drives, you will end up with 750GB total, before formatting of course. RAID 5 gives you the capacity of all your drives combined, minus 1 drive. If you have 4 drives, you get the capacity of 3, if you have 5, you get 4, etc. A RAID 5 array will continue to function even after the failure of a drive, so it won't just die on you and leave you in the lurch. I am not sure about hot swapping. I know that I can't do that on my 4100, but it is a snap OS server, not guardian. If a drive fails though, you REALLY want to replace it ASAP because if another drive fails, you are SOL. In all seriousness, there are some other options if you need fault tolerant hot swap RAID. You could pick up an older server, such as a Dell Poweredge 2500 SC. That server can come configured with 6 hot swap drive bays in it, and you can find them on ebay dirt cheap ($150 or less). Spend some cash and put new drives in it and an OS, and you are off and running. This may not be the way you want to go, but it would be another option and would definitely come in under $3000. In my snap 4100 at least, more RAM seems to make a difference in how fast it can access files. It seems to use RAM as read cache for the drives, although I can't say for certain that the guardain OS does the same thing. In any event, more RAM can't hurt you, especially if you are going to have multiple access from multiple users on your server. Hope some of this is of use to you. __________________ Snap Server 4100, 4x120GB Seagate Drives, RAID 5, version 3.4.803

09-18-2006, 10:18 PM	#4
cianwill Cooling Neophyte Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Manassas, VA Posts: 49	Re: Snap 4200 Snap 4200's do have hot swappable drives. I just had a failure, so I will be able to tell you firsthand how it works. I picked up my 4200 on ebay for 600 bucks, and it was NIB still in factory packaging. Alas it was no longer under warranty so Adaptec won't let me do downloads...what else is new. I will let you know how the drive replacement goes. __________________ 4200 x4 80 GB RAID 5 M4100 x4 160 GB RAID 5 4000 x4 320 GB RAID 5 1100 x1 80 GB 1100 x 1 40 GB

09-18-2006, 11:40 PM	#5
Geek_Ed Cooling Neophyte Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: NY Posts: 38	Re: Snap 4200 Speaking of other options, there are less costly options than a whole server. I have been looking at products by a company called Thecus (www.thecus.com), especially the N4100, a 4 disk SATA NAS box, RAID 5 capable, hot swap box. Seems like a nice box, but it's about $600 without drives. The literature says it supports drives up to 400GB, so that would be a RAID 5 array of just about 1TB formatted. the also make a 5 disk model with a hot-spare capability. No, I don't work for them, just looking for alternatives for relatively low-cost NAS solutions.

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