[OPLINTECH] storage advice sought

[Chad Neeper]

Interesting thought. I think I'd have to toss in a NO vote, though, for
several reasons.

For starters, you're considering adding an external USB storage device
being used as primary storage to a server. In no particular order:
- The chance of accidentally disabling the external USB device is much
higher...failing wall-wart power supply, accidentally disconnecting USB
cable or power cable...
- Most USB hard drives are probably consumer-class drives...with consumer
class life expectancies.
- Both of the above increase risk of failure to your WSUS server. How well
will the server handle it or recover if its storage device suddenly
disappears?
- The tangible cost of the external hard drive will be more than the same
hard drive as an internal model (not that I'd recommend the same
consumer-level hard drive you'd get in the external drive!)

If you DO go with an external drive, I'd suggest checking the warranty.
Anecdotally over the years, I've seen a strong correlation between failure
rates and warranty periods when it comes to hard drives. One and three year
warranties are consumer-level with higher failure rates. 5 year or better
are server-class with much lower failure rates.

If it were me, I'd find a 7200RPM SATA drive with a five-year (or better)
warranty and throw it in the server. Shouldn't cost much more than a
comparably sized external drive and eliminates a lot of the potential
issues.

2 cents,
Chad
______________________________
*Chad Neeper*
Senior Systems Engineer

*Level 9 Networks*
740-548-8070 (voice)
866-214-6607 (fax)

*Full LAN/WAN consulting services -- Specialized in libraries and schools*



On Fri, Oct 19, 2012 at 9:15 AM, R Young <roger.young at oplin.org> wrote:

>
> My WSUS server is running low on disk space, and I was thinking of using an
> external USB hard drive as an alternative to adding internal hard drives.
> Any advice?  Good idea?  Bad idea?  Anyone recommend any particular
> product/manufacturer?
>
> thanks
>
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