[nylug-talk] Paper IT certs and disk drive fabrication differences -- WAS: Slim home server

[Chris Knadle]

On Saturday 17 May 2008, Bryan J. Smith wrote:
> Chris Knadle wrote:

Re: MCSE
> > I understand and I don't see anything wrong with that.
...
> I was just merely stating that it helps me "shut down" the most
> trouble-making Microsoft advocates who try to label me as a "Linux
> only" guy

   Understood.

> > I don't have an MCSE personally.  It just doesn't interest me.
...
>
> When times are tough, HR managers use all sorts of "filters."
>
> So far, the most they can ever come up with is, "oh, we need a CS
> major," which is pathetic because I have an EE with computer option
> and CS minor.

   I got an ASEE, then an ASCS [associates in Computer Science], tried being a 
stockbroker, then after that brief dissappointing job went back to school for 
a BSEE in "Computer Engineering", which essentially just confuses everybody 
as to what it is.  It definitely relates to network administration because of 
the elective classes I've taken.  And after all that I'm still trying to 
figure out what I want to do "when I grow up".  ;-)
   In the job interviews I've gone on so far, my degrees generally don't get 
discussed and occasionally I wonder if they're even considered.

> > As far as I can tell in terms of longevity it doesn't matter (much)
> > what kind of drive is used,
>
> Please define "type"?  You haven't yet.

   Uh, well, er...  I don't understand what you're asking.  You're 
comparing "enterprise" vs "comodity" drives, and everything I've used AFAIK 
has been "commodity", so I can only compare manufacturers or the interface 
type: 50-pin or 68-pin SCSI, IDE, SATA.  And I think all of the drives were 
7200 RPM.  There might have been one set of SCSI drives in a mail server that 
were 10k RPM -- not sure.

> > But again I have never used "Enterprise" nor "Near-line" drives
> > as far as I know, so I only have second-hand knowledge of this
> > from reading various studies.
>
> Have you bought a tier-1 PC OEM server from HP, IBM, etc...?

   Oddly enough -- no.  Most of the servers I personally helped purchase were 
from vendors that allowed specifying hardware choices.  If standard servers 
from HP or others were purchased it just so happened that the hardware wasn't 
used on projects I worked on.

> Has nothing to do with interface, 100% agreed.  Again, not only do I
> never debate that, but the problem is that anyone does.  But there
> are clear fabrication differences (and costs) between 10Krpm and
> higher and 7200rpm or lower.  And then there is a sampling difference
> for commodity as well, including firmware changes to accommodate.

   Yeah, friends have run into reliability issues on drives that were found to 
be related to driver firmware.  That's definitely an interesting area.

> In reality, you must _always_ study the specifications _and_ research
> the post-release reliability statistics of a _specific_ model line.
> E.g., Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 drives were quite reliable, but the
> Maxtor fabbed Seagate Barracuda 7200.8/9 drives utterly dipped, and
> quite badly.  Seagate bought Maxtor outright, and improved
> fabrication techniques on the Seagate Barraduca 7200.10 line.

   Huh; the latest drives I've been purchasing were in the Seagate Barracuda 
7200.10 series.  I had not known the were related to the Maxtor line before 
buying them.  They've been fine so far.

   Last I worked directly for an I.T. department at a company they considered 
all hard disks to be equal (obviously a simplistic conclusion) and had no 
interest in having anyone research drive relibility, method of manufacture, 
etc.  "Just get the box a disk" was essentially the bottom line.  [I would 
have much prefered more design thought to go into hardware purchases, but 
hardware purchases were usually done in a rush for several reasons.  :-(]
   And since then I still use commodity hardware for stuff I build for myself, 
and if I work on client's servers I don't carefully examine what type of 
drive a box has -- I haven't been asked to examine that.  Etc.

   -- Chris

-- 

Chris Knadle
Chris.Knadle at coredump.us