[BackupPC-users] server spec for BackupPC

[Stuart M. <st...@ef...>]

Hi all,

I am currently running BackupPC on the following:
1.5GB RAM
older processor - not sure how fast
2TB external USB hard drive

Clearly this isn't cutting it, although it was barely cutting it for a
few months. This wasn't my optimal setup but I have to be cost conscious
whenever I can, so I went with "free," because I either had all this
laying around or had it donated. The current bottlenecks seem to be hard
drive and RAM, although CPU could be better, too.

The environment I am trying to back up is 23 laptops, mostly OS X. They
are generally only on the network from 10am - 5pm. The pool size is
434.71GB comprising 4522859 files and 4369 directories. Our network is
100Mbps.

Here is the hardware I am considering buying:
Shuttle barebones case, PSU.
2x4GB DDR2 800 RAM. max 16GB on this motherboard over four slots.
Western Digital Caviar Black WD2001FASS 2TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 Yorkfield 2.66GHz Quad-Core Processor

The WD 2TB will be used as the BackupPC drive. I will use a random SATA
drive that I have sitting around for the system drive. The OS will be
the latest Debian Linux.

Before I propose to my boss that we spend $1100 on new hardware, I
wanted to get the opinion of the list as to whether this hardware should
be sufficient for, say, five years to come, assuming no hardware
failures. If you don't think it is sufficient, what do you think will be
sufficient so I can price that out and propose that to my boss instead?
Thoughts?

Thanks!
Stuart Matthews