Newbie Questions About KDISK

[dFs]

Hi, I apologize for these newbie questions, but there seems to be lots of caveats to the Kaleidescape environment.

Scenario;
I buy a old used grandfathered 1U KServer-1500 on this marketplace or ebay. And let's say everything is working well, but it has 3x750GB KDISK and I want to upgrade to 3x4TB or 6TB KDISKs.

Questions;
[1] 1U KServer-1500 on photos have 4HDD slots, but on sale offers, 3 are usually mentioned not 4, why is that? something to do with KRAID?

[2] Can I buy the new KDISKs at a local 'Kaleidescape Dealer'?
- I can just go in and say "I like 3x6TB please" and they bring them out and I buy them?
- or do I have to take my server there and they place it for me?
- or, I can only ever buy used KDISKs from 3rd party sellers?

[3] Is the fact that I want the KDISKs for an old used out-of-warranty grandfathered KServer going to be a problem for a K-Dealer?
- Like "Sorry Sir, but we're can't sell you any KDISK for your device."

[4] Also, I assume a can't go to a K-Dealer and buy a new but grandfathered KServer, or even a demo/showroom grandfathered unit, right?

Thank you for your time and patience for very newbie questions.

 

[cinelife]

1. No reason, could be 2, 3, or 4 (1 drives worth of storage is allocated to RAID, so the first drive is not a content drive). At one time, servers were sold with a minimum number of drives, and owners added to the server as needed. Some used servers are sold without drives. The current product line only offers servers that are full.

2. Yes, if you can find a K dealer in your area, but the drives will likely need to be ordered from Kaleidescape. (6TB for a 1U or 3U is the only drive currently available from K. $895 retail)

3. Should be no difference, if you have any trouble PM me and I'll help.

4. Mostly correct, K does not sell Grandfathered units, no way to get one from them, but you may find a dealer that has an old grandfathered unit in a demo rack, or from personal use, and they show up in the Marketplace and eBay fairly regularly used.


Jim

 

[kragan]

I bought a used system and expanded by buying just the drives so it is possible. I'm not a dealer, but I've added some info below based on my experiences and understanding.

Hi, I apologize for these newbie questions, but there seems to be lots of caveats to the Kaleidescape environment.

Scenario;
I buy a old used grandfathered 1U KServer-1500 on this marketplace or ebay. And let's say everything is working well, but it has 3x750GB KDISK and I want to upgrade to 3x4TB or 6TB KDISKs.

Questions;
[1] 1U KServer-1500 on photos have 4HDD slots, but on sale offers, 3 are usually mentioned not 4, why is that? something to do with KRAID?

The RAID is designed to allow expansion and fault tolerance/recovery. I think of it as follows - A single KDISK drive is dedicated to the RAID recovery part and is always needed. The other KDISK drives serve as holding the content. At a minimum a server would need two KDISKS, one for the data and the second for the RAID recovery. Starting with that minimum 2 KDISK setup one could expand and add the 3rd and 4th drives for additional capacity. In your example it sounds as the original owner never expanded to 4 KDISK drives. I believe the brand new servers sold today are always populated with 4 KDISK drives, but older servers had the option of different drive configurations depending on how many DVDs the buyer wanted to store on the system.

[2] Can I buy the new KDISKs at a local 'Kaleidescape Dealer'?
- I can just go in and say "I like 3x6TB please" and they bring them out and I buy them?
- or do I have to take my server there and they place it for me?
- or, I can only ever buy used KDISKs from 3rd party sellers?

I'm not a dealer, but I've spoken to dealers in the past that were able to sell me individual drives. They had to place an order with K and then the drives were shipped to me. This was awhile back, so not sure if policy has changed recently. Be careful of purchasing 3rd party used drives as only a drive re-initialized by K can be added to an existing file system. There are posts on this forum that go into the specifics and pros/cons adding new drives to an existing file system.

 

[cinelife]

In re-reading your post, I may have misunderstood your first question. In a 1U server there are 4 drive slots. The Server will operate normally with a minimum of 2 drives (assuming original drive set). The value of the largest drive in the system will be allocated to RAID, after which, all subsequent drives add to storage capacity of the server (basically the value of 3 storage drives max). This is why you may see some ads reflect storage and RAID values, and some are incorrect in wording.



Jim

 

[AlienW]

The other option to consider for a new to you server is purchasing a new set (4x 6tb) of disks from K with filesystem instead of individual spares.

Going the spare route allows you to replace 1 disk at at time with the force fail method (the downside is the old drives become useless). But if you purchase a new set of 4, your hypothetical old set of 3x750 would be re-sellable for a few hundred $.

 

[J.Green]

[4] Also, I assume a can't go to a K-Dealer and buy a new but grandfathered KServer, or even a demo/showroom grandfathered unit, right?

Others have answered your earlier questions. Here is some clarification on grandfathering:

As long as you have 1 grandfathered server in your system, DVD imports will be allowed to all servers in the system. So, for example, if you bought a used 1U server that is grandfathered you would be able to import DVD content to it. If you then bought a second, new 1U+ server (which would not be grandfathered on its own), once you grouped it with your original server you would also be able to import DVD content to the new server.

However, if you were to remove the original server from the system, the new 1U+ server would no longer be able to import DVDs.

 

[dFs]

Great! Thanks! appreciate it.

 

[htroberts]

Questions;
1U KServer-1500 on photos have 4HDD slots, but on sale offers, 3 are usually mentioned not 4, why is that? something to do with KRAID?

I think half the time you see these, it's because a disk has failed, and the owner doesn't want to spend money on the system and decides that now is the time to sell.

Make sure to get some assurance that this isn't the case, or just plan to buy an all-new set of disks and negotiate that into your price.

 

[dFs]

Thanks! for the advise.