Hi :)
On Saturday 11 December 2010 17:38 Rudi Ahlers wrote
> On Sat, Dec 11, 2010 at 6:31 PM, John R Pierce <pierce@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > On 12/11/10 8:15 AM, Rudi Ahlers wrote:
> >> If you use any NAS (or a SAN) devices, what do you use? And I'm
> >> referring more to larger scale network storage than your home PC or
> >> home theater system.
> >>
> >> We've had very good experiences with our NetGear ReadyNAS devices but
> >> I'm in the market for something new. The NetGear's aren't the cheapest
> >> ones around but they do what it says on the box. My only real gripe
> >> with them is the lack of decent scalability.
> >
> > see, I'd consider ReadyNAS to be SOHO, just what you said you didn't
> > want.
> >
> >> I'm now looking for something that could scale beyond 100TB on one
> >> device (not necessarily one unit though) and find it frustrating that
> >> most NAS's come in 1U or 2U at most.
> >>
> >> Maybe I'm just not shopping around enough, or maybe I prefer to well
> >> known brands, I don't know.
> >
> > the big boys in NAS are Network Appliance aka Netapp. ïthey will scale
> > as large as your budget allows. ïThe FAS6200 line scales to something
> > like 1400 drives and redundant HA controllers.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
>
> Yes, I know. But the problem I have with NetApp is that it's not build
> for a smaller market. i.e. a client looking to start small and scale
> as he needs, and can afford to.
What about a DIY NAS with an off the shelf server and storage array?
> The NetGear's allow exactly just that. One can start small and grow as
> needed. There's no need to over budget or over spend. Often a client
> only needs about 5 to 12 TB storage, but with high availability. I
> suppose the redundant PSU's do help a bit with that, and both TheCus
> and ReadyNAS can be setup in high availability with 2 devices.
If you get your hands on COTS servers and storage arrays you can configure a
NAS server with very good performance. If you can use GFS/GPFS/CXFS and
configure a multi head NAS server you can sclae quite a lot. IBM sells this as
SONAS, SGI also sells something similar with CXFS and you can do it yourself
if you want it cheaper ;)
Scaling storage is quite simple if you use LVM + XFS:
1.- you add a new array or enclosure with its drives
2.- creat your RAID (5, 6, whatever)
3.- add the new RAID to your LVM
4.- grow XFS
You might need a couple of FC switches, depending on the number of of storage
arrays, servers, and if you want HA.
I don't like appliances. Yeah, they're quite "easy/nice" to use, but it's a
non stop paying for everything and quite a lock-in solution. Just MHO, mind
you.
HTH
Rafa
--
"We cannot treat computers as Humans. Computers need love."
Happily using KDE 4.5.1 :)
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