From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1NrEvQ-0006Sh-MC for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:22:00 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 3FC73E0779; Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:21:37 +0000 (UTC) Received: from smtpout.karoo.kcom.com (smtpout.karoo.kcom.com [212.50.160.34]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D0B13E0779 for ; Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:21:36 +0000 (UTC) X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="4.49,644,1262563200"; d="scan'208";a="181669672" Received: from 213-152-39-90.dsl.eclipse.net.uk (HELO compaq.stroller.uk.eu.org) ([213.152.39.90]) by smtpout.karoo.kcom.com with ESMTP; 15 Mar 2010 18:21:35 +0000 Received: from funf.stroller.uk.eu.org (funf.stroller.uk.eu.org [192.168.1.71]) by compaq.stroller.uk.eu.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3A02913C6B for ; Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:21:33 +0000 (GMT) Message-Id: <7D7A990E-4680-472D-8408-FFABFE82EDBA@stellar.eclipse.co.uk> From: Stroller To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org In-Reply-To: <4B9E5FA4.1040501@shic.co.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed; delsp=yes Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v936) Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Strategy for using SAN/NAS for storage with Gentoo... Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:21:34 +0000 References: <4B9E343A.4040908@shic.co.uk> <87d3z53b2u.fsf@newsguy.com> <854dca5c1003150849l16b375ddl89ad2e20a8f6a135@mail.gmail.com> <4B9E5FA4.1040501@shic.co.uk> X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.936) X-Archives-Salt: 994c5e3e-ba32-441f-ab7d-c3c742ce673b X-Archives-Hash: 71155a077110bb2a6cc9f8d4e04570e3 On 15 Mar 2010, at 16:26, Steve wrote: > ... > =46rom ages ago, I remember iSCSI being bandied about. Did that ever = go > anywhere (i.e. is this easy to do from Gentoo?) I believe it is quite widely used - it is mentioned often on the linux-=20= poweredge list. I would imagine the Linux kernel allows mounting and =20 sharing by iSCSI - check `make menuconfig` and type "/iscsi". It's hard to be more specific without knowing your usage. For storage of a "mere terabyte" you can buy a networked storage =20 enclosure which will accommodate two drives. These are cheap, do =20 mirroring, will accommodate standard 1TB, 1.5TB, 2TB drives, but are =20 probably not too fast. One reads a lot posted by people who have large movie collections =20 stored on the network, whether they be MythTV users or the mutineer =20 sailors of 17th century galleons. A PC-based solution gives you more =20 room for this - you can fit perhaps 4 drives in a standard PC case you =20= find at the tip, or you can get 12 or 16 drives in a dedicated =20 rackmount server case. This allows capacity of upto 32TB with current =20= drives, if you can afford that, or to use cheaper drives (1TB or 1.5TB =20= are best gigabytes-per-dollar at present, I think; 500gb drives seem =20 recently to have become disproportionately expensive) and have better =20= RAID levels. The Norco one is popular amongst enthusiasts, because it's really =20 cheap [1]; it uses 2 x standard ATX power supplies, one for the =20 mainboard, one for the drives. You can get similar cases with the =20 option of hot-swap PSUs - Chenbro used to be the main brand for this, =20= I think, but in the last couple of years TST have =20= started producing nicer cases; I use a TST ESR-316, which is utterly =20 lush, but which was expensive. I have one slight reservation about the =20= TST, which I will not spend time detailing unless you ask. I use only half the TST's capacity at present, but it is a pleasure =20 and a relief to have so much room available; expansion of network =20 drive capacity is never a problem - just slap a drive in and you're =20 ready to go. Even with as many as 6 or 8 drive bays there are corner =20 cases which can make expansion a bit of a headache (at least if uptime =20= is important). Since these cases accommodate standard ATX motherboards, you get to =20 use an old Pentium 4 motherboard salvaged from an old PC or an Atom-=20 based motherboard for =A3100 or so. The latter price is a bit shocking, =20= IMO, compared to (say) the Asus EE-PC, but it reflects the demand for =20= them; they're prolly only $100 in the US. These atom motherboards have =20= minimal expansion slots, but if you only want to use it for storage =20 then you're probably fine with just one. If you build your own server you can use software or hardware RAID. =20 Fast hardware RAID, based on an PCIe controller card, is expensive. =20 You can get PCI or PCI-X hardware RAID very cheaply on eBay these =20 days, but it's slow. That is to say that PCI or PCI-X hardware RAID is =20= fast enough to stream a couple of movies at the same time, fast enough =20= to copy 5gb files only a couple of minutes, but production server =20 systems (if you were buying a database server for work) would be =20 expected to use a PCIe-based hard-drive controller. Hardware RAID is =20 nice in its ability to hot-swap out a failed hard-drive without =20 interruption. I have not found non-RAID SATA controllers that satisfy =20= me with their ability to do hot-swap (although I would love to). Managing RAID on a PC-based server - rather than a dedicated NAS =20 enclosure - very easily allows expansion. With RAID5 or 6 you can just =20= add in another drive and expand on to it. I use an old PCI-X (fits in =20= a PCI slot) 3ware 9500 card, and it *seems* like if you have a RAID1 =20 (haven't tried RAID5) on two drives of capacity X, then remove each of =20= those drives in turn, rebuilding onto drives of X+Y capacity, then =20 upon completion the array appears to the o/s as the larger X+Y size. I =20= think some LSI cards do this, also. I would not bet on the ability of =20= low-end NAS boxes to do this. A company called Drobo makes some high-end NAS hardware with space for =20= plenty of drives (on some models) and some fancy features. I find UK =20 prices a bit shocking, but depending upon your application they might =20= be justified; the US prices seem quite reasonable to me. I wouldn't get too het up about Samba / CIFS vs NFS. Samba / CIFS can =20= be faster than NFS, even in an all-Linux environment. Other times it's =20= not. This seems pretty much random, depending upon whom is doing the =20 benchmarking. On an intellectual level, at least, I find neither =20 wholly satisfying - it would be really nice to have a Linux-native =20 network filesystem that does authentication / permissions properly. =20 But both do work. I looked at ZFS, but decided that Solaris, from a look at the HCL, was =20= too picky over hardware. I think ZFS is great, I no longer think it's =20= the future. My selection of cheap hardware is far wider under Linux, I =20= can install Gentoo and just `emerge mediatomb` and stream movies to my =20= PS3. So there ya go. Lots of options, budget from dead cheap to mega money. =20= Depends how much you can justify. Stroller. [1] http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=3Dn82e16811219021=