SAN solution wanted
Christian Kujau
I'm looking for an affordable SAN solution for a small network.
Although I can parse the offers on the intertubes, I often fail to see if
they're fully supported under linux (ia32, soon x86_64) and that their
fw-400/800 port is really just "firewire" not some crippled socket only
their windows-only driver could bring to life.
In short: does anybody have a bit of experience to share regarding these
SAN devices?
And I think I really need SAN, because with NAS I'm bound to their NFS/CIFS
implementation and I could not easily encrypt the data with e.g.
dm-crypt/LUKS.
TIA,
C.
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Héctor González
> Hi there,
>
> I'm looking for an affordable SAN solution for a small network.
> Although I can parse the offers on the intertubes, I often fail to see
> if they're fully supported under linux (ia32, soon x86_64) and that
> their fw-400/800 port is really just "firewire" not some crippled
> socket only their windows-only driver could bring to life.
>
> In short: does anybody have a bit of experience to share regarding
> these SAN devices?
>
> And I think I really need SAN, because with NAS I'm bound to their
> NFS/CIFS implementation and I could not easily encrypt the data with
> e.g. dm-crypt/LUKS.
>
> TIA,
> C.
with Linux, you can manage them through the serial port, and drive-host
assignment is easy with ACLs
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Hector Gonzalez
ca...@genac.org
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Jean-Paul Blaquiere
named them ;)
I have had some little experience attempting to get low end IBM kit
working with Debian and RedHat. It was not much fun. The less crap IBM
kit, was however, much easier.
Do not attempt anything with the DS3400 (SAS). It has brain dead
controllers.
The DS4300 and DS4700 series kit (FC), however, much less pain.
In particular, multipath-tools work rather well.
What kind of price range are you looking in?
./jp
> On Jun 10, Christian Kujau illuminated :
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Jean-Paul Blaquiere
jean...@blaquiere.id.au
http://www.blaquiere.id.au
http://japester.ucc.asn.au/
Brian Schrock
Debian lenny
software raid
drbd
HA cluster software
nfs/ext3 and iscsi
Whats wrong with that? Other than a recent migration away from XFS it works like a champ.
Brian J. Schrock
Systems Engineer, IntegraLink
The Cobalt Group, Inc.
4635 Trueman Blvd, Suite 100
Hilliard, OH 43026
bsch...@integralink.com
www.integralink.com
p. 614.324.7800 ext. 3295
Christian Kujau
> Have a look at infortrend if you don't want to spend too much money.
> They have FC and eSATA solutions - depending on whether you just want
> to connect 1 server to an external storage, or multiple servers to the same
> storage.
Hm, I should've mentioned that I do plan to attach all this to a Mac Mini,
so eSATA *could* be an option, but not an easy one.
Thank you anyway!
Christian.
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Christian Kujau
On Wed, June 11, 2008 02:48, Jean-Paul Blaquiere wrote:
> It seems you are talking about a particular vendor, and then haven't
> named them ;)
Um, actually no, because I couldn't say anything, due to my lack of
experience. So I've hoped to get a few names from this list :-)
But I should have emphasized the *small* in "small network" (hello,
Héctor!). My current favourites are WDG2T20000[0], which comes with 2TB
(minimum of storage I'd like to have) and Firewire, which hopefully will
work with the Mac Mini I'd like to attach.
The second one is from LaCie, again with 2TB and FW. Oh, by now it should
be clear that I'm not an ISP, but it's really a smallish home network :-\
> I have had some little experience attempting to get low end IBM kit
> working with Debian and RedHat. It was not much fun. The less crap IBM
> kit, was however, much easier. Do not attempt anything with the DS3400
> (SAS). It has brain dead
> controllers. The DS4300 and DS4700 series kit (FC), however, much less
> pain. In particular, multipath-tools work rather well.
Hm, FC is no good for me, I think, I'd like to get this done with
Firewire, USB as a second choice, but I heard FW is more stable for
storage paths.
> What kind of price range are you looking in?
the lower end :-) Hm, I would've hoped to stay below ~500 EUR. But with
NAS more common in the SOHO sector, it's hard to find a not-so-cheap
SAN-like solution.
Thanks,
Christian.
[0] http://www.westerndigital.com/de/products/products.asp?driveid=342
[1] http://www.lacie.com/de/products/product.htm?pid=10923
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Christian Kujau
> Ummmm. we use...
> Debian lenny
debian/sid here :)
> software raid drbd HA cluster software
Proven and stable, OK.
> nfs/ext3 and iscsi
Which (not so expensive) appliance is providing iSCSI? Or did you create a
software iSCSI target on just another server with lots of disks in it?
Thanks,
C.
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Jean-Paul Blaquiere
> But I should have emphasized the *small* in "small network" (hello,
> H??ctor!). My current favourites are WDG2T20000[0], which comes with 2TB
> (minimum of storage I'd like to have) and Firewire, which hopefully will
> work with the Mac Mini I'd like to attach.
>
Ah. when I think of SAN, I start thinking from $20,000.
ISP list and all.
> Hm, FC is no good for me, I think, I'd like to get this done with
> Firewire, USB as a second choice, but I heard FW is more stable for
> storage paths.
>
Firewire has always been my link of choice for running data over. USB
has too high a CPU usage.
There are some Mac oriented storage devices (names escape me at the
moment). They're more likely to have sane firewire ports.
./jp
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Jean-Paul Blaquiere
jean...@blaquiere.id.au
http://www.blaquiere.id.au
http://japester.ucc.asn.au/
Christian Kujau
> What you didn't mention to the list is that you are using a Mac Mini
> - iSCSI will probably be a bit of a problem as you only have a 100Mb/s
> ethernet interface.
The latest MacMini has indeed a 1Gbps NIC [0], now I have to find an iSCSI
storage appliance.
> You only have USB2.0 or FireWire400 available as disk interfaces.
Yes, and no PCI slots for FC adapters or the like. I really hope FW400
will suffice and be stable enough for 24/7 usage.
C.
[0] http://support.apple.com/kb/SP7
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