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Shared Storage?



 
 
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  #11  
Old November 25th 03, 09:39 AM
WipeOut
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Nik Simpson wrote:
Bill Todd wrote:

"WipeOut" wrote in message
...

Hi,

I am going to be setting up a couple of linux servers in the near
future and these servers will have ever increasing storage needs..

One server will be a web/file server and the other will be a mail
server..

I don't want to keep moving the data to bigger drives, I want to have
the servers use a shared storage facility that runs RAID and that
capacity can be increased as needed..


While Nik has offered good suggestions, he doesn't seem to have ever
asked you *why* you want to share the storage between the two servers
rather than simply use directly-attached storage with each one. That
would give you two separate DAS arrays, each of which could be
expanded according to need - and almost certainly the overall
least-expensive solution, if there's no actual need to share the
storage.



Certainly a good point, truly shared storage does add additional cost and
complexity to the solution. My bet is that the shared requirement is that he
doesn't really know what the final storage requirements will be and which
server will end up requiring the majority of the storage, in which case
starting with a shared storage architecture does make life easier in some
ways. But given the very small budget indicated in a later post, I'd be
inclined to used DAS as well, and probably wouldn't use external arrays at
all, just pick a server chassis with plenty of SATA/PATA hotswap drive bays
which would give ample room for expansion for some time (you can 2-3U
chassis that hold 3-4TB.) At the end of that time it might be time to relook
at the issue, but given the lifespan of the typical server these days, its
probably not going to happen until he's in the position of having to replace
the original servers anyway.



Yes, you are correct, I don't know how much storage capacity I am going
to need in each server so the option of only upgrading a central storage
facility seemed a better on.. Also it ment that storage space would be
used more efficiently and I don't end up with a whole lot of waited
space on one server while running short on another..

There is also the added benefit that I can add multiple app servers and
load balance traffic across them if a single server does not have the
processing capacity or if I want added redundancy.. By having a central
data repository this addition of servers is easy..

What I am finding is, as you have said, DAS is cheaper then any of the
alternatives so I think I will have to go that way for now and hope that
the budget is there to migrate to a shared storage facility when the
need presents its self..

Later..

  #12  
Old November 25th 03, 11:33 PM
Zak
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WipeOut wrote:

What I am finding is, as you have said, DAS is cheaper then any of the
alternatives so I think I will have to go that way for now and hope that
the budget is there to migrate to a shared storage facility when the
need presents its self..


IDE disks are indeed so incredibly cheap that it is hard to do better
with shared storage.

Actually, you can with NFS, but that is not a disk I would boot from in
most cases.


Thomas

  #13  
Old December 4th 03, 08:12 AM
scsisam
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Even if you are using DAS/NAS system, these days there are software that can
make block device appear as fibre-channel disk.b FC SANs based on 1GBps
technology is really cheap and plus you have ebay to get deal on 1Gbps FC
HBAs
I think falconstor.com has the software?? but will be very expensive. There
is also this little known mayastor software that does the same. The
website is http://www.pavitrasoft.com/mayastor/ and they seem to have
software available for download without any harassing sales call.
cheers


"WipeOut" wrote in message ...
Nik Simpson wrote:

Budget I would estimate at around £1500 for the starting system with
three 250GB or 300GB drives and expansion capacity to do to 6 or 8
drives.. So I think NAS is about the only option at that budget and
even that may be pushing it..



Yup, 1500 quid isn't going to go far, I'd see if you can find a 1U

server
chassis with four hot swap drive bays, there are a bunch of them around,
then add motherboard & controller to taste.



Yea, Thats what I thought as well.. Maybe it will work as a solution for
12-18 months by which time hopefully the company is off the ground and
making some money at which time I can look at the more enterprise level
options..

Looks like the 3ware controllers are about the best option for what I am
after and like you said a 1U or 2U server.. The rackmount chassis on
their own are quite pricey and thats before adding all the internals..

Thanks for your thoughts and comments..



  #14  
Old December 4th 03, 08:22 AM
scsisam
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Posts: n/a
Default

Even if you are using DAS/NAS system, these days there are software that can
make block device appear as fibre-channel disk.b FC SANs based on 1GBps
technology is really cheap and plus you have ebay to get deal on 1Gbps FC
HBAs
I think falconstor.com has the software?? but will be very expensive. There
is also this little known mayastor software that does the same. The
website is http://www.pavitrasoft.com/mayastor/ and they seem to have
software available for download without any harassing sales call.
cheers

"WipeOut" wrote in message ...
Nik Simpson wrote:

Budget I would estimate at around £1500 for the starting system with
three 250GB or 300GB drives and expansion capacity to do to 6 or 8
drives.. So I think NAS is about the only option at that budget and
even that may be pushing it..



Yup, 1500 quid isn't going to go far, I'd see if you can find a 1U

server
chassis with four hot swap drive bays, there are a bunch of them around,
then add motherboard & controller to taste.



Yea, Thats what I thought as well.. Maybe it will work as a solution for
12-18 months by which time hopefully the company is off the ground and
making some money at which time I can look at the more enterprise level
options..

Looks like the 3ware controllers are about the best option for what I am
after and like you said a 1U or 2U server.. The rackmount chassis on
their own are quite pricey and thats before adding all the internals..

Thanks for your thoughts and comments..



 




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