[TriLUG] NAS box

Kevin Flanagan kevin at flanagannc.net
Sun May 2 10:58:33 EDT 2004


Brian,


	I'd be looking for a lot more information before making a decision as
to what's best.


	- Define "LOTS of disk space" - GB, TB????
	- More info about the environment
		- How many windows systems, and how many are Win9x, how many W2K or
up?
		- Is there a centralized logon facility, NIS, NT Domain, Active
Directory?
		- Lots of small files, big files, many transfers of small files, etc.
		- Backups?  Do you need to back this up?  
		- Amount of change, daily, weekly, monthly.
		- Does this need to be one volume?  IE: Could you have 2 volumes, one
for new data, one for the archive?
	- Budget?
	- Other server class systems in the shop?  

I don't believe that workstation class systems should be used to do
commercial server work.  That said there's a lot of options in the
server or appliance space.  As you mentioned, SNAP, or the like, are one
option.  Companies like DELL and HP have entry level NAS offerings.  I
know HP's stuff fairly well, and know that you can take your disks from
server attached storage and move them to their entry SAN device without
ever losing a single bit of data if the business grows enough to warrant
it.  If you look at a server with attached, or internal storage, it'll
cost more up front.  That may, or may not be warranted.  If this
customer will go belly up if they loose this data, then it's worth the
investment to protect it with Hardware RAID, and a real server or
appliance system.  If the data is all transient, or exists elsewhere
then you could look at the cheapest option and expect to replace it of
you have a failure or outgrow it.

I believe that it's very likely that you can do what you need with a
Linux solution, having the background makes it even more likely.  But
this doesn't sound like something that you just want to hang off a
workstation and forget it.....



Just my $.02


  Kevin





On Sat, 2004-05-01 at 23:21, Brian McCullough wrote:
> On Sat, May 01, 2004 at 02:36:16PM -0400, Jon Carnes wrote:
> > OpenBSD version 3.5 has just been released. This is the version that
> > comes with CARP built into it (built-in firewall failover).
> 
> 
> REALLY not wanting to start a religious war, but I have a question of
> Linux vs BSD.
> 
> 
> I have a client that needs a "disk server" and I was thinking that this
> might be an opportunity to ask for recommendations.
> 
> 
> First, of course, there is the basic question of "purpose-built" (
> commercial box like a Snap Server ) or "home-brew." 
> 
> 
> Then, and this is really my question, if I was to build a box for this
> purpose, it would probably have the following specifications:
> 
> LOTS of disk space ( SATA? RAID! )
> At least one Gigabit Network connection
> Second network connection, at least 100 MBit.
> 
> 
> This machine would be plugged into an existing network ( actually two
> loops, one 100 MBit, one Gigabit, but this box is to a large extent for
> the Gigabit side ) consisting of a Linux general purpose server ( IMAP,
> SMTP, DNS, SAMBA, etc. ), a Linux firewall box, and a conglomeration of
> Win 95, 98, 2K machines. ( also a soon to be dead ( or replaced ) WinMe
> machine )
> 
> The big workstations, and the machines making the most use of the new
> box, are Win2K.
> 
> 
> Here's your chance to help me design an inexpensive!, big disk array, to
> take the load off of the general purpose Linux server.
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> Brian
-- 

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