NAS suggestions

[localzuk]

I am currently coming up with the future replacement for our current backup solution. At the moment we have a 3.5 year old Fujitsu Siemens FibreCat system with 1TB of space - which is starting to creek under the strain.

 

So, my replacement idea is that due to the way our data storage needs are growing exponentially, the backup solution should be expandable.

 

My first idea is to look at an Overland Storage Snap Server 620 with an empty JBOD, ready for expansion. Initial storage would be 3TB, expandable within that JBOD to 15TB and upto 88TB if we go crazy at some point through further JBODS. This comes in at around £4 -£4.5k.

 

Has anyone got any other suggestions?

[AIT]

I am currently coming up with the future replacement for our current backup solution. At the moment we have a 3.5 year old Fujitsu Siemens FibreCat system with 1TB of space - which is starting to creek under the strain.

 

So, my replacement idea is that due to the way our data storage needs are growing exponentially, the backup solution should be expandable.

 

My first idea is to look at an Overland Storage Snap Server 620 with an empty JBOD, ready for expansion. Initial storage would be 3TB, expandable within that JBOD to 15TB and upto 88TB if we go crazy at some point through further JBODS. This comes in at around £4 -£4.5k.

 

Has anyone got any other suggestions?

 

Build your own server and use open-source OpenFiler. We spent 4k and now have 28TB of storage.

[Cools]

have a look at

Data Robotics, Inc.

 

not cheap but looks good and is super cleaver..

[localzuk]

Ok, need to clarify - we don't build our own servers here for critical systems, as we have to have someone to shout at should it break, rather than it entirely being our fault.

[Cools]

DroBo. if you cant take the blame... lol.

 

for every one else..

Poor mans Drobo with Free NAS.. >> Learn FreeNAS Drobo BeyondRaid Like Redundancy and Expansion with FreeNAS

[localzuk]

That Drobo looks brilliant. Ideal actually!!

[mac_shinobi]

Build your own server and use open-source OpenFiler. We spent 4k and now have 28TB of storage.

 

I was going to suggest that - as long as the hardware you buy in for RAID card is a decent make ( reviews etc ) and hard drives obviously are of RAID standard then you shouldn't have any issues.

[ranj]

My first idea is to look at an Overland Storage Snap Server 620 with an empty JBOD, ready for expansion. Initial storage would be 3TB, expandable within that JBOD to 15TB and upto 88TB if we go crazy at some point through further JBODS. This comes in at around £4 -£4.5k.

 

Has anyone got any other suggestions?

 

We use it's predessor the overland snap 520 and can highly recommend it, we also use have a freenas box but the snap is far better in terms of management and scalability IMO.

 

We have had our box for 3 years and touch wood not had a single hard ware issue with it, I can't say that on the software side though but to be fair to overland their support is very good, I think they are based somewhere in Europe.

[cookie_monster]

Anyone used a Drobo unit?

 

Am I right that it could act as a standalone unit (e.g. CIFS shares) or I could hang one off the back of a Windows server attach it via USB or iSCSI then use FSRM to manage file exts and so on?

 

 

I think this page answers my question. I could connect it via iSCSI to several servers. Very handy looking box

 

http://www.drobo.com/resources/iscsi.php

 

 

I wonder what sort of price... (crosses fingers)

Edited February 10, 2010 by cookie_monster

[localzuk]

We use it's predessor the overland snap 520 and can highly recommend it, we also use have a freenas box but the snap is far better in terms of management and scalability IMO.

 

We have had our box for 3 years and touch wood not had a single hard ware issue with it, I can't say that on the software side though but to be fair to overland their support is very good, I think they are based somewhere in Europe.

 

Indeed, our file server currently uses a 520 as its ISCSI drive. Not had a single glitch in 3 years. *Touches wood*.

[Cools]

im still wating on the 1st 1.2 PB Drive.. on some BB might be with us 2011.. lol Yeh Right..

any how.. Some maths.. remember do it the old fashion way.. abacus at the ready..

 

How long will it take to fill it?

i make it ...

 

(1.2 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024) / 45

= 28633115 seconds to fill it

= 477218 minutes

= 7953 hours

= 331 days

 

current hds store data @ +/- 40-45MB/s

[Cools]

Also have a look at Netgrar Ready NAS NVX

i has Dule gig nic. for super fast speed or redundancy..

 

Vid:

[Guest Guest]

Have a look at anything with ZFS; zpools and deduplication is seriously in this year

 

Heres one based on Ubuntu but with all the goodness of Opensolaris Nexenta Systems

[CyberNerd]

Ok, need to clarify - we don't build our own servers here for critical systems, as we have to have someone to shout at should it break, rather than it entirely being our fault.

 

I build you one, you can shout at me all you like

[richardp]

I use a DroboPro with 5.4Tb of available space and room for 4 more drives when I need it. It can only be accessed through a server no matter how you connect it (iSCSI/Firewire/USB). Using iSCSI you can plug it into a switch (should be a dedicated one really) but still have to "attach" it to a server for access. It handles the raid setup all you have to do is decide if you want 1 or 2 drive redundancy (tick box) and how you want to format the available space (dependent on host operating system). I have it attached to a Windows 2003 server and use BackupExec 12.5 to perform backups. Works really well and could even be considered as a cheap main storage solution if the performance is acceptable for your setup. It cost me approx £850 for the chassis then approx £600 for 4 drives (2Tb Western Digital), so a grand total of £1500. The drives do not have to be the same size or make / model but you get more immediate space available if they are similar sizes.

 

Richard

[Cools]

ZFS is pritty much the only FS that has no limits to how big it can grow.

and for raid.. it can do some Mad stuff..

 

i know some one that worked on it at sun.. Mind blowing. Sounds all startrek to me.

[joegalliano]

Open E (unified storage solution) may also be worth looking at, you can use more or less whatever commodity hardware from Dell, HP etc but with all the functionality associated with the big boys such Netapp, EMC HDS etc without the cost. Has some nice feature sets (ISCI FC, snapshots, NDMP replication for DR), for a very low aquisition costs

 

"The Open-E Data Storage Software V6 (DSS V6) is a unified file and block storage management operating system (OS) that provides Network Attached Storage (NAS), iSCSI, InfiniBand and Fibre Channel Storage Area Network (SAN) functionality.

 

Open-E DSS V6 provides superior performance, security, and scalability at a fraction of the cost of alternative storage offerings. Advanced features of Open-E DSS V6 include Data and Volume Replication, Volume Snapshot, Automatic Failover for iSCSI Volumes, WORM and NDMP. Additionally, Open-E DSS V6 supports a wide variety of hardware RAID platforms from the industry’s leading names. The versatility of the Open-E DSS V6 also allows users to combine NAS systems with iSCSI SAN systems, and provides built-in virus protection, while enabling the connection of multiple Network Interface Controllers, including Gigabit Ethernet, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, Fibre Channel and InfiniBand. Open-E DSS V6 is easily downloaded to any hardware device for simplified access".

 

Open-E DSS V6 includes NAS and iSCSI functionality and advanced features such as:

 

* Installable on any media: internal HDD, RAID Array, USB, SATA and IDE DOM, or any other bootable media

* Enhanced Graphical User Interface

* NDMP v. 4

* Symantec Backup Exec backup agent (RALUS) to support versions 11, 12 and 12.5

* Basic API Configuration

* Improved random performance of iSCSI

* Windows Server 2008 Clustering Support (persistent reservation SCSI-3)

* Hardware RAID Support

* Automatic Failover for iSCSI Volumes

* Volume and Data Replication

* Asynchronous Volume Replication Over WAN

* Volume Snapshot

* iSCSI Initiator / iSCSI Target

* Backup Functionality

* WORM (Write Once Read Many) Support

* Shadow Copy of OS for System Update

* Multiple Network Interface Card (NIC) Support

* Network Bonding/Teaming

* Task Mechanism with Scheduling

* Network UPS Support

* Fibre Channel Support

* Multi-CPU Support

* IP-SEC

 

 

 

Minimum Hardware Requirements:

 

* x86 - compatible PC

* 1 GByte RAM

* CPU (1 GHz or faster are recommended)

* HDD (SATA, SAS, SCSI, ATA) / RAID / Fibre Channel / iSCSI Storage

* Network Interface Card (multi-cards 1Gb/s recommended for bonding)

[m25man]

I noticed that the Drobo is now available as the "Elite" with Dual iSCSI interfaces and higher performance.

Fully loaded it would still come in less than £3k which must make it one of the most affordable commercial entry level SANs on the market.

 

Also worth noting that Drobo Resellers can supply these on a 30 Day Return Trial so it has to be a "Worth a look" option.

[cookie_monster]

I'm very tempted to take a look at one of them.

[cookie_monster]

I noticed that the Drobo is now available as the "Elite" with Dual iSCSI interfaces and higher performance.

Fully loaded it would still come in less than £3k which must make it one of the most affordable commercial entry level SANs on the market.

 

Also worth noting that Drobo Resellers can supply these on a 30 Day Return Trial so it has to be a "Worth a look" option.

 

 

 

Can the Elite Drobo have more than one iSCSI device connected? I'd like to know if you could attach it to more than one server or Xenserver as storage/backup.

 

Thanks.

[Domino]

we use exagrid machines Data Deduplication Solutions for Disk Backup & Disaster Recovery | ExaGrid

 

Basically because it does deduplication directly on the box. so backupexec throws the backups at it, and it sorts them out.

 

means our 4TB box is storing 39TB of backup data...