NASLite Network Attached Storage

Ok Guys help for a complete nooby at this please

I read in the notes that you can have more servers remoted from a NasLite M2 machine.

Now what I need advise on is wether the following will work

I have a NasliteM2 box up and running with 4 x 1.5Tb drives (planning to reduce this to 1 x 1Tb drive)
Will then use the 4 x 1.5Tb drives in a NasLite server using a 3ware 9500s 4 port card configured in a raid 5 and also another identical server along side it.

What I would like to happen is that the M2 box will be controll and then use the storage on the 2 other servers (would like all this to appear as one drive to the outside world if possible). Is this a sensible option ?

Would it be sensible to put the servers on ther own network (say 192.168.1.x) and then bridge it to my home network on 192.168.0.x (if this is possible any guidance on how would be appreciated) all servers have dual gbit nics installed?

I am sure that this will create more questions later but I will leave it at this for now.

P.S. I am a complete noob at Linux type systems but am relatively ok with windooz and networking.

TIA


Doug

My first question is WHY?

Just pony up on a SATA RAID card with say 12 or 16 ports and setup all the arrays on that. You can have multiple logical drives on the same controller. The added cost of the controller card will be more than offset by the savings in electricity you will enjoy by running one, rather than three servers. NASLite will happily export each logical array as a different drive. You will also save your self the problem of needing to bridge 2 networks and the other issues that this brings.

What you want to do can be done, just so you know.

Mike

Mike

the main reason for doing it this way is that I have a M" server up and running but with no raid so has 4 drive (this is a bit messy)

I have accuired very cheaply 2 rack mount servers both with a pair of opteron 250 Cpu's and 3ware 9500s 4 port sata controllers and 4 sata hotswap carriers and 2 gig of ram in each These are both arima rioworks hdama based machines.

Also getting a case + a 12 port card to handle the drives would be far more costly over here in the UK (the servers have come in at arround $50 each).

I was contemplating using the 2 nics in each machine to allow my Media system to be totally autonimous with the data network and just be able to administer the Nas boxes on the standard home network so any advise would be gratefully received.

Doug.

Well at this time NASLite only supports a single NIC so the dual NIC is a non starter unless you roll your own NAS implementation. It would be great if you could send one exported logical drive out one one port and a second on the other but alas this is not to be.

The processors are 2.4GHz Opterons based and likely based on a 130nm (maybe 90nm) process and will burn a hell of allot of power, around 85Watts each. From what I understand the power in the UK is rather pricey, something else to think about. The performance of a single machine will be more than enough for your needs. The Rioworks HDAMA board looks like it will be a more than fair base for your NAS. I would still look for a 12 or 16 port PCI-X SATA RAID card in the USA market, this will be far cheaper than running your proposed setup and should perform as well or better. I also picked up a rack mount server case for only $300.00USD to my door with 16 SATA slots, SATA backplane, and triple redundant hot swap power supply. Ad a MB and RAID card and I have the potential of 30TB of RAID5 storage. You only need a different case like I have and the RAID card.

The reason I know is that I have a pair of machines (one server and one desktop) with dual Opteron 285's and they suck power, to the tune of around 275Watts for the server and 400+Watts for the desktop at idle.

Mike

Which rack mount case did you purchase?

http://www.alvio.com/xABK_PID94946_chenbro_rm414_chenbro-rm414-4u-rack-mountable-server-case-650w-redundant-black_server-cases.html

Also got a triple redundant power supply as well with 4 power supplies.

http://www.circotech.com/emacs-r3g-6650p-650w-3u-rackmount-power-supply-triple-redundant.html

Not a bad deal for the money.

Mike

Ok

Well I have decided to put one of the rioworks HDAMA mb's into a rackmount case and have ordered a 3ware 9500s-12 card to go with it.
Will install 4 gig of ram and 8 x 1.5tb sata drives to start with in a raid5 config (unless anyone can suggest a better way of doing it can I even do it that way) might even add a further 4 x 1tb drives as well.

Will then install M2 64 bit to drive it all os to be installed to a CF card on a CF to IDE convertor to keep everything inside the case.

Views anyone?

Sounds about like where I we are headed, just using smaller, enterprise rated near line storage drives instead. Seagate ST3750330NS 750GB with 32MB cache and SATA2 interface.

Mike

Ok

I now have my 9000s-12 card + 2 9000sa-4 cards and my arima rioworks mb 8 x 1.5 Tb drives and 4 x 1Tb drives

what I would like to know is can I set up a raid 5 array with 7 of the 1.5 drive with the 8th as a hot spare and then set up the 4 x 1tb drive as a raid 0 for non critical data. Would these be better on seperate controllers and if so if I were to get some more 1.5 Tb drives later can I extend the raid 5 array or would I need to ship out the data and rebuild it from scratch.

TIA

Doug

This depends on the array controller, the 3Ware is a pretty feature rich card and should support hot spares. You will need to read the manual. If a drive fails, the array will be operating in what is called degraded mode. The failed drive will be removed from the array, and the controller will beguine rebuilding the lost data and parity on the hot spare. Performance of the array will be diminished while the lost drive is rebuilt in the background. The impact of lost performance will be determined by the rebuild rate you set.




I would put the RAID0 array on one of the other cards and put the 1.5TB drives on the 12 port card. In this way you are able to add more drives to the array at a later date.




You can expand the array but it will be work. It will involve adding the new drive/s to the controller and then going into the configuration utility and adding them to the array. Then you will have to expand the EXT3 partition to take advantage of the extra volume of the logical drive. One mistake and you could loose your data though. It's not complicated but it must be done right.

Mike

Mike

Thanks very much for that that was what I sort of figured.

Regards Doug