Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2009 19:47:00 -0400 From: "Grant Peel" <gpeel@thenetnow.com> To: "Christopher J. Umina" <chris.umina@studsvikscandpower.com> Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: NFS- SAN - FreeBSD Message-ID: <FB08EAB37B8347FAA6C2A7E107D7DB05@GRANT> References: <25A3192F31A344B99F50583BDC58C921@GRANT> <C4577BCC84D24FFE97FD4036C2C4FB82@GRANT> <f151ba00907201321x363de61ai27c54d4902d1d9fc@mail.gmail.com> <85A4A9F5895D4CDCAEDF23E8181A118D@GRANT> <4A6535A2.90707@studsvikscandpower.com> <26D9A85FF5344B9CA8F5DCDA1AFFBC46@GRANT> <4A66368C.3010009@studsvikscandpower.com>
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Chris, Thanks for the insight! I will defineately investigate that DAS ... although I am not (yet) sure what the acronym means, I am sure it is something akin to "Direct Access SCSI". You are quite right, I would like to use NFS to connect the device to the 6 servers I have, again, it would be only hosting the /home partition for each of them. Do you know if there would be any NFS I/O slowdowns using it in that fassion? Would freebsd support (on the storage device) that many connections? Also, do the Dell DAS machines run with FreeBSD? Also, from you you explained, I doubt I really need the versatility of the SAN at this point, or in the near future. I simply want a mass /home storage unit. -Grant ----- Original Message ----- From: "Christopher J. Umina" <chris.umina@studsvikscandpower.com> To: "Grant Peel" <gpeel@thenetnow.com> Cc: <questions@freebsd.org> Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2009 5:43 PM Subject: Re: NFS- SAN - FreeBSD > Grant, > > I mean to say that often times external SCSI solutions (direct attached) > are cheaper and perform better (in terms of I/O) than iSCSI SANs. > Especially if you're using many disks. SANs are generally chosen for the > ability to be split into LUNs for different servers. Think of it as a > disk which you can partition and serve out to servers on a per-partition > basis, over Ethernet. That's essentially what an iSCSI SAN does. While > DAS systems allow the same sort of configuration, they don't serve out > over Ethernet, only SCSI/SAS. > > Since you plan to use NFS to share the files to the other servers, I think > it may make more sense for you to use a SCSI solution if yo don't need the > versatility of a SAN. > > Of course I know nothing of how you plan to expand this system, but from > what I understand, with Dell DAS hardware it is possible to connect up to > 4 different servers to the DAS and expand to up to 6 15 disk enclosures. > The MD3000i (iSCSI) expands only to 3. > > Another issue is that without compiling in special versions of the iSCSI > initiator, even in 8.0-BETA2 (which is not production-ready), iSCSI > performance and reliability are terrible. There are other versions of the > code (which I currently use) for the iscsi_initiator kernel module, but > unless you're comfortable doing that, you may consider DAS in terms of > ease of implementation and maintenance as well. > > Chris > > Grant Peel wrote: >> Chris, >> >> I don't know what a direct attached array is..... >> >> What I was just thinking was move all of the servers /home directory to a >> huge NFS mount. >> >> If you have the time to elaborate fursther, I would apprciate it... >> >> This iSCSI think has me entrigued, but I must admit I know little about >> it at this point. >> >> -Grant >> >> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Christopher J. Umina" >> <chris.umina@studsvik.com> >> To: "Grant Peel" <gpeel@thenetnow.com> >> Sent: Monday, July 20, 2009 11:27 PM >> Subject: Re: NFS- SAN - FreeBSD >> >> >>> Grant, >>> >>> I have to ask, is there a reason you're intent on going with a SAN >>> versus a direct-attached array? >>> >>> Chris >>> >>> Grant Peel wrote: >>>> Thanks for the reply. >>>> >>>> I have not used/investigated the iSCSI thing yet.... >>>> >>>> The original question is can I just use an NFS mount to the storage's >>>> /home partition? >>>> >>>> -Grant >>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: mojo fms To: Grant Peel Cc: >>>> freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Sent: Monday, July 20, 2009 4:21 PM >>>> Subject: Re: NFS- SAN - FreeBSD >>>> >>>> >>>> You would be better off at least having the SAN on 1gb ethernet or >>>> even better tripple 1gb (on a 100mb switch should be fine but you need >>>> failover for higher avaliability) ethernet for latency and failover >>>> reasons with a hot backup on the network controller. I dont see why >>>> you could not do this, its just iscsi connection normally so there is >>>> not a big issue getting freebsd to connect to it. We run 2 of the 16tb >>>> powervault which does pretty well for storage, one runs everything and >>>> the other is a replicated offsite backup. Performance wise, it really >>>> depends on how many servers you have pulling data from the SAN and how >>>> hard the IO works on the current servers. If you have 100 servers you >>>> might push the IO a bit but but it should be fine if your not serving >>>> more than 2Mb/s out to everyone, the servers and disks are going to >>>> cache a fair amount of always used data. >>>> >>>> >>>> On Mon, Jul 20, 2009 at 11:52 AM, Grant Peel <gpeel@thenetnow.com> >>>> wrote: >>>> >>>> Hi all, >>>> >>>> I am assuming by the lack of response, my question to too long >>>> winded, let me re-phrase: >>>> >>>> What kind of performance might I expect if I load FreeBSD 7.2 on a >>>> 24 disk, Dell PowerVault when its only mission is to serve as a local >>>> area storage unit (/home). Obviously, to store all users /home data. >>>> Throug an NFS connection via fast (100m/b) ethernet. Each connecting >>>> server (6) contain about 200 domains? >>>> >>>> -Grant >>>> >>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Grant Peel" >>>> <gpeel@thenetnow.com> >>>> To: <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> >>>> Sent: Saturday, July 18, 2009 10:35 AM >>>> Subject: NFS- SAN - FreeBSD >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> Hi all, >>>> >>>> Up to this point, all of our servers are standalone, i.e. all >>>> services and software required are installed on each local server. >>>> >>>> Apache, Exim, vm-pop3d, Mysql, etc etc. >>>> >>>> Each local server is connected to the Inet via a VLAN (WAN), to >>>> our colo's switch. >>>> >>>> Each server contains about 300 domains, each domain has its own >>>> IP. >>>> >>>> Each sever is also connected to a VLAN (LAN) via the same (Dell >>>> 48 Port managed switch). >>>> >>>> We have been considering consolidating all users data from each >>>> server to a central (local), storage unit. >>>> >>>> While I do have active nfs's running (for backups etc), on the >>>> LAN only, I have never attempted to create 1 mass storage unit. >>>> >>>> So I suppose the questions are: >>>> >>>> 1) Is there any specific hardware that anyone might reccommend? I >>>> want to stick with FreeBSD as the OS as I am quite comfortable admining >>>> it, >>>> >>>> 2) Would anyone reccomend NOT using FreeBSD? Why? >>>> >>>> 3) Assuming I am using FreeBSD as the storage systems OS, could >>>> NFS simply be used? >>>> >>>> 4) Considering out whole Inet traffic runs about 2 Mb/s, is there >>>> any reason the port to the Storage unit should be more than 100 M/b >>>> (would it be imparative to use 1 G/b transfer)? >>>> >>>> TIA, >>>> >>>> -Grant >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list >>>> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions >>>> To unsubscribe, send any mail to >>>> "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list >>>> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions >>>> To unsubscribe, send any mail to >>>> "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> -- Who knew >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list >>>> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions >>>> To unsubscribe, send any mail to >>>> "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" >>>> >>> >>> >> >> >> >> > >
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