[CentOS] [Practices] Re: CentOS and SANs

[Bryan J. Smith]

Jack Bailey <jack at internetguy.net> wrote:
> Hello,
> I'm looking to build a CentOS server (or servers) with a
> SAN to support a large user base.

The storage solution will depend heavily on the topology.

All servers in same closet (same 25'):
  Serial Attached SCSI (SAS)

All servers within the same building:  
  Storage over TCP/IP (iSCSI) or
  Fibre-Channel Arbitrated-Loop (FC-AL)

Furthermore, I need to know ...
- Your apps
- Your clients
- Other uses of the storage you can think of

> Question: if you had a budget of $25K (or more if
> necessary), what you build?

I apologize for this, but I'd feel I'd be professionally
negligent if I didn't at least point it out.  If you have
$25K to spend, and can afford recurring costs of $1-2K/year,
then I'd highly recommend RHEL AS for the support aspects.

> I'm interested mainly what hardware and software is best
> supported by the OS, but anything you have to say on 
> the subject is welcome.

The HCL will at least cover the hardware compatibility
aspects.  RHEL AS comes with come clustering-failover
capability when devices are attached to the same SAN.

I would really need to know what sort of topology you are
considering, as well as the main uses of your
servers/storage.


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