[CentOS] settings up cheap a NAS / SAN server, is it possible?

[Rainer Duffner]

Am 29.06.2008 um 09:08 schrieb Rudi Ahlers:

> Hi all
>
> I want to look at setting up a simple / cheap SAN / NAS server  
> using normal PIV motherboard, 2GB (or even more) RAM, Core 2 Duo  
> CPU (probably a Intel 6700 / 6750 / 6800) & some SATA HDD's (4 or  
> 6x 320GB - 750GB). My budget is limited, so I can't afford a pre- 
> built NAS device.
>
> Can this be done with CentOS? I've been looking FreeNAS (which is  
> built on FreeBSD), and it look like a great project, but since the  
> hardware support in FreeBSD is limit, I'd rather use Linux for it.


What hardware do you own that is not supported?


>
> Has anyone done this? If so, please share a bit in your experiences :)
>


While it can certainly be done with CentOS, I'd take a look at  
Solaris/OpenSolaris for that purpose.
ZFS really beats anything else out there.
But you need a lot of RAM. 2 GB is good, 4 GB would be better ;-)
Actually, the calculation is that it needs a GB of RAM for every TB  
of managed data.
So, if RAM is scarce and the feature of ZFS are not needed (for  
whatever reason), CentOS may be still be a good option.



cheers,
Rainer
-- 
Rainer Duffner
CISSP, LPI, MCSE
rainer at ultra-secure.de