[CentOS] using Linux as a NAS / SAN device

On Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 11:28 AM, <J.Witvliet at mindef.nl> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: centos-bounces at centos.org [mailto:centos-bounces at centos.org] On
> Behalf Of Robert Heller
> Sent: Friday, August 28, 2009 12:23 AM
> To: CentOS mailing list
> Cc: CentOS mailing list
> Subject: Re: [CentOS] using Linux as a NAS / SAN device
>
> At Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:12:27 +0200 CentOS mailing list
> <centos at centos.org> wrote:
>
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I'm looking at using Linux as a NAS / SAN device, and would like some
>> input from other's who have done this before?
>>
>> How would it compare to commercial SAN devices, Thecus N8800SAS
>> (http://www.thecus.com/products_over.php?cid=11&pid=177&set_language=e
>> nglish)
>> or something similar to these?
>>
>> I would probably use hardware RAID 10, and could go with either SAS /
>> SATA, and then probably offer iSCSI, Samba. NFS & rsync.
>> In terms of servers hardware, well either Tyan / SuperMicro / Intel /
>> Dell would be fine as well. But, my question is rather from a linux
>> point of view, how would Linux compare to dedicated NAS devices, in
>> terms of the OS managing the device?
>
> I think many dedicated NAS devices, are in fact Linux machines, using an
> embedded Linux system.
>
> --
> Just a word of caution.
> I had a simarly question: building one self, or buyding dedicated hw.
> Looked through several specs of different boxes, and decided for an
> ICY-box, that can hold two sata-disks, raid0/raid1/jbod, has an
> GB-ethernet interface and capable of doing NFS. (which is actually an
> Linux-box)
>
> However, the box is as slow as a proverbial civil-servant, although the
> link is realy set to GB, it just might as well have been 100MB. And even
> that its not capable of filling to the max. (60Mb)
> Found out (afterwards ;-) on the relevant product mailing lists that
> it's the max the box can do.
>
> hans
>
> ______________________________________________________________________


We have decided to get the Thecus 8800N NAS devices at the end of the
day, since they're about 40% cheaper than having to build one. They
run a Linux based OS, and uses software RAID, but I can't build a new
server at this price, even with software RAID.



-- 
Kind Regards
Rudi Ahlers
CEO, SoftDux Hosting
Web: http://www.SoftDux.com
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