Sorin Srbu wrote: >> -----Original Message----- >> From: centos-bounces at centos.org [mailto:centos-bounces at centos.org] On Behalf >> > Of > >> Les Mikesell >> Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 3:32 AM >> To: CentOS mailing list >> Subject: Re: [CentOS] settings up cheap a NAS / SAN server, is it possible? >> >> Sorin Srbu wrote: >> >>>> Rudi Ahlers wrote: >>>> >>>> Grow data online, convert between RAID levels online, migrate data >>>> between spindle types(FC<->SATA) online etc. Create a volume, and >>>> you never have to worry about answering the question 'is it really >>>> optimal?' because you can change it at any time without application >>>> impact or downtime. >>>> >>> Sounds awfully expensive. True? >>> >> Most of them are, but you can add whole shelves of disks. I'm not sure >> it matters so much in a case that holds six drives that you fill from >> the start and then have nowhere to grow anyway. >> > > The guy who initially asked, IIRC, wanted some 3-4TB storage. This can be > accomplished easily with a regular mid/maxi-size tower and a handful of > 1TB-SATA drives. Even the midsize oldish Compucase-case I have at home can fit > four 3,5"-drives in the hd-cage and another four in the 5,25"-bays. Suppose > you fill that case with 1TB-drives and you have 8TB available. My argument is > that there is no explicit need for the hardware you mention, despite how sexy > it sounds. 8-) > > My understanding was that he wanted some kind mid-level kind of storage > solution based on hw he already had and not sink the entire budget on a > roomful of EMC etc hardware. OTOH, this discussion has been a bit sidetracked > since the beginning. 8-) > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > Hi Sorin, You're quite right with what you say. I have a 2U chassis already, with a Gigabyte motherboard + 2GB RAM + Core 2 Duo E7650. I also have a few 160GB SATA HDD's laying around, but they're too small. So, I'll be option to put 6 (if I can get the HDD cages fitted into the chassis) 1TB HDD's into it instead, which with RAID 10 will give me 3TB space. Thus, I don't want to spend more money to buy new equipment if I have this already. Using CentOS is preferred since I know it the best. I haven't used FreeBSD since v4.7 ( I think I had a look @ 4.9 & 5.4 as well), and I don't know Solaris. I think my action plan now will be to figure out how to install CentOS on a USB memory stick and make it boot on any machine (making it easy to replace if need be), and then to play around with the RAID a bit and see how well it works. -- Kind Regards Rudi Ahlers CEO, SoftDux Web: http://www.SoftDux.com Check out my technical blog, http://blog.softdux.com for Linux or other technical stuff, or visit http://www.WebHostingTalk.co.za for Web Hosting stuff