[Madlug] Question about 8+ Terabyte Storage.

[Dan]

On Sun, Jan 13, 2008 at 11:58:27AM -0600, Will Maier wrote:
> On Sun, Jan 13, 2008 at 08:44:53AM -0600, Moji wrote:
> > I'm looking to build something that I can plug in at least 12 SATA
> > 500gb harddrives into. I don't need a graphics card or sound card
> > on it, just a network card. I was planning on just building a
> > pretty minimalist kernel that would let me mount LVMS over the
> > network. I'd like to get 6-8 Terabytes worth of storage.
> 
> I don't see why a setup like this would require a custom kernel;
> for ease of maintenance, I'd just use whatever $DISTRIBUTION gave
> me.

Wise advice.

> > I've looked around and the only sata boards that I saw that have
> > 12+ SATA connections come with a fairly premium onboard graphics
> > and sound card. I could go that route if I needed but that seems
> > much more than I want for the job. Those boards seem to be
> > designed for power PC users not for purpose built high capacity
> > storage.
> 
> For storage like this, you'll want to use RAID. Both LSI and Areca
> make nice cards that are well supported under Linux.

For storage like this I'd want hardware RAID, as in XRAID or similar.
Either that or use 1TB drives and a pair of less expensive cards.

Then again, I'd also throw ZFS at it, because LVM appears to suck too
much and for that much space naked md devices would make me nervous....

Also, Moji, bear in mind that drives generate heat -- most systems can 
hold a pair without much of an issue, but try packing in half a dozen 
and you're going to discover some very surprising behavior.  So external
storage can win big in this niche.


> o--------------------------{ Will Maier }--------------------------o
> | web:.......http://www.lfod.us/ | email.........willmaier at ml1.net |
> *------------------[ BSD Unix: Live Free or Die ]------------------*


--
Dan