CentOS - Nov 2009 - Centos as a file storage/backup destination (Advice)

Hello all,

am considering setting up centos as a file storage/ backup destination for
Mac's TimeMachine.

all my users would get synced directly to specific folders on this machine..
needless to say space is of importance. where every user has an average 200 GB
of data to b synced (entire system)...
I have 27 users hence 27 *200 equals to almost 6 TB so I was considering getting
either 4 * 1.5 TB or 6 * 1 TB to be used on one PIV with a 1 GB ethernet.

but the thing is, I'm an expert with this! so I'm seeking your help..
is there any other way to do so ? is there any limitation hardware/centos wise
for the amount of drives available on a system?
is Motherboard available sata/ide slots is the only limitation? how about using
a USB hub and plugging them as such?

any advice is greatly appreciated 


thanks and excuse my newbie question.

best,

Roland
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Roland Roland wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> am considering setting up centos as a file storage/ backup destination 
> for Mac's TimeMachine.
>
> all my users would get synced directly to specific folders on this 
> machine..
> needless to say space is of importance. where every user has an 
> average 200 GB of data to b synced (entire system)...
> I have 27 users hence 27 *200 equals to almost 6 TB so I was 
> considering getting either 4 * 1.5 TB or 6 * 1 TB to be used on one 
> PIV with a 1 GB ethernet.
I would think you should use raid for this, at least raid 5, which 
requires N+1 for N drives worth of storage.  and you probably want a 
hotspare in case a drive fails.
>  
> but the thing is, I'm an expert with this! so I'm seeking your
help..
> is there any other way to do so ? is there any limitation 
> hardware/centos wise for the amount of drives available on a system?
> is Motherboard available sata/ide slots is the only limitation? how 
> about using a USB hub and plugging them as such?
>  
USB drives are quite slow, you want to use SATA for this.   you can get 
PCI-E sata expansion cards, ideally on PCI-E x4 slots which have 
sufficient bandwidth (pci-e x1 would be a bottleneck for more than a 
couple drives)

I'd  suggest getting a 'storage server' with sufficient drive bays
and
channels for what you're doing.

a server like 
http://www.asaservers.com/config.asp?config_id=ASA4002-X2Q-S2-S holds 8 
hotswap drive bays and is quite customizable.

Roland Roland wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> am considering setting up centos as a file storage/ backup destination 
> for Mac's TimeMachine.
> 
> all my users would get synced directly to specific folders on this
machine..
> needless to say space is of importance. where every user has an average 
> 200 GB of data to b synced (entire system)...
> I have 27 users hence 27 *200 equals to almost 6 TB so I was considering 
> getting either 4 * 1.5 TB or 6 * 1 TB to be used on one PIV with a 1 GB 
> ethernet.
>  
> but the thing is, I'm an expert with this! so I'm seeking your
help..
> is there any other way to do so ? is there any limitation 
> hardware/centos wise for the amount of drives available on a system?
> is Motherboard available sata/ide slots is the only limitation? how 
> about using a USB hub and plugging them as such?
>  
> any advice is greatly appreciated Smile emoticon
>  
>  
> thanks and excuse my newbie question.
Does every user have a unique 200GB or is there a large amount of duplication? 
If most of the content is duplicated, you might look at using backuppc instead 
of time machine because it will find matching content and pool it with hard 
links - and it compresses files for additional space saving.  It is a little 
more trouble to set up and there are some quirks with mac files, but it might be
worth it.

As for space, I'd get a big tower case and a pci-X or -E controller card
like
this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815121009.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell at gmail.com