Rudi Ahlers
2010-Oct-12 17:47 UTC
[Xen-users] using Linux as a front-end controller for a SAN?
Hi all, I hope someone can shed some light on this for me. Has anyone tried, or have experience with, setting up a Linux server to manage a few NAS devices and thus make them all visible to the clients as one large SAN? Basically, I''m thinking it would be a good idea to combine the current NAS''s we have into one large system (typically a SAN?) and then let the clients all connect to one server (for authentication, LUN control, etc), but then when they need to access their drives / devices / LUN''s, they get redirected to the specific server directly. I''m also thinking it could be a good way to say some IP addresses, i.e. instead of giving each NAS a public IP, they could all have private IP''s and then everyone just connects to the public IP if needed. The servers which will access the NAS''s will be on the same physical LAN and will also be on the same private IP subnet to make it easier. Does anyone know what I''m talking about? -- Kind Regards Rudi Ahlers SoftDux Website: http://www.SoftDux.com Technical Blog: http://Blog.SoftDux.com Office: 087 805 9573 Cell: 082 554 7532 _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Matej Zary
2010-Oct-12 18:06 UTC
RE: [Xen-users] using Linux as a front-end controller for a SAN?
Well, you will get quite nasty single point of failure problem this way, if i''m following the idea correctly - but that might not be an issue - depending on the needs. I guess the NAS devices are some kind of smaller nfs/smb LAN devices? Regards Matej ________________________________________ From: xen-users-bounces@lists.xensource.com [xen-users-bounces@lists.xensource.com] On Behalf Of Rudi Ahlers [Rudi@SoftDux.com] Sent: 12 October 2010 19:47 To: xen-users Subject: [Xen-users] using Linux as a front-end controller for a SAN? Hi all, I hope someone can shed some light on this for me. Has anyone tried, or have experience with, setting up a Linux server to manage a few NAS devices and thus make them all visible to the clients as one large SAN? Basically, I''m thinking it would be a good idea to combine the current NAS''s we have into one large system (typically a SAN?) and then let the clients all connect to one server (for authentication, LUN control, etc), but then when they need to access their drives / devices / LUN''s, they get redirected to the specific server directly. I''m also thinking it could be a good way to say some IP addresses, i.e. instead of giving each NAS a public IP, they could all have private IP''s and then everyone just connects to the public IP if needed. The servers which will access the NAS''s will be on the same physical LAN and will also be on the same private IP subnet to make it easier. Does anyone know what I''m talking about? -- Kind Regards Rudi Ahlers SoftDux Website: http://www.SoftDux.com Technical Blog: http://Blog.SoftDux.com Office: 087 805 9573 Cell: 082 554 7532 _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
John Madden
2010-Oct-12 18:10 UTC
Re: [Xen-users] using Linux as a front-end controller for a SAN?
> I hope someone can shed some light on this for me. Has anyone tried, > or have experience with, setting up a Linux server to manage a few NAS > devices and thus make them all visible to the clients as one large > SAN?Kind of off-topic for a Xen list, but yes, this is a common thing to do (and it''s essentially what the major SAN vendors do). See Openfiler, for example. John -- John Madden Sr UNIX Systems Engineer Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana jmadden@ivytech.edu _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
John Madden
2010-Oct-12 18:49 UTC
Re: [Xen-users] using Linux as a front-end controller for a SAN?
On 10/12/2010 02:06 PM, Matej Zary wrote:> Well, you will get quite nasty single point of failure problem this > way, if i''m following the idea correctly - but that might not be an > issue - depending on the needs.Yeah, definitely recommend clustering two nodes together. -- John Madden Sr UNIX Systems Engineer Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana jmadden@ivytech.edu _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
James Harper
2010-Oct-12 22:34 UTC
RE: [Xen-users] using Linux as a front-end controller for a SAN?
> > On 10/12/2010 02:06 PM, Matej Zary wrote: > > Well, you will get quite nasty single point of failure problem this > > way, if i''m following the idea correctly - but that might not be an > > issue - depending on the needs. > > Yeah, definitely recommend clustering two nodes together. >With DRBD you can (in theory at least) make a very highly available SAN. James _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users