Rudi Ahlers
2010-Oct-12 17:39 UTC
[CentOS] 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
Bill Campbell
2010-Oct-12 17:54 UTC
[CentOS] using Linux as a front-end controller for a SAN?
On Tue, Oct 12, 2010, Rudi Ahlers wrote:>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?I don't know about Linux solutions for this, but I did see what appeared to be an interesting solution for this at a WMware meeting recently. Falconstor Software virtualizes SAN storage in much the same way VMware virtualizes servers. My guess is it isn't cheap, but reinventing wheels can be expensive too. http://www.falconstor.com/ Bill -- INTERNET: bill at celestial.com Bill Campbell; Celestial Software LLC URL: http://www.celestial.com/ PO Box 820; 6641 E. Mercer Way Voice: (206) 236-1676 Mercer Island, WA 98040-0820 Fax: (206) 232-9186 Skype: jwccsllc (206) 855-5792 Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard. == H.L. Mencken
John R Pierce
2010-Oct-12 18:07 UTC
[CentOS] using Linux as a front-end controller for a SAN?
On 10/12/10 10:39 AM, Rudi Ahlers wrote:> 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?how do you plan to implement redundancy on this system? there's a -huge- single point of failure in the middle of what you're talking about. would this be SAN storage (eg, block storage, like ISCSI, FC) or would it be NAS storage (file storage like NFS, SMB/CIFS) ?