If you use any NAS (or a SAN) devices, what do you use? And I'm referring more to larger scale network storage than your home PC or home theater system. We've had very good experiences with our NetGear ReadyNAS devices but I'm in the market for something new. The NetGear's aren't the cheapest ones around but they do what it says on the box. My only real gripe with them is the lack of decent scalability. TheCus devices seems to be rather powerful as well, and you can stack upto 5 units together. But that's where the line stops. I'm now looking for something that could scale beyond 100TB on one device (not necessarily one unit though) and find it frustrating that most NAS's come in 1U or 2U at most. Maybe I'm just not shopping around enough, or maybe I prefer to well known brands, I don't know. So, what do you use? How well does it work for you? And, how reliable / fast / scalable is it? -- Kind Regards Rudi Ahlers SoftDux Website: http://www.SoftDux.com Technical Blog: http://Blog.SoftDux.com Office: 087 805 9573 Cell: 082 554 7532
On 12/11/10 8:15 AM, Rudi Ahlers wrote:> If you use any NAS (or a SAN) devices, what do you use? And I'm > referring more to larger scale network storage than your home PC or > home theater system. > > We've had very good experiences with our NetGear ReadyNAS devices but > I'm in the market for something new. The NetGear's aren't the cheapest > ones around but they do what it says on the box. My only real gripe > with them is the lack of decent scalability.see, I'd consider ReadyNAS to be SOHO, just what you said you didn't want.> I'm now looking for something that could scale beyond 100TB on one > device (not necessarily one unit though) and find it frustrating that > most NAS's come in 1U or 2U at most. > > Maybe I'm just not shopping around enough, or maybe I prefer to well > known brands, I don't know.the big boys in NAS are Network Appliance aka Netapp. they will scale as large as your budget allows. The FAS6200 line scales to something like 1400 drives and redundant HA controllers.
On 12/11/10 8:15 AM, Rudi Ahlers wrote:> Maybe I'm just not shopping around enough, or maybe I prefer to well > known brands, I don't know.oh, another. NexSAN ... this is more SAN block storage than NAS file storage, but you can put a NFS server between your NAS clients and it for NAS functionality. the SATAbeast is like 48 SATA drives, for up to 84TB raw (typically you'd want to reserve some hotspares and some level of raid striping, say, 7 x 6-way raid5) these don't have the same level of total redundancy as a NetApp Filer has, but they are way cheaper.
On Sat, Dec 11, 2010 at 11:15 AM, Rudi Ahlers <Rudi at softdux.com> wrote:> If you use any NAS (or a SAN) devices, what do you use? And I'm > referring more to larger scale network storage than your home PC or > home theater system. > > We've had very good experiences with our NetGear ReadyNAS devices but > I'm in the market for something new. The NetGear's aren't the cheapest > ones around but they do what it says on the box. My only real gripe > with them is the lack of decent scalability.I setup a Netgear ReadyNAS for a small office client and found the performance to be lacking. I could only get 10-15MB/s on a gigabit network.> So, what do you use? > How well does it work for you? > And, how reliable / fast / scalable is it?For my own NAS I use CentOS and mdadm across a few TB drives. Performance gives me 30-40MB/s from Windows clients using Samba. Of course this route means you need to roll your own HA solution. If you want off the shelf performance, scalability, and reliability expect to pay $15k plus. For the office I am using a Dell MD3200i iSCSI SAN with redundant controllers and switches. I have a few ESXi boxes connected. One guest is a Windows box with a lun mapped for file sharing. Performance is decent, reliability is there, and it is easy to expand by adding additional bricks. Ryan
On Sat, Dec 11, 2010 at 10:15 AM, Rudi Ahlers <Rudi at softdux.com> wrote:> If you use any NAS (or a SAN) devices, what do you use? And I'm > referring more to larger scale network storage than your home PC or > home theater system. > > We've had very good experiences with our NetGear ReadyNAS devices but > I'm in the market for something new. The NetGear's aren't the cheapest > ones around but they do what it says on the box. My only real gripe > with them is the lack of decent scalability. > > TheCus devices seems to be rather powerful as well, and you can stack > upto 5 units together. But that's where the line stops. > > I'm now looking for something that could scale beyond 100TB on one > device (not necessarily one unit though) and find it frustrating that > most NAS's come in 1U or 2U at most. > > Maybe I'm just not shopping around enough, or maybe I prefer to well > known brands, I don't know. > > > > So, what do you use? > How well does it work for you? > And, how reliable / fast / scalable is it? >NetApp is probably the first place to look. I don't have personal experience with it, but others in my company like the IBM XIV. It installs as a whole rack (with some extra requirements for weight and cooling) but I think they have a 'pay for what you use' plan and can fill the drives in as needed. -- Les Mikesell lesmikesell at gmail.com
> If you use any NAS (or a SAN) devices, what do you use? And I'm > referring more to larger scale network storage than your home PC or > home theater system.We're using two different products that qualify under that heading. For NAS devices, which are our primary backup medium, we use the QNAP TS-809U-RP. Not stupidly fast but for backup's they're decent. Some might argue they're SOHO but for our use, they do what we need. Now for the primary SAN at head office we use the D'Link xStack DSN-5110-10. 12 disks in 2U. We ponied up for the redundant controller model which gives us true HA. On our model we can scale up by an extra three drive chassis if we wish, giving us up to 48TB (based on 1TB SAS disks). The 5210 & 5410 will scale up to an extra six chassis giving the user up to 84TB, more if they spring for 2TB SAS disks. -- Drew "Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood." --Marie Curie
Adam Tauno Williams
2010-Dec-11 21:39 UTC
[CentOS] What NAS device(s) do you use? And why?
On Sat, 2010-12-11 at 18:15 +0200, Rudi Ahlers wrote:> If you use any NAS (or a SAN) devices, what do you use? And I'm > referring more to larger scale network storage than your home PC or > home theater system.EMC AX4 SAN (iSCSI)> We've had very good experiences with our NetGear ReadyNAS devices but > I'm in the market for something new. The NetGear's aren't the cheapest > ones around but they do what it says on the box. My only real gripe > with them is the lack of decent scalability.EMC - Scalability is never an issue.> I'm now looking for something that could scale beyond 100TB on one > device (not necessarily one unit though) and find it frustrating that > most NAS's come in 1U or 2U at most.Go EMC. Support is solid and the units are well designed.> Maybe I'm just not shopping around enough, or maybe I prefer to well > known brands, I don't know.
On Dec 11, 2010, at 11:15 AM, Rudi Ahlers <Rudi at SoftDux.com> wrote:> If you use any NAS (or a SAN) devices, what do you use? And I'm > referring more to larger scale network storage than your home PC or > home theater system. > > We've had very good experiences with our NetGear ReadyNAS devices but > I'm in the market for something new. The NetGear's aren't the cheapest > ones around but they do what it says on the box. My only real gripe > with them is the lack of decent scalability. > > TheCus devices seems to be rather powerful as well, and you can stack > upto 5 units together. But that's where the line stops. > > I'm now looking for something that could scale beyond 100TB on one > device (not necessarily one unit though) and find it frustrating that > most NAS's come in 1U or 2U at most. > > Maybe I'm just not shopping around enough, or maybe I prefer to well > known brands, I don't know. > > > > So, what do you use? > How well does it work for you? > And, how reliable / fast / scalable is it?I use Equallogic and it performs very well and it scales quite good as well. It's quite a bit more then Netgear but it's enterprise level Though it's iSCSI only, so if your looking for CIFS/NFS included then it's not for you. I provide file services through virtualization and even the extra licensing costs, it's way cheaper then EMC/NetApp NAS head licensing (and guaranteed compatible too). -Ross
On 12/11/2010 11:15 AM, Rudi Ahlers wrote:> If you use any NAS (or a SAN) devices, what do you use? And I'm > referring more to larger scale network storage than your home PC or > home theater system. > > We've had very good experiences with our NetGear ReadyNAS devices but > I'm in the market for something new. The NetGear's aren't the cheapest > ones around but they do what it says on the box. My only real gripe > with them is the lack of decent scalability. > > TheCus devices seems to be rather powerful as well, and you can stack > upto 5 units together. But that's where the line stops. > > I'm now looking for something that could scale beyond 100TB on one > device (not necessarily one unit though) and find it frustrating that > most NAS's come in 1U or 2U at most. > > Maybe I'm just not shopping around enough, or maybe I prefer to well > known brands, I don't know. > > > > So, what do you use? > How well does it work for you? > And, how reliable / fast / scalable is it? >Two things: QNAP coraid coraid is in the Linux Kernel(don't know about Cent 5 though) but you can also look into them directly as well..:)