zfs discuss - Jan 2012 - Any HP Servers recommendation for Openindiana (Capacity Server) ?

Hello.

I''m planing to replace my old Apple XRAID, and XSAN Filesystem(1.4.2) 
Fiber environment.
This setup only hosted a AFP,CIFS for a large advertising agency.
Now that Fiber is damn expensive and for one thing, we do not need the 
fiber connection
as every client connects with IP.
So iSCSI, AFP, CIFS should be efficient for us.
We have been running this setup since late/early 2006/2007 without 
problems.
No that the hardware/software is warned out and we had pretty damn 
catastropic filesystem failure lately.

I''ve been running OpenIndiana on a custom made server with ZFS,CIFS,AFP
and all that
for couple of months right now. Really good. This server just acts as a 
temporary
solution. Currently has 4x 2TB Enterprise SATA disks in RAIDz1 and 
expanding
in few weeks with Supermicro AOC-USAS-L8i and 4-8 more disks.
Doing daily snapshots and, yea really love it.

Are there any recommendations regarding HP Servers running OpenIndiana 
to act as a ZFS
Capacity server ?

The server should only do :
* AFP
* CIFS
* NFS
* iSCSI
* and of course ZFS underneath

So what I''m looking at is a large capacity server.
We need 12-20TB at the start.

Any other vendors good ?  any servers that comes out of the box and runs
Openindiana 151 with no problems (drivers / hardware ) e.t.c. acting as 
a capacity server.
And support would be a good option to.


Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks allot.
Best regards,

Svavar - Reykjavik - Iceland

On Jan 3, 2012, at 9:35 AM, Svavar ?rn Eysteinsson wrote:
> Hello.
> 
> I''m planing to replace my old Apple XRAID, and XSAN
Filesystem(1.4.2) Fiber environment.
> This setup only hosted a AFP,CIFS for a large advertising agency.
> Now that Fiber is damn expensive and for one thing, we do not need the
fiber connection
> as every client connects with IP.
> So iSCSI, AFP, CIFS should be efficient for us.
> We have been running this setup since late/early 2006/2007 without
problems.
> No that the hardware/software is warned out and we had pretty damn
catastropic filesystem failure lately.
> 
> I''ve been running OpenIndiana on a custom made server with
ZFS,CIFS,AFP and all that
> for couple of months right now. Really good. This server just acts as a
temporary
> solution. Currently has 4x 2TB Enterprise SATA disks in RAIDz1 and
expanding
> in few weeks with Supermicro AOC-USAS-L8i and 4-8 more disks.
> Doing daily snapshots and, yea really love it.
> 
> Are there any recommendations regarding HP Servers running OpenIndiana to
act as a ZFS
> Capacity server ?
> 
> The server should only do :
> * AFP
> * CIFS
> * NFS
> * iSCSI
> * and of course ZFS underneath
> 
> So what I''m looking at is a large capacity server.
> We need 12-20TB at the start.
> 
> Any other vendors good ?  any servers that comes out of the box and runs
> Openindiana 151 with no problems (drivers / hardware ) e.t.c. acting as a
capacity server.
> And support would be a good option to.
> 
> 
> Any help would be much appreciated.
> 
> Thanks allot.
> Best regards,
> 
> Svavar - Reykjavik - Iceland
I haven''t really seen any 100% commercially supported solutions for
this.  If you put this configuration on an HP server & call them to report a
problem, they''re going to most likely deny your request because
you''re using an unsupported OS.  You may be able to get away with using
Solaris 11, but you''ll pay for it.  I suggest looking at NexentaStor
& it''s partners:  http://www.nexenta.com.  Talk to them about what
you want to do, they''d most likely be most receptive of
"unique" setups.  I was able to get AFP working on NexentaStor
Community edition.  I was not able to get it working with Active Directory
(I''d love advice if anyone has it).  If anything, their partners would
most likely be receptive to supporting the hardware configuration itself &
the software would be up to you.  Better than nothing at all.

Chris

2012/1/3 Christopher Hearn <Christopher.Hearn at
cchmc.org>:
> On Jan 3, 2012, at 9:35 AM, Svavar ?rn Eysteinsson wrote:
>
>> Hello.
>>
>> I''m planing to replace my old Apple XRAID, and XSAN
Filesystem(1.4.2) Fiber environment.
>> This setup only hosted a AFP,CIFS for a large advertising agency.
>> Now that Fiber is damn expensive and for one thing, we do not need the
fiber connection
>> as every client connects with IP.
>> So iSCSI, AFP, CIFS should be efficient for us.
>> We have been running this setup since late/early 2006/2007 without
problems.
>> No that the hardware/software is warned out and we had pretty damn
catastropic filesystem failure lately.
>>
>> I''ve been running OpenIndiana on a custom made server with
ZFS,CIFS,AFP and all that
>> for couple of months right now. Really good. This server just acts as a
temporary
>> solution. Currently has 4x 2TB Enterprise SATA disks in RAIDz1 and
expanding
>> in few weeks with Supermicro AOC-USAS-L8i and 4-8 more disks.
>> Doing daily snapshots and, yea really love it.
>>
>> Are there any recommendations regarding HP Servers running OpenIndiana
to act as a ZFS
>> Capacity server ?
>>
>> The server should only do :
>> * AFP
>> * CIFS
>> * NFS
>> * iSCSI
>> * and of course ZFS underneath
>>
>> So what I''m looking at is a large capacity server.
>> We need 12-20TB at the start.
>>
>> Any other vendors good ? ?any servers that comes out of the box and
runs
>> Openindiana 151 with no problems (drivers / hardware ) e.t.c. acting as
a capacity server.
>> And support would be a good option to.
>>
>>
>> Any help would be much appreciated.
>>
>> Thanks allot.
>> Best regards,
>>
>> Svavar - Reykjavik - Iceland
>
> I haven''t really seen any 100% commercially supported solutions
for this. ?If you put this configuration on an HP server & call them to
report a problem, they''re going to most likely deny your request
because you''re using an unsupported OS. ?You may be able to get away
with using Solaris 11, but you''ll pay for it. ?I suggest looking at
NexentaStor & it''s partners: ?http://www.nexenta.com.
One of them being:
<http://www.racktopsystems.com/products/brickstor/brickstor-models/>

Afaik they''re in the process of announing official AFP support (with
Netatalk) soon.

-f

I can''t comment on their 4U servers but HP''s 1&2U includwd
SAS
controllers rarely allow JBOD discovery of drives. So I''d recommend an
LSI card and an external storage chassis like those available from
Promise and others.

-Gary

On Tue, Jan  3 at  8:03, Gary Driggs wrote:
>I can''t comment on their 4U servers but HP''s 1&2U
includwd SAS
>controllers rarely allow JBOD discovery of drives. So I''d recommend
an
>LSI card and an external storage chassis like those available from
>Promise and others.
That was what got us with the HP boxes was the unsupported RAID cards.
We ended up getting Dell T610 boxes with SAS6i/R cards, which are
properly supported in Solaris/OI.

Supposedly the H200/H700 cards are just their name for the 6gbit LSI
SAS cards, but I haven''t tested them personally.

--eric

-- 
Eric D. Mudama
edmudama at bounceswoosh.org

On Wed, Jan 4, 2012 at 1:36 PM, Eric D. Mudama
<edmudama at bounceswoosh.org> wrote:
> On Tue, Jan ?3 at ?8:03, Gary Driggs wrote:
>>
>> I can''t comment on their 4U servers but HP''s 1&2U
includwd SAS
>> controllers rarely allow JBOD discovery of drives. So I''d
recommend an
>> LSI card and an external storage chassis like those available from
>> Promise and others.
>
>
> That was what got us with the HP boxes was the unsupported RAID cards.
See also http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.os.solaris.opensolaris.zfs/48231
, Edmund''s post in particular.
370-G6  should be able to handle max 14x3TB drives.
> We ended up getting Dell T610 boxes with SAS6i/R cards, which are
> properly supported in Solaris/OI.
>
> Supposedly the H200/H700 cards are just their name for the 6gbit LSI
> SAS cards, but I haven''t tested them personally.
Were the Dell cards able to present the disks as JBOD without any
third-party-flashing involved?

-- 
Fajar

On Jan 3, 2012, at 10:36 PM, "Eric D. Mudama" wrote:
> Supposedly the H200/H700 cards are just their name for the 6gbit LSI SAS
cards, but I haven''t tested them personally.
They might use the same chipset but their firmware usually doesn''t
support JBOD. Unless they''ve changed in the last couple of years...
Best you can do is try but if you don''t see each drive individually
you''ll know it''s by design and not lack of skill on your part.

-Gary

Thanks for your reply and time everyone.

The only reason I asked about HP is that I have good support trough HP 
reseller here in
Iceland. IBM has also a good reseller here too. DELL, not so good and 
Oracle from the
same reseller is hell here in Iceland.

I also have pretty good reseller for SuperMicro that I have bought many 
times before.
I actually have 5 Supermicro servers in production here, and they are 
damn good.

The actual question about HP, and or some other vender was regarding 
say, if a HD disk
would fail, controller and or motherboard, I have a pretty good 
connection(and support) regarding replace''ing them
after few hours. So hardware support would be great, and hardware 
compatibility. Software support is not
what I''m actually looking for.

I''m aware of the RAM regarding ZFS so I would buy RAM heavy server

A closed software solution is not my type of thing.
Firstly, they cost huge money regarding our currency.
Secondly, I have no access (like for Nexenta) into the core of the 
operating system.
I have had great success with OpenIndiana and Napp-IT and using linux in 
our environment.
Thirdly, We do have some limited budget. Time will tell how much, as our 
currency rocks
like a bad jojo. :s


I think a good solution would be :

* 1U/2U Server with large RAM, good XEON''s and correct SAS controllers
* Large external storage chassis connected with SAS (6Gbit right ?)


Any recommandations on external chassis ? Supermicro ?


Thanks allot people.

Best regards,

Svavar - Reykjavik - Iceland




> Gary Driggs <mailto:gdriggs at gmail.com>
> 4. jan?ar 2012 07:26
>
> They might use the same chipset but their firmware usually doesn''t
> support JBOD. Unless they''ve changed in the last couple of
years...
> Best you can do is try but if you don''t see each drive
individually
> you''ll know it''s by design and not lack of skill on your
part.
>
> -Gary
> _______________________________________________
> zfs-discuss mailing list
> zfs-discuss at opensolaris.org
> http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss
> Eric D. Mudama <mailto:edmudama at bounceswoosh.org>
> 4. jan?ar 2012 06:36
>
>
> That was what got us with the HP boxes was the unsupported RAID cards.
> We ended up getting Dell T610 boxes with SAS6i/R cards, which are
> properly supported in Solaris/OI.
>
> Supposedly the H200/H700 cards are just their name for the 6gbit LSI
> SAS cards, but I haven''t tested them personally.
>
> --eric
>
> Gary Driggs <mailto:gdriggs at gmail.com>
> 3. jan?ar 2012 16:03
> I can''t comment on their 4U servers but HP''s 1&2U
includwd SAS
> controllers rarely allow JBOD discovery of drives. So I''d
recommend an
> LSI card and an external storage chassis like those available from
> Promise and others.
>
> -Gary
> _______________________________________________
> zfs-discuss mailing list
> zfs-discuss at opensolaris.org
> http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss
> Frank Lahm <mailto:franklahm at googlemail.com>
> 3. jan?ar 2012 15:22
>
> One of them being:
> <http://www.racktopsystems.com/products/brickstor/brickstor-models/>
>
> Afaik they''re in the process of announing official AFP support
(with
> Netatalk) soon.
>
> -f
> Christopher Hearn <mailto:Christopher.Hearn at cchmc.org>
> 3. jan?ar 2012 15:08
>
> I haven''t really seen any 100% commercially supported solutions
for
> this. If you put this configuration on an HP server & call them to 
> report a problem, they''re going to most likely deny your request 
> because you''re using an unsupported OS. You may be able to get
away
> with using Solaris 11, but you''ll pay for it. I suggest looking at
> NexentaStor & it''s partners: http://www.nexenta.com. Talk to
them
> about what you want to do, they''d most likely be most receptive of
> "unique" setups. I was able to get AFP working on NexentaStor 
> Community edition. I was not able to get it working with Active 
> Directory (I''d love advice if anyone has it). If anything, their 
> partners would most likely be receptive to supporting the hardware 
> configuration itself & the software would be up to you. Better than 
> nothing at all.
>
> Chris
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> zfs-discuss mailing list
> zfs-discuss at opensolaris.org
> http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss

On Wed, Jan  4 at 13:55, Fajar A. Nugraha wrote:
>Were the Dell cards able to present the disks as JBOD without any
>third-party-flashing involved?
Yes, the ones I have tested (SAS 6/iR) worked as expected (bare drives
exposed to ZFS) with no changes to drive firmware.  I have not tested
the H200/H700 adapters, since we don''t really need 6Gbit/s and are
still ordering our systems with SAS 6/iR.

--eric


-- 
Eric D. Mudama
edmudama at bounceswoosh.org