Build my own SAN/NAS with iSCSI/NFS/ZFS - questions and concepts i'm not getting

Community Team members:

I am just learning and reseaching the concepts of: SANs, NAS and ZFS storage solutions. Due to the latter, I am thinking about turning an old Dell 2950 8x hdd, into a file NAS, or SANs.

### Options ###
I have reseached about using hardware RAID with iSCSI.

I have researched about using RAID with NFS shares.

(what i really like) Use ZFS and share out NFS.
###

I am leaning towards OpenIndiana(OI) for ZFS; however, i don't understand why I read about folks putting Napp-it on top of OI for a storage soltuions. I mean - doesn't OI and ZFS do everything already, and you can do tasks through the command line interface (CLI), like snapshots and volume/pool management? Since I am new to there concepts, I must be overlooking something.

In addition, I will be sharing out the storage containers (not sure if that is the right term) to VMware and Hyper-V, which can both see NFS shares, so I am still at a lost why to use Napp-it or any other solution like FreeNAS or OpenNAS.

Are the solutions I mention just provide a web interface for all the management overhead?

thanks.

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Comments

UnixGuy

I recommend Solaris 11 for X86 instead of OpenIndiana. OpenIndiana is OpenSolaris after Oracle has killed the OpenSolaris project. Solaris 11 has a much better support for ZFS IMHO.

Now, true ZFS does everything (snapshots, pool management, self healing) but people use NetApp (NAS) and SAN solutions because they need to purchase disk arrays for mass storage. All storage solutions hardware (like NetApp, HDS, EMC, StorageTek) have their own RAID manager that does things like snapshots and volume management. Why use ZFS when you can do it through the hardware? it is much faster if done by the hardware.

With NFS you can share filesystems between Unix/Linux. If you want to share file systems with Windows based OS's, then you will need to use SAMBA

I hope this answers your questions

powmia

If you're just building a NAS for home, I like FreeNAS. It's a lightweight build of FreeBSD specifically for what you're trying to do, none of the bloat that comes with a full blown distro... and it's free. It takes about 2 minutes to install, and another 2 to setup NFS/CIFS shares, or iSCSI LUNs. Perfect for a VMware lab.

jaz0nj4ckal

UnixGuy wrote: »

I recommend Solaris 11 for X86 instead of OpenIndiana.

Hmmm... where do I get a copy of Solaris 11? Are you talking about the original Sun copy or the Oracale copy?

UnixGuy wrote: »

With NFS you can share filesystems between Unix/Linux. If you want to share file systems with Windows based OS's, then you will need to use SAMBA

You can get NFS support on Windows now by enabling the "Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications", then enabling all the features for "Services for NFS". By doing the latter two, Windows can now mount/map NFS shares.
The latter, is what has me thinking to NFS shares for my Hyper-V test lap. In addition, I have already seen better transfer speeds between my Window box/Linux file server using NFS shares over my Samba3 server. I know, I most likely do not have it configured correctly, but at this point, the case studies are not about Samba - but NFS/ZFS or iSCSI.

thanks for the help

jaz0nj4ckal

powmia wrote: »

If you're just building a NAS for home, I like FreeNAS. It's a lightweight build of FreeBSD specifically for what you're trying to do, none of the bloat that comes with a full blown distro... and it's free. It takes about 2 minutes to install, and another 2 to setup NFS/CIFS shares, or iSCSI LUNs. Perfect for a VMware lab.

You talk about bloat – I am still confused where this is coming from, due to my lack of knowledge in this area of tech and specialties. If I install the minimal features for a server: core, SSH server, packages for OpeniSCSI and libraries for NFS– would I have the minimum requirements for my file server? Correct me if I am wrong, since I am still learning – but these items throw on a Web front end to manage features that can be done via SSH and the CLI.

This case study is to tackle two avenues. (1) to learn more about Linux and operate via the CLI, and (2) create a storage array to throw some vm images on it for Hyper-V.

### Beyond the scope of the original Case Study ###
### Just throwing it out there ###
Also, I hope to Etherchannel 4x NICs together on the boxes, to provide higher throughput to take advantage of the capabilities of iSCSI if go that route; however, Etherchanneling NICs together should also increase my transfer speeds.

What part of Germany you from? I was in Wiesbaden for a few years in the late 90s to 2004

UnixGuy

This is where you can download Solaris 11 for x86:

Oracle Solaris 11 Downloads

It's completely owned by Oracle now

jaz0nj4ckal

UnixGuy wrote: »

This is where you can download Solaris 11 for x86:

Oracle Solaris 11 Downloads

It's completely owned by Oracle now

Thanks for the link, which I will look into. I reviewed it during my initial stage of my project; however, I was confused, and thought it was not free to download. I guess, I read it wrong...

In addition, I am a little jelous... you are RHCE -, which when I looked at the test resources and test taking procedures...it was going to cost 2.7K. And the credits increament I did not get...

Also, I noticed you have SCSP - can you recommend anything related to this exam? I am interesting in it now, since I started to get into storage solutions. Is what I am doing similar to what is covered on the exam and test material? I am very new to these concepts, so any help and suggestions is greatly appreciated.

thanks.

UnixGuy

@jaz0nj4kcal:

Regarding the RHCE, the training is not mandatory, you can do self study and just take the exam. It's generally recommended to it after 2+ yrs of experience with Linux. You can start with RHCSA first.

As for SNIA SCSP, I don't recommend doing this cert. It's a theoritical cert, with very little value (if any). I remember I used the free slides from SNIA. If you are into storage, just get experience with whatever vendor storage you can (HDS, EMC, NetApp,.etc) and maybe do a vendor cert or training if available. This will have much more value IMHO

paul78

And just to add about FreeNAS, which were mentioned. These are opensource turn-key solutions that they are designed so that you will have everything you need for a NAS solution in the software distribution including management tools, base OS, and network file protocols.

You mentioned a need for NFS and CIFS - both support it out of the box - including network file protocols as well.

I use FreeNAS and I'm quite satisfied with it for my own requirements. I have 2 older low-power servers (a primary and secondary) that I use for NAS devices with FreeNAS. I use rsync between both so that I have an online backup and I create snapshots for backups. The servers I use are older 300MHz Pentium III with about 256MB of memory.

With FreeNAS - I export out NFS for my ESX hosts. I use CIFS for the Windows and Linux (with SAMBA) boxes.

If you just need NAS, I would highly recommend FreeNAS.