OTT: OpenFiler vs Thecus N4200?
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From: Phillipus Gunawan on 6 Aug 2010 02:20 Hi There, Sorry if this is a bit 'Off The Topic' discussion. I am planning to get fileserver dedicated for iSCSI. My option is to grab Thecus N4200 or to build OpenFiler with any Duo-Core CPU, >1G RAM, RocketRAID 644 controller, and other basic PC stuff. I have been googling to compare OpenFiler vs FreeNAS (winner for me: OpenFiler) and cheap iSCSI capable barebone NAS from Thecus vs QNAP (winner: Thecus N4200) When it come to comparing between OpenFiler vs Thecus N4200, I can not get any goodies from google. I used OpenFiler for a bit, creating 2 or 3 iSCSI target, share folder, but only for short time, just for a fun. My concern: - HDD realibility check (live error check, reporting when one of the HDD faulty/bad sector/etc) - RAID/iSCSI re-sizing when I add another HDD - Easy to maintain So, if anyone expert can give me a light, would be much appreciated. For a started, I will only go with 3x2TB HDD for either option, to be RAID-ed as RAID5 Deeply Thanking you in advance, Phillipus -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST(a)lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster(a)lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/433562.55449.qm(a)web65713.mail.ac4.yahoo.com
From: Camaleón on 6 Aug 2010 04:40 On Thu, 05 Aug 2010 23:18:54 -0700, Phillipus Gunawan wrote: (...) > So, if anyone expert can give me a light, would be much appreciated. For > a started, I will only go with 3x2TB HDD for either option, to be > RAID-ed as RAID5 Although I would prefer a DIYS dedicated computer to this task (far more flexible, upgradeable and tweakable solution), the Thecus unit looks very professional and plenty of advanced features. Also, it will be easier to manage and handle (for setting up, configure alerts and warnings, RAID operations and status, etc...). Just one "but" here. Should something goes wrong, your options will be very limited and "manufacturer dependant". OTOH, RAID6 should be preferred over RAID5. The only drawback is that, IIRC, a RAID6 level requires a minimum of 4 disks. Greetings, -- Camaleón -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST(a)lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster(a)lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/pan.2010.08.06.08.31.00(a)gmail.com
From: Michal on 6 Aug 2010 07:10 On 06/08/10 09:31, Camaleón wrote: > On Thu, 05 Aug 2010 23:18:54 -0700, Phillipus Gunawan wrote: > > (...) > > >> So, if anyone expert can give me a light, would be much appreciated. For >> a started, I will only go with 3x2TB HDD for either option, to be >> RAID-ed as RAID5 >> > Although I would prefer a DIYS dedicated computer to this task (far more > flexible, upgradeable and tweakable solution), the Thecus unit looks very > professional and plenty of advanced features. Also, it will be easier to > manage and handle (for setting up, configure alerts and warnings, RAID > operations and status, etc...). > > Just one "but" here. Should something goes wrong, your options will be > very limited and "manufacturer dependant". > > OTOH, RAID6 should be preferred over RAID5. The only drawback is that, > IIRC, a RAID6 level requires a minimum of 4 disks. > > Greetings, > > I have 6 RAID6 Thucus 5200 NAS's. They are quite good, reliable, easy to manage and so forth but once you have fill the 6 disks, you need another NAS. I did replace 6 1TB disks in two of them with 1.5TB disks, but that is the biggest size disk they can take, and realistically I would have to buy more and more NAS's with time. A better option might be a DIYS NAS if your data will only go up and up as you will save money in the long run. One thing you might want to look at is ZFS which will let you add more and more space to each pool. Yes I think you need 4 disks with RAID6 since it can take a 2 disk failure. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST(a)lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster(a)lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/4C5BE7A3.5020706(a)sharescope.co.uk
From: Stan Hoeppner on 6 Aug 2010 11:10 Phillipus Gunawan put forth on 8/6/2010 1:18 AM: > Hi There, > > Sorry if this is a bit 'Off The Topic' discussion. I am planning to get > fileserver dedicated for iSCSI. > > My option is to grab Thecus N4200 or to build OpenFiler with any Duo-Core CPU, > 1G RAM, RocketRAID 644 controller, and other basic PC stuff. The RocketRAID 644 is a POS fakeraid card, and it's only for external drives, which doesn't make sense for your application. It's junk, stay away from it. Get one of these instead: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816103102&cm_re=SFF-8087-_-16-103-102-_-Product It's a real hardware RAID card with 128MB of onboard read/write cache. And it's actually $15 cheaper than that POS HighPoint card. It'll run 4 internal drives. Buy 5 identical 2TB drives now, for 4 live and one spare on the shelf, and set the 4 up as RAID 10. You'll have 4TB of usable storage, and the best performance plus failure protection of any RAID level. RAID rule #1: always buy at least one spare drive during the initial purchase so when you replace a failed drive in the future all drives are identical. This eliminates potential firmware performance and compatibility problems in the future. A 2TB drive purchased 3 years from now will be a totally different drive, including spindle speed, firmware revision, etc, no matter the manufacturer. Technology doesn't sit still; it's always moving forward. Get this cable to connect the drives to the controller: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816116099&cm_re=SFF-8087-_-16-116-099-_-Product Or if your PSU doesn't have SATA power connectors, get this cable instead: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118126&cm_re=SFF-8087-_-16-118-126-_-Product If you'd rather have the additional storage capacity and slight cost effectiveness increase of RAID5, go with this LSI card that supports RAID5 (the Adaptec card above doesn't, one of the reasons it's only $205): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118106 It's $125 more than the Adaptec, but has more RAID modes and has 512MB of cache vs 128MB on the Adaptec. If you go with this LSI card, buy 4 x 2TB drives, configure 3 as RAID5 and the 4th drive as a standby spare, preferably not powered on until needed when a drive fails two or 5 years down the road. If the spare has been powered on all those years, why would you expect it to be a reliable spare at that point? Keep it powered off and it's like new 5 years from now, which is what you want/need. -- Stan -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST(a)lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster(a)lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/4C5C2547.1030505(a)hardwarefreak.com
From: Justin The Cynical on 6 Aug 2010 17:50
On 8/5/10 11:18 PM, Phillipus Gunawan wrote: > Hi There, > > Sorry if this is a bit 'Off The Topic' discussion. I am planning to get > fileserver dedicated for iSCSI. > > My option is to grab Thecus N4200 or to build OpenFiler with any Duo-Core CPU, >> 1G RAM, RocketRAID 644 controller, and other basic PC stuff. > > I have been googling to compare OpenFiler vs FreeNAS (winner for me: OpenFiler) > and cheap iSCSI capable barebone NAS from Thecus vs QNAP (winner: Thecus N4200) > > When it come to comparing between OpenFiler vs Thecus N4200, I can not get any > goodies from google. I used OpenFiler for a bit, creating 2 or 3 iSCSI target, > share folder, but only for short time, just for a fun. > > My concern: > - HDD realibility check (live error check, reporting when one of the HDD > faulty/bad sector/etc) > - RAID/iSCSI re-sizing when I add another HDD > - Easy to maintain > > So, if anyone expert can give me a light, would be much appreciated. For a > started, I will only go with 3x2TB HDD for either option, to be RAID-ed as RAID5 Have you looked at NexentaStore? Free community addition is good for up to 12 TB. It's based on OpenSolaris, not Linux, but it uses apt-get for packages and upgrades. CIFS: Check NFS: Check iSCSI: Check ZFS: Check ZFS at this time isn't all that good at dynamic resizing, but I believe Sun/Oracle is working on that functionality. I looked at FreeNAS myself, but the ZFS level it supports is very experimental. OpenFiler, while I like the idea behind it, is based on CentOS (which is a clone of that bloated thing called RedHat. Ugg). Not to start a flame war or argument, but I'd skip the hardware RAID card and go software. Most CPU's available have plenty of power to handle the calculations needed for RAID. Also, you are not locked into a single vendor, nor do you have to worry about replacement when the RAID card dies (and it will eventually). I'm running three VM's from an ESXi 4 machine using the NexentaStore on an iSCSI datastore before moving my production VM's over to it, and so far, I'm liking what I see overall. It seems to be a bit on the hungry side, like OpenFiler would be, but it's quite usable with the 4 gigs and the C2D 7500 CPU I have in it. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST(a)lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster(a)lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/4C5C7F8D.80105(a)penguinness.org |