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Re: [MSUNAG] Atom Based NAS Devices? More likely than not that MD1000 will soon be attached to the external port on my Openfiler's SAS card. I have nothing against Dell hardware other than the fact that the bundled NICs on their servers are typically crap - Broadcom NICs don't hold up very well under load and Intel is by far the preferred vendor. (Or something even better with hardware iSCSI support if you can afford it.) The Supermicro board has dual Intel gigabit NICs and they’ve performed very well using the latest Intel x86-64 kernel modules. I know of at least one other Openfiler that’s running on an older Dell Poweredge with two MD1000s attached to a PERC adapter card and it’s been working fine, except for the Broadcom NICs (which were replaced with Intel PCI-X cards).
----
Jack Kramer
Computer Systems Specialist
University Relations, Michigan State University
w: 517-884-1231 / c: 248-635-4955



> From: Tom Rockwell <[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:45:12 -0500
> To: Jack Kramer <[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]>
> Cc: "[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: [MSUNAG] Atom Based NAS Devices?
>
> Jack,
>
> Nice write-up!
>
> Couple comments, depending on number of clients, you might get better
> performance with multiple RAID arrays to spread the IO out --- the
> trade-off is more space lost to parity, but space is cheap...
>
> Supermicro does make nice chassis and either build it yourself or
> purchasing from a "white-box" vendor that uses their hardware is
> reasonable depending on the purchasing situation and use.  Also, just
> using openfiler on IBM/HP/Dell hardware can work well.  An example would
> be a Dell 1 or 2 U node with external shelf disk shelf (I see you have
> an MD1000 and Dell server racked just above this new one).  Pricing is
> variable though.  I'd be interested in hearing any comparisons you have
> between the Dell hardware and this new server as you get experience with
> them over time.
>
> Cheers,
> Tom
>
>
> On 3/11/10 2:31 PM, Kramer, Jack wrote:
>> Okay, I did a (very quick) writeup about the whole thing and posted it on my
>> AFS space. You can find it at http://www.msu.edu/~kramer45/openfiler/ . For
>> those of you who don’t want to follow a link, I used a Supermicro 846A 4u
>> chassis which has 24 SAS/SATA drive bays and then added a Supermicro
>> motherboard, an Areca 1680IX 24 port raid card, 12gb of RAM, and basically
>> let ‘er rip. There’s some details as to the build and configuration tweaks I
>> had to make in the writeup and a couple of photos – I’ll post more photos the
>> next time I have the unit down for service.
>>
>> And yeah, the writeup is done in iWeb – I didn’t feel like actually doing
>> HTML and it’s surprisingly not that crappy for a very basic web editor.
>> ----
>> Jack Kramer
>> Computer Systems Specialist
>> University Relations, Michigan State University
>> w: 517-884-1231 / c: 248-635-4955
>>
>>
>>
>> ________________________________
>> From: Jon Galbreath<[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]>
>> Reply-To: Jon Galbreath<[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]>
>> Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:29:05 -0500
>> To: "[log in to unmask]"<MSUNAG">[log in to unmask]"<MSUNAG@LIST.MSU.EDU>
>> Subject: Re: [MSUNAG] Atom Based NAS Devices?
>>
>> I’m sure I’m not alone in my curiosity.  Can you provide more details about
>> the hardware you’re using?
>>
>> Thanks in advance!
>>
>>
>> Jon Galbreath
>> MCSE/Security+
>> Systems Administrator
>> International Studies and Programs
>> Ph: 517-884-2144
>> [log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]
>>
>>
>> From: Kramer, Jack [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>> Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2010 9:12 AM
>> To: [log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: [MSUNAG] Atom Based NAS Devices?
>>
>> Another option in terms of NAS is rolling your own system based off of
>> Openfiler (openfiler.org) or something like it (the BSD-based FreeNAS comes
>> to mind). We’re in the process of deploying an Openfiler based system over
>> here that’s providing 21TB of storage at a total cost of well under $10k. You
>> could go hardware raid for large storage or, for something where performance
>> isn’t as important, you could go software raid and save a bundle. It’s also a
>> great way to repurpose hardware that you may have sitting around as the
>> minimum system requirements are very low.
>> ----
>> Jack Kramer
>> Computer Systems Specialist
>> University Relations, Michigan State University
>> w: 517-884-1231 / c: 248-635-4955
>>
>>
>>
>>> From: Jason Coleman<[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]>
>>> Reply-To: Jason Coleman<[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]>
>>> Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:34:26 -0500
>>> To: "[log in to unmask]"<MSUNAG">[log in to unmask]"<MSUNAG@LIST.MSU.EDU>
>>> Subject: Re: [MSUNAG] Atom Based NAS Devices?
>>>
>>> I suggest researching it at http://www.smallnetbuilder.com, they were an
>>> excellent resource when I was researching NAS devices for myself.
>>>
>>> The one you are looking at is too new to have a lot of info on yet.  Thecus
>>> is generally well regarded in the space though, but it's also at the higher
>>> end, cost and a performance-wise of the SOHO space.  You may try their
>>> forums to see if there's any early adopters of it or to check on other Atom
>>> based devices.
>>>
>>> Good luck!
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Al Puzzuoli [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>>> Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2010 8:59 AM
>>> To: [log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]
>>> Subject: [MSUNAG] Atom Based NAS Devices?
>>>
>>> We're considering the possibility of purchasing an atom based NAS. Has
>>> anyone researched these? What features are considered important aside from
>>> iSCSI support? One that looks interesting to me is the Thecus
>>> N4200:
>>> http://bit.ly/aId9Dt
>>>
>>> A favorable review can be found here:
>>> http://www.trustedreviews.com/networking/review/2010/02/24/Thecus-N4200-
>>> 4-Bay-NAS/p1
>>>
>>> Thanks in advance for any thoughts.
>>>
>>> --Al
>>
>>
>