[OpenAFS] Which storage technology to use for terabytes of storage with AFS?

[Rob Banz]

Run solaris x86! The site I used to work at has been using it  
exclusively on its afs servers since sol 10 came out.

-rob


On Nov 30, 2007, at 13:51, Stephen Joyce <stephen@physics.unc.edu>  
wrote:

> I don't have money for FC or a SAN, so I've stuck with DAS. I've had  
> good experience with building many smallish servers rather than one  
> big or expensive one.
>
> I'm currently using cheap Dell PowerEdge servers running linux. I  
> think we got them for about $800/ea, and they support console  
> redirection (critical when you have lots of physical servers). We  
> added a 2-port 3ware raid1 for the OS and a 4-port 3ware for the  
> data (raid1 or raid5 depending on the requirements). Right now I'm  
> keeping the servers to around 1TB each, but they're capable of  
> hosting 2-4TB each (depending on raid level) with the largest  
> current drives.
>
> If money were no object, I'd have opted for hot-swappable drives,  
> but with under 1TB of data on each, any time I've needed to replace  
> a drive I've just moved the volumes to another server.
>
> These systems are cheap enough (under about $1.5K each for  
> everything) that I keep a spare of everything just in case (spare  
> fully configured and running server plus spare raid cards and drives  
> on the shelf).
>
> I _strongly_ advise raid. Raid1 for the OS and raid1, 5, or 6 for  
> the data, depending on your requirements. I know some people have  
> reported impressive results with linux software raid, but I swear by  
> 3ware hardware raid controllers; they "just work." Just avoid  
> "fakeraid" controller cards (promise, low-end adaptec, etc) like the  
> plague. They're far more trouble than they're worth.
>
> I really like solaris, but this setup is MUCH cheaper and faster  
> than our old solaris setup.
>
> On Fri, 30 Nov 2007, Jason Edgecombe wrote:
>
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> Traditionally, we have used direct-attached scsi disk packs on Sun  
>> Sparc
>> servers running Solaria 9 for OpenAFS. This has given us the most  
>> bang
>> for the buck. We forgo RAID because we have the backup capabilities  
>> of AFS.
>>
>> What types of storage technologies are other AFS sites using for  
>> their
>> AFS vicep partitions? We need to figure our future direction for the
>> next couple of years. Fibre channel seems all the rage, but it's  
>> quite
>> expensive. I'm open to any and all feedback. What works? What  
>> doesn't?
>> What offers the best bang for the buck on an OpenAFS server?
>>
>> This is for an academic environment that fills both academic and
>> research needs. Researchers are asking for lots of AFS space (200GB 
>> +).
>> Of course this needs to be backed up as well.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Jason
>
> Cheers, Stephen
> --
> Stephen Joyce
> Systems Administrator                                            P A  
> N I C
> Physics & Astronomy Department                         Physics &  
> Astronomy
> University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill         Network  
> Infrastructure
> voice: (919) 962-7214                                        and  
> Computing
> fax: (919) 962-0480                               http://www.panic.unc.edu
>
> Don't judge a book by its movie.
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