Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:41:16 -0400 From: Steve Bertrand <steve@ibctech.ca> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Disk configuration recommendations Message-ID: <487762FC.2090502@ibctech.ca>
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Hi everyone, We've just built a new network storage box that will replace an existing unit. The device is purely for storing a hot backup of server images. The motherboard has four SATA ports, which I have connected to four 500GB SATA drives. I had full intentions on using either GEOM or ZFS (I'm just reading up on the latter now) to span the drives together (I don't care about redundancy on this unit). I did not realize until yesterday that the motherboard my colleague went with has onboard RAID. What I'm looking for are opinions on a solution to make this box as resilient as possible for the long term (eg: if the motherboard dies, it would be nice to drop the disks into another box). Do you have any recommendations on how I should proceed? Hardware RAID, ZFS or GEOM? Some info that may help guide recommendations: - 4GB of memory - dual core 2.2Ghz - I have no problem having /boot on a USB key - preferably /backup to be ~1.6TB - like to have a small piece of the disk encrypted (directory or partition) - would be nice to be able to easily (ie: dynamically) add storage capacity without wiping existing data - three GigE NICs, so would like to pursue the possibility of perhaps using disk space of other nodes (or at least mounting it remotely) - would consider a RAID 5 setup if a recommendation meets other (non-listed) design objectives Thanks all! Steve
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