One of the confusing pieces here is that Linux actually does things more clearly but the Windows world is so confusing that if you carry that confusion into the Linux world, it makes things harder. Windows rarely uses or discloses the names of their product components. So Windows Software RAID is used to describe part of the Windows OS. But what if you have software RAID on Windows that is not Windows Software RAID? Windows Admins typically have no good terminology to discuss this, even though it is common. They just.... don't know what's going on and don't document it. But in Linux, we have the terms on hand all of the time (MD, ZFS, whatever.) So the Linux side isn't as bad as it seems, but if you are used to a weird blend of generic names being used as if they are specifics from the Windows world and assume that the Linux world is just as crazy, then it seems crazy.

@tjatwood109 said in ZFS is Perfectly Safe on Hardware RAID:

@scottalanmiller

Thanks - I will proceed without using ZFS - I prefer hardware RAID.

Tim

ZFS is perfectly fine with hardware RAID, if you like ZFS' features otherwise (like zsend is nice) then there's no reason to avoid it. If you don't plan to use any unique features, then XFS is my "go to" choice by default. Very fast, very stable.

@coliver said in Why the SMB Still Needs Hardware RAID:

@scottalanmiller said in Why the SMB Still Needs Hardware RAID:

@coliver said in Why the SMB Still Needs Hardware RAID:

@scottalanmiller said in Why the SMB Still Needs Hardware RAID:

@coliver said in Why the SMB Still Needs Hardware RAID:

@scottalanmiller said in Why the SMB Still Needs Hardware RAID:

@coliver said in Why the SMB Still Needs Hardware RAID:

@travisdh1 said in Why the SMB Still Needs Hardware RAID:

@dafyre said in Why the SMB Still Needs Hardware RAID:

@scottalanmiller said in Why the SMB Still Needs Hardware RAID:

The most common RAIN approach that I see is taking all disks in the pool, noting their nodal presence and using mirroring to distribute the data so that data mirrors never go to the same disk and/or the same node. So a little like a networked RAID 1E but with more flexibility and the option to add nodal separation and performance testing so that data moves to where it is used.

Are you aware of any open source RAIN systems?

Gluster and Swift

I think Ceph and Lustre may be two others.

Lustre is RAIN, but is closed. Gluster was the open replacement for Lustre.

Just a quick search showed that Lustre was GPL 2.0, not sure if that is new or not.

Oh wow, must be new. It was crazy expensive in 2006 when we were really investigating it. That's awesome.

Ah looks like it went open source in 2010.

Oh cool, so I remember things well then. I'm just out of date. Gluster probably forced their hand, why would anyone consider Lustre when it was closed source? The answer was probably... they wouldn't and didn't.

Yep, I'd assume that was the case. Especially when it is a such a specific, and at the time, niche market.

And when Gluster went directly after them, even in name.

@scottalanmiller And Starwind ships their ready nodes armed with RAID https://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwind-hyperconverged-appliance so i think they still keep doing RAID and i am sure it is for a reason some of them I've mentioned above.

@scottalanmiller said in SAN Products Short List:

@BBigford and @zuphzuph were asking about this and I figured we should talk about it here. If you are shopping for a SAN, what is your vendor short list?

How does PureStorage fit into all of this?

SuperMicro recommends against RAID on the SuperDOM / SATA DOM modules but fails to explain why:

https://www.supermicro.com/datasheet/datasheet_SuperDOM.pdf

Ohh they updated it!

@sn said in Virtual Data Room recommendations:

@scottalanmiller Technically "virtual data room" is similar to file server and primarily accessed over a browser session. In addition to the standard file server features, it may also include features like-

Bulk watermarking of documents "View only" mode for documents Real time activity logs Remote document shredding Fenced view to protect documents from someone taking a photo of the monitor with document open Q & A section and live discussions etc.

From a usage perspective, our "virtual data room" is shared between a bunch of firms (like insurers, lawyers, auditors, investors, engineering and construction companies etc) with different access levels who are working towards the completion of a specific project which may take 2-5 years to complete (please note, we are into wind/solar farm development). So I surely do not want all these guys on my file server doing crazy things like creating users and modifying originals.

At the moment, I am thinking of evaluating https://www.idealsvdr.com/virtual-data-room-features/ to see if they are worth switching from my current provider.

Interesting. Seems like a mistake in terms. Why does being available over "web" make it "virtual". Seems like a marketing term. I don't see anyone but Citrix using it, and Citrix has a trend of totally making up and misusing terms. Citrix' use of "virtual" is the industry standard for "wrong". I have a feeling that this isn't a legitimate term. Looking at the wikipedia entry for it, it looks very suspect. And the definition doesn't feel right - a specific access technology for something so general wouldn't be appropriate. And the lack of other products or vendors using the term for something so common and normal is suspicious. For example, Sharepoint and Alfresco have been doing this for forever, but never use the term.

This is the mobo that this will be connected to:

http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon1333/5000P/X7DB8.cfm

@travisdh1 said in iSCSI port w/Windows iSCSI initiator dropping:

@art_of_shred said in iSCSI port w/Windows iSCSI initiator dropping:

Is Free-NAS ever a good idea? I've only ever heard nasty things said about it.

Only if you know nothing about building and managing storage is it going to serve a purpose. BSD or Solaris without the added bits would be the preferred route to use ZFS.

And if you don't know those bits, you should not be running a SAN.

@scottalanmiller I not quite at that max but pretty close at 56TB in a single volume local storage. Running Win 2012 R2 VM on Hyper-V 2012 R2 hypervisor. So far so good (2 yrs now). No issues other than that initial backup was a real b1tch but now that it's incremental, it's all good. No other caveats that I'm aware of.

@Dashrender said in RAID 10, 20 Disks, How Many Hot Spares:

So is it done? Does Matt understand and agree to the point that Scott was making?

Yes I believe so.

TL;DR attempt #1 #2 #3 #4 (counting edits)

RAID10 does not need hot spares

If you have spare slots you'd be better served by a larger array with more IOPS

The corner case (the one raised by the op's question?) is would hot spares reduce the risk of array failure. The answer is 100% absolutely yes it will reduce the risk of failure.

The disagreement (I think..?) was if that's necessary. We agreed that it isn't necessary to have any hot spares for RAID10 unless there's mitigating factors (examples: remote COLO with horrific access issues, extremely risk averse use case).

@Dashrender said in Replacing the Dead IPOD, SAN Bit the Dust:

@scottalanmiller said in Replacing the Dead IPOD, SAN Bit the Dust:

Also the needs of a SAN are different than the needs of a LAN. So you likely want different switches. I'd love Netgear Prosafe unmanaged on my SAN but would generally prefer Ubiquiti EdgeSwitches on my LAN.

Any opinion on Unifi Switches yet?

We use one in the lab and it's been great, but we aren't pushing its limits or anything.

@travisdh1 said in NitroShare for Simple Cross Platform File Sharing:

nitroshare: for those that don't know how to ssh?

It's cross platform, too. So lots of Windows users don't know how to SSH.

@Texkonc said in PERC H730P Mini - Multiple LV's:

Dustin

Oh ok

@DustinB3403 said in CP - Dell vs HP server quotes:

I've received two quotes for new server hardware - one from our local reseller and one directly from Dell. As far as I can tell, the two quotes are identical spec-wise but the local reseller is almost $12k more expensive. Here are the two quotes:

Quote from Dell:
2x Dell PowerEdge R430 servers $6,665.60

2x Xeon E5-2630 v3 CPUs 2x 32 GB RDIMM Diskless configuration
1x Dell SCv2020 iSCSI SAN $10,303.26 14x Dell 1.2 TB SAS 12GB, 10k, 2.5" HD
1x Dell N2048 gigabit switch $1,693.49

TOTAL: $18,662.35

HP Quote from local reseller:
2x HP ProLiant DL360 servers $7,266.00

2x Xeon E5-2630 v3 CPUs 64 GB RAM (unknown configuration) Diskless configuration
1x HP MSA 2040 SAN $20,932.00 14x HP MSA 1.2 TB 10K SAS 2.5in drives includes $5,850 in labor so actual price
is only $15,082
1x Cisco Catalyst 2960-X gigabit switch $2,320.00

TOTAL: $30,518.00

Difference: $11,855.65

Is there any reason why I should choose the HP solution over the Dell solution? I will be running vSphere 6 on these servers. I'm not familiar with managing either server line so either way I'll be learning new management tools. When it comes to support I think I trust my local reseller more than Dell but $12k extra is hard to stomach just for that.

[Edit: CP Code M.]

Unless that OP is restricted to 1U hosts, I would go with the quote from Xbyte for Dell 730xd with same specs as in quotes is
0_1477764464719_upload-e7876862-aaf2-4c7d-9461-089a8141fab5

Multiply by 2, add Starwind's vSAN and a couple 10Gb NICs and he's done. Especially if only 2 hosts. Same(ish) price, way more reliability, better performance all around. I'd post that reco on SW but would likely get banned lol.

The one thing not mentioned is if there are other hosts connecting to the SAN.

@Dashrender said in Running Xen Server from a USB Drive.:

@BRRABill said in Running Xen Server from a USB Drive.:

If I was doing it over again from scratch, I'd probably not use USB.

That being said, I have not had any issues thus far.

Are you redirecting logs?

Yes.

@JaredBusch said in Scott Alan Miller: Storage 101:

@scottalanmiller said in Scott Alan Miller: Storage 101:

@s.hackleman said in Scott Alan Miller: Storage 101:

I didn't get to make it up, but I have been watching the sessions and burning up my data plan. Thanks for posting these. I also wanted to take a minute to call out the guy sitting front and center to just surf the internet the entire time SAM is talking.

I didn't even notice that, I'm going to look for it now.

In the red? That is @DustinB3403

Ha no it is not!