Looking to build two NAS's which synchronize over an internet connection. These will be chiefly used for media storage.
I have some LSI 9286-8e available, with cachevault, so RAID-6 write hole is not a major concern. I am trying to decide between those and ZFS. ZFS has the obvious advantages, but requires more RAM, and from what I understand, adding disks to v-devs is not directly possible, whereas it is pretty easy for the LSI 9286-8e. Also from what I understand the LSI 9286-8e will have better read speeds, other things equal.
So my first decision is LSI 9286-8e vs ZFS with HBA.
My second decision is the software. I could roll CentOS, but that might require a bit more setup than going with something like Napp-it or FreeNAS / NAS4Free. Can I use Napp-it or FreeNAS / NAS4Free with hardware Raid or will this be asking for trouble? How about replication across the internet? Is this easy to do with Napp-it or FreeNAS / NAS4Free?
Finally if I do go ZFS, will dual E5630's with 24GB ram be enough for a 30TB raw (24TB RaidZ2) array? Mostly I care about read performance, write is not every important, as the workload will be 90/10 read write. I can easily add more ram, but I figure hardware raid needs much less ram, and at some point the cost is just not worth it.
Is there anything else I am missing?
I have some LSI 9286-8e available, with cachevault, so RAID-6 write hole is not a major concern. I am trying to decide between those and ZFS. ZFS has the obvious advantages, but requires more RAM, and from what I understand, adding disks to v-devs is not directly possible, whereas it is pretty easy for the LSI 9286-8e. Also from what I understand the LSI 9286-8e will have better read speeds, other things equal.
So my first decision is LSI 9286-8e vs ZFS with HBA.
My second decision is the software. I could roll CentOS, but that might require a bit more setup than going with something like Napp-it or FreeNAS / NAS4Free. Can I use Napp-it or FreeNAS / NAS4Free with hardware Raid or will this be asking for trouble? How about replication across the internet? Is this easy to do with Napp-it or FreeNAS / NAS4Free?
Finally if I do go ZFS, will dual E5630's with 24GB ram be enough for a 30TB raw (24TB RaidZ2) array? Mostly I care about read performance, write is not every important, as the workload will be 90/10 read write. I can easily add more ram, but I figure hardware raid needs much less ram, and at some point the cost is just not worth it.
Is there anything else I am missing?