Hello all,
* By the way, I mention ReFS only because the technology is "similar" to ZFS, but I think it has a long way to go. Read this thread:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com.../thread/79ca6d6d-cab7-4ff3-8c17-ec6ce249e641/
It is certainly interesting, and the people testing it are using crappy hardware, but still I think ReFS is a few service packs short of a solution, but it could be something, someday.
I am a Windows admin by trade with a lot of RAID experience, I have very little Unix/Linux experience. I realize with the ZFS solutions available we are mostly talking about a GUI strapped on top of the OS anyways, I guess I have discomfort with any solution I don't have long-running experience with. RAID has been around for more than 20 years.
That being said, ZFS is pretty interesting. I think for me, part of my issue is just the amount of time I have to spare to research and play with it.
I have read a lot on this, I am not done yet, but let me see if I have it right so far:
Best options for ZFS today:
* Openindiana + napp-it
* Nexenta community edition
* FreeNAS
* Either run natively on hardware or virtualize with pass-thru under VMware
Advantages of ZFS over RAID
* Save cost of hardware RAID controller (although possibly still need HBA)
* Ability to use consumer drives without TLER problem
* Mix and match different drives, if you want to
* Protection against elusive long-term hard to detect data corruption
* Advanced features not normally available from RAID - such as deduplication (with sufficient resources)
* Some nice SSD acceleration capabilities only available on the most expensive hardware RAID controllers
Questions
* Has anyone actually experienced some of the data corruption that can go un-detected in RAID, or is it just faith in the principle and design?
I am thinking for the server I am about to build, go with one of the new Adaptec cards and an LSI HBA in the same machine. Pass them each through to a VM on top of VMware and give them each their own sets of disks. I will run Server 2012 on the RAID controller.
For the ZFS solution, I think I am leaning toward either Nexenta CE or FreeNAS because the interface seems to review better, but please clue me in if there is an overwhelming reason I should start with Openindiana instead.
Then I can experience it for myself, and one day if I really find that ZFS is for me, I can switch the RAID card over to HBA mode and off I go. And in the meantime, I could actually backup one array with the other as well.
Please let me know if I am missing anything, or if anyone has any suggestions or comments.
Thanks
-JCL
* By the way, I mention ReFS only because the technology is "similar" to ZFS, but I think it has a long way to go. Read this thread:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com.../thread/79ca6d6d-cab7-4ff3-8c17-ec6ce249e641/
It is certainly interesting, and the people testing it are using crappy hardware, but still I think ReFS is a few service packs short of a solution, but it could be something, someday.
I am a Windows admin by trade with a lot of RAID experience, I have very little Unix/Linux experience. I realize with the ZFS solutions available we are mostly talking about a GUI strapped on top of the OS anyways, I guess I have discomfort with any solution I don't have long-running experience with. RAID has been around for more than 20 years.
That being said, ZFS is pretty interesting. I think for me, part of my issue is just the amount of time I have to spare to research and play with it.
I have read a lot on this, I am not done yet, but let me see if I have it right so far:
Best options for ZFS today:
* Openindiana + napp-it
* Nexenta community edition
* FreeNAS
* Either run natively on hardware or virtualize with pass-thru under VMware
Advantages of ZFS over RAID
* Save cost of hardware RAID controller (although possibly still need HBA)
* Ability to use consumer drives without TLER problem
* Mix and match different drives, if you want to
* Protection against elusive long-term hard to detect data corruption
* Advanced features not normally available from RAID - such as deduplication (with sufficient resources)
* Some nice SSD acceleration capabilities only available on the most expensive hardware RAID controllers
Questions
* Has anyone actually experienced some of the data corruption that can go un-detected in RAID, or is it just faith in the principle and design?
I am thinking for the server I am about to build, go with one of the new Adaptec cards and an LSI HBA in the same machine. Pass them each through to a VM on top of VMware and give them each their own sets of disks. I will run Server 2012 on the RAID controller.
For the ZFS solution, I think I am leaning toward either Nexenta CE or FreeNAS because the interface seems to review better, but please clue me in if there is an overwhelming reason I should start with Openindiana instead.
Then I can experience it for myself, and one day if I really find that ZFS is for me, I can switch the RAID card over to HBA mode and off I go. And in the meantime, I could actually backup one array with the other as well.
Please let me know if I am missing anything, or if anyone has any suggestions or comments.
Thanks
-JCL