What do you think about NexentaStor?

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Entz

Active Member
Apr 25, 2013
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Canada Eh?
FWIW LIO supports VAAI (Delete is disabled by default) over iSCSI. At least in Ubuntu 14.04.1+ . Good support for IB as well.
 

TuxDude

Well-Known Member
Sep 17, 2011
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FWIW LIO supports VAAI (Delete is disabled by default) over iSCSI. At least in Ubuntu 14.04.1+ . Good support for IB as well.
Just to be clear, the VAAI delete maps to the SCSI UNMAP command, the SCSI equivalent of TRIM for SATA devices, and its support is disabled by default in ESXi regardless of the storage target. The VMware recommendation is to keep it disabled (can cause performance issues when unmapping blocks in real-time as files are deleted), and instead schedule it to run occasionally during low-usage time. To do a manual/batch unmap of all unused blocks on a datastore, use this command (ESXi 5.5 - it was different before but I don't have the old command handy right now): 'esxcli storage vmfs unmap -l <datastore-name>' either from the console of a host (local console or SSH shell), or remotely from anywhere with the 'esxcli' tool (its in the SDK downloads somewhere) and add a parameter like this: 'esxcli --server <hostname> storage vmfs....'

Also good to keep in mind that the UNMAP command is used for more than just freeing blocks on SSD. Some storage arrays that do thin-provisioning, or hypervisors virtual controller/disks, will use the UNMAP command to shrink files/volumes/LUNs and reclaim space back into the unused pool.
 
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Entz

Active Member
Apr 25, 2013
269
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Canada Eh?
UNMAP support is disabled in LIO by default as well.

But good to know about ESXi. Something to schedule from time to time :cool:
 

Alexander Matev

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May 25, 2015
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I am in a similar position to OP's. I am in need of a good/stable NAS, it would be a bare metal install and it has to support SRP target over infiniband for my ESXi lab . I am also looking for a nice, centralized web interface. So far Nexenta has ticked most of the boxes, but I am willing to try napp-it too. Will I be able to use SCSI over RDMA with omnios/napp-it ?
 

gea

Well-Known Member
Dec 31, 2010
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OmniOS and Nexentastore are at 99,9% identical (both are distributions of Illumos).
Most differences are in the SMB release (NX offers SMB 2.1 while OmniOS is 1.0)
and services like VAAI that are additions from Nexenta. (There is work from
Nexenta to upstream SMB 2+ to Illumos)

Napp-it supports IB via the web-if (ipib, srpt) but I do not use myself so I cannot
comment about remote direct memory access.
 
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Alexander Matev

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May 25, 2015
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Just DLed OpenIndiana and I'm installing napp-it, would give it a go, because nexenta is a pain in the ass to install, so far I haven't been able to figure out a way to install it without CDROM and I'm not buying outdated mediums just to install nexenta.
 

gea

Well-Known Member
Dec 31, 2010
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If you do not need the graphical user interface from OI desktop,
you should prefer OmniOS stable over OpenIndiana dev (without a stable or regular fixes in sight).

The USB installer from OmniOS works painless. Download the dd file from OmniTi and copy to a stick.

You can use this imager www.napp-it.org/doc/downloads/usb image.zip
to transfer the usb image to your stick on Windows

Follow the setup instructions at
napp-it // webbased ZFS NAS/SAN appliance for OmniOS, OpenIndiana, Solaris and Linux : OmniOS
 

Alexander Matev

New Member
May 25, 2015
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Yeah, I went with the dev version of OpenIndiana. I am going to try OmniOS as well I guess. Would be glad if you could point me to a napp-it community, so I don't offtopic the OP's thread :)
Thanks a lot!