HELP! Advice need for Network storage solution

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CriticalConsumer

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Hi all,

I have a potential client who is looking for a Network Storage solution that will support up to 180 users with an average of 10GB per user.

The solution needs to cater for Tape Backup as well (either internal or external) as something similar / equal to VERITAS backup software.

I was thinking along the lines of a stand alone server coupled with enterprise grade backup software - question is what is out there that will support 180 users or would something like a Seagate BlackAmor NAS box with 2 GbE port do??

Any guidance / feedback is appreciated!
 
Dell R515 14 bay server but don't know what your budget is like?
 
Just watch your bottleneck at the Network interface(s) on the Storage server to the switch(es). Have a look at managed switches with fibre between the Storage server and switch(es)
 
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Yo,
he he, the admin used to manually zip stuff or use DOS xcopy, whaaa

This is what i done on a mickey mouse budget ( +-10K )

1. 2 x pc's > Linux
2.5TB drives space each (multiple drives to cater for OS,IO and so on)
4gig RAM (8gig swap)
Webmin for managing cron jobs, server etc
2. On all the critical windows app servers and important end users pc's
other end users would just backup to a network folder (did not care about their piccies and personal stuff)
install rsync as a service
configure conf file on what folders to backup
servers located all around the country
3. rsync all the data off windows to linux box 1
4. rsync all the data off linux box 1 to linux box 2
5. now, every thing was backed up
6 move linux box 2 offsite (far away to another branch i.e all branches quite secure )
7. linux box 1 would pull (rsync) from each Win server at scheduled and regular intervals i.e only new or modified files (just the missing bits and pieces) and retain the deleted files
7.a each week zip the critical stuff and place in folder where Mr Admin would copy to large USB storage device and leave at home.
8. linux box 2 would pull (rsync) from linux box 1 (same story just the difference) allways after business hours
REM; this would also get 7.a but only on weekends when it was quite

Yes, some scripting had to be done and with rsync you can regulate bandwith ( --bwlimit=200 ) for jobs that will run during office hours to avoid bottle necks

Anyway, long story short, worked 100%, with hardly any hiccups and all except for bad Vodacom APN and power failures

The techie could build up a failed pc/server in no time. There were always a few spare end user pc's and server ready to go live if one bombed out, only IP and name to change and copy the data, apps already installed.

PROBLEM: M$ SQL data files and rsync did not play nice, easiest would to schedule an SQL dump

TAPE: well, i have never done it before but i guess it is as simple as this http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-tape-backup-with-mt-and-tar-command-howto/

Hope this gives you ideas,
Igs
 
CriticalConsumer said:
Hi all,

I have a potential client who is looking for a Network Storage solution that will support up to 180 users with an average of 10GB per user.
Click to expand...

It is impossible to make a recommendation without knowing the kind of data that will be stored on the unit. Also the kind of tasks that will be formed.

Are they storing files that are often written but read occasionally?
Are you pushing many small files or larger files?
Are you constantly updating files or rather adding/removing?
Is it going to be databases writing to the server?
How are you pushing data to the server? (NFS, samba, FTP, LDAP, etc?)
What is the budget?

Perhaps you should consider outsourcing this kind of thing. It is HIGHLY specialized, I realized that fact after having become very interested in the topic myself and much research.
 
Gnome said:
It is impossible to make a recommendation without knowing the kind of data that will be stored on the unit. Also the kind of tasks that will be formed.

Are they storing files that are often written but read occasionally?
Are you pushing many small files or larger files?
Are you constantly updating files or rather adding/removing?
Is it going to be databases writing to the server?
How are you pushing data to the server? (NFS, samba, FTP, LDAP, etc?)
What is the budget?

Perhaps you should consider outsourcing this kind of thing. It is HIGHLY specialized, I realized that fact after having become very interested in the topic myself and much research.
Click to expand...

+1 to well formulated considerations for storage solutions
 
Hi all, thank you for your recommendations!

Unfortunately the client is not very forthcoming on what his requirements actually are. I asked many of the question that you have asked but I get the following response: "All I want to do is back up data to storage server and then be able to back it up to tape once a month."

If I ask about fibre channel / iSCSI or GbE interfaces he is not sure...*sigh*

Kind of difficult to get more than that out of the person.

*methinks i should let this customer go*
 
Simple,Offer him a 2bay NAS and a 16Bay Fibre channel server as 2 quotes and say if he can't be more specific he has to pick and pray

Storage for this amount of people/files isn't something you just walk into a store and buy off the shelf
 
Omw, this has fail written all over it.

The most flexible would be a unit that uses RAID 1 + 0 tho.

Get a RAID SATA/SAS card, do RAID 1 + 0 over a bunch of drives and pray for the best.

You'll need 4 drives for a RAID 1 + 0. If you want to buy enterprise drives or drives with high IOPs then you will have to pay a significant amount of money for the 1.8TB that you will need.

Btw. there is no way you will saturate a single 10GBit ethernet link with RAID 1 + 0.

The units that actually do saturate 10GBit I know of, use RAID-z with SSD caches, high IOP drives and around 16 of them in multiple RAID-z pools (long story short, ~R150k of hardware).
 
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CriticalConsumer said:
I think I am going to let this one slide...this is not worth the time and effort for this customer.
Click to expand...

More than likely,if they cannot at least accurately gauge or plan their requirements how must you deliver it? I foresee a bucketload of support calls
 
Depends on the company I think. If a company like that gauges their own speeds against another, then yes I foresee lots of support calls and bitching.

If they are ignorant then they might just accept that is how it is.
 
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