2007-03-20, 02:54 PM
2007-03-20, 10:09 PM
Well, there is LVM, which you probably are using if you have Fedora installed. It is a form of storage virtualization.
If of course you are looking for something more substantial with regards to network storage, then I guess you are looking more for a NAS with SAN sort of thing. SANs are storage virtualization as it is .. :)
So um, a Linux NAS / SAN solution, OpenFiler is the only one that I've ever heard of. I'm not sure if any other has ever been made.
2007-03-21, 01:24 AM
Hi znx,
Tks for your advice.
Quote:Well, there is LVM, which you probably are using if you have Fedora installed. It is a form of storage virtualization.Not LVM. I'm running it on FC.
I just came across HP Virtual Array today in attending a conference.
[/url][url=http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/storage.../eva/index.html]http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/storage.../eva/index.html
The advantage of HP VA is additional HDs can be added later w/o sacrifying its capacity.
E.G.
A 300G HD added to the existing Array running 80G HDs still as 300G not as 80G
B.R.
satimis
2007-03-21, 08:25 PM
Quote:A 300G HD added to the existing Array running 80G HDs still as 300G not as 80G
Ah, that is rather neat.
2007-03-22, 01:35 AM
Hi znx,
In conference almost all speeches focus on advertising not touching in-depth technology.
Would it be software RAID? I haven't tested software RAID before. If my motherboard supports 6 SATA devices can I run software RAID-5 on 5 SATA HDs, not one HD divided inot 5 partitions? If one HD get full can I replace it with a HD of bigger capacity and it won't be recognised as the same capacity as other 4 HDs? TIA
OR any folk on the forum has had experience on software RAID? Tks
B.R.
satimis
2007-03-22, 08:12 PM
Software RAID is basically its an abstraction layer between the logical disks and physical disks. Of course software RAID doesn't match hardware RAID for performance. Hardware RAID is just what it says, a piece of hardware providing the abstraction layer.
Check out the wikipedia entry for RAID, its really good.
2007-03-23, 02:52 AM
Hi znx,
Tks for your URL
I recalled 4~5 years ago. I ran RAID 0,1 via a RAID PCI-controller. I supposed it was software RAID requesting software detecting the HD and being OS depending. (I tested it on FC2/3)
I tested LVM before but found not much advantage. I never test software RAID on Linux distro. I think when time allows I' will test RAID 0/1 or even 5. I have ASUS M2N-E motherboard which supports 6 SATA devices. I just purchase 2x160G HDs for 0+1 and 3x160G HDs for RAID 5. I already have 2x160G HDs available
Still I can't understand how HP can replace with a bigger capacity HD OR can add further HDs to the existing RAID system. I did not have a chance to ask on the conference because of limited time allowed.
B.R.
satimis
2007-03-24, 01:26 PM
Quote:Still I can't understand how HP can replace with a bigger capacity HD OR can add further HDs to the existing RAID system. I did not have a chance to ask on the conference because of limited time allowed.
From what I understand, the method is something called dynamic restriping (or is that virtual restriping ?) .. googling doesn't provide much material on the how unfortunately. I will continue, see if I can find a nice article :)