ZFS + iSCSI architecture

[Dmitry Sarkisov]

On 19-02-2013, Tue [23:20:41], bsd at todoo.biz wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> 
> I am about to start deploying a large system (about 18 To which can grow up to 36 To) based on a big Intel platform with lot's of fancy features to have turbo boosted platform (ZIL on SSD + system on dongle if I go for FreeNAS). Since I want to move on quite fast I might decide to use FreeNAS in it's latest version. 
> 
> 
> The idea behind all that was to grant 5 or six critical servers access to the NAS so that they can take advantage of : 
> 
> 1. space available on the NAS
> 
> 2. ability of the NAS to use ZFS and of clients to support this file system (including snapshots) 
> 
> 3. Access the server using iSCSI (at least this is what I initially planned). 
> 
> 4. Mount part of their filesystem using data stored on the SAN (like /usr/local/ or other parts of the system). 
> 
> 
> 
> The server accessing the data will be of two types : 
> 
> 1. 2 x Ubuntu server 10.04 LTS 
> 
> 2. 4 x FreeBSD (mainly 8 and 9) with jail configured 
> 
> 
> I have started reading about iSCSI and potential problems with FreeBSD. 
> 
> So my main questions would be : 
> 
> 
> • Should I go for iSCSI ? 
> 
> • Should I rather choose / prefer NFS ? 
> 
> • Should I export a Volume as UFS rather than ZFS (is ZFS supported as a target) ?
> 
> 
> The main idea is stability, redundancy of data and ease of maintenance (in a headless FreeBSD / Linux world) before anything else ! 
> 
> 
> 
> That's the big pictures, if you have any pointers, advise, they are all welcome. 
> 
> 
> It is quite late where I leave, so I will reply to posts in 8 to 10 hours, but I hope to have enough answer(s) to start an interesting thread (as I think this question is very interesting and not so clearly explained (at least in my mind))… 
> 
> 
> Thx very much for your infos and feedback. 
> 
> 

Hello,

If I needed a NFS+iSCSI solution I'd go for Solaris 11. Docs are abundant and the system is very stable and feature-rich.
Tried recently the integration in Windows Domain and iSCSI features, all works wery good.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for FreeBSD ;)  but in this particular case I'd choose Solaris. 


-- 
D.S.

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