[ubuntu-za] using Linux as a front-end controller for a SAN?

[Rudi Ahlers]

On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 7:53 AM, Andre Rossouw <andre at arnet.co.za> wrote:
> Morning
>
> I hope someone can shed some light on this for me. Has anyone tried,
> or have experience with, setting up a Linux server to manage a few NAS
> devices and thus make them all visible to the clients as one large
> SAN?
>
> Basically, I'm thinking it would be a good idea to combine the current
> NAS's we have into one large system (typically a SAN?) and then let
> the clients all connect to one server (for authentication, LUN
> control, etc), but then when they need to access their drives /
> devices / LUN's, they get redirected to the specific server directly.
> I'm also thinking it could be a good way to say some IP addresses,
> i.e. instead of giving each NAS a public IP, they could all have
> private IP's and then everyone just connects to the public IP if
> needed. The servers which will access the NAS's will be on the same
> physical LAN and will also be on the same private IP subnet to make it
> easier.
>
> Does anyone know what I'm talking about?
>
> Yes indeed - it's called EMC Unified Storage ;)

It's expensive. And propitiatory. I don't like propitiatory or vendor lock-ins.


> Seriously though - I have no idea of how you'd implement it. But a
> brilliant idea if you do get it going.
> A suggestion: Give all the NAS's to the front-end then use iSCSI to
> connect to the front-end from the machines that need the LUN's?
>

This is kinda how we do it right now, but the main server's network is
a serious bottle neck, even with 4x quad 1GB NIC's. So I'm looking for
a different approach.



-- 
Kind Regards
Rudi Ahlers
SoftDux

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