1.
LINUX has a 2TB file system
limit. Solaris has a 1TB limit. NetApp
has something
like a 6TB limit. 96Tbytes is the most number of
disk shelves (24) that can
be hooked into that filer. I would much
rather have 16 file systems with NetApp
than 48 file systems with LINUX.
ReiserFS has a 16TB
size limit on the filesystem itself and some very
nice features. See the FAQ at http://www.namesys.com/
Ok, but I still don't understand - the 96TB @ 24
shelves is based on a certain size disk drive - if disk drives double in size,
does that mean you can do 192TB @ 24 shelves, or is there some restriction in
the filer code that does not let you exceed the published maximum
?
Joe: I can’t say for sure (probably have to be a NetApp employee to do that) but there are benchmarks on
this list with the 144GB drives. My R200 has the 300GB Maxtor drives whittled
down to about 250GB each. The R200 requires 6.5.x so you might be onto
something with the filer code, but I’m sure there’s also a hardware
dependency on that too.
Well, I am all for making my own FreeBSD based NAS
system, but again, I really want (need ?) the nice
features like snapmirror and snapshot copies, and unmounting the volume every
time I want to take a snapshot seems unreasonable. On the other hand, I do
not have enough money to buy a fully loaded R200, even if it does bring the
cost per megabyte down to .006.
I think I am going to need to look at competing,
smaller hungrier companies that make IDE NAS devices that can do things like
snapmirror and snapshot copies. I guess NetApp is just not for me (or my
budget).
FreeBSD reports 64T-1 on their FAQ. Here’s
a summary of the links mentioned recently on the list:
http://www.namesys.com (reiserFS)
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-current/2003-April/001444.html
It
looks like the open source community has an appetite for producing something emulating
a subset of filer features for cheap or free....looks like
JKB