The more I read about this the more it looks awesome. An idea I've had for some time is to have something like OpenFiler mediate between the LAN and a WAN service such as Amazons S3 distributed storage service.
Using Amazons service allows you to effectively have an infinate data store, but because of the transmission over the WAN its slow. So I've wondered about a NAS/SAN box sat between the LAN and the WAN acticing as a cache between the two. S3<->Internet<->Openfiler<->LAN<->Local Machines, with S3 and proper mediation I can configure a drive of just about any size and as long as the cache is configured well and is of appropriate size for the job I've got offsite databackup and retrieval, unlimited diskspace, fast, reliable, etc etc all at a cost of not very much at all. With the right config you could have the same "disk" available at your work desk computer, your laptop, your home computer, that sales office you visit once a month, etc etc I have a dream! Sorry if that was too off topic for this forum, if it was just let me know and I'll not post my imaginings again ;) Jason ----- Original message ----- From: "DLinkOZ" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [email protected] Date: Fri, 5 May 2006 08:58:40 -0500 Subject: RE: [OF-users] Openfiler as a SAN I deal heavily with iSCSI LUNs (on NetApp) in SQL clusters where I work, and it's a beautiful thing. The only additional piece of software you'll need is the initiator on the client side, it's freely available from Microsoft. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jason Ward Sent: Friday, May 05, 2006 7:38 AM To: Rafiu Fakunle Cc: [email protected] Subject: Re: [OF-users] Openfiler as a SAN Cheers, I'll see what I can find about iSCSI... unfortunatly at this moment it means very little to me. Jason ----- Original message ----- From: "Rafiu Fakunle" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Jason Ward" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Fri, 05 May 2006 13:32:39 +0100 Subject: Re: [OF-users] Openfiler as a SAN Hi Jason, You can create an iSCSI target on the Openfiler box and export to Linux/Solaris/Windows clients. The iSCSI volumes, for all intents and purposes, will appear local to the clients. You can even perform volume management at the client side. Jason Ward wrote: > I want to deploy SQL Server databases and Exchange Server databases > onto an Openfiler box. > > However, neither SQL Server nor Exchage will allow their data store to > be on a network drive, the drive MUST appear local. > > As far as I understood that was the main distinction between NAS and > SAN, NAS appear remote, SAN's appear local. > Correct. And with iSCSI the drives will appear local. iSCSI SANs are like FC SANs without the tax to the Ministry of Enterprise IT Gouging. You'll need Openfiler 2.0 for iSCSI support. Rafiu. > Jason > > ----- Original message ----- > From: "Rafiu Fakunle" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "Jason Ward" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: Fri, 05 May 2006 13:20:49 +0100 > Subject: Re: [OF-users] Openfiler as a SAN > > Hi Jason, > > Perhaps you can elaborate on what it is you're trying to achieve with > Openfiler. > > OF certainly lives up to the description of a SAN / NAS appliance in > that it supports both block (iSCSI) and file (CIFS, NFS etc) based > storage export protocols. You can also deploy Openfiler as a SAN > gateway..... > > :) > > Cheerio, > > Rafiu. > > Jason Ward wrote: > >> The roadmap says "A very unique feature of Openfiler is that it >> bridges the SAN and NAS paradigms on a network" and other places it >> is at leat implied that OpenFile can be used as a SAN. In other >> places >> >> Can you tell me how? I can't find any detail in the FAQ etc, there >> doesnt seem to be any >> http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=site%3Awww.openfiler.com+san >> >> Jason >> _______________________________________________ >> Openfiler-users mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.openfiler.com/mailman/listinfo/openfiler-users >> >> > > _______________________________________________ > Openfiler-users mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.openfiler.com/mailman/listinfo/openfiler-users > _______________________________________________ Openfiler-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.openfiler.com/mailman/listinfo/openfiler-users _______________________________________________ Openfiler-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.openfiler.com/mailman/listinfo/openfiler-users _______________________________________________ Openfiler-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.openfiler.com/mailman/listinfo/openfiler-users
