===== PROBLEM To create a disk storage system that will act as an archive point for user data (Non-recoverable data), and also act as a back end storage unit for virtual machines at a block level.
===== BUDGET Currently I have about 25-30k to start the project, more could be allocated in the next fiscal year for perhaps a backup solution. ===== TIMEFRAME I have 8 days to cut a P.O. before our fiscal year ends. ===== STORAGE REQUIREMENTS 5-10tb of redundant fairly high speed storage ===== QUESTION #1 What is the best way to mirror two zfs pools in order to achieve a sort of HA storage system? I don't want to have to physically swap my disks into another system if any of the hardware on the ZFS server dies. If I have the following configuration what is the best way to mirror these in near real time? BOX 1 (JBOD->ZFS) BOX 2 (JBOD-ZFS) I've seen the zfs send and recieve commands but I'm not sure how well that would work with a close to real time mirror. ===== QUESTION #2 Can ZFS be exported via iscsi and then imported as a disk to a linux system and then be formated with another file system. I wish to use ZFS as a block level file systems for my virtual machines. Specifically using xen. If this is possible, how stable is this? How is error checking handled if the zfs is exported via iscsi and then the block device formated to ext3? Will zfs still be able to check for errors? If this is possible and this all works, then are there ways to expand a zfs iscsi exported volume and then expand the ext3 file system on the remote host? ===== QUESTION #3 How does zfs handle a bad drive? What process must I go through in order to take out a bad drive and replace it with a good one? ===== QUESTION #4 What is a good way to back up this HA storage unit? Snapshots will provide an easy way to do it live, but should it be dumped into a tape library, or an third offsite zfs pool using zfs send/recieve or ? ===== QUESTION #5 Does the following setup work? BOX 1 (JBOD) -> iscsi export -> BOX 2 ZFS. In other words, can I setup a bunch of thin storage boxes with low cpu and ram instead of using sas or fc to supply the jbod to the zfs server? ==== I appreciate any advice or answers you might have. _______________________________________________ zfs-discuss mailing list zfs-discuss@opensolaris.org http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss
