[OpenIndiana-discuss] OI as file storage server

[Jay Heyl]

On Fri, Sep 14, 2012 at 12:07 AM, Neddy, NH. Nam <nam.nh at nd24.net> wrote:

>
> stick with it more. But I doubt about in my real case, my storage
> server will be working as a file level storage more than block level
> storeage. Does it slow down ZFS performance?


I don't claim to be an expert on this. I'm just a guy running a rather
large home file server using ZFS. I have a ten-drive RAIDZ2 array. The
drives are Samsung F4 2TB drives. Nothing fancy. The drives are not
especially fast. In this configuration I can max out my GB Ethernet without
appearing to strain ZFS in any way. Your mileage may vary.

Admittedly, I'm also not supporting dozens of users so that may affect
things. At most my server will be supporting some BitTorrent operations,
streaming of a movie, and scanning of drives from another computer. It is
easily three times faster than it actually needs to be to serve peak demand.

I should also point out there are tricks you can do with ZFS using SSDs
dedicated to logging and such that apparently speed up write operations
considerably. I've done none of these.

As for setting up a test system, you can use a live boot CD to boot OI on
any computer you want to try. I did that initially and used a few USB flash
drives to set up test scenarios. It wasn't totally realistic, but it gave
me a few for how things worked. When you're done, pop out the CD, pull out
the flash drives, and you're right back where you were. Couldn't be easier.

  -- Jay