Planned linux ZFS build

[jkettu]

I am planning to build a low budget Linux server with ZFS.

The hardware i am planning/going to use:
- IBM br10i flashed to IT mode (53€ from ebay)
- Supermicro PDSBA+Pentium D 935, 3.2GHz+4GB DDR2 667MHz (51€ from ebay)
- Old generic case with some 4-in-3 disk cage. I am planning to buy Norco case when expanding the number of disks.
- Old generic power supply (400w I think)
- 10 2TB disks. I haven't yet decided between Hitatchi 5k3000 or Samsung HD204UI. Is there going to be a problem with 4k alignment and br10i? Samsungs are bit cheaper and have better availability than Hitachi.

The server will be used as storage backend for XBMC and VDR.
Also it will have three dvb-t tuners for VDR.
I have also thought about running ESXi and Solaris+Linux but there might be problems with the dvb-t cards.

Does anyone have experience having ZFS on Linux? It is quite new project and might not be too stable. Also the performance is supposedly quite slow compared to Solaris.

Any thoughts about this kind of setup?

 

[davros123]

Any thoughts about this kind of setup?

As you said, it's experimental at best..why on earth would you do that to yourself unless you like pain?

If you are going to do this, do it properly. Either go zfs on a supported unix platform or go mdadm on linux.

ps. skip a few coffee's for the next few weeks and buy the hitachi's and avoid the 4k headache. Not worth the few bucks you save. Again, unless you like setting yourself up for pain.

Finally, are you sure that old generic 400w psu has enough on the 12v rail to handle that number of drives at startup?

 

[jkettu]

Thanks for you comments. I do really like bit of the pain
I have been Linux user for more than 15 years and that has been quite masochistic experience at times.
Also the stable and proved concepts can be bit boring.

I am not so familiar with differences of power supplies. Can you recommend some psu that I should buy?
It should be available in Europe.

- Jari

 

[Red Falcon]

Get rid of that crap PSU, it could take the whole system with it.

The one thing people skimp the most on is the PSU, don't do it, you can potentially lose all of your hardware.

Why spend $1000 or more on a system, and then use a $20 PSU?
Seriously, buy quality, you will be happier.

Here is a nice PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020
I'm sure others here will have a few recommendations as well.

As for ZFS under Linux, there really isn't a stable, working version, at least to my knowledge.
Why not use MDADM? It is far more robust than the unstable ZFS in Linux.

 

[jkettu]

There is a working version which should be quite stable if nothing special is used like deduplication or encryption. And I am not planning to use any special features.
Here is the link for it: http://zfsonlinux.org/

 

[davros123]

All for experimenting Have fun.

re. the psu, iirc, the HDD's will draw about ~2.2A @ startup...so, 25A on the 12v rail for 10 hdd's will do it. I personally prefer Corsair PSU's but there are many quality brands on the market.

 

[brutalizer]

Thanks for you comments. I do really like bit of the pain
- Jari

Would like the pain if you loose all your data because ZFS under Linux is buggy and immature?

Use FreeBSD or OpenIndiana or Solaris 11 Express if want ZFS. Or use Linux mdadm. This is your data, it matters a lot if you loose it all. I can assure you, you would not like that pain. You can use immature tech for your everyday use, it does not matter if you PC crashes because then you only loose a days worth of work. If your raid crashes, then you loose years of work.

No, you dont like that pain. Trust me on this.

 

[Red Falcon]

No, you dont like that pain. Trust me on this.

This.

I've seen RAID arrays fail, and depending on how it was setup, was how easy/hard it was to get up and running again.

Hardware/software RAID is one thing, even FakeRAID isn't too bad, but experimental ZFS on Linux... you're pushing your luck.

You have 20TB worth of raw data, if that crashes, you are going to be in a world of hurt.
Then again, if the data isn't that important, why use ten 2TB HDDs in the array? Why not just use three drives?

It's up to you, so have at it!
But when it blows up, don't expect us to not say we told you so!

 

[madrebel]

use freeBSD instead. freeBSD supports everything but encryption in 8.2-STABLE. Or if you want something to play with use 9.0-BETA-RC3.

zfs on linux is going to suck from a performance perspective because it is run in userspace via FUSE. you'll get much better performance using mdadm + lvm + XFS. You won't get de-dupe or compression but you'll get everything else including encryption if you want it.

 

[kac77]

You have 20TB worth of raw data, if that crashes, you are going to be in a world of hurt.
Then again, if the data isn't that important, why use ten 2TB HDDs in the array? Why not just use three drives?

It's up to you, so have at it!
But when it blows up, don't expect us to not say we told you so!

I would have to second this. What sets off alarm bells is the amount of drives you are planning to experiment with. If you were just testing with 2 or 3 drives this wouldn't be an issue but because you've gone to 10 drives there is no hope whatsoever if you should have to get your data off in a hurry. You would be screwed.

OpenIndiana is a good alternative to Linux as the DE will be familiar. I'm still reluctant to use it for enterprise, but so far I haven't heard any problems with it for home use.