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Sirs,<br>
<div class="moz-forward-container">Sirs,<br>
<br>
<font face="serif"> I am a retired IT with lots of experience, but
NOT in this area.<br>
<br>
I have a bunch of Icy Dock devices, each holding 4 disks,
formatted NTFS, EXT3 and EXT4. 16 disks in all.<br>
<br>
I have filled them up using the USB interface.<br>
<br>
They contain data files I want to have backup copies of. I have
duplicates of files and directories, purposely to ensure that on
the day the need comes up, at least one of the sets of backups
will be working.<br>
<br>
However, managing these boxes and the backups is becoming
tedious and I would like to simplify the situation.<br>
<br>
What I need is:<br>
<br>
a) a file server that can hold about 18 disks<br>
b) a file system that will protect the data.<br>
<br>
This sound simple, but when I began looking around at SAN's and
NAS's I found them overly complicated, expensive, and their
demands are far from what I wish to fulfill.<br>
<br>
I continued my research and found Gluster FS. Perhaps this is
the tool I need...<br>
<br>
my notion is that I have parts for a pc which I would use to
make the server. The CPU is the i7-870 LGA1156 (4 cores). I have
a good enthusiast motherboard, and plenty of memory I can put
into it.<br>
<br>
I would have to get a new case to put the pc into, that must
also hold about 18 disks. I would have the OS drive be a
velociraptor (300 GB), should be enough. I think I should put
the Ubuntu Server OS on this pc, with Gluster FS.<br>
<br>
My plan would be to install the OS, etc on the Velociraptor, and
have one or two empty drives to begin the data cluster / volume.<br>
<br>
I would copy one of my backup disks into the Gluster FS volumes
using USB to read the data, then shut down the server, add the
drive to the server, power up, configure Gluster FS to add the
new disk to the volume. <br>
<br>
And continue this until done. But I have plenty of questions...<br>
<br>
Does the disks in a specific volume have to be the same size? I
have some 1TB drives, a bunch of 2TB drives, and a few 3TB
drives.<br>
<br>
would I have to have 3 volumes? or can I add each disk into an
existing volume? is there a logical limitation to how many disks
should be in a volume?<br>
<br>
I am NOT looking to do any sort of RAID, I don't feel they are
necessary, as I think GlusterFS does all I need in the safety
regard. Is GlusterFS the equivalent of Raid6? or better?<br>
<br>
It looks like GlusterFS is intended for corporations, and what I
want is simpler than such organizations require. Yet the volume
of data I have is too much for simple file systems.<br>
<br>
Your advice is appreciated,<br>
<br>
Best regards, Bob Hyatt<br>
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