Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Consoldated Network Storage?

Posted by Cliff on from the disparate-hard-drives-as-one-volume dept.

bigstupid asks: "Is there anyway to better utilize storage space on your network? I have a home network with about nine permanently attached PCs. A few of these are older PII300 with smaller hard drives (3-10GB). What I want to do is consolidate as much of the network storage as possible. That is: Instead of 2.4GB here, 4.6GB there, 5GB hither, 5BG tither, and 6 GB yon, I would like this storage space to appear to any computer I designate a 'client' to see and use this storage space as one large (in the case above 23GB) volume. I know I can do this within a machine with logical volumes or RAID, but is there a piece of software - client or server side - that will do this on Linux or Windows?"

3 of 52 comments (clear)

  1. iSCSI by benjamindees · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You might try running RAID over something like iSCSI (if it can be done), and re-exporting that filesystem from a central server.

    --
    "I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
  2. Re:Yes by KILNA · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Is it just me or does OpenAFS seem kludgy (at least on Windows)? In technical terms it did pretty much what I wanted, but the Windows 3.1-ishness of the install gave me an uneasy feeling, and the fact that it was very much mired in its own terminology for things is going to give it a high barrier of entry. Not to mention that my machine also felt significantly slower after installing it. Ideally I'd like something that just works, but it seems like the goals of distributing the data widely, and making sure the data is available are at odds in AFS making it slower and harder to administer.

    Bah, don't mind me, I'm just a whining slashdotter. I'd probably bitch about the taxes if I won the lottery.

    --
    Error: PANTS NOT FOUND. Press <F1> to continue.
  3. Imagine this on a beowulf by Froze · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Before you mod me down, this is serious :-)

    I am the admin at our school for a newly installed 32 node linux beowulf. Each node has a spare 20GB partition that is currently doing *nothing*. I would simply love to find a filesystem solution that can handle stripping or mirroring for a nice 32*20/x GB of filespace (where x is the amount of redunancy to be tuned for optimal reliability).

    If anyone has the solution, even if it requires work, I am all ears.

    --
    -- The morphemes of your disquisition are ascertainable, but they have eschewed an ambit of transpicuous exposition.