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Making Use of Terabytes of Unused Storage
kernspaltung writes "I manage a network of roughly a hundred Windows boxes, all of them with hard drives of at least 40GB — many have 80GB drives and larger. Other than what's used by the OS, a few applications, and a smattering of small documents, this space is idle. What would be a productive use for these terabytes of wasted space? Does any software exist that would enable pooling this extra space into one or more large virtual networked drives? Something that could offer the fault-tolerance and ease-of-use of ZFS across a network of PCs would be great for small-to-medium organizations."
It's the obvious choice.
install vista on them, that would fill up that space and give you something to manage your time a little better than wondering about what you could manage..
Does any software exist that would enable pooling this extra space into one or more large virtual networked drives?
Absolutely! Just hook them up directly to the internet before you update the machines, wait a few minutes, and voila! They'll be filled up with extra files in no time! Hey, you didn't say anything about wanting to be in control of what gets put on the machines...
If you have a very robust local network with plenty of spare capacity, and can accept a performance hit on the client computers, I am sure some kind of linked filesystem would be possible. In most practical situations, I think this idea would be a non-starter.
If they're in a computer room, then such a scheme might work. But, if they're on user's desks, you don't really have control. They're subject to filling up, being shut off, being knocked about, crashing, etc. I don't think in this case you would really get the reliability that the diversity and independence would suggest.
--Marc
...just in case your connection fails.
It's a very interesting question, but from my point of view, hard drive space is so ridiculously cheap nowadays that it is utterly pointless to look for a useful application that will fill it up.
Let's assume that the average computer has 80 GB of storage. Multiply that by 100 and you get 8 TB of space. That's what you can get into one or two computers nowadays without plunging out too much cash.
What's more interesting is how much processing power you have as well as how fast the internet connection is.
Full Tilt
Check out GlusterFS. (http://www.gluster.org)
You definitely can't run Windows in order to utilize this, but it should be a minimal effort to setup a quick netboot lab to test it with.
Cheers.
I had a drive fail on me last year and I wanted to take my frustration out on it so naturally I did what any good American would do. I shot the shit out of it. Surprisingly it seemed to make for a pretty good piece of bullet proof armor. It stopped multiple rounds of full metal jacket 9mm rounds and managed to get a couple rounds lodged inside the casing. (None appeared to penetrate fully)
If I can not smoke in heaven, then I shall not go. -- Mark Twain
Datacore offers software called Sanmelody to turner servers into a cheap storage network and there are other vendor solutions as well. http://infiniteadmin.com/
100 computers in his mom's basement? That's a big basement.
OpenAFS is a distributed file system. It seems to fit your bill. No personal experience, so don't know how well it actually works.
Doolittle :
Bomb no.20 : To explode of course.
http://www.dcache.org/ You will need a system to act as a master, but otherwise your normal nodes should work great.
I am that much more enlightened and proportionally disillusioned
You might want to ask yourself why, after more than a decade of research and countless papers and prototypes that address this problem, your PCs storage are still underutilized...
It's harder than it looks to get something reliable. Your PCs have extra capacity because it's cheap, but mining that capacity is not cheap. As other posters have pointed out, putting together (or just purchasing) a server with a few TB of storage is simpler and cheaper, less prone to getting wiped out by a virus, easier to manage and backup.
Am I part of the core demographic for Swedish Fish?
You know, make fun of Microsoft all you want, but they actually have something for this - DFS - Distributed File System. Just create a share with each of these and POOL IT with a DFS system. Then use and manage it to your hearts content with all the midget-donkey-goatse crap you want.
Hrmm... Funny, he didn't come across that way to me at all. You, however, come across as a pompous linguistic Nazi, much like Orwell. If you compose sentences for people who don't have command of the language, then you are really quite delusional.
As is my understanding, resources are utilised, while tools are used. He was correct in its usage.
Well, you sound like a troll. I seriously doubt anybody misunderstood what he meant because he used the word "utilization". Or, should I say he utilized it? UTILIZE UTILIZE UTILIZE UTILIZE UTILIZE UTILIZE UTILIZE UTILIZE Does it hurt yet?
The solution is obvious. We need to think outside the box and raise the bar when it comes to language... someone needs to step up to the plate and bring something new to the table. I'm thinking of someone I have synergy with, not just the type that goes for the low-hanging fruit.
Ooh.... he's spinning nicely. Another couple of Orwells and we'll have enough electricity to power the world
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
This is why SAN manufacturers have come up with "thin provisioning". NetApp is quite good it, read more here.
What would be a productive use for these terabytes of wasted space?
Well, I had this idea when I read about some Open Source software that allowed distributed storage (sorry, forgot what that was, but by now I am sure it has already been mentioned in this discussion). The idea was this - suppose we have such software for unlimited distributed storage, so that people can download it and volunteer some unused space on their HD for a storage pool. Then suppose we have some software for distributed computing like we have for the SETI program. Now we have ziggabytes of storage and googleplexflops of processing power, what can we do with that? How about, for one thing, storing the entire internet (using compression, of course) on that endless distributed storage, and then running a decentralized, independent internet via P2P software? The distributed database could be constantly updated from the original sources, and the distributed storage then becomes in effect a giant cache that contains the entire internet. Now we could employ the distributed computing software to datamine that cache and we could have searching independent of Google or Yahoo or M$FT. Beyond that we could develop some AI that uses all that computing power and all that data to do... what? - I'm not sure yet. Just thought I would throw this out there to perhaps maybe get stepped on, or who knows, inspire further thought.
I think what you're saying is we need to leverage a new paradigm in order to take things to the next level. Am I right?
Running DFS (to serve files) on Windows XP clients? What are you smoking?
From Microsoft TechNet:
The servers that will participate in DFS Replication must run Windows Server 2003 R2.
It is possible to use DFS Namespaces when domain controllers and namespace servers run a mix of Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 without SP1, and Windows 2000 Server, but some functionality is disabled or available inconsistently, depending on the operating systems on the servers.
From: http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/library/1aa249c0-40f3-4974-b67f-e650b602415e1033.mspx?mfr=true
Even a blind squirrel will find a nut every once in a while.
Since the Romans invaded Britain, English speakers have used latinate phrasing to appear scholarly. Anglo Saxon words were short and pithy, like "home", "pig", "horse", "cat". But scholars learn latin, so it's "domicile", "porcine", "equine", "feline". In modern English, the choice gives you a palette of moods - like colors on a web page.
Way to jump to conclusions about me and how I manage a network. I honestly didn't ask the question as a "control freak", I don't spy on the employees, and I don't play Internet cop. I try to get them the tools they need to do their jobs, help them when things don't work, and otherwise stay out of their way. I also didn't imply the pool would be for me to do with as I please; I can see several ways in which that storage would benefit our business were it not spread out in small chunks. The users have all that space, and they simply DO NOT use it. In our business, they don't have much call for large files like photos, movies, etc. It's mostly spreadsheets and OpenOffice Writer documents. But thanks for being an ass.
Been there also and I disagree on the "just works" part. We're using it successfully but we've run into issues with losing files from some of the computers. Let's say that the admin changes permissions on somebodies directory so that they can write to it also. DFS will think that the file with the changed permissions is the newer one and blow the other one away. I hesitate to call that "just working".
Please do not use the space for anything else. Do not try to actively use the space.
The reason is the obscenely large amount of power required to use the space given a few gigabytes requires the whole machine to be running, and uses it's CPU which can't be less than 21Watts itself.
It's actually cheaper to get a 1TB drive and use it elsewhere than use the power on so many desktops (or worse, servers). Even with the desktops in use by active users.
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
limitations?
And, if you're claiming some kind of market race, you might want to check for relevant dates concerning ZFS
Of course, if you're just trolling, ignore me.
Computer memory is just fancy paper, CPUs just fancy pens with fancy erasers; the 'net is just a fancy backyard fence.