File Server Recommendation

[Francois Tigeot]

On Thu, Nov 14, 2013 at 12:30:18AM -0500, Predrag Punosevac wrote:
> My small LAB is looking to acquire two file servers in the very near
> future. I am not much of a storage guy so I am soliciting opinion from
> this community as the new file servers are likely to be running
> DragonFly BSD for obvious reason (Hammer).
> 
> One file server should be about 20TB and used by a group of about 20-30
> users. Another should be about 10-12 TB with no more than 10 users.
> Following earlier advises I am thinking of setting up hardware RAID
> based on one of LSI devices. We are in data mining business so moving
> large amounts of data in particular via NFS is must for us.
> 
> Are there any strong opinions? I was browsing little bit Newegg and I
> see bunch of inexpensive Synology and Buffalo network storage systems. I
> have mostly experience with Supermicro. Is there a significant
> difference in the quality between those manufacturers?

Supermicro sells server-class hardware and the other brands mostly small
SOHO boxes.
Completely different performance and reliability target markets.

A Supermicro-based server with a supported RAID adapter (Areca or LSI)
and a SAS backplane should be fine. A 2U chassis can take up to 12 3.5"
hard drives (+2x 2.5" ones) and should be largely enough for 20TB.

Some 10Gb ethernet adapters are also supported if you really need NFS
transfers to be fast.
Have a look here: http://www.dragonflybsd.org/docs/supportedhardware/

-- 
Francois Tigeot