Hardware recommendation needed

[tazinblack]

Nope. Do you really think that?

So looks like you also started small.

At this time it's not costs that brought me here. I do a lot of virtualization in combination using VMware esxi and netapp storage since this performs well, is reliable and has great features on the storage side.
Often they are connected using NFS, but I also have some using block bases connection like fibrechannel and even some ISCSI.
But the one which has the flexibility and cost-benefit ratio in my eyes is NFS.

And now I'm looking for a storage solution for small locations. Locations with i.e. 5 people using it. Problem is that they use the same software like any other location so they need the same spectrum of software and the same number of VMs.
And thats it. I also want have features like snapshots, felxible storagepools, replication on the storage side, etc.
So I used freenas on some small boxes of old hardware and I like it.

Sure could I use some stupid cheap block storage boxes or maybe ESXi servers with direct attached storage or internal disks but I wanted to take a try on freenas since the zfs concept looks great as far I've seen it.

And someday this year I'm going to need a installation for such a small location and at the moment I'm not sure what to use.

1 ESXi server could do the job but I want a fallback if it fails. So two would be better but how do I get the VMs from one to the second? Maybe something like veeam would be the solution.
Or I could buy 3 servers, 2 for ESXi and one as some kind of storage with freenas or linux connected with NFS. But there is still the problem of the single point of failure at the storage side.
So what then about 4 servers, 2 ESXi and 2 Freenas or Linux? This was something I was thinking would be fine trigger VM snapshots, then snapshot the nas and use zfs to replicate this to the second box.

And sure you earn money sizing other peoples boxes but what is the aim of freenas? I thought to deliver a smart nas solution for the ones who want to do it by themselves or don't have the money buying expensive storage.
Is this the idea of opensource or free software? I do not want do build boxes for others. I just want to use them for my cases and maybe I have a bit of enthusiasm to show that some features of big storage vendors are also possible even if you not buy their boxes.

I'm also a user of VDR the video digital recorder, maybe you know it. It has a great community. There you can find a recommended hardware list and everybody helps each other. I think this is one of the reasons why this software is very popular the last years.

So maybe I should go and bye some thing for out of the box and take my enthusiasm to somewhere else.
But it still would be cool to have a storage solution for small locations which does not come out of the box. And maybe there will be a sting in the tail but therefore I do the research before I buy some hardware and of course I also want to have something to do better the next time.

 

[cyberjock]

I think I do most of my learning by getting that initial handout, then being left to sink or swim. I can easily figure stuff out if I know something *should* work or have access to something that does work. What sucks particularly bad is when I'm trying to do something that isn't working and I don't have a solid validation that it should work. Then things get dicey because it's baby-steps to figure it out. I can reverse engineer things fairly easily, then start experimenting to figure out the detailed stuff behind the scenes.

So looks like you also started small.

I sure did. 2 years ago around this time of year I was looking at bailing on Windows and looking at ZFS with eyes wide and droooling.

 

[jgreco]

with eyes wide and droooling.

Judging from your avatar that's more of a medical condition of some sort. Cujoitis maybe.

 

[cyberjock]

Judging from your avatar that's more of a medical condition of some sort. Cujoitis maybe.

LOL!

 

[jgreco]

indeed.