UFS + ZFS ?

[harlandraka]

Hi,
I must build a NAS for my brother. Actually he work in a office where no one make a back-up, and the data are spread over the hard disk of all client (10 pc).

I could use ONLY this hardware :(

motherboard Gigabyte c1037un-eu
2 x 4 Gbyte di RAM non-ECC
2 hard disk WD RED 2 tb

The problem is the RAM... that isn't ECC (even the motherboard don't support this kind of memory). I think to make a thing like this:

format the hard disk 1 in UFS (the clients will work in this disk)
format the hard disk 2 in ZFS, every hour - via Rsync - this disk will be syncronized with HD1, and every night one snapshot of the HD2 will be done

With this solution the perfermance there are no performances gain but:

• if a previous version of one file is needed it could be recovered from a snapshot
• if HD1 fail the data could be restored from HD2
• if HD2 fail the data could be restored from HD1
• with a module of RAM damaged the content of HD2 will be lost, but the HD1 should be ok
• with a module of RAM damaged and HD1 fail... all the data will be trashed

For a better security I'll could sync the HD1, one time a day, with a remote computer, using Rsync or Crashplan.
Is this a crazy idea?
What do you think?

P.S.: Sorry for my poor english.

 

[jgreco]

It isn't ideal, but you're at least trying to cover a lot of bases and appear to understand the strengths and weaknesses of what you're doing. That's a predictor of successfulness. I'm not aware of anything that would prevent it from working.

 

[krikboh]

Will all 10 client PC's be accessing this server? That CPU could potentially slow you down also.

 

[cyberjock]

Keep in mind UFS is discontinued in FreeNAS. So if you choose to go with UFS you are basically going to be very limited in upgrade options for FreeNAS.

Considering that this is for a business, I'd be going strictly ZFS and getting hardware that supports ECC.

 

[harlandraka]

Will all 10 client PC's be accessing this server?

Yes, but they only access to light Excel and Word files.
Only one PC works with AutoCad files, but even that one mainly uses Excel.

Considering that this is for a business, I'd be going strictly ZFS and getting hardware that supports ECC

In the future I'll do that, but now they are in an emergency state: no one makes the backup, and the risk to loose something is very high (the data are spread over 10 hard disk)

Thanks for the aswers. ;)

 

[cyberjock]

And you can't buy some parts from Amazon and have them overnighted so you can just go with ZFS from the get-go? It sounds to me like you aren't really considering the risk versus benefits. But it's your choice. Good luck!